Charters Ancaster Nursery & Forest School

Woodlands, a Chalet for the youngest children and preschool rooms in the Main House give Charters Ancaster a clear character: outdoor exploration sits alongside a gradual move towards school routines. Forest School means planned, hands-on learning in the nursery’s own gardens and woods, with opportunities to build, investigate and play outside through changing weather. This is a setting for families who want nature to be part of the nursery day.

Children attend from 6 months to 5 years. At its 24 June 2021 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Outstanding, finding that teaching supported exceptional progress and that learning developed coherently across the age groups. That judgement belongs to 2021; the present offer includes separate baby stages, several older rooms and both term-time and longer-year contracts.

Rooms and Ages

Little Buds takes babies from 6 months until they begin toddling, combining soft mats and movement equipment with sensory exploration, daily music and stories to support early movement and communication.

Big Buds serves older babies and toddlers up to age 2, with a quiet story area, pretend play and a decked verandah where children can choose indoor or outdoor sensory activities.

Both baby rooms occupy the purpose-built Chalet, which has a fenced garden and verandahs. Little Buds and Big Buds use one adult to three children, the legal minimum for under-twos. A sleep room containing cots adjoins Little Buds and serves both rooms. Sleep therefore has its own space, separate from the rooms used for play. Big Buds children also play in their enclosed garden and explore the grounds and woodland beyond their room.

Saplings, for children aged 2 to 3, combines a large ground-floor room in the Main House with an artificial-grass outdoor area, using music, role play, construction and messy exploration to broaden children’s play.

Twiglets, for ages 3 to 4, has two ground-floor rooms and patio access, introducing sounds, rhyme, counting and shapes through play while retaining choices about activities and where to play.

Chestnuts is a preschool room for summer-born children, with two upstairs rooms, its own dining space and access to the astroturf, where preparation for school becomes part of the year.

Sycamores occupies an upstairs unit with two rooms and nearby toilets, combining play-based literacy and numeracy with practical preparation such as lining up and changing for PE, plus planned use of the garden, astroturf and hall.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage brings together communication, physical development, relationships and learning through play, alongside early mathematics, literacy, creativity and understanding the world. It is the shared early-years framework rather than an extra programme. Here, the room progression makes that broad framework tangible: sensory activity and movement in the baby stages lead towards longer activities and practical independence in preschool.

Hygge is another named approach, centred on appreciating simple moments and creating comfort and enjoyment in daily life. It sits alongside the educational framework. Forest School provides the more concrete addition: children handle natural materials, investigate their surroundings and make things in the woods. The curriculum information also describes how children’s learning is recorded and shared as they prepare to leave nursery.

For Saplings, the stated deployment is one adult to four children, better than the legal minimum of one to five for this age. That is a staffing difference worth distinguishing from room size: it does not tell families how many children attend together. The team also includes practitioners with degree-level early childhood qualifications and a dedicated Forest School lead.

Outdoor and Community Life

Forest School sessions last 1½ to 2 hours on the days they run. Activities include making creatures from pinecones, investigating minibeasts and building dens; children can also choose the mud kitchen, puppet theatre or digging. Older children learn fire-making, while safety around the fire circle forms part of the wider experience. Natural materials become resources for making, storytelling and problem-solving rather than simply objects to look at.

The Woodland Trust Gold Award was achieved in 2025. More useful to parents than the award alone is the setting behind it: its own woodland and gardens, a named leader role and sustained outdoor sessions. Waterproof clothing and spare clothes are practical parts of participation, because the offer extends beyond fair-weather play.

Willows is a separate Forest School Toddler Group, aimed at children aged 1 to 5, with younger siblings under 1 welcomed alongside a paying older sibling. Its Thursday sessions run from 10am to 11.30am. Children can use water for muddy play within marked boundaries, with children required to remain supervised within the marked boundaries. This group has its own booking arrangements and should be distinguished from nursery attendance.

Relationships and Communication

Famly gives parents a two-way channel for messages, observations and assessments: families can respond and add information themselves. Twice-yearly parent Pop in events provide opportunities to discuss development with key workers, alongside informal conversations and appointments for longer discussions. The combination offers both regular updates and space for a more detailed conversation about a child’s needs.

Charters Ancaster Friends (CAF) organises fundraising events during the year for the nursery and Forest School. Parents can contribute ideas or help run stalls. It provides a practical way for families to take part beyond receiving updates about their own child.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the June 2021 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and praised the use of additional staffing and work with a speech and language therapist to meet children’s learning needs. These are dated findings, rather than a promise about any individual child’s current support.

Current SEND arrangements include a Special Educational Needs Coordinator, monitoring of children’s development and plans agreed with parents when support is needed. Local-authority resourced-provision funding supports provision for children with delayed development or disabilities. The policy also sets a material boundary: admission depends on whether the nursery’s physical environment and staff can meet the child’s particular needs. Families should weigh the support mechanisms and that condition together.

School preparation includes written transition reports, contact with receiving teachers and visits between nursery and school. For children with SEND, relevant paperwork is passed to the receiving school, and teachers can discuss needs with the key person and SENCO. This work helps the next setting understand the child; it describes transition support rather than an admissions advantage.

An in-house chef prepares snacks and cooked lunches in the nursery kitchen. The nursery has a published no-nuts and no-grapes policy, with allergies and medical needs accommodated by arrangement.

If a child becomes unwell, staff contact the parent or emergency contact and request collection within one hour where possible. The child is supported while waiting. For working families, that collection expectation is a practical reason to have an emergency contact who can respond.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery is at Woodsgate Place, Gunters Lane, Bexhill-On-Sea, TN39 4EB, and opens Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm. The attendance choices include mornings from 8am to 1pm or 9am to 1pm, and afternoons from 1pm to 3pm, 4pm or 6pm. These are different booking windows, rather than a requirement to use the whole opening day.

Contracts run for either 38 or 50 weeks. Under a 50-week contract, families receive two holiday weeks free of charge each year, provided they book them with one month’s notice. The 2026-2027 calendar includes holiday clubs but also Christmas and summer closure periods, public bank holidays and staff training closures. A longer-year contract still requires planning around those breaks.

Enquiries go through the nursery office by email at office@chartersancaster.com or telephone on 01424 216 670. Willows bookings use willows@chartersancaster.com; advance booking is required, allocation is first come, first served, and a cancellation waiting list operates for that group.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded options include working-parent funding from 9 months, alongside the listed entitlements for older children. Funding is allocated between 9am and 3pm; hours outside the funded allocation are paid privately. The 15-hour entitlement can be stretched across 50 weeks for bookings of no more than 12 hours weekly, and the 30-hour entitlement for bookings of no more than 22 hours weekly.

Meal charges differ by attendance type. Unfunded prices include meals and snacks; funded sessions have separate, optional lunch and snack charges, which families can decline by supplying their own food. Nappies and wipes come from home, while nursery sun cream carries a separate charge. Nursery Forest School is free; the separately booked Willows toddler group is paid.

A registration charge applies to bookings that use unfunded hours. Optional nursery-logo clothing can be bought from the office, while outdoor clothing, named boots and spare clothes are part of the daily kit. Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation; the fees page brings together the fee information.

• Outdoor kit and sustained sessions. Forest School lasts 1½ to 2 hours and runs through different weather. Waterproofs, suitable footwear and spare clothing are part of the family’s preparation; on a visit, discuss how your child’s comfort and readiness are handled outdoors.
• Funding and food choices. Funded time sits between 9am and 3pm, with optional food charges and paid hours outside the allocation. Match the contract to your working day and confirm the current allergy arrangements if your child needs them.
• Individual support. SEND provision includes a SENCO and support planning, but admission depends on the environment and staff being able to meet the child’s needs. Use a visit to discuss the specific adjustments your child would require.
• Year-round planning. The 50-week contract includes holiday-week terms, while the calendar also contains closures and training days. Those breaks and the request for prompt illness collection need to fit the family’s backup-care arrangements.

Charters Ancaster suits families who value substantial outdoor learning and a progression from baby care towards practical school preparation. The separate sleep space, woodland resources and two-way Famly communication give that offer useful substance. Morning and afternoon bookings, alongside term-time and longer-year contracts, serve different attendance needs. The balance is practical: outdoor kit, funded-session food choices, closure dates and individual support arrangements all deserve attention. Its Outstanding judgement dates to June 2021, while today’s decision rests on how this concrete offer fits the child and the family.