Cranbrook Independent Nursery & Pre-School, Acorn Cottage

Free-flow outdoor play gives Acorn Cottage its clearest practical character: children can move between indoor activities and the outside area during the day. Messy play, sensory exploration and imaginative play shape the offer. This is a nursery built around doing and discovering.

Acorn Cottage has 50 places for children aged 0 to 60 months, at Antlands Lane in Shipley Bridge, Horley. Ofsted rated it Outstanding at its 14 April 2023 inspection, including its education, behaviour, personal development and leadership. That judgement is a dated assessment, rather than a description of every aspect of care today.

The strongest examples from April 2023 concern everyday independence: children served food themselves, chose activities and managed small personal-care tasks. Practical attendance choices include full days and half days, with separate arrangements for funded afternoon attendance and stretched funding.

Outdoor access is a substantial part of the current offer. Free-flow play allows children to use the outside area alongside indoor activities, making outdoor exploration part of the day rather than solely a separate outing. Sensory and messy activities give children opportunities to investigate materials directly; imaginative play provides another way to explore ideas.

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care. In parent terms, that means learning through everyday play and interaction, with communication, movement and social development considered alongside other areas of learning. It is the common framework, rather than an additional programme unique to Acorn Cottage.

In April 2023, staff developed learning from children's interests. Books about owls prompted discussion of unfamiliar vocabulary, while mud and puddles became opportunities for sensory exploration. The useful connection was between what caught a child's attention and what staff introduced next. An interest could become a conversation, rather than ending with the activity itself.

Community experiences also featured in April 2023. Children visited a library and shopped for food, giving everyday errands a place in their learning. Staff used photographs of communities in their home countries to explore differences and similarities. This brought the wider world into discussion through recognisable places and experiences.

Independence was visible in small routines that April. Children selected areas of learning, served their own food and fetched tissues for themselves. Older children could explain why indoor rules mattered. For parents, these examples give substance to school preparation: managing choices, understanding boundaries and handling ordinary tasks were part of daily life.

At the April 2023 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and described settling arrangements that supported children's progress, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Flexible introductory sessions involved parents, and support also covered moves between rooms. The practical value was continuity during changes, rather than treating settling as a single event at the start.

Communication support in April 2023 included visual cues alongside spoken language. Children also used passes to indicate that they wanted the garden or toilet. These offered a way to express a choice when speech alone was harder, including for children learning English as an additional language.

Parents contributed to menu decisions and shared observations in April 2023. Workshops addressed child development, while written advice covered subjects such as toilet training. This gave families concrete ways to connect home routines with nursery learning. Key-person responsibilities were also part of staff practice at that time.

Safeguarding practice in April 2023 included staff supervision, procedures for raising concerns and assessment of risks in activities, resources and the premises. Staff could recognise safeguarding concerns and knew the routes for reporting them. These are inspection-era observations, with the effective safeguarding judgement attached to that visit.

Settling sessions now carry a charge at the applicable hourly or session rate. That deserves a place in the family's budget alongside regular attendance, especially where a gradual introduction is important to the child.

Sessions and Attendance

Acorn Cottage is at Acorn Cottage, Antlands Lane, Shipley Bridge, Horley, RH6 9TE. The nursery's usual opening window is Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, with an early-start option from 7.30am and a later finish up to 6.30pm. It operates across the year, closing for Bank Holidays and Christmas.

Private attendance includes full days, half days and hourly care, with both set-session and ad hoc charging structures. The funded offer has its own attendance windows: stretched funded days run from 10am to 6pm or 11am to 6pm, while universal funded afternoons run from 1pm to 6pm. Families therefore need to distinguish the nursery's opening hours from the hours covered by their chosen funding arrangement.

Enquiries can go directly to Acorn Cottage by telephone or email. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

Funding and Paid Extras

The Acorn Cottage funding schedule offers 22 Hours Extended Funded Early Education across 51 weeks for its 9 Months - 2 Years and Over 3s bands. It also offers 15 Hours Universal Funding over 38 weeks, during term time, for Over 3s. Extended entitlement is for eligible working families, who must reconfirm their eligibility every three months.

For the full universal entitlement, attendance must cover at least three days each week, with funding allocated to afternoon sessions. A morning added to that afternoon is charged. To use the full stretched entitlement, the arrangement likewise requires at least three days: seven funded hours on two days and eight on another. Hours beyond the funded windows are charged separately.

Food, consumables and additional activities carry no charge within the funded offer. That removes those categories from the funded-hours bill; it does not make additional attendance hours free.

A non-refundable registration charge applies on enrolment, except when a child attends solely for government-funded hours. Settling sessions are charged separately. A sibling discount applies to the eldest child's fees when more than one child from the family attends and the eldest attends full time, so the condition matters as much as the discount itself.

• Funded hours have defined windows. Universal funding covers afternoon attendance, while stretched funding uses later-starting days. Compare those times with the hours your family needs, including separately charged mornings or other additional hours.
• A gradual start has a cost. Settling sessions are charged at the hourly or session rate. During a visit, discuss how an introduction would be paced for your child and how that plan would be charged.
• Outdoor access shapes the day. Free-flow play is a central feature. On a visit, ask how access to the outside area works for your child's age and stage, and how indoor and outdoor choices are supported.

Acorn Cottage suits families considering either full-day or half-day attendance, as well as those whose needs fit funded afternoon sessions or stretched funded days. Free-flow outdoor play gives the current offer a clear character, while the April 2023 examples of self-care, choice-making and language support explain the substance behind its Outstanding judgement.

The decision is also practical. Funding is attached to specific attendance windows, extra hours are charged, and settling has a separate cost. Families whose routines fit those arrangements have a nursery with useful outdoor access and a strong dated inspection assessment to consider.