Wakoos Centre4Children, Billingshurst and Petworth

An exclusive garden for babies, climbing equipment for toddlers and a say in the day's activities for preschool children give Wakoos in Billingshurst a clear progression through early childhood. This review concerns the Station Road nursery, where children start from three months and stay until school age. The name includes Petworth, but the nursery described here is the Billingshurst setting.

Ofsted rated the nursery Good at its 6 October 2022 inspection. The useful detail beneath that judgement is a combination of outdoor exploration, support for communication and opportunities to develop independence, alongside improvements needed in teaching and staff deployment. Those findings describe October 2022 practice, rather than a fresh assessment of today's provision.

Baby Room, Toddler Room and Pre-School organise the nursery around developmental stages. Families can choose full days, a shorter Core Day, mornings or afternoons, with an Early Start extension. The practical attraction is choice within a nursery operating across the year; the important qualification is that funded hours work primarily through full-day bookings.

Rooms and Ages

Baby Room starts from three months, combining sensory exploration, communication, physical development and emotional relationships with its own garden and a kitchenette for feeds and snacks.

From age two until the year before school, Toddler Room emphasises independence and social development through sensory materials, with free movement to a garden containing climbing equipment and ride-on toys. Gloop, sand, water and oats provide different materials to investigate. The combination gives toddlers opportunities to make choices indoors and practise larger movements outside.

Pre-School serves children in their final nursery year, connecting maths, creative work and exploration of the world through stories. A more structured day helps prepare children for primary school while retaining play.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the shared standards for learning, development and care. Play and children's interests shape activities here, with Birth to 5 Matters providing non-statutory guidance for delivering the framework.

Knock on the box is a short toddler group activity before lunch, using the anticipation of a hidden story, puppet or musical instrument to practise attention and listening. It adds a defined group experience to a day that also includes freely chosen play. Activities are planned around individual children's interests and next steps, so the room's routine combines personal planning with shared experiences.

At 9am, preschool children contribute ideas that influence staff's choice of resources and activities, giving them a practical role in planning.

Outdoor and Community Life

Preschool children sometimes take guided walks to the train station and local parks, extending exploration beyond the nursery gardens.

In October 2022, children visited shops and the adjacent park, helping count the group and consider outing safety. Babies explored natural materials, while older children used scooters and tyre swings.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key worker who supports settling and maintains an online learning journal, giving parents remotely accessible updates about their child's day.

Baby sleep follows the child's usual rhythm, informed by parents and carers. After lunch, toddlers can sleep or join planned activities, allowing for differing rest needs.

A nursery manager and deputies are supported by volunteer trustees. Concerns go to management, with a complaints policy setting out the process.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The October 2022 inspection findings included effective safeguarding and staff training to support children with SEND, including speech and language support while awaiting other professional input. Current support includes working with other professional agencies; parents also have toilet-training information and communication guidance to use alongside conversations with staff.

The October 2022 improvement points deserve equal attention. Teaching was not consistently adapted to children's differing abilities, and staff were sometimes unavailable when children needed help to remain engaged. Better shared understanding of the curriculum and more effective staff deployment were therefore priorities. For a family whose child needs carefully adjusted activities, these findings make individual planning and practitioner support useful subjects for a visit.

Safety shortcomings recurred after the inspection. Ofsted's 4 November 2022 outcome recorded corrections to outdoor risk assessment and procedures for children returning from outdoor play. Following a regulatory visit on 3 July 2025, a further action required risk assessments to guide staff practice during sensory activities. The nursery updated its sensory-play risk assessment, and the response on 9 July 2025 was confirmed to meet the safeguarding and welfare action. Both events resulted in corrective action; their recurrence makes the practical application of safety procedures a relevant consideration.

Sessions and Attendance

Wakoos is at Station Road, Billingshurst, West Sussex RH14 9RY. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks, with closures over Christmas and New Year and on bank holidays. The year-round calendar is relevant for families planning care beyond school terms.

Full Day runs from 8am to 6pm; Core Day is 9am to 3pm. Morning bookings cover 8am to 1pm and Afternoon bookings 1pm to 6pm, while Early Start runs from 7.30am to 8am. These are separate booking choices, so the opening window should not be read as the length of every child's session.

Registration enquiries can be made by telephone or email, after which a manager sends the registration form and fees. Payment is due a month ahead. Private-hour fees remain payable during absence, including illness and holidays, and booked sessions cannot be swapped or substituted. Extra sessions cancelled within 48 hours incur their full fee, making a dependable weekly pattern more useful than one relying on frequent changes.

Funding and Paid Extras

The nursery offers the 15-hour and 30-hour funded entitlements, stretched over 51 weeks into 11 or 22 hours each week respectively. Funding sits within the session structure and is mainly used through full days: a Full Day can contain up to 10 funded hours. Two full days typically account for up to 20 funded hours, with additional sessions potentially needed to use the remainder. A shorter-session pattern can therefore use fewer funded hours than the headline weekly allocation.

Breakfast, lunch and tea are charged separately, including during funded hours; meals are voluntary, and families declining them supply food meeting the packed-lunch policy. Nappies, sun cream, wipes and general stationery are supplied without an additional charge, with funded sessions also including consumables.

A deposit is required to reserve a booking; for children using Early Years Funded Entitlement it is refunded after the funded place begins and is not a condition of accessing funded hours. Deposits can be retained if the reserved booking is not taken up, notice requirements are not met or fees remain outstanding. Leaving or changing sessions normally requires three months' notice, while families accessing funded entitlement have a four-week notice period. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, with the charge structure explained on its fees and funding page.

• Funding and shorter sessions. Funded time is mainly delivered through Full Day bookings, although Core Day, Morning and Afternoon patterns are also sold. Discuss the exact funded allocation for your proposed pattern before committing to it.
• Individual teaching and staff support. October 2022 findings called for better adaptation of teaching and staff deployment. During a visit, ask how your child's next steps shape activities and how practitioners support children needing extra help to participate.
• Commitment to a weekly pattern. Private bookings remain chargeable during absence, session swaps are excluded and notice applies to session changes. These terms matter if work shifts or childcare needs change frequently.
• Settling and rest. Babies follow an individual sleep routine and each child has a key worker. Use a visit to discuss how your child's feeding, rest and settling needs would fit the relevant room.

Wakoos suits families seeking either full-day care or shorter Core Day, morning and afternoon bookings, with outdoor play built into the rooms and a defined key-worker relationship. Babies' own garden and feed-preparation space, toddler listening activities and preschool participation in daily planning give the offer useful substance.

The choice needs to work financially and practically as well as developmentally. Funded hours lean towards full-day attendance, while payment, absence and notice terms reward a stable booking pattern. The Good judgement from October 2022 offers a dated quality assessment; its teaching and deployment priorities remain sensible points to explore when judging the nursery for your own child.