Mount Nod Primary School Nursery Review

A classroom with a separate preschool entrance, an outdoor play area and access to the Foundation Stage Forest School give Mount Nod’s nursery a distinct place within the wider school. Provision is for three-year-olds. Children can also participate in school occasions, including the Nativity and Book Fayre, combining their own nursery base with opportunities to join larger gatherings.

There is an important qualification for families weighing up that setting. At the Ofsted inspection on 25 and 26 March 2025, early years provision was judged Requires improvement. This judgement covers the school’s early years provision; it is not a separate nursery inspection outcome.

Teacher-led mornings and full-day sessions provide two different ways to organise the week. A qualified teacher works alongside a teaching assistant in the classroom. Activities and assessments use the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), the framework through which staff plan children’s learning and consider their development. For children, learning includes practising social skills and independence: in March 2025, nursery children shared lunch and cleared away their own lunchboxes. Protective Behaviours teaches them to recognise warning feelings and talk about worries. The practical question is how those activities help a child build skills over time.

Outdoor learning has identifiable spaces here: the nursery’s own play area can be used throughout the year, while the on-site Foundation Stage Forest School provides another setting for activities. Indoors, children have a classroom reserved for preschool provision. These are concrete features for families who want a nursery base within a school rather than simply a shared school room.

The March 2025 curriculum findings deserve attention. Early years planning lacked a clear sequence for developing children’s knowledge, vocabulary and skills. Connections between early years learning and later subjects also needed work, leaving children less prepared for subsequent learning than they could have been. Curriculum planning. Families should weigh the dedicated spaces and teacher-led sessions alongside this concern about what children learn, and in what order.

Ordinary routines offer opportunities to practise independence. In March 2025, nursery children ate lunch as a group and put away their own lunchboxes, developing social skills alongside managing their belongings. That is a useful example of care and learning meeting in the same activity.

Protective Behaviours gives personal safety a named approach. Sessions are adapted for children from Foundation Stage onwards, helping them recognise warning feelings and understand that they can speak to someone about a worry. Work comes home for families to discuss, extending those conversations beyond the classroom.

Contact with staff has several routes. Class Dojo supports messaging between families and teachers, and parents’ evenings take place twice during the school year. The first meeting centres on settling into the class and discussing support; the second considers progress. Informal meetings can also be arranged, including by telephone, so a concern need not wait for the next scheduled appointment.

Nursery attendance does not guarantee a Reception place. Families must make a separate Reception application through Primary Admissions and meet the normal application deadline. Choosing the nursery and applying for school entry are distinct decisions.

Transition activities serve a different purpose. During the summer term, nursery children have regular contact with Reception children and staff. Those opportunities support familiarity with the next stage, but should not be treated as an admissions advantage.

Morning Nursery runs from 8:45am to 11:45am and uses 15 funded hours per week. All day Nursery runs from 8:45am to 2:45pm, totalling 30 hours weekly. Eligible working parents can use 30-hour funding for that session; otherwise, funding covers the first 15 hours and the additional hours are charged.

Paid extensions allow morning collection at 12.15pm or afternoon collection at 3:15pm, when teaching ends. Owls Club provides care before and after school. Contact the school for current charges. Nursery applications and visits can be arranged through the office on 024 7646 6837.

For collection changes, including a delay or a different collecting adult, notify the school. Parking concerns in Greenleaf Close mean families are asked to leave cars a short distance away, a practical consideration when planning the journey.