Camelsdale Preschool

Science on Mondays, gymnastics on Thursdays and Forest School in a garden on a nearby school site give Camelsdale Preschool a recognisable weekly rhythm. This Church Hall setting in Camelsdale combines play-led learning with separately charged enrichment, rather than making every day follow the same format.

At its September 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the preschool Good and found its safeguarding arrangements effective. The practical strengths include a key person for each child, shared learning journals and opportunities for parents to help shape their child's next steps. The inspection also identified work to do on outdoor staff deployment and the targeting of staff development.

There are 26 places in total, with a current age range of 30 to 60 months. Attendance is term-time, with whole-day, morning and afternoon patterns, although Friday opening ends at midday.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for learning through play, alongside activities led by adults. Children choose tasks and work towards completing them, while group activities introduce different experiences and help them learn to work with others. Choice has a practical purpose here: children have opportunities to pursue an interest, then practise staying with it.

The enrichment timetable adds named activities on particular days. Monday brings Science with Mini Professor's, while Thursday features Victory Gymnastics. Each attracts a separate charge. For families selecting individual sessions, the day of attendance therefore affects which additional experiences a child encounters.

Tuesday's The Wild Ones Forest School takes place in the Secret Garden within the grounds of Camelsdale Primary School. That gives the outdoor session a specific setting beyond the preschool itself. Friday also includes separately charged yoga. These activities sit alongside the preschool's everyday play and learning; they do not replace its framework.

In September 2025, storytelling involved children joining familiar phrases and talking about book illustrations with friends. Children also selected books for themselves. This gives a concrete picture of the literacy activities at that time: listening together, joining in and making their own choices about reading.

Outdoor and Community Life

In September 2025, the outdoor provision included low balancing beams, wheeled play equipment, a slide and percussion instruments. Children could practise different movements and explore sound within the same outdoor space. Walks to shops and visits to woodland brought the surrounding area into their learning, with interest in insects continuing through observations of spiders and webs in the preschool garden.

The outdoor provision also carried a specific limitation. In September 2025, staff were not consistently positioned to give every child the interactions needed to extend outdoor learning. The issue concerned how adults were deployed, rather than a shortage against staffing ratios. Equipment and access to outdoor play were strengths of the provision at that visit, but adult involvement needed greater consistency.

Relationships and Communication

A child's key person is the family's main contact and takes responsibility for care, learning and development. That relationship also supports settling and the exchange of information about progress. Parents have a clear person to speak to, rather than relying only on whoever happens to be available for a conversation.

Learning journals bring information from home and preschool together. Parents and the key person contribute details about interests, needs, activities and achievements, then decide how to support the next stage of learning. Tapestry is used to share activities and progress, alongside bi-termly parent meetings. The combination gives families both an ongoing account and scheduled opportunities for discussion.

In September 2025, settling sessions and the early weeks of attendance were used to learn about children's routines and interests. Staff also spent individual time sharing books and joining the chosen play of children who were hesitant to participate. These were specific ways of helping a new child become familiar with the setting at their own pace.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the September 2025 inspection, Ofsted found that children needing additional support were doing well, with staff using observations to identify development needs and adapt learning. Gymnastics provided one example: difficulties with balance, coordination or core strength informed subsequent play opportunities.

The team includes SENCo roles and designated safeguarding lead roles. These provide identifiable responsibilities for additional needs and safeguarding within the staff structure. The key-person arrangement gives parents a regular route for discussing their child's individual needs.

In September 2025, staff development needed more precise targeting. Supervision and reflective discussion were not yet identifying gaps in individual practice consistently enough. This matters alongside the outdoor deployment finding: both improvement points concerned the quality and consistency of adult interaction with children.

Sessions and Attendance

Camelsdale Preschool operates from Church Hall, School Road, Camelsdale, Haslemere, GU27 3RN. It opens for 38 weeks each year, during term time. Opening hours run from 8.45am until 3pm on Monday to Thursday, with Friday closing at noon.

Families can choose a whole day, a morning from 8.45am to noon, or an afternoon from noon to 3pm on days with afternoon opening. Friday offers the morning pattern only. This provides different lengths of attendance across the week, but no Friday afternoon provision.

Enquiries can be made through the contact form, by email or by telephone. The attendance pattern also affects access to the enrichment timetable: Tuesday includes the garden-based Forest School session, while Thursday includes gymnastics.

Funding and Paid Extras

Free Entitlement funding is offered for children aged two, three and four. The terms include a maximum of 15 funded hours a week for three- and four-year-olds, over up to 38 weeks, beginning in the term following their third birthday. Parents complete a declaration so the preschool can claim funding on their behalf.

Funded attendance has its own windows: mornings run from 9.30am to noon, and afternoons from noon to 2.30pm, Monday to Thursday; Friday has the funded morning only. Attendance extending beyond these funded windows attracts additional charges. The difference matters when comparing a funded pattern with the longer standard sessions.

Consumables attract a separate session charge, and enrichment activities are charged separately too. Current prices come in the preschool's written quotation. The fees and funding terms also require half a term's notice when reducing sessions, with liability for that half term's fees if the notice is not given.

• Outdoor adult involvement. September 2025 brought a specific recommendation to improve staff deployment outdoors. At a visit, ask how adults now join children's play and extend their learning across the outdoor space.
• Funded and standard sessions differ. Funded mornings begin later and funded afternoons finish earlier than standard attendance. Compare the two patterns when planning the hours your family needs and the charges attached to them.
• A timetable that affects choices. Forest School falls on Tuesday and gymnastics on Thursday, with separate activity charges. Session selection therefore shapes the enrichment a child encounters.
• Term-time and Friday limits. The preschool opens for 38 weeks, and Friday ends at noon. Families needing holiday care or Friday afternoons will need to plan around those boundaries.

Camelsdale Preschool suits families seeking term-time whole days as well as those choosing morning or afternoon attendance. Its named enrichment timetable, key-person relationships and shared learning journals give parents concrete ways to understand what their child will experience and how home can contribute.

The September 2025 Good judgement provides a positive inspection position, balanced by specific work needed on outdoor interaction and staff development. The decisive practical considerations are the shorter funded windows, separate activity and consumables charges, and Friday's midday finish.