Nursery life
How the three rooms work and who is in them, what a day looks like from the first breakfast to the last story, what Maureen cooks, where the children go when they go outside, what the 30-hours offer is worth here, and how we settle a child who has never been left before. Read them, then come and see it running.
01
Three rooms by age in a converted Edwardian house: Acorns for twelve babies on the ground floor by the garden, Saplings for twelve twos across the hall, Oaks for twenty-four pre-schoolers upstairs. Each has its own staff, its own toilets or changing, and places left updated on this page every Friday.
A full day is £68 in Acorns, £64 in Saplings, £60 in Oaks; a half day £40, £38 and £36.
02
The same shape every day, so children know what comes next: breakfast for the early ones, group time at nine, outside by ten whatever the weather, lunch at 11:30, sleep or quiet time after it, a cooked tea at 4:30 and stories until the last parent arrives. The full routine for each room is on the day page.
A full day is 7:30am to 6pm with every meal included: £68 in Acorns, £64 in Saplings, £60 in Oaks.
03
Every meal is cooked in the kitchen downstairs by Maureen, who has been here since 2013, from a four-week menu written to the Welsh Government food and nutrition guidance: a main and a pudding at lunch, a cooked tea at 4:30, fruit and vegetables at snack, water and milk to drink. Allergies, faiths and weaning plans are cooked for from the same menu.
All meals are included in the day fee.
04
Every child goes outside every day in the nursery's waterproofs and wellies: a long garden behind the house with a mud kitchen, a willow den, a digging patch, a tap and a covered area for the rain. The Oaks go to Forest Farm nature reserve in the minibus twice a week for forest school with Dafydd, a Level 3 forest school leader.
Forest school, the minibus, the waterproofs and the wellies are all included in the Oaks day fee of £60.
05
Three- and four-year-olds of working parents get thirty hours a week of funded early education and childcare for forty-eight weeks a year under the Childcare Offer for Wales. We are registered for it, we tell you when your child qualifies, we help with the application, and a funded day here costs £8 for meals and consumables. Tax-Free Childcare takes a further 20% off what is left.
A funded day is £8.
06
Every child has three free settling-in sessions before they start, spread over the fortnight before, with their key person: an hour with you in the room, two hours with you nearby, a morning on their own including lunch. There is a home visit for babies if you would like one, and the first week has a daily phone call at the time you ask for.
The three settling sessions are free.
The visit
Tuesday to Thursday mornings or early afternoons, when the rooms are busy, not after hours when they are tidy. Acorns, Saplings and Oaks in turn, with the door open and the staff at work. Bring the child; they will tell you more than we can.
The deck, the mud kitchen, the willow den and the babies' corner, then Maureen's kitchen and this week's menu on the board. Ask about allergies, weaning and the one thing your child will not eat.
Bethan goes through the day rates, the 30-hours offer and Tax-Free Childcare for your child's age and your days, and gives you the figure on paper. Nothing is added later and nothing is signed on the day.
Free to join, kept in date order with siblings first, and we tell you honestly how long it is likely to be for your room and your days. Acorns places are often booked before the baby is born.
The key person
Every child has a key person in their room: the member of staff who does the settling sessions and the home visit, writes the daily diary, does the two-monthly review and the parents' evening, and is the one on the phone. In Acorns a key person has three children, in Saplings four, in Oaks eight, and the names are on the board by each door. When a child moves rooms the old key person does the fortnight of visits with the new one.
Tell us your child's age and the days you are thinking of, and we reply within the working day with a time to walk round every room while it is open, the garden, the kitchen and the fees. No pressure and nothing to sign; the waiting list is free to join afterwards. Or ring Bethan.
