Colourbox@Cherry Trees
Colourbox@Cherry Trees is a day nursery in Risby Bury St. Edmunds for children aged 1 to 4, with 62 registered places. Ofsted report card, 24 July 2026: Strong standard in 6 areas; safeguarding standards met.
Brooke's School, Flempton Rd, Risby Bury St. Edmunds, IP28 6QJ
Key facts
- Type
- Day nursery (Full day care) (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
- Ages
- 1 to 4 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
- Registered places
- 62 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
- Registered
- 28 November 2024 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
Opening hours
Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 07:30 - 05:30
Source: Ofsted report, inspection on 24 July 2026
Who runs it
Colourbox@Cherry Trees is run by Colourbox Montessori School Ltd (Ofsted register).
Latest inspection
- Inclusion: Strong standard
- Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard
- Achievement: Strong standard
- Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard
- Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard
- Leadership and governance: Strong standard
- Safeguarding standards met
Source: Ofsted, inspection on 24 July 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
What it's like to be a child at this setting
Children feel secure because staff build trusting relationships with parents and carers. Staff promote regular attendance and provide support throughout the settling-in process. They share information effectively with parents and get to know children well, recognising that building trusting relationships with parents is crucial to children's wellbeing. Children receive consistent support for their development as staff encourage home learning by providing a range of activities for parents to use. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are fully included, as staff work closely with parents to meet their individual needs and provide targeted support. All children feel valued as their parents are invited into the setting to share information about their experiences, jobs and backgrounds. This provides children with enriching opportunities to learn about science, oral care and different cultures.
Children become highly confident and articulate. They reflect on their learning during their 'Birthday Walk' and set goals for what they want to achieve before their next birthday. Children are empowered as staff plan engaging learning opportunities based on their individual needs and interests, ensuring children's voices are at the heart of practice. Children clean and prepare their own learning spaces, enhancing respect for themselves, others and their environment. They thrive in the incredibly calm, well-designed learning environment where there is a continual hum of deep engagement. Children are trusted and supported by knowledgeable and experienced staff to choose how to extend their learning further.
Children benefit from enrichment activities such as visits from a local care home, scientists and dentists. This helps them develop their social skills and understanding of the world around them. Staff teach children how to express themselves and collaborate. All children make excellent progress in their development and become highly independent from the outset. They manage their own personal care and help clean up after mealtimes. They are extremely well prepared for the next stage in their learning.
What Ofsted found in each area
Inclusion: Strong standard
Staff have a thorough knowledge of child development and quickly identify gaps in children's learning. They share information with parents and carers to ensure consistency of support. Staff implement strategies to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), including targeted interventions and alternative communication approaches. They regularly review the impact of these and make adaptations. Children with SEND make excellent progress in their physical development. Staff closely observe children who struggle with managing their behaviour, to identify potential triggers. They work with parents to adjust session timings, significantly improving children's attendance and progress.
Leaders ensure that disadvantaged children are identified and included. They assess their needs and interests and use additional funding to provide staff and resources that precisely match children's requirements. Disadvantaged children make rapid progress with their communication development. Staff facilitate all children's learning, ensuring they master different skills before moving on. Staff consistently support gifted and talented children to extend their skills and talents further, pursuing music, mathematics and science learning in greater depth. Leaders and staff build secure partnerships with parents ensuring they receive support and information tailored to their unique circumstances.
Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard
Leaders ensure staff have the knowledge and skills needed to provide high-quality learning experiences. Their bespoke and inclusive curriculum helps children build skills for life and develop a deep love of learning. Skilful staff carefully plan experiences which help children master foundational skills, such as pouring and scooping, before progressing to more complex tasks. Leaders have created an extremely calm and well-designed learning environment, which consistently promotes children's independence and autonomous learning. Babies have ample space and opportunities to develop their mobility skills, practising their balancing and walking skills, for instance.
Teaching is of consistently high quality across the setting. Staff use every opportunity to embed learning, such as counting insects found underneath a stone. They use skilful questioning to help children reason and solve problems, such as wondering why a pigeon gathers twigs. Staff consistently promote and extend children's vocabulary, supporting toddlers to describe how gloop feels smooth, cold and slimy. They follow children's interests and extend learning further, such as exploring the solar system when children are curious about planets. Staff provide a secure foundation for children's literacy, reading stories and exploring letter sounds. They teach children how to assess and correct their mistakes, ensuring children learn deeply.
Achievement: Strong standard
Children make superb progress across all areas of learning. Babies recognise numbers and colours and show excellent dexterity as they feed themselves and scrape leftover food from their plates. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities make sustained progress with their physical skills. All children make excellent progress with their language development, articulating themselves clearly and using a wide vocabulary. Children across all rooms spontaneously sing songs and explore musical instruments. Pre-school children make superb progress with their literacy, recognising sounds, symbols and words.
All children are consistently and deeply engaged in learning. Pre-school children work with staff to check their progress and identify next steps. They independently access learning and concentrate intently when setting up their workstations and completing tasks. Children become incredibly confident at pursuing their own interests. They explore the world around them during forest-school sessions, learning about caterpillar life cycles, for example. Children use recipes to make 'pine-cone soup', recognising when they do not have enough pine cones and independently gathering more when needed.
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard
Staff work with parents and carers to promote regular attendance. They adjust the timings of sessions so children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) can benefit fully from their time in the setting. Leaders ensure the setting's ethos is deeply embedded in practice, and staff support children to develop a deep respect for themselves, others, and the environment. This helps promote children's self-awareness and confidence. Staff build secure relationships with children and, consequently, their behaviour is exemplary. Staff are excellent role models and children firmly understand the boundaries and expectations in the setting. They remind each other about how to behave appropriately.
Staff consider children's individual needs when promoting positive behaviour, adapting their approach for children with SEND. Staff in the toddler room teach children the language they need to express themselves effectively. They listen to children carefully and skilfully redirect them when needed. Staff in the pre-school room provide a 'peace table' and teach children how to express their feelings and resolve disputes respectfully, building valuable life skills. Staff teach children collaboration skills. For example, during forest school, children work together to balance on a low rope so that everyone can have a turn.
Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard
Staff focus on building solid relationships with babies and children when they start. They frequently share information with parents and carers about children's individual needs and routines to ensure they provide a consistent approach. Children have scrapbooks with photos of their families and home experiences, which offer reassurance, helping children feel emotionally secure and settled. Children spend a significant amount of time outdoors, playing under shady trees and engaging in regular forest-school sessions. This supports children's emotional and physical wellbeing very effectively. Children challenge themselves and assess risk, learning to be safe around fires and tools.
Staff provide a wide variety of nutritious meals and snacks and ensure they meet children's individual dietary needs. For instance, babies thoroughly enjoy chicken hot pot for lunch. Staff consistently teach children about healthy eating and promote positive attitudes towards food. Staff prioritise independence from the outset, teaching babies to pour their own drinks and chop their own fruit. Pre-school children become highly adept at doing this themselves. Staff support babies sensitively with their personal care and toddlers look after their own belongings. Routines are well embedded with toddlers remembering to wash their hands before snack. Babies and toddlers help keep the environment clean as they wipe their own tables.
Leadership and governance: Strong standard
Senior leaders have keen oversight of the management team, holding them to account to ensure high-quality care and education. Leaders are inspirational and reflective and they rigorously evaluate practice. They develop and use audits and action plans in partnership with staff, reviewing these regularly to drive ongoing improvement. Leaders consistently invest heavily in staff development and wellbeing. They have created a training school to ensure staff develop a deep understanding of the setting's ethos and approach to early years education. Leaders empower staff to set professional learning targets and use ongoing mentoring and training to support their development, ensuring there are opportunities for career progression. This helps staff feel valued and fosters a secure team culture.
Parents and carers speak incredibly highly about the setting. They value the frequent communication they receive about their children's progress and appreciate how confident and independent their children have become. They are grateful that children practise their tidying skills at home. Leaders proactively build relationships with external professionals to provide consistency of support for disadvantaged children and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They have developed secure relationships with local schools to support transitions and have shared successful strategies more widely to help develop practice in their area.
What the setting must and should do next
The provider should:
- Leaders 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 children, those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who may face other barriers to their learning and/or wellbeing.
Ofsted's words, from the report on the inspection on 24 July 2026. Read the full report on the Ofsted website. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Ofsted report cards (England, from November 2025)
Since 10 November 2025 Ofsted has graded nurseries and pre-schools on a report card. There is no single overall grade. Instead, each of six areas gets one of five grades: Exceptional, Strong standard, Expected standard, Needs attention, Urgent improvement.
The six areas are inclusion; curriculum and teaching; achievement; behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines; children's welfare and wellbeing; leadership and governance. Safeguarding is judged on its own, as met or not met.
Expected standard means the setting does what Ofsted expects of every setting. Strong standard and Exceptional are above that; Needs attention and Urgent improvement mean Ofsted found things the setting has to put right.
Source: Ofsted reports
Funded childcare hours in England
All 3 and 4 year olds in England can get 15 hours of free childcare a week, for 38 weeks of the year.
Working parents of children aged 9 months to 4 years old can get 30 hours of free childcare a week for 38 weeks of the year (Free Childcare for Working Parents), if they meet the earnings rules. You confirm your details every 3 months.
Some 2 year olds can get 15 hours a week when the family gets certain kinds of extra support.
The hours are used at a registered provider that offers them, so ask each nursery how it offers the funded hours.
Source: GOV.UK: Free Childcare for Working Parents, check if you're eligible · GOV.UK: Free childcare and education for 2 to 4 year olds (checked 31 October 2026)
Other nurseries nearby
- Risby Preschool and Childcare Services - Pre-school, Bury St Edmunds IP28 6RT, ages 2 to 4, 34 places, 0.3 milesOfsted, 15 December 2022: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
Schools nearby
- Risby Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School - Primary, 0.3 miles