Treasure Box Nursery

Stories, outdoor exploration and play shaped by children's interests give Treasure Box Nursery its character. Based within Bognor Regis Baptist Church on Victoria Drive, it combines Forest School, where children explore outdoors, with resources children can use in different ways and opportunities to move between indoor and outdoor play. There is room for children to pursue an idea.

Ofsted rated the nursery Good at its 5 June 2025 inspection. Its capacity is 26 children, and children can start from the term after their second birthday, or later if families prefer. Morning sessions and full days run during term time.

For parents, the strongest combination is practical: an interest-led day, regular opportunities to take part in nursery life and clear arrangements for lunches and everyday supplies. The main improvement identified in June 2025 concerned consistency in helping children understand how their behaviour affects other people.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care. Here, learning through play includes stories, conversations, imaginative activities and exploration, with children's existing interests helping to shape what comes next. The nursery also follows seasonal changes and celebrations through the year, giving activities connections with the world children experience beyond nursery.

Stories do more than fill a quiet moment. Across the term, books introduce vocabulary and support imaginative play, listening and attention. Children have materials that can serve different purposes rather than dictate a single activity, leaving scope to invent, experiment and change direction. Adult-led activities sit alongside children's own choices.

In June 2025, children used modelling dough to create pretend food and a herb garden. Practitioners encouraged them to explain their creations, bringing conversation into an activity the children had chosen themselves. Older and younger children also played together, preparing pretend meals and serving one another. These examples show how making and role play can give children reasons to talk, concentrate and cooperate.

Outdoor and Community Life

Free movement between indoor and outdoor play is part of the nursery's arrangement. Forest School adds outdoor exploration to the curriculum, rather than replacing the everyday learning framework. In June 2025, children talked enthusiastically about their forest school sessions, which involved trying ideas and taking manageable risks; elsewhere outdoors, children collaborated on a pretend fire pit made with mud.

The emphasis is on participation. Children can follow an interest outdoors as well as inside, while practitioners remain available to help. That suits a child who learns by doing and wants time to develop their own play, rather than moving only through adult-directed tasks.

Relationships and Communication

A familiar adult matters as much as an appealing activity. In June 2025, children had close bonds with their key person and turned to practitioners for comfort when they needed it. Staff made time to listen to children's stories and used questions to extend the conversation. Everyday exchanges therefore offered opportunities both to connect and to practise speaking.

Stay and Play gives parents a termly opportunity to join nursery activities and see their child's experience directly. It is a useful counterpart to updates about learning: families can take part, rather than receive information alone. In June 2025, practitioners also shared developmental updates and gave parents practical suggestions and resources for learning at home.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At its June 2025 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities effective, including identifying needs early and involving families alongside speech and language professionals in setting targets and assessing children's progress. These are concrete mechanisms for support, with families involved in deciding what a child needs next.

During June 2025, staff also worked with parents to use familiar words from the home languages of children learning English as an additional language. Additional funding had supported training about children's emotions, and individual and team meetings gave practitioners opportunities for support. The outstanding development point was behavioural guidance: adults did not consistently help children consider the consequences of their actions for others.

Sessions and Attendance

Treasure Box Nursery operates during term time, Monday to Friday, at Bognor Regis Baptist Church, 73 Victoria Drive, Bognor Regis, PO21 2TD. Morning sessions run from 9.15am to 12.15pm, while full days run from 9.15am to 3.15pm; afternoon sessions are also offered. The morning pattern provides a shorter nursery day, while a full day extends participation into the afternoon.

Entry begins in the term following a child's second birthday, with a later start also possible. Nursery enquiries go directly to treasurebox@theshorecommunity.church or 01243 868823. The parent contract asks for four weeks' notice, covered by funding or payment, so changes to attendance need planning ahead.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare and fee-paying places are both offered. The nursery accepts 15-hour local authority funding for two-year-olds, universal funded entitlement for three-year-olds and 30-hour extended working-parent funding. Funding is delivered during term time. Eligibility remains a condition of funded childcare; participation does not itself establish a family's entitlement. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

For full-day attendance, including funded attendance, parents supply a packed lunch; snacks and plant-based milk for children with dairy intolerance or allergy attract no consumable charge. Parents also supply nappies when needed, while suncream attracts no consumable charge, so the arrangements differ between items rather than following one blanket charge.

Forest School sessions, Music & Sensory Groups, Animal Experiences and Parties are among the activities covered by the no-consumable-charge arrangement. Music & Sensory Groups provide music and sensory activities; the other named experiences are included in that charging policy, rather than carrying an additional consumable charge.

• Behaviour guidance. The June 2025 improvement point was consistent adult messages and helping children understand the effect of their actions on others. During a visit, ask how practitioners now handle disagreements and explain expectations.
• Term-time routines. Morning sessions and full days operate during term time. Families needing childcare through school holidays will need to plan around that calendar.
• Food and everyday supplies. Full-day children bring lunch, and parents provide nappies when needed. Families affected by dairy intolerance or allergy should confirm current snack and milk arrangements before joining.
• Changing attendance. The contract requires four weeks' notice covered by funding or payment. Factor that commitment into any planned change of hours or leaving date.

Treasure Box suits families seeking term-time morning sessions or full days, with play led by children's interests and outdoor exploration woven into the experience. Forest School and termly Stay and Play give the offer recognisable substance: children explore, and parents have opportunities to participate.

The June 2025 judgement supports a positive assessment, with a specific reservation about consistent behaviour guidance. For families comfortable with the term-time calendar, packed lunches and parent-supplied nappies, this is a useful combination of shorter attendance options, practical parent involvement and an interest-led nursery day.