Opening hours
Full day: 8 am - 6 pm; Mornings: 8 am - 1 pm; Afternoons: 1 pm - 6 pm; Early starts: 7:30 am - 8 am
Sunshine Nursery School in Sudbury
Ofsted: Strong standard·
3.8(5 parent reviews)
·8 Warner Way, Chilton Industrial Estate, Sudbury, CO10 2GG · Suffolk
Number of places
141 places
Age range
0–4 yrs
Last inspected
Jan 2026
Local authority
Suffolk
About this day nursery
Sunshine Nursery School in Sudbury, established in 2010, provides an outstanding early years experience for children aged 0-4. Based on non-domestic premises in the Chilton Industrial Estate, the nursery operates Monday to Friday from 7:30 AM to 6:00 PM, offering year-round care.
The curriculum is firmly rooted in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), ensuring a comprehensive and ambitious learning journey. Staff demonstrate a highly effective, proactive approach to inclusion, particularly for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those facing other barriers to learning, providing timely and targeted support.
For children with English as an additional language (EAL), the setting actively incorporates Makaton and British Sign Language, modelling rich vocabulary and fostering strong communication skills. Daily access to indoor and outdoor play, including forest school experiences, builds confidence, coordination, and resilience.
Strong partnerships with families and external professionals ensure a holistic approach to each child's development, allowing all children to thrive socially, emotionally, and academically.
Our ethos
Sunshine Nursery School offers a holistic approach to early learning, focusing on inspiring children and fostering their social and cognitive development. They emphasise strong community ties, engaging children in local initiatives to instil a sense of connection and understanding. The nursery also provides a wide range of extracurricular activities such as Forest School and Arts-enabled STEM, aiming to enrich the child's learning experience.
What it's like
Children experience a calm, nurturing and stimulating environment where they feel safe, valued and eager to learn, separating confidently from their parents and settling quickly into purposeful play. The staff build highly effective, trusting relationships with all children, creating a harmonious environment where children learn to share, respect others and resolve disagreements independently. As a result, children achieve remarkably well, become curious learners, develop age-appropriate knowledge and skills, and make wonderful progress from their starting points, thriving socially, emotionally and academically.
Outstanding ChildcareInclusive EnvironmentEYFS CurriculumOutdoor LearningStrong CommunicationHappy Children
Pricing & funding
Fees are charged monthly and remain unchanged during planned closure days, bank holidays, and inset days. Standard fees must be paid even if a child is absent due to illness. Payments are accepted via Direct Debit, Tax Free Childcare, Childcare Vouchers, or bank transfer.
Funding accepted
15 hours — working parents (9 months–2 yrs)15 hours — eligible 2-year-olds15 hours — universal (3–4 yrs)30 hours — working parents (3–4 yrs)Tax-Free Childcare
Good to know
- Non-refundable registration fee of £65 required to reserve a place.
- Deposit of £150 is credited towards your first invoice.
- No refunds or fee reductions for absences due to illness or other reasons.
- Fees are calculated to take into account planned closures and bank holidays.
- Bank transfer payments incur a £5 administration fee.
Key facts
Session types
Full day, Morning, Afternoon, Early start
Age range
2 months to 5 years
Term time / All Year
All_year
Established
2010
Ofsted Inspection — new report card
Strong standard
Last inspected Jan 2026
Grade summary
Exceptional
—
Strong standard
Expected standard
—
Needs attention
—
Urgent improvement
—
Each dot represents one of the six inspection categories. Headline is the average of the six grades, rounded up.
Category grades
AchievementStrong standard
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routinesStrong standard
Children's welfare and wellbeingStrong standard
Curriculum and teachingStrong standard
InclusionStrong standard
Leadership and governanceStrong standard
Age range
0 to 4
Registers
Early Years Register, Compulsory Childcare Register
Ofsted Inspection
Ofsted rating for Sunshine Nursery School
Last inspected 27 January 2026 · Laura Paternoster
What it's like to attend
Children experience a calm, nurturing and stimulating environment where they feel safe, valued and eager to learn, separating confidently from their parents and settling quickly into purposeful play. The staff build highly effective, trusting relationships with all children, creating a harmonious environment where children learn to share, respect others and resolve disagreements independently. As a result, children achieve remarkably well, become curious learners, develop age-appropriate knowledge and skills, and make wonderful progress from their starting points, thriving socially, emotionally and academically.
Inspector highlights
- Children achieve remarkably well from their individual starting points.
- Children's physical, personal, social and emotional development is a notable strength.
- Staff have created a calm, inclusive and highly positive environment where expectations for behaviour are clear, consistent and well understood.
- Staff ensure highly effective care practices consistently meet children's individual needs.
- Practitioners demonstrate a confident understanding of the ambitious curriculum.
Areas to develop
- 1Leaders and those responsible for governance should sustain their work to ensure continued improvement and high standards. They should focus on creating a transformational impact on the outcomes and experiences of disadvantaged pupils/learners, those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, those who are known (or previously known) to children's social care, and those who may face other barriers to their learning and/or wellbeing.
Inspection #10113054 · Source: OfstedView full Ofsted report
Inclusion & environment
How they support every child
SEND provision
Disadvantaged children, those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those facing barriers to learning or wellbeing achieve particularly well. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive timely, targeted support and adapted teaching. Staff take a highly effective, proactive approach to inclusion by accurately identifying children's individual needs through close observation, detailed assessment and strong partnerships with families and professionals, and implement rigorous risk assessments so all children fully access routines and experiences.
Outdoor space
Children benefit from daily opportunities for active play indoors, outdoors and through forest school experiences. Staff teach children how to manage risks safely, such as climbing, which builds solid levels of confidence, coordination and resilience. Staff place emphasis on physical, personal, social and emotional development, and children develop independence and confidence through daily routines, outdoor learning and forest school experiences.
EAL / language support
Staff embed Makaton and British Sign Language across the setting and implement rigorous risk assessments so all children fully access routines and experiences. Practitioners consistently prioritise communication and language. They model rich vocabulary through stories, songs, rhymes and high-quality interactions. This practice is supported by approaches such as Makaton and British Sign Language.
Parent Reviews of Sunshine Nursery School
3.8
(5)
Ant Robinson
a year ago
Fantastic nursery, Both our children (3 and 1) have settled in so well and love nursery days. The staff make this nursery great, so attentive, friendly, caring and fun. As well as being highly supportive of the parents with potty training and other advice as needed. Cant praise them enough!
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Natalie Hyatt
a year ago
Exceptional nursery. My children have thrived attending this nursery, staff are amazing, friendly and great with the children. Highly recommend
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m0th1c
9 years ago
AWSOME
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liam ludlow
a month ago
Firstly I would like to mention sunshine nursery was 5 star before the “Storal” take over it was child orientated, flexible and catered to the parents needs. Our first child went there with a milk allergy and they did everything to cater for it. Since Storal have taken over they DO NOT CARE! They are there for money and that’s it. My youngest attended and we have moved her away. Her milk allergy is worse and they no longer care about keeping her safe (this isn’t at her key worker as she is amazing the Storal is not). Senior management told us that asking for other children to use non dairy milk in open cup is discrimination! Big word for a company that’s trying to cover their own backs but clearly doesn’t understand what discrimination is. Storal policies are not easily accessible to parents and things they often quote as “legal requirements” are in fact “a nurseries preference” two very different things. Anglia sunshine was filled with workers who loved working for the company and doing their job. It now appears Storal do not value experienced, knowledgable staff and would rather employ a large volume of apprentices and not supply robust training schedules for allergies and other SEN needs in an attempt to keep their profits high as they continue to make the nursery 100% capacity. I completely understand business’s need to make money but previous ownership never made you feel that way. This place is no longer a place I would EVER recommend, before i couldn’t sing their praises enough. Storal are another corporate, money hungry organisation. If you just want a place for you child to be at while you work this might be the place for you. If you want somewhere that communicate, educate and help the child flourish this is no longer it. I hope the boss’s read this and realise how far they have come.
Read on Google
Laura Oconnor
2 years ago
Reviews from Google for Sunshine Nursery School. See all on Google Maps
Inspection history
Date: November 2010
The most recent inspection point has been hidden because the parsed entry didn't match the headline Ofsted rating (Outstanding). We're re-checking it against the original report.
- May 2020Outstanding
- March 2014Outstanding
- November 2010Outstanding
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