Little Treasures Nursery and Preschool

Small baby-room caps and a specialist support room give Little Treasures Nursery and Preschool in Caterham a clear practical identity. Moonbeams accommodates up to 9 babies, while Raindrops has a maximum of 6 children. Sunrise adds a separate setting for personalised support, including a sensory dark den and contact with outside professionals. These are useful distinctions for parents weighing the scale and organisation of their child's day.

At its 27 November 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good overall, judged safeguarding effective and found good support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The same visit identified weaknesses in group activities, mealtime transitions and communication about learning. Those qualifications matter alongside the grade.

The nursery accepts children from 3 months to 5 years and has 112 places in total. Its building separates younger children, full-time preschool and term-time preschool into different sections, with gardens serving those groups. Morning, afternoon and whole-day sessions sit alongside the term-time Little Gems preschool option.

Rooms and Ages

The youngest rooms have clearly stated caps: Moonbeams covers 0 to 13 months with a maximum of 9 children, Rainbows covers 13 to 19 months with a maximum of 9, and Raindrops covers 19 to 24 months with a maximum of 6. These are room limits, rather than a promise about daily attendance or staffing. Rainbows has plentiful window light and toys suited to its age group; Raindrops provides space for exploration during the move towards toddlerhood.

Sunshines, for children aged 24 to 30 months, accommodates up to 16 and combines role-play areas, reading spaces and sensory activities. Sunbeams takes children aged 30 to 38 months, with a maximum of 18, and has child-sized toilet facilities, reading nooks and direct garden access. That combination gives growing independence a practical setting, with opportunities to move between indoor play and the outdoors.

Starlights serves full-time preschool children aged 3 to 4, with phonics and mathematics alongside a free-flow garden containing climbing equipment, a mud kitchen and a sandpit. Little Gems is the term-time preschool for children aged 2.5 to 5 and has its own garden. Families therefore have a choice between preschool arrangements with different calendars, rather than one attendance model for every older child.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for learning through play, with observations helping staff adapt activities to each child's development. Here, singing, cooking, role play and sensory exploration sit alongside games involving numbers, letter sounds and children's names. The curriculum and activities page explains how these experiences are organised across the age groups.

In The Moment Planning adds a responsive element: staff include children's interests and ideas in play instead of treating the advance plan as fixed. Activities can be adjusted to suit an individual child's ability. For parents, the useful distinction is between having a plan and allowing that plan to change when a child becomes absorbed in something else.

Older children use the home storybook scheme, choosing a book to share with family and exchanging it as often as they wish. This creates a simple connection between nursery reading and time at home. In November 2024, children also chose books independently, while staff used expressive storytelling to hold their attention.

LullaBaby brings sensory experiences, baby yoga, music and movement; Babyballet introduces dance through play. French Club explores familiar subjects such as greetings, animals and colours through movement, role play and creative activities. Each has a concrete purpose beyond its name, although families should distinguish these sessions from the nursery's everyday activities when discussing their attendance plan.

Outdoor and Community Life

Three gardens divide outdoor provision between younger children, term-time preschool and full-time preschool. Starlights' garden gives children opportunities for construction and small-world play as well as climbing and messy exploration. The outdoor offer is therefore more than a single shared space serving every age group.

Daily village walks bring road safety into ordinary experience, with buggies used for younger children where appropriate. Dentists, firefighters and road safety officers also visit, connecting play and conversation with people children may encounter beyond nursery. Seasonal walks and summer outings extend that connection further.

Ruby and Sapphire, the nursery's rabbits, give children opportunities to help care for animals. A teddy bears' picnic, a Christmas celebration and a nativity play add shared events to the nursery calendar. These experiences create different reasons to talk, join in and take responsibility, alongside the more familiar room activities.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person who follows their development, adjusts activities and liaises with parents through twice-yearly consultations. Having an identified adult gives families a clear relationship through which to discuss their child's interests and progress, rather than relying only on whoever happens to be nearby.

Settling is structured around three progressively longer sessions, starting at 2 hours and building towards a 6-hour settle, with lengths adapted to the child. Settling arrangements include sessions with parents present where a child is not ready for separation; a familiar blanket, toy or comforter can come from home.

In November 2024, staff gathered information from parents at the outset and exchanged updates about routines and the nursery day. Communication about learning was less consistent, including ideas for extending it at home. Twice-yearly consultations give that conversation a formal place, but the improvement point concerned what families received between those opportunities too.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Sunrise provides specialist support for children with SEN and disabilities, with a room maximum of 9. A reading corner, role-play space and sensory dark den offer different settings within the room, while speech and language therapists, educational psychologists and occupational therapists contribute alongside the nursery team. A SENCO role also forms part of the management structure. These are specific support mechanisms, rather than a general promise that one arrangement suits every child.

In November 2024, staff helped children talk about feelings in small groups and reinforced everyday boundaries, including helping to put toys away. However, noise sometimes interfered with activities requiring close listening, and the youngest children sometimes waited too long during transitions to meals. The practical issue was the organisation of those moments within an otherwise familiar routine.

Meals are cooked on site, with a morning snack, hot lunch and light tea; the menu accommodates options including dairy-free, gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan and halal food. The nursery operates a no-nut policy, which allergy-affected families should discuss alongside their child's individual requirements.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery is at The Old Naafi, Weston Drive, Caterham, CR3 5XY. Contact is through its enquiry form, telephone or email, and visits can be arranged.

Morning sessions run from 8am to 1pm, afternoons from 1pm to 6pm, and whole days from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. A 7.30am start must be booked ahead. The nursery closes for bank holidays and the week between Christmas and 2 January, so the early-start arrangement and holiday calendar both matter when matching childcare to work.

Little Gems operates during term time, Monday to Friday, with whole days from 9am to 3pm and morning sessions from 9.15am to 12.15pm. Its shorter day offers a different rhythm from the main nursery sessions. It occupies the same setting and has its own outdoor space.

Reception teachers usually meet children at nursery before children visit their new school. That supports familiarity with the next stage; it does not secure a school place. Families still use the relevant admissions process.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes the universal 15-hour entitlement and extended 30-hour funding for eligible families. Funding is stretched over 51 weeks: universal funding is allocated across two attendance days, while universal plus extended funding is allocated across three. This is a funding distribution rule, rather than a promise of a particular place or booking pattern.

Food costs vary by item: morning snack, cooked lunch and light tea are included, and breakfast is provided until age 2, after which parents supply cereal. Parents also provide nappies and summer sun cream, alongside spare clothes, named wellies and a water bottle. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

• Parental presence during settling. Settling procedures ask parents to leave, while the settling policy allows parents to stay for appropriate sessions, especially when children are not ready for separation. Discuss how parental presence will be agreed for your child.
• Listening and mealtime routines. In November 2024, noise affected some listening activities and younger children experienced lengthy waits for food. Ask how those transitions and group activities are organised now, alongside updates about learning between consultations.
• Little Gems afternoon timing. Its afternoon session is printed as 9.15pm to 1pm, an inconsistent sequence. Confirm the intended hours before planning a term-time afternoon booking.
• Individual support and allergies. Sunrise combines specialist space with professional input, while the nursery has a no-nut policy. Discuss how your child's support or allergy plan would work in their room and during outings.

Little Treasures suits families considering morning or afternoon sessions, whole-day care, or a shorter term-time preschool day. Its strongest practical features are the small published caps for the youngest rooms, gardens divided between age and attendance groups, and Sunrise's specialist support arrangements.

The Good judgement from November 2024 comes with meaningful improvement points about waiting, listening and communication. Parents who value clearly organised rooms and a varied play-based day have plenty to consider here, provided the settling approach and their chosen attendance pattern fit their child.