Oxted Pre-school Playgroup

Tree climbing, towers made from foam bricks and children washing their own snack plates give Oxted Pre-school Playgroup a practical, hands-on character. These were features of its May 2025 nursery day: play offered opportunities to explore movement, language and independence, rather than keeping those experiences separate.

At its 8 May 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the setting Good, found safeguarding effective and judged that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities received effective support through liaison with other professionals. There were also two clear improvement priorities: giving children's cultures and heritages greater attention, and making sure staff understood the next learning steps of children beyond their own key group.

This mixed-age pre-school welcomes children aged two to four at United Reformed Church Hall in Oxted and has 24 places in total. Attendance is term-time only, with morning, afternoon and full-day sessions, plus a morning extended through Lunch Club.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care; here, play is the means through which children explore ideas, solve problems and build relationships. Children share a mixed-age setting, with a maximum of 24 attending a session. That session limit describes the whole group, rather than a separate room or age band.

In May 2025, foam bricks became a useful starting point for mathematical conversation. Children constructed towers and walls, while staff introduced vocabulary and encouraged comparisons between the structures and children's height. The value lay in connecting words and mathematical ideas to something children were already interested in making.

Creative activity allowed room for children's own ideas. During the same visit, children painted their arms as well as paper, and staff helped them turn that experiment into arm prints. This was a concrete example of adults responding to children's play, rather than requiring everyone to produce the same finished piece.

Books also formed part of the day in May 2025, including shared reading with adults in the garden. For children new to the setting, that combined shared reading with time close to a practitioner. Reading was part of relationship-building as well as early literacy.

Outdoor and Community Life

In May 2025, children climbed low trees and hung from a branch, gaining experience of judging what their bodies could manage. The outdoor offer therefore included manageable physical challenges, rather than movement confined to running around. Staff and leaders were also reviewing climbing resources as part of their work on the environment.

Indoor and outdoor play are both part of the current offer. The mixed-age organisation is central to the setting's character: families choosing it are choosing shared play across the two-to-four age range.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person who helps with settling, follows their development and plans their individual learning. This gives parents a clear first contact and children an adult responsible for building that early relationship. Settling support and learning are linked through the same role.

Communication takes several forms: an online learning journal, conversations in person, reports each term and more formal parent meetings. Parents therefore have both everyday contact and opportunities to discuss development in greater depth. The key person's role extends to preparation for the move to school, keeping that transition connected to the child's individual learning.

In May 2025, children who needed help settling received additional adult support. A calming tent area gave children somewhere to pause when their feelings became difficult to manage, before returning to play when ready. That physical space is a useful detail for families whose children sometimes need a quieter break from group activity.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

A SENCO role provides a point of responsibility for special educational needs and disabilities. Support includes helping families with referrals and paperwork, and working with speech and language therapists, educational psychologists and paediatricians. There is also experience of supporting children learning English as an additional language.

The premises are on the church's ground floor and offer wheelchair access. All staff have training in paediatric first aid, safeguarding and child protection, while designated safeguarding lead roles form part of the staff structure. These are arrangements for care and safety; the dated inspection judgement is the assessment of their effectiveness.

In May 2025, snack time included children serving themselves and washing their cups and plates afterwards. Those everyday tasks gave independence a practical place in the routine. They also made taking responsibility something children could practise through small, achievable actions.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is United Reformed Church Hall, 21 Bluehouse Lane, Oxted, RH8 0AA. Opening hours are 9am to 3pm, Monday to Friday, during term time.

The morning session runs from 9am to noon. The morning session plus Lunch Club runs from 9am to 1pm. A full-day session runs from 9am to 3pm and includes Lunch Club; the afternoon session runs from noon to 3pm and also includes Lunch Club. These are different attendance choices within the same opening day, giving families a shorter morning option as well as afternoon or full-day care.

Applications can be returned by email or post, or handed in at the setting. Visits are arranged by telephone appointment.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered through the universal 15 hours and additional 15 hours, with the setting's conditions applying to both and government eligibility requirements applying to the extra hours. Fully funded attendance across the opening hours is conditional on meeting those eligibility requirements and the pre-school's conditions. Delivery is term-time only.

Private paid sessions are also offered. Families should obtain a current written quotation for their chosen attendance pattern. Lunch Club forms part of the full-day and afternoon bookings, while it is an extension to the morning session.

• Learning beyond the key group. In May 2025, staff did not consistently know the next learning steps of children outside their own key group. At a visit, ask how those individual plans are now shared across the team, especially within the mixed-age sessions.
• Culture and heritage. The May 2025 improvement priorities included giving children's backgrounds greater attention in learning. Ask for examples of how family languages, cultures and traditions shape activities now.
• Term-time attendance and lunch. The day ends at 3pm and care operates during term time. Consider how that fits your working pattern, and ask what families need to provide for Lunch Club and other everyday consumables.

Oxted Pre-school Playgroup suits families seeking mixed-age, play-based provision for children aged two to four, with a choice between a short morning, a morning with Lunch Club, an afternoon or a full day. Term-time attendance is an essential part of that fit.

Its May 2025 day offered concrete opportunities for independence, physical challenge and creative exploration, supported by a key-person system and several routes for parent communication. The two learning priorities deserve attention when choosing it: how well staff share individual next steps, and how fully children's backgrounds enter the day. Those questions sit alongside a Good inspection judgement and a recognisable, practical style of early learning.