On this page: Information about Swindon Borough Council's Children's Nursery service, including general information, pricing, and how to apply for a place.
The Children’s Nursery provides day care for children aged three months to five years. Priority is given to Swindon Borough Council employees, but others are welcome to apply. A waiting list operates to allocate places.
The children are grouped into 'home based' rooms according to their age and their stage of development:
Pooh Corner: three months to two years
Kanga's Kingdom: 18 months to three years
Piglet'’s Place: 10 months to 30 months
Eeyore's Empire: 30 months to five years
Nursery Opening Hours
Monday to Friday, 51 weeks per year (Closes for Christmas and New Year):
Meals
Meals are included in the nursery fees and are tailored to suit your child’s individual needs and our aim is to provide fresh food, prepared on site that is additive, preservative and GM free.
Nursery Aim
To provide a warm, friendly, caring atmosphere designed to promote happy, confident fulfilled children with the knowledge that they will receive a sound and relevant base for their education.
Our Ethos
We believe our ethos is summed up in The Children’s Nursery Equal Opportunities statement:
“We are committed to providing an environment where children feel valued and free from discrimination, which reflects our multicultural society and where families, staff and children work together. Today’s children are tomorrow’s adults and in providing equal opportunities we can strive to challenge discrimination and prejudice in future generations.”
Child-centred Environment
Children are offered a range of stimulating equipment, which develops their natural curiosity, physical skills and social and emotional attitudes. All activities are planned and offered in a safe, caring, stimulating environment.
The Nursery works within government statutory frameworks and guidance and is regularly inspected by Ofsted achieving a ‘Good’ standard at the last inspection with many areas that are ‘Outstanding’.
Parental Involvement
The Nursery:
Works in partnership with parents and carers consulting and sharing information with them about the needs and progress of each child
Makes sure every child is allocated a key person
Room teams will produce regular reports on the child’s development based on the Early Years Foundation Stage Principles
Welcomes any new ideas or suggestions for activities you may have.
Invites parents to join a group forum, which is specifically for communication and consultation between parents and staff
Early Education Funding and Pre-school
Children qualify for funding in the term after their third birthday for 15 hours free early education per week (term time only -38 weeks per year) over a minimum of 3 days. To qualify they must be aged 3 years:
By 31 August, to join in the September term
By 31 December, to join in the January term
By 31 March, to join in the April term
We will follow the rules set down as to the minimum length of each free session and the maximum number of hours that can be taken so that we can help families to access this flexibly to meet their needs where possible.
Families who require childcare are able to purchase wrap around sessions before and after the free sessions that added together provide for childcare throughout the whole day, as is available in the rest of the nursery.
For families who just require access to their free entitlement we offer pre-school sessions 9.00am-12.00pm and 12.45pm-3.45pm, Monday to Friday (term-time only).
Keeping in Touch Days
A new government initiative means while on maternity leave mum’s and adoptive parents can now take up to 10 'keeping in touch' days without it affecting their statutory leave and pay.
We may be able to assist with childcare to help make this easier even if you aren’t planning for your child to take up a place at nursery. Please contact us to check our availability.
Child Protection Statement
This is available as a downloadable PDF file:
For the full policy, please contact the Children's Nursery.
Day Nursery Prices
These are contained in a downloadable PDF file:
Applying for a Place at The Children's Nursery
Please note: by using any of the forms below you are applying for a place at the Children's Nursery and not for a place within a maintained nursery that is attached to a school.
You may apply for a nursery place using one of the two application methods below:
Online application: Children's Nursery Online Application Form
Downloadable application form: Children's Nursery Application Form (33Kb)
Policies and Terms and Conditions
All of these are contained in the Freedom of Information Publication Scheme (Database) - Our Policies and Procedures.