Hampton Nursery School

In March 2025, children experimented with paint in salad spinners and explored feelings through self-portraits. Hampton Nursery School's bungalow rooms provide a domestic setting for play in Herne Bay. The gardens add space for movement and imaginative play. This is an offer built around younger children's experiences, with an optional shared lunch extending the nursery day.

At its 25 March 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and judged safeguarding effective. The current capacity is 20 children in total, while the nursery welcomes children aged two to five. Capacity describes the whole setting, rather than the number sharing any particular room.

Three-hour sessions and an optional Lunch Club provide different attendance choices. For families weighing the setting, the useful combination is a named key person for younger children, preschool rooms and an opportunity to eat with friends before going home.

Rooms and Ages

Rainbow Room, for children aged two to three, emphasises becoming comfortable with nursery life through support from a key person. That gives the youngest children a particular adult relationship around which to build familiarity with their new routine.

SUNSHINE ROOMS are the preschool provision. Across the bungalow, resources are selected around children's interests, giving their curiosity a part in shaping what they explore. The building's rooms and the gardens provide both indoor and outdoor settings for play.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage brings together children's learning, development and care: here, play includes opportunities to communicate, create, move and explore ideas. The concrete activities show how those strands can meet in a child's day, rather than being treated as separate lessons.

In March 2025, younger children investigated soil through their senses, while older children used drawn portraits to explore feelings. Salad spinners became tools for experimenting with paint and mark-making. These examples connect physical exploration with language and creative expression, using materials in ways that invite children to try things for themselves.

Communication also had room to develop through pretend play. In March 2025, children invented stories while taking on characters such as librarians; staff asked questions and allowed time for answers. Number interests led to simple subtraction and addition. The emphasis was on responding to what children were interested in, with adult interaction taking an activity further.

Outdoor and Community Life

The gardens support physical activity, imaginative games and learning to share turns. They give children another setting in which to test ideas and solve problems through play.

In March 2025, dance and yoga provided opportunities to practise different movements. Learning about people beyond children's familiar communities was less developed, however: staff did not consistently extend their understanding of similarities and differences outside their own experiences. That matters alongside the creative activities, because learning about others is also part of the nursery experience.

Relationships and Communication

A key person is central to settling in Rainbow Room. The emphasis is on helping children become accustomed to nursery life through a close relationship, rather than treating settling as simply learning the timetable.

In March 2025, staff shared children's achievements and next learning steps with parents, alongside practical suggestions such as ideas about healthy eating. Staff also communicated with other settings children attended about their learning. For a child whose week includes more than one provider, that exchange helps adults work from a shared understanding of what the child is practising.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the March 2025 inspection, Ofsted found that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities were supported well through work with outside professionals, including picture cards and visual timelines that helped communication and changes of routine. These are concrete support mechanisms: information presented visually can make the sequence of the day easier to understand.

Health routines were part of daily learning in March 2025. Children washed their hands independently and discussed healthy food during snack time. Staff used additional funding for resources and experiences supporting individual children's physical development.

Staff development was an improvement priority. In March 2025, supervision meetings happened irregularly and training beyond required courses was limited; individual performance therefore needed more consistent attention. Daily team reflection existed, but it did not replace a sufficiently precise approach to each practitioner's development.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Herne Bay Evangelical Free Church, 64 Sunnyhill Road, Herne Bay, Kent CT6 8LU. Opening hours are 9am to noon or 1pm. The attendance offer includes three-hour sessions, with an additional hour charged separately for children whose attendance is not funded.

Optional Lunch Club runs from noon to 1pm. Children bring a lunch box and eat at small tables with staff supervision, making it a social extension to the nursery day. It serves a different purpose from the main session: time to eat together before leaving.

In March 2025, the nursery operated on weekdays during term time. Enquiries can be made through the contact form or by telephone. Families arranging privately paid attendance should obtain a current written quotation from the nursery.

Funding and Paid Extras

The funding offer includes 30 hours funding for eligible families, with 20 hours offered at this setting, and free early education places for eligible two-year-olds. The entitlement and the hours offered at this setting are separate considerations when planning a child's week.

Privately paid three-hour sessions and the additional hour have separate charges. For Lunch Club, parents supply the meal in a lunch box; snacks are also served during nursery attendance.

• Staff development. In March 2025, irregular supervision and limited additional training were improvement priorities. At a visit, ask how individual staff development is now planned and reviewed.
• Learning about other people. In March 2025, children's opportunities to explore lives beyond their familiar communities needed extending. Ask for examples of how this is now included in activities.
• Funding within a shorter day. The offer includes 30 hours funding for eligible families, with 20 hours offered at this setting. That distinction matters when matching the nursery's attendance offer to the childcare needed across a week.

Hampton Nursery School suits families seeking a three hour session, including those who want to add Optional Lunch Club for a supervised social lunch. Rainbow Room's key-person support gives the younger age group a clear settling emphasis, while the bungalow and gardens provide different spaces for play.

The March 2025 Good judgement sits alongside tangible examples of creative learning and visual support for children who need it. Staff development and learning about unfamiliar communities deserve attention in a visit discussion. The strongest decision value lies in that combination of practical attendance choices and concrete nursery experiences.