Playhouse Preschool

Friday mornings in the Secret Garden, cooking with ingredients from an on-site vegetable garden and a bear whose adventures travel between preschool and home give Playhouse Preschool a recognisable character. This Stevenage setting combines separate age-based rooms with opportunities for children to choose activities across them. Outdoor learning has a regular place in the week.

Playhouse accepts children aged two to five and has capacity for 44 children in total. It occupies premises within the grounds of Longmeadow Primary School, on Oaks Cross. At its June 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated it Good, judged safeguarding effective and found that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities received effective support through collaboration with families and other agencies.

Term-time attendance allows families to choose morning or afternoon sessions or combine them into full days.

Rooms and Ages

The Caterpillar Room welcomes two-year-olds, while the Butterfly Room serves children aged three and four; children can move between the rooms during free-flow periods, so their age-based base does not confine every activity to one space. Moving into Butterfly is planned around the individual child, with short visits and a handover between key people before the change.

Construction, imaginative play, craft materials, sand and water sit alongside a quiet indoor space. Children choose resources, complete tasks and tidy away; adult-led group activities introduce new experiences and learning with others.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage frames play involving language, movement, relationships, literacy, mathematics, understanding the world and creative expression. Observations inform activities based on children's interests and needs, as explained in the learning and development information.

Cooking takes place every half term for all children, using produce from the vegetable garden when possible. This brings food preparation into the learning programme: children encounter ingredients, practise practical skills and explore where food comes from. Annual chick or duckling and butterfly life-cycle activities add another concrete way to investigate living things, including opportunities to see eggs hatch.

Charlie Bear comforts upset children and joins daily greeting and farewell songs. Butterfly children can take the mascot home for a few nights with a diary sheet, connecting preschool routines with experiences at home.

In June 2022, counting songs, water flowing down an outdoor drainpipe and choosing string for rafts brought quantity, measurement and problem-solving into practical play.

Outdoor and Community Life

Forest School adds practical exploration of the natural world to the everyday learning framework. Butterfly children attending on Friday mornings participate, using the Secret Garden within the school grounds. Activities include building dens and working with tools, with plans responding to children's interests. Sessions continue across the seasons; high winds prompt a move to the preschool's own outdoor space.

Forest School requires full-length sleeves and trousers; Playhouse supplies rain suits and hi-vis jackets. Wellington boots are required on wet ground, so suitable clothing is part of preparing for outdoor learning.

The annual Family Picnic takes place in Shephalbury Park and includes families across the setting. Both rooms also make scarecrows for the Stevenage Garden & Allotment Society competition each year. These give shared projects and celebrations a place beyond the usual session activities.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person who supports their development and serves as the main contact for their family. Settling begins with two free, hour-long sessions: a parent or carer stays for the first, and the child attends the second independently. Further sessions can be agreed with the key person. Home visits are offered too, allowing that relationship to begin somewhere familiar to the child.

After 15 to 20 minutes of continued distress, staff contact families. Parents can return, take their child home or agree to continue settling with another update, giving difficult separations a defined response.

Eylog is the online journal used for photographs, reports, invoices, information and accident forms; families can also contribute observations from home. The Friday Flyer gives a weekly account of activities and reminders. Meetings cover settling, the two-year progress check, room changes and termly progress reviews, providing several points at which parents can discuss development directly.

In June 2022, some parents wanted fuller explanations of incidents and how staff had handled them, and communication with families was an improvement priority. Independence was another: older children prepared parts of their snacks and poured drinks, while younger children received food and drinks already prepared. These are useful questions about day-to-day practice, alongside the broader inspection judgement.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

A SENCO works with families, and environmental adaptations accommodate different ways of playing and learning. Staff training includes EpiPens, cystic fibrosis and gastrostomy feeding tubes, providing specific starting points for discussing individual care.

Children staying for a full day bring a healthy packed lunch, while fruit, milk and water are provided at snack time; the preschool publishes a nut-free policy that includes hazelnut chocolate fillings. Parents supply nappies, wipes and nappy sacks, with spare clothes kept in the child's preschool bag.

Toilet training is coordinated with the child's key person so that home and preschool can follow the same approach. When children move on, transition reports are shared with their new setting, and visits take place where possible. Preparation includes information passing between adults as well as helping children adjust.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is The Mobile, Longmeadow Primary School, Oaks Cross, Stevenage, SG2 8LT. Playhouse operates during term time, Monday to Friday, and closes for school holidays. Morning sessions run from 9am to noon, afternoon sessions from 12.30pm to 3.30pm, and Lunch Club bridges noon to 12.30pm for children attending a full day. Full-day attendance runs from 9am to 3.30pm; Breakfast Club is a separate paid addition.

Sessions can be combined to suit the family. There is no compulsory weekly minimum, although staff recommend two sessions on separate days to help children become familiar with people and routines. Missed sessions, including absences for illness or holidays, remain chargeable. Enquiries are made through an online application form, with telephone and email contact also available.

Funding and Paid Extras

Playhouse accepts two-year-old Early Education Funding, the 15-hour entitlement for three- and four-year-olds, and 30 Hour Free Childcare Funding. Delivery is term-time. The 15 funded hours can be arranged across morning and afternoon sessions or combined days, with additional attendance invoiced separately.

For children taking a 30-hour funded place, one pattern runs from 9am to 3.30pm Monday to Thursday and 9am to 1pm on Friday, without an additional charge. The alternative extends Friday to 3.30pm, with the extra hours charged. Both options require a packed lunch from home; parents also provide the nappy-changing consumables their child needs. Breakfast Club cannot form part of funded hours.

Families seeking the 30-hour arrangement need their funding code by the end of the preceding term, and the code requires renewal every three months. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the fees and funding page explains the attendance and charging structure. Monthly invoices are issued at the beginning of the month and fall due on its last Friday.

Moving on to School

Sharing Longmeadow Primary School's grounds does not guarantee a Reception place. Families still apply through the local authority admissions process. Playhouse's transition reports and possible visits support the change of setting; they do not determine the admissions decision.

• Younger children's independence. June 2022 improvement priorities included more opportunities for children to do things themselves and fuller communication with parents. During a visit, ask how two-year-olds now participate in snack preparation and how incidents are explained to families.
• Breakfast timing. The April 2026 fee schedule starts Breakfast Club at 8am, while the A-Z information gives 7.30am; both finish at 9am. Resolve that difference before planning an early workday around it.
• Packed lunches and allergies. Full-day children bring lunch, and the preschool's nut-free policy includes hazelnut chocolate fillings. Allergy-affected families should discuss current practice and their child's individual arrangements during a visit.
• Term-time fit. School holidays sit outside the attendance offer, and the 30-hour funded pattern finishes at 1pm on Friday unless extra hours are purchased. Consider both constraints against the family's working week.

Playhouse suits families seeking morning or afternoon preschool sessions, as well as those combining them into full days during term time. Friday Forest School, half-termly cooking, the vegetable garden and Charlie Bear give the programme substance and personality. Its structured settling arrangements and several forms of parent communication are useful practical strengths.

The June 2022 Good judgement sits alongside independence and communication priorities. Packed lunches, holiday closures and the funded Friday finish shape the practical fit; outdoor exploration and cooking give children concrete learning experiences.