Little Acorns Day Nursery & Forest School

Separate gardens, an on-site Forest School area and a baby sleep room give Little Acorns a clear identity: outdoor play has substantial space, while the youngest children have somewhere apart from their play area to rest. This purpose-built, air-conditioned nursery shares its Cobham site with St Andrews C of E School. It has capacity for 57 children, accepting ages from three months to five years.

At its February 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and found safeguarding effective. The strongest practical features are the progression through Babies, Tinies, Toddlers and Preschool, dedicated outdoor areas and an optional Forest School programme that gives older children planned outdoor sessions ending with treats beside the fire pit.

Attendance can range from individual days to full-time care. The funded-hours arrangement stretches entitlement across the year, with separate voluntary charges for food and consumables. Those choices deserve as much attention as the gardens: opting out changes both what parents supply and how daily information reaches them.

Rooms and Ages

Babies accommodates children from three to 16 months, with a milk kitchen, its own garden and a separate sleep room, keeping feeding, rest and exploration within the youngest children's part of the nursery. Staffing is one adult to three babies, the statutory minimum for this age group.

For children aged 16 to 26 months, Tinies has a maximum of 12 children, an open play space, a dedicated garden with equipment for physical play and a separate sleeping room where staff supervise rest on mats.

Toddlers covers 26 to 38 months, with a maximum of 12 children, activities shaped around their interests and movement between the room and the large back garden during both morning and afternoon.

Preschool serves children aged three to five years, with a maximum of 24, combining literacy, numeracy and independence with access to an outside classroom and the large garden.

The room boundaries are accompanied by preparation for the next stage. Moving from Tinies brings more independent activity in Toddlers; the later move into Preschool places greater emphasis on skills for school. These are stages of development rather than a single undifferentiated nursery day.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care: play and everyday experiences build skills across areas of learning. Activities are planned around children's interests, with room arrangements that allow older children to choose between indoor and outdoor experiences. A child who wants to continue exploring outside has that option through free-flow access.

Forest School adds a specific outdoor programme for Toddlers and Preschool. Sessions take place every two weeks, are planned by a forest school teacher and finish with campfire treats around the fire pit. Participation is optional and charged separately. The frequency gives parents a concrete picture of the addition to ordinary garden play, while the separate charge makes it a choice within the overall nursery offer.

In February 2024, everyday activities included learning to control pipettes at a water tray, making fruit salad and investigating jelly's smell and texture. These examples connect physical exploration with language: children encountered words for tastes and practised following demonstrations. Books, songs and action singing also formed part of the day.

Outdoor and Community Life

Dedicated gardens serve the younger rooms, while the over-twos can move between their rooms and outdoor space. The distinction matters: Babies and Tinies have their own garden areas, while Toddlers and Preschool gain greater choice about where to play. Outdoor access is built into the room arrangements rather than confined to the Forest School sessions.

In February 2024, children also made regular outings to the library, woodland, an older people's home, shops and a school. Those visits brought road safety, money and care for other people into practical experiences. They broadened children's world beyond the nursery grounds without requiring a separate formal lesson for each topic.

Relationships and Communication

In February 2024, staff worked with families to carry home routines into nursery life and used children's interests when planning activities. Babies received comfort when they needed it, and children became familiar with the next room and its staff before moving there. For a child facing a room change, that preparation made the new surroundings less abrupt.

Current booking terms recommend starting with two sessions to help children settle, but this is advice rather than a minimum attendance requirement. The registration form also provides for a first settling-in session. Parents can therefore distinguish the nursery's preferred settling pattern from a contractual obligation to book particular days.

Communication includes an online learning journal and day diary through the parent app. Families who opt out of the non-food consumables charge instead receive verbal information at collection and do not receive access to that online platform. This is a meaningful difference for parents who want to review their child's day after the handover.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

A SENCO role is in place, and registration gathers information about additional needs, healthcare professionals, dietary requirements and essential medication. These mechanisms give families a route to explain individual needs before attendance begins. Collection arrangements also use parental permission, a password and identification when another adult collects a child.

At the February 2024 inspection, Ofsted identified inconsistent support for babies' communication and language, including some books and activities pitched beyond their developmental stage, and asked for better staff support in this area. This is the main educational reservation, especially for families choosing the Babies room.

Fresh food is cooked by the nursery chef in its own kitchen, with provision for dietary requirements and weaning; parents supply formula and breast milk in labelled bottles. The nursery's policy prohibits nuts, so allergy planning should include the arrangements for both nursery meals and food brought from home.

Potty-training support belongs to the Toddlers stage. Rest is also given physical space: Babies has its own sleep room, and Tinies has supervised sleeping on mats in a dedicated room. These arrangements recognise that growing independence and the need for sleep can coexist.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Lockhart Road, Cobham, Surrey KT11 2AX. Enquiries can be made by telephone or email, and joining requires a completed registration form.

Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, over 50 weeks of the year, with a 7:30am start possible by arrangement. The food opt-out policy gives the full-day attendance window as 7:45am to 6pm. Fees cover bookings from one day a week through to full-time attendance; there is no compulsory minimum number of days.

Closures include Bank Holidays and breaks in summer and at Christmas. Fees are spread into equal monthly payments with the closure periods taken into account, and booked sessions remain payable when a child misses nursery through sickness or holidays. This makes the monthly commitment more predictable, but attendance changes require planning.

Funding and Paid Extras

Little Acorns offers Universal funding (15 hours) from the term after children turn three and Working Parent Entitlement (30 hours) for eligible families. Entitlement is stretched across the year, giving 11 or 22 funded hours each week rather than delivering the whole entitlement solely in term time.

Private fees include food, drinks, nappies and wipes, alongside activities and outings, with Forest School excluded from that inclusion. Formula and breast milk come from home. During funded hours, meals and non-food consumables are covered through separate voluntary charges; parents can opt out and supply the required items themselves.

Food opt-out means supplying enough meals, snacks and drinks for the booked session, appropriately labelled and packed for safe storage. Non-food opt-out means bringing nappies, wipes, suitable sun cream and agreed personal-care items; used nappies and wipes are bagged and sent home for parents to dispose of. Access to the electronic diary and some optional enrichment arrangements also changes under that choice.

A non-refundable registration charge and a refundable deposit apply, including when joining the waiting list. Deposit repayment depends on giving six weeks' notice, and reducing attendance or ending a place requires six weeks' written notice. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the fees page explains the monthly payment structure.

The nursery shares the grounds of St Andrews C of E School. Attending does not guarantee a Reception place; families still apply through the local authority admissions process. School preparation here means building independence and learning skills, rather than securing admission.

• Baby-room language support. February 2024 brought a specific improvement requirement about communication with babies. On a visit, ask how staff now select suitable books and support early conversation during ordinary play.
• Funding opt-out choices. Declining the voluntary charges brings responsibilities for food packing, personal-care supplies and nappy disposal, and replaces the electronic diary with verbal handovers. Discuss the whole arrangement before deciding which charges to accept.
• Starting and stopping attendance. Two settling sessions are recommended rather than required, while ending or reducing a booking needs six weeks' written notice. Ask how the settling sessions will fit your intended attendance pattern.
• Allergies and outdoor extras. Nuts are prohibited under nursery policy, and Forest School is optional with a separate charge. Confirm the current allergy arrangements and how the outdoor sessions fit your child's needs.

Little Acorns suits families choosing individual nursery days as well as full-time attendance, especially those who value dedicated gardens, separate rest spaces for younger children and planned outdoor sessions for older ones. Its room progression gives the offer a clear shape from babyhood to school preparation.

The baby-room language improvement requirement deserves direct attention. Equally, funded care involves choices with practical consequences for meals, supplies and communication. For parents comfortable with those arrangements, the physical spaces and optional Forest School programme provide concrete reasons to consider this Cobham nursery.