Little Trees Pre-School

Language Box, daily encounters with Tizzy the Tiger and a quiet sensory tent give Little Trees Pre-School a clear character: play, communication and growing independence shape the day. Based on the grounds of Ashley Infant School in New Milton, it has capacity for 60 children. At its 15 July 2025 inspection, Ofsted judged the provision Good and safeguarding effective, while identifying uneven guidance on behaviour and its consequences for children.

Children attending in July 2025 were aged two to four. The strongest practical distinction is the combination of targeted language activities and freely accessible play resources: children can pursue their interests, while small-group work gives communication more deliberate attention. Morning, afternoon and all-day sessions run during term time, with breakfast club and a lunch extension adding useful options.

Rooms and Ages

The Ladybird room contains a quiet, cosy area and a sensory tent where children can pause and regulate their feelings. This gives a child who needs a break from busier play somewhere purposeful to retreat.

Elsewhere, accessible resources let children choose activities for themselves. Planning responds to their interests rather than requiring everyone to follow the same activity. In July 2025, children selected materials independently, played in the home corner and tackled puzzles; these were concrete opportunities to practise choice, persistence and playing alongside others.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for learning through play, covering communication, physical and social development alongside literacy, mathematics, creativity and understanding the world. Little Trees places particular emphasis on language, movement and personal independence, including managing coats and using the toilet.

Language Box uses small-group rhyme activities, repetition and visual materials to practise making choices and taking turns. Early Talk Boost is an eight-week programme with daily books and activities involving Tizzy the Tiger, designed to support attention, listening and social interaction. Books travel home too, giving parents a concrete way to join in with the same learning.

Singing and spontaneous planning around children's experiences sit alongside these structured activities. The combination matters: a child's own interests can lead the play, while targeted sessions provide repeated practice in skills that need extra attention.

In July 2025, stories prompted questions and discussion, and vegetable growing introduced new experiences. Mathematics also arose through practical problems: children counted vegetables and divided them to share when there were too few. These examples connect number and language to something children can handle and discuss, rather than treating them as isolated exercises.

Outdoor and Community Life

Grass and hard surfaces offer different settings for outdoor play, with children able to move freely between inside and outside. Little Trees aims to use the outdoor area in different weather conditions and asks families to provide uniform or old clothes for messy activities. Clothing needs to work for play.

In July 2025, logs, tyres and climbing frames gave children opportunities to balance and climb, while dough and mark-making exercised smaller hand movements. A sand timer helped children share turns on the trampoline. That practical aid made waiting visible, although broader behaviour guidance was the area needing more consistent attention.

A personal key person gives each child an identified adult responsible for understanding their interests, needs and development. Parents can exchange information with staff, take part in stay and play weeks and attend parent sharing dates. These are useful routes for connecting home experiences with nursery learning, rather than leaving communication solely to occasional updates.

In July 2025, daily key-person group activities included learning about oral health, and an online system kept parents informed about development. Managers also worked directly with their own key children and held regular discussions with staff about wellbeing and children's learning.

At the July 2025 inspection, Ofsted found that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities received effective support through frequent interventions, specialist agency involvement and additional funding used for individual needs. That finding sits alongside current arrangements that include a special educational needs co-ordinator, language groups and visits from speech therapists, Portage practitioners, occupational therapists and educational psychologists.

The team also has a designated safeguarding lead role. This gives staff an identified lead for safeguarding matters.

Transition work includes links with local infant schools and visiting reception schools. In July 2025, staff and parents worked together over school placements that would meet individual children's needs. For families requiring additional support, the practical benefit is preparation that connects the child's needs, parents and the next setting.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Ashley County Infant School, Lower Ashley Road, New Milton, BH25 5AA. Little Trees operates for 38 weeks each year, during term time.

Morning sessions run from 9am to noon, Monday to Friday; afternoons run from 12.30pm to 3pm on the same days. All-day attendance runs from 9am to 3pm, also Monday to Friday. Morning children can extend through lunch until 1pm without booking lunch club, and breakfast club starts at 7.45am each weekday. These options allow families to distinguish a shorter session from a school-length day, with an earlier start where needed.

Enquiries can be made by telephone, email or the contact form. Attendance takes place on school grounds, but a nursery place does not guarantee a Reception place; families still use the local authority admissions process.

Funding and Paid Extras

Little Trees accepts two-year-old funding and offers up to 15 funded hours from the term after a child's third birthday, extending to 30 hours where the eligibility criteria are met. Attendance is term-time rather than year-round. Private hours are charged hourly, with fees payable termly and payment options of weekly, monthly or two instalments.

Families provide a packed lunch for lunch club. Breakfast club carries a separate charge, and fees remain payable when a child takes a holiday during term time. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the sessions and fees page explains the attendance and payment structure.

• Behaviour guidance. In July 2025, staff guidance on behaviour and its effects was inconsistent, and children sometimes hurt others as they moved eagerly around the nursery. Ask how staff now use shared language and responses during busy play.
• Term-time attendance. The 38-week calendar and 3pm session finish require a workable plan for holidays and later afternoons. Breakfast club extends the start of the day rather than the afternoon.
• Language support. Early Talk Boost combines daily activities with books taken home. At a visit, ask how staff decide which children join and how parents participate.
• Lunch and morning extensions. Lunch club extends a morning session until 1pm and requires a packed lunch. Ask how breakfast club fits with the morning session you intend to book.

Little Trees suits families seeking morning or afternoon preschool sessions as well as those wanting a 9am-to-3pm term-time day. Its language programmes, key-person arrangements and accessible outdoor play give parents concrete reasons to consider it. The July 2025 Good judgement provides a positive assessment, with behaviour guidance the clear point to examine. The decision rests on whether its term-time timetable and targeted communication work fit the child's needs and the family's week.