Kloisters Kindergarten & Pre-School

Three garden areas, access to a wooded trail and termly woodland visits give Kloisters Kindergarten & Pre-School an outdoor identity that goes beyond a playground. On Arethusa Road in Rochester, it combines care for babies with kindergarten and preschool provision, alongside dance, football and yoga. There is plenty to occupy an active child.

The nursery accepts children from 3 months, with provision extending to 5 years, and has 87 places in total. At its February 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated it Good, judged safeguarding effective and found that staff identified additional needs promptly, working with families and external professionals to support children. Those findings need to be read alongside later regulatory action concerning supervision.

Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. The strongest reasons to consider Kloisters are its varied outdoor spaces, named activities and personal key-worker arrangement; the most important issue to examine is how supervision works during movement between areas.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby Room serves children from birth to 2 years, Kindergarten Class caters for children aged 2 and younger 3-year-olds through play, sharing and adult-led activities, while Pre-school Classes serve ages 3 to 5 with learning across communication, physical development, relationships, literacy, mathematics, understanding the world and creative expression. These room bands describe the progression through the setting; the nursery's accepted starting age is 3 months.

Indoors, resources and room arrangements encourage exploration and increasing independence. Making choices is part of the curriculum, alongside dressing, personal care and helping to tidy. For parents, that means school preparation includes managing ordinary routines rather than concentrating solely on early reading and numbers.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for learning through play, covering children's language, movement, relationships and early understanding of the world. Kloisters adds a curriculum organised around independence, managing emotions, communication and healthy habits. Songs, conversations and stories develop language; predictable routines and adult support help children recognise feelings and handle boundaries.

Weekly sessions with Children Inspired by Yoga Rochester combine movement with music, storytelling, breathing and relaxation. This gives children a different pace of activity from energetic garden play, with time for stillness as well as physical movement. Sign along sessions also feature in the learning programme, and French begins at age 2.

For children aged 2 and over, Football/Soccer Coaching Classes take place on Mondays from 3.25pm to 3.55pm with a trained instructor. Ballet classes run on Wednesdays from 3pm to 3.30pm, followed by bop class from 3.30pm to 4pm, mixing street, jazz and freestyle dance. These classes are separately priced and also accept children who do not attend the nursery.

In February 2024, stories also travelled home: children could borrow nursery books to share with their families, and a local author had visited to read to them. Signing and visual prompts supported understanding alongside spoken language. Together, these examples show several ways children could participate in communication, rather than relying only on speaking in a group.

Outdoor and Community Life

The gardens offer three different surfaces and uses: astro turf, concrete for bicycles and scooters, and a natural area with plants and wildlife. Shared access to the neighbouring primary school field and wooded trail extends the space for larger movement and exploration. The physical variety is useful: riding, active play and investigating nature do not all require the same kind of space.

Forest School visits take each class to secure woodland in Bredhurst every term for outdoor exploration. This is a separate experience from using the nursery gardens, and its termly frequency matters when weighing how much woodland activity forms part of the year.

In February 2024, younger children practised climbing towards a slide, while older children balanced, climbed and steered bicycles around obstacles. Adults helped children learn to pedal. These were practical opportunities to attempt manageable physical challenges with support nearby.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a personal key worker, providing a familiar adult and a connection between home and nursery. The arrangement supports settling and allows care to reflect the individual child. It also gives parents a clear relationship through which to share information about routines, interests and development.

2Simple Observation Records capture photographs and observations linked to learning, while 2Engage parents allows records to be emailed and families to respond with their own information. Stay and play sessions and Sports day events provide other opportunities for involvement, alongside bi-termly newsletters. Communication therefore includes both individual records and occasions when families can take part.

In February 2024, daily conversations and online journals were used to update parents, with activity bags offering ideas for learning at home. Babies received comfort and stories from their key person, and adults helped older children work through disagreements by talking about possible solutions. These examples put relationships into everyday practice, from reassurance to learning how to share a popular resource.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

In February 2024, the SENCo worked with key staff, parents and outside professionals on referrals and support strategies. Moves between rooms and onward to school were planned with children's emotional readiness in mind. For a family managing additional needs, the relevant mechanism is that coordination between familiar staff, home and specialist support.

Ofsted's regulatory visits in November 2024 and August 2025 found requirements unmet around supervision, with corrective action taken on staff deployment and headcounts on both occasions. The later action included routine checks of headcount forms and leaders checking how children moved between parts of the setting. Because this issue recurred, it remains material even though corrective steps were recorded.

Meals are prepared on site each day; the group-wide food approach uses a three-week menu cycle and publishes a No Nuts Policy, with alternative meals for dietary requirements and colour-coded plates to identify them. Hot lunches are a separately charged choice, with healthy packed lunches an alternative supplied by parents.

Oral health also enters daily teaching through discussion of toothbrushing and healthy mouths. This connects the emphasis on wellbeing to ordinary habits children can practise beyond nursery.

Sessions and Attendance

Kloisters operates at Arethusa Road, Rochester, Kent, ME1 2UR, with opening hours of 8am to 6pm from Monday to Friday. These are the nursery's operating hours. The direct enquiry route is the contact form or telephone number 01634 880 298, and personal tours can be booked.

Getting There

Road access includes the A229, and there is on-site parking with limited spaces.

Funding and Paid Extras

In February 2024, the nursery received early-education funding for children aged two, three and four. A current written quotation is the basis for comparing the overall price of attendance, including the separately priced dance and football classes and the hot-lunch choice.

• Repeated supervision action. Staff deployment and headcounts required corrective action in November 2024 and again in August 2025. Ask how staff now account for children during garden use and room changes, and how leaders check that those routines hold throughout the day.
• Children's control of play. In February 2024, preschool activities sometimes left too little room for children's own choices, while toddler snack routines caused waiting with nothing purposeful to do. During a tour, explore how child-led play and staggered routines now work in the room your child would join.
• Attendance and costs. Opening hours run from 8am to 6pm, and dance, football and hot lunches have separate prices. What booking pattern, funded-hours arrangement and meal or consumables terms would apply to your child's attendance?
• Food allergies. The group-wide No Nuts Policy aims to avoid nuts and traces, with colour-coded plates used for dietary requirements. Allergy-affected families should confirm the current preparation, serving and checking arrangements for their child.

Kloisters suits families seeking care from infancy through preschool, with outdoor exploration, language activities and movement woven into the offer. Termly visits to Bredhurst, the wooded trail and weekly yoga give parents concrete reasons to look beyond the basic room progression. A personal key worker and named communication systems add practical value.

The Good judgement from February 2024 is a useful starting point, but repeated supervision action deserves equal weight in a decision. This is a nursery to assess through both its opportunities for children and the day-to-day controls that keep those opportunities safe.