New View Nursery

An acre of garden gives New View Nursery its character: woodland for exploring, a mud kitchen for experimenting and open ground for bikes and football. This Horsham setting combines outdoor play with a sessional nursery day, rather than making the garden an occasional destination. Its size is another useful anchor: there are 22 places in total, for children aged 30 to 60 months.

At its September 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated New View Nursery Outstanding across all areas and found safeguarding effective. The detail behind that judgement matters: children explored trees and a rope bridge, stories carried into woodland play, and staff adapted activities to individual learning needs.

Morning and afternoon sessions run during term time, with a lunch club between them. For parents, the central choice is how those shorter sessions fit family life and which afternoons include woodland learning.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the framework for children's learning: communication, movement and emotional development sit alongside early reading, mathematics, creativity and understanding the world. Activities are shaped around children's interests and needs, so the day combines learning guided by adults with play that children direct themselves. Independence is an explicit part of that approach.

The practical balance matters. Children can move between indoor activities and the garden, choose their own play and also take part in planned experiences. Open-ended natural materials support imaginative play; sharing, listening and taking turns are worked into activities with other children. These are concrete ways to practise making decisions and managing relationships, rather than treating preparation for school as a separate exercise.

In September 2025, The Gruffalo connected reading with play in the woods. Staff paused during stories to invite children to recall details and think about what might happen next. In another activity, children combined cotton wool, water and hot chocolate to invent pretend ice creams linked to the story. The materials changed texture as they mixed them, giving staff opportunities to introduce descriptive words and mathematical language. One story became several different kinds of learning.

Outdoor and Community Life

Forest School adds hands-on woodland learning to the EYFS, with sessions on Wednesday and Friday afternoons. The garden includes sandpits and a digging area as well as the mud kitchen, while its open spaces accommodate sport and bike riding. Children have different ways to use the same outdoor setting: energetic movement, imaginative play or closer investigation of natural materials.

In September 2025, children balanced on a rope bridge strung between trees and climbed while staff supervised nearby. They also reminded one another about safe choices when climbing. That example gives parents a clearer picture of the outdoor experience than a general promise of fresh air: children encounter physical challenges alongside guidance about managing them.

The timing of Forest School has a practical consequence. A morning-only pattern offers the nursery's garden and play-based day, while Wednesday or Friday afternoon attendance includes the scheduled woodland programme. Families choosing sessions can weigh that difference alongside their childcare needs.

Relationships and Communication

Settling options include stay-and-play opportunities for parents and children to spend time together at the setting and taster sessions in which the child stays for an hour. These offer introductions to the setting and team before usual attendance.

Famly, the nursery's communication app, brings care diaries, accident reporting and learning records together. Parents can send information about absence or lateness, comment on observations and contribute examples of learning at home. They can also communicate with their child's key person. The useful distinction is that the journal works in both directions: home experiences can become part of the picture staff use to understand a child.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the September 2025 inspection, Ofsted found outstanding progress and highly effective support for children with SEND and children learning English as an additional language, including adapted activities, visual prompts, individual targets and timely referrals. Staff worked with parents and external professionals, linking support to specific needs rather than relying on a single approach for everyone.

In September 2025, adults sat with children at meals and snacks, and children could explain why handwashing mattered before eating. Everyday care therefore provided opportunities for conversation and growing independence as well as attending to physical needs.

The Snack Bar allows children to choose when to eat, and named water bottles give them access to drinks; lunch is shared between the morning and afternoon sessions. The nursery's allergy arrangements include daily checks, with parents asked to communicate dietary requirements.

Sessions and Attendance

North Heath Hall, St Marks Lane, Horsham, RH12 5PU is the nursery's address. Opening hours are 09:00 to 16:00 on weekdays during term time, with closure during school holidays. This is a school-term childcare pattern, so families needing holiday care will need to account for those breaks.

Paid morning sessions run from 09:00 to 12:45, and afternoon sessions from 13:30 to 16:00. Lunch club occupies 12:45 to 13:30 between them. These are separate parts of the day, giving parents a clearer basis for choosing attendance than the opening window alone.

Funded morning hours begin at 09:15 and finish at 12:45; funded afternoons run from 13:30 to 16:00. The morning distinction matters because the paid session starts earlier than its funded-hours window. Families comparing patterns should distinguish the session they book from the hours covered by funding.

Enquiries can be made by telephone or email, and Famly provides the online waiting-list route. Joining that list is a booking step, rather than a statement about how many places are free.

Funding and Paid Extras

New View offers Early Years Funded Entitlement and claims it through West Sussex County Council on families' behalf. Its term-time offer includes up to 15 funded hours for children from the term after their third birthday. Additional paid attendance includes the morning and afternoon sessions and lunch club.

A Voluntary Enhancement Fee is listed separately from session charges. Its voluntary status matters when families compare the funded offer with paid additions. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, which provides the basis for assessing the chosen attendance pattern and extras together.

• Term-time fit. The nursery closes during school holidays and its weekday opening window ends at 16:00. Consider how that pattern fits work and holiday childcare before choosing sessions.
• Woodland afternoons. Forest School takes place on Wednesday and Friday afternoons. If woodland learning is a priority, discuss those sessions during a visit rather than assuming it forms part of every morning.
• Funded-hours boundaries. The funded morning begins at 09:15, while the paid morning starts at 09:00. Ask how meals and non-food consumables are treated within your chosen funded and paid attendance pattern.
• Settling and dietary needs. Settling options include stay-and-play opportunities and hour-long taster sessions, and allergy checks take place daily. Use the settling conversation to agree the introduction your child needs and, where relevant, confirm current allergy practice.

New View suits families seeking morning or afternoon nursery sessions during term time, especially those who value outdoor play and can build Wednesday or Friday Forest School afternoons into attendance. Lunch club adds a useful connection between the two parts of the day.

The strongest case combines a substantial garden, a gradual settling process and two-way communication through Famly with the Outstanding judgement from September 2025. The practical boundaries are equally clear: school-holiday closure, a 16:00 finish and a funded morning that begins later than the paid session. For families whose routines fit those boundaries, the combination of woodland experiences, play and close attention to individual learning needs makes a persuasive choice.