Longoak Pre-school

A hall, a small patio and a nature area give Longoak Pre-school three different settings for play within Pilands Wood Community Centre in Bursledon. Parent trustees share responsibility for running this charity, bringing families into decisions about policy, fundraising and staff employment. This is a preschool with a practical community structure, rather than parent involvement confined to occasional events.

Ofsted rated Longoak Good at its 11 May 2023 inspection. It has capacity for 26 children, and accepts funded and fee-paying two-year-olds from the term following their second birthday. Attendance is term-time only, with flexible starts and finishes alongside its core opening hours.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage Framework connects children's language, physical skills and emotional development with learning about numbers, literacy, creativity and the world. At Longoak, that means opportunities to investigate, ask questions and experiment, rather than treating learning as a separate part of the day.

Alongside this framework sit four school-preparation goals: Evolving Emotions, Vibrant Vocabulary, Creative Cookers and Fine Motor Flamingos. These are goals adapted for individual children within a curriculum shaped around the children attending. Their practical value is a shared direction for learning while allowing different children to work towards it in different ways. The curriculum overview sets out this additional layer.

In May 2023, children investigated the effect of combining water with cornflour and compared the lengths of worms they found. Staff used these encounters to encourage reasoning and introduce mathematical ideas through play. Everyday discoveries supplied the questions. Children had something real to think about, rather than an abstract exercise detached from their interests.

There was also a limitation in May 2023: staff understood children's development broadly, but the next learning steps for individual children needed sharper definition. Clear overall goals and precise individual planning are different things. That distinction matters when judging how a curriculum will work for a particular child.

Outdoor and Community Life

Sole use of the hall, patio and nature area provides both indoor space and opportunities outdoors. In May 2023, children searched for small creatures in the nature garden, while staff encouraged them to consider the animals' needs and leave them in their habitat. Bus outings at that time also gave children experiences beyond the preschool. These examples brought care for living things and knowledge of the wider world into the day.

Peggy, a penguin adopted at Marwell zoo, supplies another named connection with animals beyond the setting. Families visiting the zoo can look for the preschool's adopted penguin. It is a connection they can follow in their own time, rather than a claim about organised preschool visits.

Relationships and Communication

Settling begins with an allocated key person who works with the family. Parents can remain for as many settling sessions as they wish, allowing the introduction to preschool to proceed with familiar support close by. Children also belong to named key-person groups, including Butterflies, Ladybirds and Caterpillars. These are relationship groups, rather than separate age-banded rooms.

The Colour Monster helps children recognise and discuss feelings. In May 2023, coloured containers and children's pegs gave staff a way to begin conversations about emotions and acknowledge what children were experiencing. This made feelings something children could communicate even while their vocabulary was developing.

Parent involvement extends into governance. The elected parental trustees and manager jointly oversee the preschool, and trustees review practice and policies as well as organising fundraising. For families interested in contributing, that creates a route into decisions about how the setting works.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At its May 2023 inspection, Ofsted judged safeguarding effective and found that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities made good progress, with developmental concerns identified promptly and referrals made to professionals such as speech and language therapists. Current staff roles include a SENCO and a designated safeguarding lead; the latter holds a foundation degree at Level 5. These roles give families identifiable responsibilities for discussing support and concerns.

In May 2023, staff also used familiar words from children's home languages to help children who were learning English feel more comfortable. Independence was practised through handwashing and serving snack with tongs. Today, easy-to-manage clothing is encouraged so children can take more responsibility for toileting, with pull-ups requested when potty training begins.

Snacks are freshly prepared daily, with milk or water, while children staying all day bring a labelled packed lunch and water to drink. The preschool requests lunches free of nuts and nut-containing products, and asks families to explain dietary requirements so alternatives can be arranged.

Sessions and Attendance

Longoak operates at Pilands Wood Community Centre, Chamberlayne Road, Bursledon, SO31 8DT. Its term-time opening hours are 9am to 2.30pm from Monday to Thursday and 9am to noon on Friday. Flexible start and finish times can fit around childcare needs; a 9am start requires advance arrangement and is subject to availability.

The daily routine includes snack, discovery play, stories and singing, with either departure or group lunch at noon. The afternoon continues with discovery play before the closing activities. This gives families a useful picture of how eating, play and shared activities fit together, while the shorter Friday needs its own place in the weekly childcare plan.

Enquiries can be made by telephone on 02380 403769 or through the contact form. Parents can stay during settling sessions, so joining includes time to establish the key-person relationship rather than expecting an immediate separation.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered within the term-time provision. Funded childcare includes the 15-hour offer for two-year-olds. For three- and four-year-olds, the 15-hour entitlement begins from the term after the third birthday; the 30-hour entitlement is subject to meeting the criteria. Two-year-olds may attend on either a funded or fee-paying basis from the term after their second birthday. An entitlement does not itself promise a particular attendance arrangement.

Parents supply lunch for children staying all day; freshly prepared snacks are provided by the preschool. Current prices come in the preschool's written quotation. Uniform is sold but is optional, so ordinary suitable clothing remains a practical choice for play and developing independence.

• A term-time timetable. Friday closes at noon, while Monday to Thursday extend to 2.30pm. Families needing care later in the day or during holidays should weigh this pattern against their working week.
• Individual learning and lunch transitions. In May 2023, planning needed more precise next steps, and the period after lunch could become unsettled enough to interrupt learning. At a visit, ask how individual targets are now chosen and how children move from lunch back into play.
• Funding within shorter hours. The funding information includes the 30-hour entitlement, alongside a term-time timetable and a shorter Friday. Ask how a proposed funded attendance pattern would work, including any snack or consumable charges and what families need to bring.
• Packed lunches and allergies. Families provide lunch, and the preschool requests that nuts and nut-containing products are excluded. Allergy-affected families should confirm current practice and discuss the alternatives needed for their child.

Longoak suits families seeking term-time preschool attendance with flexibility over starting and finishing, and those comfortable with a shorter Friday. Its hall, patio and nature area, parent-led governance and key-person settling arrangements give it a recognisable character. The Good judgement from May 2023 provides a dated quality reference; the planning and lunchtime findings give families two concrete issues to explore alongside those strengths.