Oatlands Pre School

Chicks hatching in the classroom and forest school mornings at Pantile Road Playing Field give Oatlands Pre School a character that reaches beyond its village-hall base. This charity preschool combines two large rooms with an enclosed outdoor play area, and uses visiting activities and community experiences to broaden the children's day. Its fundraising goes back into resources and experiences for children.

At its inspection on 16 July 2024, Ofsted rated the preschool Good overall and judged the quality of education Good. The practical strengths include a key-person system, separate classes for younger children and those approaching Reception, and scheduled opportunities for parents to discuss development. There are also specific teaching points to weigh: larger-group organisation and opportunities to extend younger children's thinking needed attention.

Children can start from their second birthday, and the preschool serves children aged two to four. Attendance is term-time only, with a minimum of two sessions each week.

Rooms and Ages

Turtles Class serves younger children; Seahorses Class is for the year before Reception, giving the older group an emphasis on preparation for school. The physical setting comprises two large rooms and a fully enclosed outdoor play area.

Staff are allocated to classes so that they can build familiarity with the children. The key person has particular responsibility for a small group, while the other practitioners in the class also work with those children. Families therefore have a main contact alongside a wider class team.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care: activities address physical, emotional, creative and intellectual development, with observation helping staff understand each child's next steps. It is the foundation of the provision, rather than an extra programme.

Additions include chicks hatching in the classroom, a visiting farm and visiting providers offering dance, golf and football.

In July 2024, children practised everyday skills through play, including washing utensils in toy sinks and cutting shapes with scissors. Outside, older children used tricycles, steered ride-on cars around obstacles and tackled an obstacle course.

The same month's teaching observations exposed a limitation. Staff introduced vocabulary during sand play, but sometimes passed over chances to develop younger children's reasoning when they were deeply engaged. Larger gatherings also involved lengthy waits, with some children becoming unsettled.

Outdoor and Community Life

Bi-weekly forest school mornings with Rewilding involve outdoor learning at Pantile Road Playing Field. The field gives this activity a setting beyond the preschool's enclosed play area.

World Book Day fundraising includes sponsored dressing up. Children also choose a bear to sponsor through Asociatia Milioane de Prieteni, an animal protection organisation. These activities give the charity ethos something children can participate in, rather than leaving it as an adult fundraising concern.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person who helps with settling and provides a first contact for parents. New starters receive two introductory settling sessions, each lasting an hour on separate days; the full-session charge applies to these and to any further settling time.

Parent Consultations take place in November and March, with written reports at the end of the Autumn and Summer terms. Parents can also contact the key person, room leader or manager between those scheduled points. Class WhatsApp groups provide another connection with preschool life and with other families, while developmental discussions have their own more direct routes.

In July 2024, staff gathered information about children's interests, development and parents' hopes when families joined. Daily spoken and written updates, weekly newsletters and suggested home activities helped connect learning at preschool with home. Staff also talked children through disagreements and emotions, using encouragement when children achieved something.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the July 2024 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and identified support for children with SEND and those learning English as an additional language as a strength, with individual strategies developed alongside families and other professionals. The current support process starts with key-person observations: concerns are discussed privately with parents and the Special Educational Needs Coordinator, followed by an agreed, tailored plan.

Toilet training is not an entry requirement. That matters for a child starting shortly after turning two, when independence in personal care may still be developing.

Families provide lunchboxes, and the lunchbox policy excludes nuts, peanut butter and sweets; it also requires grapes and olives to be halved lengthways. The Welfare Officer prepares allergy care plans where needed.

The team updates its skills through training and peer review. In July 2024, there were 14 staff, of whom 10 held level 3 early-years qualifications; those figures describe the team at that date. Children must remain at home until at least 48 hours after their last episode of sickness or diarrhoea.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 9am to 2.30pm, Monday to Friday during term time. The morning booking runs from 9am to midday, with lunch club from midday to 1pm.

The minimum booking is two weekly sessions. The terms offer children aged two either two or three morning sessions; children older than two years and six months can attend between two and five sessions. Children over two years and six months can attend lunch club if requested and ready, with termly or ad hoc booking.

There is a September intake. Extra sessions arising during a term are offered to existing children first. Waiting-list offers then consider enquiry date, the required balance of children's ages and the preschool's financial needs.

Applications can be returned by email, post or the preschool's letterbox. The contact email is manager@oatlandspreschool.org. Children are expected to wear a preschool T-shirt or sweatshirt, and families receive a Welcome Pack before starting.

Getting There

The preschool operates at Oatlands Village Hall, 8 St Marys Road, Weybridge, Surrey, KT13 9PT. The village hall is its everyday base, with forest school taking children to Pantile Road Playing Field for the outdoor sessions described above.

Funding and Paid Extras

FEET funding is accepted subject to the preschool's limit on the amount it can take; 15 HOURS FREE ENTITLEMENT is also offered. The entitlement is delivered during term time, for up to 38 weeks and 15 hours weekly. The terms place funded hours between 9am and midday and require funded children aged three, from the qualifying term, to book at least two 9am-to-1pm sessions; the additional hour is charged even if the child does not stay for lunch.

Private hours are charged, and parents provide the lunchbox food. A registration charge and deposit apply; the deposit offsets the first term's invoice, but both payments are non-refundable if the family withdraws. Termly invoices are normally payable before the term starts. Current prices come in the preschool's written quotation.

• Teaching in groups. July 2024 observations identified restless waiting during larger gatherings and missed opportunities to extend younger children's thinking. Ask how carpet times and mealtimes are organised now, and how practitioners build on a younger child's absorbing play.
• The later finish. Opening hours extend to 2.30pm, while the morning and lunch-club bookings end at midday and 1pm. At a show-round, establish which attendance arrangement covers the later part of the day and how it fits your child's routine.
• Financial commitment. Funded bookings include a separately charged additional hour, and withdrawing forfeits the registration payment and deposit. Cancellation terms conflict: joining information requires a term's written notice, while the terms require half a term. Agree the applicable notice and funded booking in writing before committing.
• Lunch and personal care. Parents supply lunchboxes under restrictions on nuts, sweets and food preparation; toilet training is not required. Discuss current allergy practice.

Oatlands suits families seeking term-time mornings or mornings extended through lunch, with a class structure that separates younger starters from children approaching Reception. Rewilding sessions, classroom animal experiences and charity activities give the offer substance beyond its village-hall setting. The key-person system and scheduled parent discussions provide clear routes into a child's development. The decision rests on matching the precise booking to family needs, understanding the funded-hours charges, and exploring how the teaching points identified in July 2024 have been addressed.