Kingswood Day Nurseries

A Mongolian yurt, a woodland classroom and an old village school building give Kingswood Day Nurseries its character. Outdoor learning is a daily part of life here, rather than an occasional outing: children explore woodland sites, while babies have their own Nature Nurture sessions built around sensory discoveries. This is a nursery for families who value mud, movement and learning through practical exploration.

The Alderholt setting has capacity for 52 children, from birth to five years. At its March 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated it Good overall, with Outstanding behaviour and attitudes, and asked staff to develop their ability to extend learning during spontaneous play. That distinction matters: the outdoor opportunities were substantial, but the next teaching step was not always recognised.

Four rooms take children from early babyhood towards school, with individual learning steps and communication between nursery and home running across them. Attendance choices include an extended day and shorter daytime patterns, with a minimum of two sessions each week.

Rooms and Ages

Ducklings serves babies from birth until their first steps, combining individual feeding and rest routines with a consistent key person and a sleep room.

Robins, for 15 months to two years and three months, combines access to indoor and outdoor play with low furniture for meals, self-feeding and simple daily routines. Children can practise doing things for themselves, from making a play choice to washing their hands, in surroundings designed for newly mobile explorers.

Kingfishers covers two years and three months to three years and three months, with play that develops children's interests in moving, joining and enclosing objects, plus a teepee for quiet stories. Child-accessible toilets extend to the outdoor sites, so growing independence is supported wherever the children are playing.

Woodpeckers, for three years and three months to five years, combines indoor and outdoor access with problem-solving, language, physical play and preparation for school. Daily opportunities for early maths, making marks and fine-motor practice sit alongside practical responsibilities such as setting lunch tables and looking after plants.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for children's learning, development and care through play, exploration and adult teaching. Practitioners observe, assess and plan individual missions, combining children's interests with group learning intentions and daily adult-led teaching. Questions and new vocabulary extend play; Friday room discussions review wellbeing and progress.

The WellComm Toolkit supports communication and language across rooms, with resource bags helping families continue learning at home. Woodpeckers' tea parties use china crockery and cutlery while children discuss future learning and make group decisions, giving conversation and responsibility a practical setting.

Outdoor and Community Life

Forest School adds child-led woodland learning to the nursery day, with opportunities for social, emotional and physical development through practical exploration. Children visit the nursery's woodland sites daily. Rope swings, clay kitchens, shelters and an army trench provide different settings for movement, imaginative play and making things.

Nature Nurture gives younger children an outdoor experience suited to their stage: they can travel by pushchair or walk to the woodland, explore mud and collect objects in metal buckets. Sensory activities include clay, leaves, water and chalk. Outdoor clothing is supplied, making this an organised part of the day rather than an experience dependent on parents assembling specialist kit.

In March 2022, children made woodland car tracks from tubes and guttering, while older children collaborated to free stuck balls. Practical problems gave them reasons to experiment together.

Relationships and Communication

Settling normally involves two pre-start visits of 45 minutes, adapted or extended where needed. Families play and learn routines together; the key person learns about their child and becomes their main contact.

My Story Book shares photographs, experiences and learning steps, including home-learning ideas. Babies take it home daily alongside verbal updates, and families can contribute observations. Half-termly overviews, parent evenings and daily conversations add further contact. Books and termly calls with other settings help adults coordinate next steps when children divide their week between providers.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

SENDCOs lead adaptations to planning, teaching and the environment, with family and professional involvement; the nursery also supports families with funding paperwork and practical needs. At the March 2022 inspection, Ofsted found effective safeguarding arrangements and that children with SEND received support to progress, including targeted work with other professionals. Those are dated judgements, alongside the current mechanisms for organising support.

All staff undertake paediatric first-aid training, and two practitioners hold Forest School leader qualifications.

For babies, sleep follows individual routines, using cots and recorded checks; children who fall asleep on a woodland pushchair journey are transferred to cots after returning. Parents supply formula, bottles, nappies and wipes. Familiar feeding equipment and home routines therefore form part of the care arrangement from the outset.

Meals and drinks are included in private fees, while funded attendance has a separate service-package arrangement or a meals-from-home alternative. Menus take account of dietary requirements and allergens, and eating is supervised with food prepared for children's age and stage.

School transition includes sharing reports and learning journeys, teacher liaison and visits where possible, helping the next setting understand each child.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery is at The Old School, Daggons Road, Alderholt, SP6 3DN, near Fordingbridge. It opens Monday to Friday from 7.45am to 6pm for 49 weeks annually, closing for a week in May, a week in August, Christmas and bank holidays. Families needing uninterrupted year-round care should account for those closures.

Booking windows include 7.45am to 6pm, 9am to 5pm and 9am to 3.30pm, with early and late sessions of 7.45am to 9am and 5pm to 6pm also priced separately. Children must attend at least two sessions per week; term-time-only attendance is also offered.

Enquiries and tour arrangements can be made by telephone, email or the contact form. For funded-only applications without the service package, funding proof is required when applying, and attendance must start within four weeks after the place is offered and confirmed.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded attendance can use up to 15 or 30 hours a week during term time, subject to eligibility. Kingswood sets the times and weeks each term for delivering funded hours, while attendance beyond the funded allocation is privately charged. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the fees page explains the charge structure.

A separately charged service package accompanies funded hours and covers food, Forest School and Nature Nurture sessions, outdoor clothing, selected emergency care items and additional learning resources. Families can instead choose a funded-hours-only contract: the EYFS continues, but parents supply meals and snacks, with main meals matching that day's nursery menu and complying with allergen and food-handling requirements.

Leaving the service package requires a full term of written notice. Under that alternative contract, session continuity between terms is not guaranteed and extra sessions cannot be booked. These are substantial differences between the two arrangements, beyond who supplies lunch.

Parents provide nappies, wipes and formula; selected emergency care essentials are covered by the service package. A refundable deposit is conditional on meeting the contract terms and clearing fees, while a separate early engagement and social charge is non-refundable and includes settling-session provision. Leaving requires a term's written notice, with the following term's fees payable if that notice is not given.

• The funded contract choice. The service package and funded-only alternative have different food responsibilities and booking conditions. Ask for a written comparison for your intended sessions before committing.
• Baby care and room moves. Ducklings uses a birth-to-first-steps stage, while Robins starts at 15 months. During a visit, discuss how room moves would work for your child's mobility, sleep and feeding routines, and ask about the youngest room's usual group size.
• Planned closures. The nursery closes during May, August and Christmas as well as bank holidays. Those breaks need to fit your family's childcare arrangements.
• Dietary requirements. Menus account for allergens, and funded-only families must supply food that meets the nursery's requirements. Confirm the current arrangements for your child's allergy and how they apply to either contract.

Kingswood suits families seeking daily woodland learning, practical independence and communication that carries children's experiences home. The yurt, woodland classroom, Nature Nurture and Forest School give the offer a clear identity; individual missions and shared books connect that outdoor life with planned learning.

It serves families choosing an extended day, a 9am-to-5pm pattern or a shorter 9am-to-3.30pm day, including term-time attendance. The two-session minimum, planned closures and funded-contract conditions deserve careful attention. The March 2022 Good judgement is a useful quality reference, with the improvement point about extending learning during play remaining part of that assessment.