Anthony Roper Pre-School CIO

A wooden pirate ship, a mud kitchen and two gardens give Anthony Roper Pre-School CIO a clear outdoor character. Children can move between indoor play and the gardens for substantial parts of the day, while access to neighbouring school grounds extends the space for exploration. This is a preschool where the physical setting gives children plenty to do with their hands, bodies and imaginations.

Based in Eynsford, the preschool has capacity for 52 children aged 2 to 5. It shares the grounds of Anthony Roper Primary School but is a separate setting. The purpose-built building gives it a home designed for early years rather than an adapted classroom.

At its June 2025 inspection, Ofsted judged the provision Good and found safeguarding effective, with effective support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The improvement priority was specific: broaden children's understanding of different lives beyond their immediate community. Term-time attendance shapes the practical offer, alongside the Sparrows extended hours club for breakfast and tea.

Rooms and Ages

The indoor rooms are Wren Room and Robin Room. The 52 places cover the whole setting, not an individual room or daily group.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care: play, conversation and practical activity help children develop language, movement, relationships and early mathematical understanding. Here, the Investigation Station adds a concrete example of exploration, with tools among the resources children can investigate. It gives curiosity something practical to work on.

In June 2025, children discussed shapes while sorting them, including circles and hexagons. Creative construction also involved planning and persistence: children used recycled materials to build a car wash for toy cars, with adults encouraging them to reconsider their designs. These examples show how a familiar play idea can lead into mathematical language, problem solving and making choices.

Physical learning was equally practical that June. Climbing and making marks on a large scale exercised bigger movements, while cutting dough with scissors required finer control. Stories, action songs and props supplied opportunities to listen and join in. These activities gave children practice in movement, language and making things.

Earlier activities give further examples of the approach, with their dates kept clear. In January 2023, supervised woodworking involved real tools, including a hammer, screwdriver and saw; children also used sandpaper to smooth wood. Taking part required a woodwork badge and a small group, making the activity a structured introduction to tools rather than unrestricted access.

Outdoor and Community Life

The pirate ship has a telescope and a ship's wheel, giving pretend voyages tangible equipment. Alongside it, the mud kitchen supplies a different kind of messy, hands-on play. These are substantial resources for imaginative activity, not simply open space around the building.

Sharing the primary school's grounds brings access to playing fields, an assault course, a woodland area and an allotment plot. Those spaces extend the preschool's own gardens with opportunities for movement and observing growing things. They also make the shared site relevant to daily experiences, separately from any later school application.

In September 2022, woodland visits took place on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Children collected fallen natural materials for artwork and shared songs and stories outside. In January 2023, participation in Kent County Council's Education for Sustainable Development Award scheme included litter picking and sorting discarded packaging. Composting food waste, growing produce and conserving energy formed part of that work, giving environmental ideas concrete actions children could understand.

Relationships and Communication

In June 2025, visual timetables helped children understand routines, while adults used gestures and picture prompts alongside conversation. Children were encouraged to talk about feelings through discussion and planned activities. For a child who finds changes or emotions difficult, these are practical ways to make the day easier to understand.

Parents received information through everyday conversations and regular meetings that June. Oral hygiene activities linked learning at preschool with activities at home, giving families something specific to continue together. In June 2025, staff planned each child's next learning steps around their development and kept parents informed about care and learning.

Parents are also invited to take part in preschool life, including helping with cooking or watching an activity. Social Stories are provided for the rooms as a tool for sharing information between children, families and professionals. Their value is the opportunity to make information about the setting more understandable and discuss it together.

In September 2022, the key person supported children through separation, new routines and greater independence, recognising that returning after a holiday can require support as well as starting for the first time.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

A SENCO role provides a point of contact for special educational needs, and families are directed towards the local SEND offer. Safeguarding arrangements include a designated lead and deputy lead roles. These are identifiable responsibilities within the staff structure; the dated inspection judgement supplies the assessment of effectiveness.

In June 2025, predictable routines and communication aids helped children understand expectations and express their feelings.

Sessions and Attendance

The preschool operates during term time, across 38 weeks of the year, and closes for school holidays. Opening hours are 8am to 5.30pm Monday to Thursday and 9am to 3pm on Friday. Friday therefore has a different collection window from the other weekdays, a practical point for anyone planning work around attendance.

Sparrows is the extended hours club associated with breakfast and tea. Families can contact the childcare managers by email or telephone, and a contact form provides another enquiry route. The term-time calendar is the central planning fact: school holiday care needs a separate arrangement.

Getting There

The address is The Nursery Unit, Anthony Roper Primary School, High Street, Eynsford, Kent DA4 0AA. The shared grounds allow preschool children to use school facilities, but attendance at the preschool does not guarantee a Reception place. Families still apply through their local authority's school admissions process.

Funding and Paid Extras

Free Early Education (FEE) is offered during term time. The funding arrangements refer to 15 or 30 hours for children from the term after their third birthday, subject to the relevant eligibility, and 15 hours for eligible two-year-olds through FF2 (Free for Two). The preschool's offer is capped at 25 funded hours and restricted to a certain number of children, so a 30-hour entitlement does not mean all those hours can be used here.

Funding and paid childcare both contribute to the preschool's income. Current prices come in the preschool's written quotation. The funding page sets out the term-time arrangement and funded-hours cap; these are the important starting points for working out how the offer fits a family's week.

• Broader understanding of the world. The June 2025 improvement priority concerned children's experience of different lives beyond their immediate community. At a visit, ask how stories, resources and activities now address that priority.
• Term-time rhythm and Friday hours. Attendance follows a 38-week calendar, with Friday closing at 3pm. This suits families whose childcare needs follow school terms more readily than those needing the same coverage throughout the year.
• Funded-hours ceiling. The preschool can offer up to 25 funded hours rather than the full 30-hour entitlement. Families planning around extended funding need to account for that difference.
• The complete attendance cost. Breakfast and tea are associated with Sparrows extended hours club. Ask for a written quotation covering the intended attendance, meals and non-food consumables so the whole arrangement is clear before joining.

Anthony Roper's strongest practical appeal is the combination of its own gardens and access to school grounds. The pirate ship, mud kitchen and Investigation Station give that appeal substance. The June 2025 picture also offers useful detail about routines, communication and hands-on learning, alongside a clear curriculum improvement priority.

It suits families seeking term-time preschool attendance or breakfast and tea through Sparrows extended hours club, especially those who value outdoor exploration. The school holiday closure, shorter Friday and funded-hours cap deserve equal weight in the decision. Sharing a primary school's grounds brings useful facilities, while the Reception application remains a separate process.