Little Learners Pre-school

An enclosed garden connected directly to the main room gives Little Learners Pre-school its strongest practical appeal: children can move between indoor play and outdoor exploration throughout the day. Graylingwell Park supplies the wider setting, with walks, growing produce in a community garden and time among the trees adding to life at The Lodge in Chichester. Outdoor learning has several forms here.

The pre-school has capacity for 30 children aged 2 to 5. At its July 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated it Good overall. That judgement is a useful starting point, alongside a specific improvement concerning quieter children’s participation in group activities.

Attendance runs across the year, with full-day, school-day, morning and afternoon options and a minimum booking of two sessions each week. This gives families several ways to arrange attendance, while the full-year requirement matters for those seeking care only during school terms.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the learning framework: children develop their communication, physical abilities, relationships and early understanding through play and everyday experiences. This is the common foundation for early-years provision. Here, the garden gives those experiences a concrete setting, with water and sand play, outdoor reading, opportunities to make marks and a mud kitchen.

Choice is built into the physical layout. The main room has direct garden access, supporting free-flow play rather than making outdoors a separate destination for every activity. Children can explore resources inside and outside, with space for imaginative play as well as movement. For a child who enjoys learning through doing, that combination is a meaningful attraction.

In July 2022, communication and social development shaped the curriculum. Staff drew on children’s interests and information from families when planning activities. Mathematical ideas also appeared in play: children weighed vegetables and experimented with balancing scales, while pretend ice-cream making involved counting scoops of sand. These examples show how numbers could become part of an activity children already wanted to pursue.

Outdoor and Community Life

Graylingwell Park is more than an address. Walks, the mini daily mile and growing produce in the community garden extend outdoor activity beyond the enclosed garden. Forest school sessions add time exploring nature among the trees. These are additions to the learning framework, rather than a replacement for it.

In July 2022, children practised balancing on planks during an imaginative game and investigated toy minibeasts with magnifying equipment before arranging them by size. Physical challenge and comparison sat alongside pretend play. The examples are useful for parents because they reveal the substance behind outdoor learning: movement, observation and conversation, rather than simply time outside.

Relationships and Communication

Tapestry, the online learning journal, shares observations of children’s play and learning with families. Regular Stay and Play sessions also give parents opportunities to take part in the setting’s life. The two serve different purposes: one shares individual experiences, while the other brings families into activities alongside their children.

In July 2022, key persons exchanged approaches for communicating with children experiencing speech and language delays. Information from parents informed activity planning, and staff used families’ home languages in communication. Those details illustrate a practical relationship between home and pre-school, with knowledge about a child feeding into the way adults worked with them.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the July 2022 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and described support for children’s language development, including seeking help from external agencies, but identified occasions when less confident children received insufficient help to participate in group learning. That qualification matters. A child who readily speaks up may experience a group activity differently from one who needs an adult to draw them in.

The current inclusion policy uses the SEND code of practice to guide planning and support. Staff have paediatric first-aid training, and children help agree behaviour expectations during circle time. Involving children in those discussions makes expectations something adults explain and revisit, rather than rules children encounter only when a disagreement occurs.

A cook makes meals from scratch, with a four-week menu rotation and natural ingredients. Families are asked to share allergies and dietary requirements so these can inform catering arrangements.

Sessions and Attendance

Little Learners is at The Lodge, Keepers Green, Graylingwell Drive, Chichester, PO19 6GU. It opens for 50 weeks each year, closing on bank holidays and for one week at Christmas. Opening hours are 8am to 5.30pm from Monday to Thursday, and 8am to 5pm on Friday.

Only full-year places are offered. The session choices are full day, 8am to 5.30pm; school day, 9am to 4pm; morning half day, 8am to 1pm; and afternoon half day, 1pm to 5.30pm. Families book at least two sessions weekly. Extra top-up hours depend on space and the setting being able to maintain its staffing ratios, so they are a conditional addition to the usual booking.

Enquiries can be made through the contact form, by telephone or by email. For drivers, access is via Westhampnett Road and Kingsmead Avenue, past ALDI, using the park’s eastern entrance; the route cannot cut across the park from Wellington Road.

Funding and Paid Extras

Eligible families can use the universal 15 funded hours or 30-hour funding. Funding is stretched across the year: the former becomes 11 hours weekly and the latter 22 hours weekly. Additional private attendance is charged separately, so a funded entitlement and a chosen session pattern need to be considered together.

For the universal entitlement, families complete a West Sussex County Council claim form and supply their child’s birth certificate for the eligibility check. For 30-hour funding, parents apply directly, share their code and renew it each term; private fees become due if eligibility lapses, until the code is requalified.

Meals, snacks and classes delivered by visiting teachers sit within a separate consumables charge applied with parental consent, including alongside funded attendance. Parents supply nappies, wipes, nappy-change cream and sun cream for their child. Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation; the fees and funding page explains the charge structure. Billing follows the sessions attended each month, so invoices can vary with the calendar.

• Quieter children in groups. The July 2022 improvement concerned support for less confident children during shared activities. During a visit, ask how practitioners now help a child who hangs back to take part.
• Friday collection. Friday closing is 5pm, while the full-day and afternoon session descriptions end at 5.30pm. Establish the Friday version of your chosen session before arranging work and collection.
• Full-year attendance and funded extras. Places run across the year, with a two-session weekly minimum and stretched funding. Review the written quotation against your intended pattern, including the consent-based charge covering food and visiting-teacher classes.
• Dietary needs. Meals are cooked from scratch and dietary requirements inform catering. Allergy-affected families should discuss current preparation and serving arrangements before joining.

Little Learners suits families choosing between full-day, school-day and half-day attendance across the year, especially those who value direct garden access and outdoor experiences around Graylingwell Park. Tapestry and Stay and Play offer concrete ways to remain connected to a child’s learning.

The Good judgement from July 2022 provides the inspection context, with quieter children’s involvement the important qualification. For families weighing the setting, the decisive practical checks are how that support works now, whether year-round attendance fits their routine, and how the Friday collection time aligns with their chosen session.