Mini Adventurers Preschool

Bug hunts, woodwork and an enclosed garden give Mini Adventurers Preschool a practical, outdoor character. Based at Westdene Barn in Brighton, it combines imaginative indoor play with opportunities to investigate the natural world. Children can move between the setting and its garden, rather than waiting for a scheduled outdoor session.

At its July 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the preschool Good and found safeguarding effective. The improvement priorities were more precisely planned staff development and broader opportunities for children to understand similarities and differences between people. These are useful points to weigh alongside its outdoor activities and flexible attendance arrangements.

The preschool welcomes children aged 2 to 5 and has 26 places in total. Families can choose morning or afternoon sessions, a school-length day or an extended day, with either term-time attendance or care across 50 weeks.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care: play supports communication, physical skills and growing independence. Here, role play includes a shop, a home kitchen and opportunities to pretend to be vets, doctors or builders. These give children concrete situations in which to invent stories and practise conversation.

Forest school adds practical encounters with the natural world. Activities include woodwork, building fires, exploring mud and hunting for mini beasts. This gives the outdoor offer a clear identity beyond running around in the garden, with opportunities to handle materials and investigate living things.

In July 2025, children's interest in insects led to learning about caterpillars and watching butterflies emerge. A bug hunt also prompted children to construct wooden bug hotels. The connection matters: an interest encountered in play became the starting point for further investigation and making something themselves.

Mathematical ideas also appeared in everyday activity in July 2025. Children used words about weight, quantity and size while playing, and explored measuring time with a sundial and a kitchen timer. Story-making and conversations about rhythm provided another route into speaking and listening. Learning took place through things children could use, discuss and try.

Outdoor and Community Life

The enclosed garden has bikes and scooters, alongside activities involving climbing and balance. Free-flow access allows children to choose outdoor play, giving movement a place throughout their day. Indoor imaginative play and outdoor physical activity offer different ways to engage, rather than requiring everyone to pursue the same activity at once.

In July 2025, children created obstacle routes and practised balancing on large bricks. This was a concrete example of physical exploration involving both construction and movement. Children could shape the activity as well as take part in it.

Relationships and communication were strengths in the July 2025 account. Staff used their knowledge of children's personalities and interests when planning activities. Parents received photographs and videos of experiences and achievements, alongside the next steps in their children's learning, and were encouraged to contribute examples from home.

That exchange gave parents something specific to respond to, rather than just a general account of the day. In July 2025, staff also shared practical advice about oral health. Everyday independence included children managing their own nose-wiping and understanding why handwashing should follow.

At the July 2025 inspection, Ofsted found that children, including those learning English as an additional language, made good progress, and that additional funding was used well to meet individual needs through communication resources and games. These findings concern how support worked in practice at that time, rather than simply whether a support role existed.

A SENCO role is part of the current team structure. The emphasis for families is on the arrangements that will support their own child; the inspection example shows one way resources were adapted to an individual learning need.

Morning and afternoon snacks are included at no extra charge. Breakfast, lunch and tea are charged separately, so food has a mixed charging structure rather than a single inclusive meal arrangement.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Lower Ground Floor, Westdene Barn, Barn Rise, Brighton, BN1 5EE. Attendance runs Monday to Friday, with a choice between 38 weeks for term-time care and 50 weeks across the year.

Morning sessions run from 8.30am to 12.30pm; afternoons run from 12.30pm to 3.30pm. The Full school day runs from 8.30am to 3.30pm, while the Full extended day runs from 8am to 5pm. Breakfast club starts at 8am, and the Late afternoon session runs from 3.30pm to 5pm.

An earlier start or later finish can be added to the normal sessions. There is no minimum number of sessions, which makes the booking structure useful for families whose childcare needs do not fit a fixed multi-day package. Visits can be booked through the preschool's contact route.

Funding and Paid Extras

Both funded and privately paid childcare are offered. Funding covers children aged 2, 3 and 4, including the 30 hours funding, and can be taken during term time or stretched across 50 weeks. Funded hours can be used across the session choices, with no prescribed days or times; Breakfast club can also fall within those hours without an extra session charge.

Snacks cost nothing extra, while breakfast, lunch and tea are separate food charges. Children receive a bookbag and polo shirt free when they start. There is no joining fee or deposit, and leaving requires a month's notice. Current prices come in the preschool's written quotation.

• Outdoor practical activities. Forest school includes fire building and woodwork. On a visit, ask how these activities are introduced and supervised for your child's stage of development.
• Teaching development. The July 2025 improvement priorities included making staff development more precise. Ask how training now translates into changes to children's activities and learning.
• Understanding difference. In July 2025, children needed more opportunities to explore people's similarities and differences, including their languages. Ask how children's own backgrounds shape everyday activities now.
• Food charges. Snacks are included, but breakfast, lunch and tea are separate charges. Factor the meals attached to your chosen attendance pattern into the written quotation.

Mini Adventurers Preschool suits families looking for practical outdoor experiences alongside indoor imaginative play, with morning and afternoon sessions as well as school-length and extended days. Its garden, Forest school activities and flexible use of funded hours give parents concrete reasons to consider it. The July 2025 improvement priorities keep the judgement balanced: teaching development and children's understanding of difference deserve attention alongside the positive inspection position.