Thamesview Preschool

In November 2024, a garden mud kitchen, allotment visits and encounters with emergency-service workers gave Thamesview Preschool a practical, outward-looking character. The Manor Road setting in Walton on Thames serves children aged two to five and has 26 places in total. This is the preschool site, separate from the baby nursery on Felix Road.

At its November 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated Thamesview Good, judged safeguarding effective and found that children made good progress, with close observation and professional collaboration supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities. The strongest detail is how learning connects with ordinary life: measuring a construction, preparing fruit or discovering how vegetables grow. Children have something concrete to investigate.

Attendance spans morning and afternoon sessions, a term-time day and longer days across the year. That gives families different ways to use the setting rather than a single daily pattern.

Rooms and Ages

Children move into the preschool room in the term after their third birthday. For this older group, preparation for school includes practising how to control a pencil, exploring phonics and working with numbers, simple calculations and frequently used words. The emphasis connects early literacy and mathematics with the next stage of learning.

The Manor Road age range matters when comparing Thamesview's two sites: care for babies belongs to the separate Felix Road nursery. Families choosing this preschool are choosing provision for the older age group.

Learning and Activities

EYFS provides the framework for learning, development and care, with play, exploration and interaction helping children build their understanding. Developmental observations feed an online learning journal that families can access. This gives parents a way to follow activities and learning beyond conversations with staff.

In November 2024, planning followed children's interests. Mathematics grew out of construction play: children stacked bricks, tested how tall their towers could become and used a tape measure to investigate height. That makes measurement something children can see and try, rather than only hear explained.

Stories chosen by children and songs with accompanying movements brought language into shared activities that month. Outdoor drawing and pattern-making added opportunities to practise early writing movements. Sensory exploration included foam and releasing toy dinosaurs from ice, linking imaginative play with the use of tools and coordination.

Outdoor and Community Life

In November 2024, the garden supported investigation as well as physical play. Children explored herbs in the mud kitchen, looked for insects using magnifying glasses and negotiated the garden steps. Those details give outdoor learning a clear purpose: observing, experimenting and judging simple risks.

Community experiences extended the same practical approach. Allotment trips introduced how produce grows, while helping deliver parcels to local food banks brought caring for others into an activity children could take part in. Visits from police and paramedics introduced people whose work helps the community. These were experiences recorded in November 2024, rather than a fixed timetable of outings.

Relationships carried much of the preschool's daily life in November 2024. Children showed attachment to staff, and adults helped them cooperate, recognise emotions and practise considerate behaviour. Independence also had practical expression: children prepared fruit, served their drinks and managed their clothing for outdoor play. Care and learning met in these small responsibilities.

Parents took part in discussions about development and ways to continue learning at home that month. Those conversations addressed learning at home in November 2024; the current online journal gives families a record of their child's activities and development.

The staff structure includes designated safeguarding lead and SENCO responsibilities. These roles identify who handles safeguarding and special educational needs coordination. Paediatric first-aid training also features in the team information.

The improvement point deserves equal attention. In November 2024, staff sometimes moved on too quickly after asking questions, leaving children insufficient time to formulate their own responses. For a child developing confidence in conversation, the pause matters as much as the question.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Manor Road, Walton on Thames, Surrey, KT12 2PH. Enquiries can be made through the contact form or the preschool email address, thamesviewpreschool@outlook.com.

Term-time bookings run Monday to Friday: mornings from 9am to noon, afternoons from noon to 3pm, and a day from 9am to 3pm. A breakfast club runs from 8am to 9am, while lunch club runs from noon to 1pm; both need booking at least the day before. These additions matter when a family's schedule extends beyond a shorter session.

Longer days run from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, with either a 51-week year-round pattern or a 42-week term-time arrangement. The shorter term-time offer spans 38 weeks. The 42-week funded arrangement has a minimum booking of three days each week.

Funding and Paid Extras

Thamesview accepts FEET and offers 15- and 30-hour funding, with term-time and year-round arrangements. Private hours are offered too. The attendance pattern and its extras need considering together: funded hours and the total charge for a booking are different parts of the quotation.

For the shorter term-time sessions, snacks, hot lunch and consumables carry separate charges. Longer-day fees incorporate food, consumables and additional activities; families can indicate that they wish to opt out and supply their own food, and the sign-up form also allows an opt-out from consumables. The food items include breakfast, snacks, a hot lunch with dessert and high tea.

There is a non-refundable joining charge. Current prices come in the preschool's written quotation; the sessions and fees page sets out the different booking structures.

• Time to answer. The November 2024 improvement point concerned giving children longer to develop responses. Ask how staff now build that pause into conversations and group activities.
• Two different commitments. Shorter term-time sessions sit alongside 42-week and 51-week longer-day patterns, with a three-day minimum for the 42-week funded arrangement. Discuss which pattern fits the family calendar before choosing hours.
• Food and consumables choices. Short-session extras are charged separately, while longer-day fees incorporate them and allow opt-outs. Request a written quotation showing the chosen funded or private pattern and the effect of those choices.

Thamesview suits families seeking morning or afternoon preschool sessions as well as those needing a longer day across the year. Practical learning and outdoor investigation characterised children's experiences in November 2024. The current preschool stage includes preparation in early reading, writing and number skills.

The November 2024 Good judgement gives that offer a useful quality reference. The question to pursue is equally concrete: how staff give children time to think and speak for themselves. That is a meaningful consideration alongside the timetable and charge structure.