About us

Attenborough Day Nursery is a private day nursery in the lovely, peaceful conservation village of Attenborough. The nursery opened in January 2011 and is owned by Secret Garden Childcare limited, a family run business who have a sister nursery, The Secret Garden Private Day Nursery, based in West Bridgford, Nottingham, operational since 2005. The director, Sylvia Dobson is very involved in the day to day running of both nurseries and has a foundation degree in childcare. She, together with the excellent team of staff at the nursery, is dedicated to providing the best possible care for your child.

The nursery is open Monday to Friday 7:30am - 6:00pm and is registered for 49 children aged 6 weeks to 5 years.

Our nursery has two sites which are a few minutes' walk apart - the first has two cosy rooms for children aged 0 - 2.5 years, split into 2 rooms: the Papillon room for children from birth to walking and the Mariposa room for children from walking to 2.5 years. The second is our spacious pre-school for children aged 2.5 - 5 years which offers FREE places for all 3 and 4 year olds.

The nursery was rated as GOOD by Ofsted at both sites following inspections at each site in July 2021

The nursery offers much more than excellent childcare - we commit to environmentally-friendly ways of working to help protect the world around us and our children's future and aim to bring children closer to nature. We also offer Spanish activities as a built-in part of our curriculum and have other fun activities including regular visits to Forest School at the nature reserve.

You can view our Ofsted reports here:

Nursery Ofsted Report

Pre-School Ofsted Report

You are welcome to come and visit us any time to see the nursery in operation – but please contact us first, so that we can arrange a suitable time.

Sylvia Dobson | Attenborough day nursery

Sylvia Dobson

Sylvia has always been passionate about childcare, and as a mother of two quite demanding children she has had plenty of experience of dealing with all the up’s and down’s that parenting can bring with it! This was only a prelude, however to the Early Years Foundation Degree which she undertook after becoming the proud owner of the Secret Garden. Her skills and talent with children are a great advantage to parents and when teaching and assisting more junior members of staff as they learn and develop their own skills as childcare assistants. One of the things which has always amazed me is that children are naturally drawn to her and she has an ability to hold a child’s attention with wonderment as she reads or plays in a way which feeds the child’s imagination. Having managed our sister nursery in West Bridgford for a number of years, she is experienced in managing teams of staff, and is very particular about the standards of care and education throughout the nursery.