Hemsley House Nursery School

Victorian houses, stained glass windows and gardens with teepees give Hemsley House a recognisable character. Its Maidstone offer spans Tonbridge Road and Terrace Road, with a designated preschool classroom and outdoor spaces that include a mud kitchen, climbing frame and camp space for preschool children. The combination gives families both a domestic setting and places for more adventurous play.

Ofsted rated the nursery Outstanding at its December 2022 inspection, recognising carefully planned learning and children's emotional wellbeing. That judgement belongs to a substantially earlier period. Today's age range is 2 to 60 months, with 48 places in total across the setting.

Full days, mornings and afternoons provide different ways to organise attendance. The strongest reasons to consider Hemsley House are its physical surroundings, practical learning experiences and the detailed examples of attentive care from December 2022.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the framework for children's learning, development and care: here, its practical meaning includes learning through play, conversation, making things and exploring materials. In December 2022, mathematical ideas emerged from questions about snow and ice, with rulers and jugs helping children investigate measurement. This was learning attached to something children wanted to understand, rather than an isolated exercise.

During that same December 2022 period, a Christmas wrapping activity involved boxes of different sizes, while work with hammers and nails brought counting together with concentration and practical skills. Adults extended activities through questions and resources. For parents, these examples show the kind of interaction behind the grade: children's interests became opportunities to develop language and understanding.

Storal's group-wide Cooking together description applies to Hemsley House's cookery offer: children handle ingredients, practise skills and explore where food originates, including opportunities to learn about growing ingredients. This gives food a place in the learning day as well as at mealtimes. Additional activities sit alongside the core framework and have their own charge arrangements during funded sessions.

Outdoor and Community Life

The gardens combine a climbing frame and mud kitchen with teepees and a preschool camp space. These are different resources for movement, imaginative play and outdoor exploration. Indoors, the preschool classroom provides a separate space for preparation for school, while stained glass and other original features retain the houses' character.

Bliss, the charity supporting premature and unwell babies and their families, is Hemsley House's chosen fundraising cause. Activities across the year include sponsored challenges, bake sales and dress-up days. For families, that creates opportunities to take part in a shared cause; dress-up events also carry a practical preparation task at home.

Relationships and Communication

In December 2022, family photographs helped children talk about the people important to them. Staff also used words from children's home languages, including Lithuanian, to help them settle. Those are concrete ways of connecting nursery life with home, especially for a child adjusting to unfamiliar adults or a different language environment.

Support for separation anxiety featured in parents' accounts during December 2022, alongside a lending library and story sacks that helped families enjoy books together. These examples matter because settling and learning continue beyond a booked session. They show how the relationship with parents worked at that point, rather than establishing today's settling arrangements.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the December 2022 inspection, Ofsted found effective safeguarding and strong support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, including sign language for children with hearing difficulties and resources in a sensory room. The concrete adaptations are more useful to families than a general promise of inclusion, although they remain dated findings.

Also in December 2022, children practised everyday independence using mirrors to help with washing and joined adults in checking garden risks with jackets and clipboards. At lunch, they used tongs to serve food they had helped prepare. Care routines therefore offered opportunities to participate and practise skills, alongside adult support.

An onsite chef now prepares meals, using local ingredients where possible, and menus accommodate different dietary requirements. Cookery activities connect those meals with children's own experience of ingredients and preparation.

Sessions and Attendance

The main address is 137 Tonbridge Road, Maidstone, ME16 8JS; the wider Hemsley House offer also includes 7 Terrace Road, Maidstone, ME16 8HU. The two houses are a 10-minute walk apart. That split matters when planning attendance and deciding which setting within the offer fits a child's stage.

Monday to Friday opening hours are 7.30am to 6.30pm. Full Days run from 7.30am to 6.30pm, Mornings from 7.30am to 1pm, and Afternoons from 1pm to 6.30pm. These are actual booking patterns, so a family can compare a complete day with either part of the day.

Attendance operates across the year, with funding stretched over 51 weeks. Closures include Christmas week, bank holidays and two team training days each year. Fees account for planned closures and remain payable when a child misses nursery through illness or another absence.

Enquiries can be made through the nursery's form or by telephone on 01622 692977. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. A non-refundable registration charge applies, and a deposit is credited against the first invoice.

Funding and Paid Extras

Eligible children aged 9 months and above can access the 15 Hours or 30 Hours funding offer. Hemsley House stretches these entitlements across 51 weeks, providing up to 11.18 or 22.35 funded hours per week respectively. Funding fits within the regular sessions, rather than creating a separate attendance timetable.

Up to 10 funded hours can be used in a day, so a full-day booking also includes privately charged time. For the larger stretched entitlement, the first 20 funded hours can cover parts of two full days, with the remaining 2.35 hours applied to another full-day or half-day session. The smaller entitlement can be distributed across full-day and half-day sessions.

Private fees include meals and snacks, formula and milk, nappies, wipes, nappy cream, sun cream and additional activities. Funded sessions carry separate charges for food, health and hygiene consumables, and additional activities; the activity charge applies to children over two, with no activity charge for under-twos. The monthly estimate includes these charges, making the total cost more useful than the funded-hours figure alone.

• Two houses. The offer spans Tonbridge Road and Terrace Road. During a visit, establish which house and group your child would attend and how moves between stages work.
• An older inspection. The Outstanding judgement dates to December 2022. Use a visit to discuss how the learning and care arrangements described above operate now.
• Funded-session costs. Food, consumables and additional activities attract separate charges during funded sessions. Review the written quotation against your chosen pattern and discuss alternatives to the integrated package before agreeing it.
• Dietary requirements. Menus accommodate different needs. Families managing allergies should confirm the current food-handling arrangements and their child's individual meal plan.

Hemsley House suits families considering morning or afternoon attendance as well as full days, with outdoor play and practical experiences high on their priorities. Its gardens, cookery and Bliss fundraising give the current offer substance, while the December 2022 observations provide a detailed picture of learning and care at that time. The decision turns on the right house and group for the child, alongside the complete cost of the selected sessions.