Seesaws Day Nursery, Merridale

A large sandpit, vegetable growing and visits to a care home give Merridale's nursery day a practical, outward-looking character. In April 2025, children dug, rode trikes, harvested vegetables and shared activities with older residents. Learning reached beyond the craft table.

Seesaws Day Nursery, Merridale has capacity for 69 children aged 3 to 60 months at 53 Merridale Road, Wolverhampton. At its April 2025 inspection, Ofsted judged the nursery Good overall and safeguarding effective, while identifying preschool activity planning and lunchtime organisation as areas requiring improvement. Those two issues deserve attention alongside the positive account of children's play and relationships.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care: here, the April 2025 examples included conversation, imaginative play, physical activity and learning about other communities. These experiences connect language and movement with children's growing understanding of the world.

In April 2025, practitioners developed conversations during play, using questions that invited children to explain their ideas and adding unfamiliar words. Books and singing also featured. Comfortable spaces for sharing stories gave children opportunities for quieter interaction with adults, while babies explored instruments and joined familiar songs through actions and repeated phrases. Participation took different forms according to children's stage of development.

Preschool craft work included celebrating Eid through paper lanterns and Mehndi designs. Children practised using glue and taking turns, but the purpose and challenge of some activities needed sharpening. Enjoying an activity and extending a child's thinking are different tests; the improvement action concerned making those experiences do more educational work.

Imaginative play had a concrete setting too. A playhouse window became an ice-cream counter, with a child acting out serving a customer. That example connected pretend play with everyday social exchanges, rather than relying solely on adult-directed tasks.

Outdoor and Community Life

In April 2025, outdoor play happened daily. The large sandpit gave children space to dig, while trikes supported movement and coordination. Music and dance offered another way to use their bodies and express ideas. Babies practised crawling and standing, then moved along furniture with support, building the physical skills needed for their next stage.

Gardening involved both planting and harvesting vegetables. Children could follow food from growing to gathering, making the activity more tangible than a discussion about where meals come from. Regular care-home visits brought another kind of experience: taking part in activities with residents introduced children to people beyond their immediate family and nursery group. The frequency was regular, rather than a fixed weekly timetable.

Relationships and Communication

In April 2025, staff helped children part from their parents and put feelings into words. Encouragement and gentle prompts supported behaviour. For a young child, being able to describe an emotion is a useful step towards handling it, and this was part of everyday interaction rather than a separate lesson.

Daily updates kept parents involved, and home-learning activity packs extended that connection beyond nursery hours. Families were also invited to special events. Together, these arrangements gave parents ways to contribute to learning as well as receive information about it.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the April 2025 inspection, Ofsted found that children with SEND received effective individual support, with additional funding used for targeted resources and assistance, and a sensory room offering space to manage overwhelming feelings. This is a concrete account of support in practice, with both individual help and a physical space serving different needs.

Independence developed through ordinary routines in April 2025: children put toys away and washed their hands before food, while babies were encouraged to feed themselves with help. Lunchtime worked less smoothly for toddlers and preschool children. Waiting led to restlessness and frustration, so improving the sequence and organisation of meals was an explicit priority.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. The nursery operates throughout the year, with a one-week Christmas closure. That combination provides a broad weekday window, but the Christmas break remains a practical consideration for working families.

Getting There

The address is 53 Merridale Road, Wolverhampton, WV3 9SE. Enquiries can go directly to the Merridale team on 01902 656185 or by email to merridale@seesawsdaynurseries.com.

Funding and Paid Extras

In April 2025, the nursery offered government-funded childcare places. Families should obtain a current written quotation for their chosen arrangements before committing to care.

• Preschool challenge. Activity planning needed improvement in April 2025 because some tasks did too little to extend children's ideas. During a visit, ask how staff now adapt an activity for a child ready for greater challenge.
• Lunchtime flow. Delays caused frustration for toddlers and preschool children in April 2025. Ask to discuss how meals are organised now, including what children do while waiting.
• Christmas cover. The nursery closes for one week at Christmas. Families needing year-round weekday care should build that break into their childcare planning.
• Funding arrangements. Government-funded places formed part of the April 2025 offer. Ask for a written explanation of the entitlement, attendance pattern and any meals or consumables charges that would apply to your child.

Merridale suits families seeking weekday nursery care with hands-on play and contact with the wider community. Its April 2025 account gives substance to that appeal: vegetable growing, care-home visits and story sharing sit alongside physical play. The Good judgement comes with specific reservations about preschool challenge and lunchtime waiting. Those are useful priorities for a visit, especially for families choosing care for an older toddler or preschool child.