Horns Drove Community Childcare

A kitchen garden, welly walks and a lodge in primary-school grounds give Horns Drove Community Childcare a recognisable character. This community-run charity serves Rownhams and Nursling, with capacity for 30 children in total. Hatchlings is its term-time preschool for children from two to Reception age; Footprints provides breakfast and after-school care, while Crash Holiday Club serves children aged two to 11 during school holidays.

At its 6 March 2026 inspection, Ofsted judged achievement, behaviour and routines, welfare and wellbeing, curriculum and teaching, inclusion, and leadership and governance to meet the expected standard, with safeguarding standards met. The practical strengths are concrete: a key person assigned before a child starts, book-based activity planning and a separate quiet room with sensory resources. There are also clear development priorities around transitions and the way adults extend children's language.

Attendance spans preschool sessions, wraparound care and holiday patterns.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage guides learning and care: children build communication, physical and social skills through play, alongside early experiences of books, mathematics, creativity and the wider world. Horns Drove's activity planning adds a specific organising thread. Each fortnight centres on a book, with repeated readings, opportunities to retell the story and later returns to familiar ideas. For children, that gives new vocabulary a context they can recognise and use again.

Corks, shells and pebbles support counting and comparing. Accessible creative resources include different scissors, so children can use tools suited to their abilities.

In March 2026, practitioners used tower-building to discuss the dimensions of blocks and helped children learn how to join another child's game. Books and shared storytelling were part of daily experience. However, adults sometimes moved to another question before a child had time to answer. That limits the value of an otherwise useful conversation and remains a relevant point for parents assessing language support.

Outdoor and Community Life

Hatchlings has a mud kitchen, playhouse, sandbox and kitchen garden. Vegetable growing and welly walks around the school grounds connect outdoor play with living things. Messy clothing is expected. Families who value hands-on exploration will find a clear practical match here, with water play, cooking and sensory activities also part of preschool provision.

The wider outdoor offer includes the neighbouring school field and surrounding woodland when weather allows. Blocks, guttering and large stepping stones create opportunities to build and test ideas, while rotating ride-on toys and sports equipment offer different ways to move. Indoors and outdoors are linked through free-flow play for much of the preschool day, subject to the weather.

Crash Holiday Club extends this outdoor emphasis into the holidays, using an open playing field, sand and water play, and wheeled toys including bikes and trikes. It provides holiday care with play and social time.

Relationships and Communication

A child's key person is allocated before they begin, providing an initial familiar adult and maintaining their development records. At least two settling-in sessions are offered before the official start, usually lasting up to an hour. Medical needs, allergies and preferences are recorded on the All about me document, and a family photograph is added to the family tree. These arrangements give staff personal information to work with before the regular routine begins.

Famly, the nursery's digital communication and booking platform, carries a detailed developmental observation every six to eight weeks and a shared update at the end of each week. Parents also have key-person meetings to discuss progress and agree next steps. The combination gives families both an individual account of their child and a view of the activities happening across the setting.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Language Box starts with a checklist for each child joining preschool, reviewed termly, with group support offered where appropriate. BLAST (Boosting Language Auditory Skills & Talking) is used with preschool children in preparation for Reception. Visual timetables, choosing boards and NOW/NEXT boards provide further ways to understand routines and communicate choices.

A SENCO and behaviour co-ordinator oversee support arrangements; parents contribute through Focus Child meetings and help develop Individual Education Plans, which are reviewed regularly. A ramp supports physical access, and the separate quiet room contains sensory toys and calming resources. These mechanisms give families specific arrangements to discuss for their own child, rather than a general promise of inclusion.

At the March 2026 inspection, Ofsted found that children, including those facing learning barriers, made expected progress, with teaching adapted to individual needs and referrals made promptly, including for speech and language therapy. In March 2026, settling practice allowed children to retain comforters until they were ready to put them aside, and snack timing could be adjusted to individual needs. Transitions between activities were less consistent: some children lost interest and became restless.

Parents provide packed lunches, while morning and afternoon snacks are supplied; funded sessions carry a separate consumable charge that supports daily snack provision. The nursery has a policy excluding nuts from lunchboxes and an allergy procedure requiring individual risk assessments and care plans.

Sessions and Attendance

The lodge stands within Rownhams St John’s Primary School grounds, at Bakers Drove, Rownhams, Southampton, SO16 8AD. Opening hours are Monday to Friday, 7.45am to 6pm. Hatchlings preschool runs during term time for children aged two to four, with a morning session from 9am to noon, an afternoon from noon to 3pm, and a full preschool day from 9am to 3pm. An early preschool start runs from 8.25am to 9am.

Footprints breakfast care runs from 7.45am to 8.40am for school-aged children and from 7.45am to 9am for preschool children. After-school care runs from 3pm to 6pm, with collection from Rownhams St John’s; breakfast care includes taking children to the school. These arrangements are useful for families already using that school, because the transfer is part of the service.

Crash Holiday Club offers a full day from 8am to 6pm and a morning from 8am to 1pm, both including breakfast, an afternoon from 1pm to 6pm, plus a school-day session from 9am to 3pm. It operates Monday to Friday through most school holidays, excluding the Christmas holiday week and public holidays. Term-time provision operates across 38 weeks, with five INSET days and public holidays as closures.

Registration enquiries can be made by telephone, email or the online contact form. Breakfast, after-school and holiday bookings can also be made through Famly. Sharing the school site does not guarantee a Reception place: families still apply through the local authority admissions process.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is accepted, including 15-hour funding for two-year-olds and 30-hour funding. Funding can be used across 38 weeks or stretched over up to 50 weeks. Private hours are also offered, and Tax-Free Childcare and workplace vouchers are accepted as payment methods. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

For funded sessions, a consumable charge is invoiced monthly and supports snacks and activities. Parents supply nappies and wipes; sun cream is provided, with families able to send a preferred brand. An administration charge applies on registration. Under the September 2026 fee terms, reducing or withdrawing privately paid preschool hours requires two calendar weeks' written notice; cancelling a funded registration requires no notice, while any private hours still require two weeks.

• Transitions and conversation. The March 2026 development priorities were keeping children engaged between activities and strengthening language support. On a visit, ask how staff manage those changes and give children time to respond.
• A term-time preschool with holiday choices. Hatchlings follows the school-term pattern, while Crash Holiday Club provides separate holiday sessions and closes for the Christmas holiday week. Families needing care across both should consider the two booking patterns together.
• Food, allergies and funded extras. Packed lunches come from home, and funded sessions carry a consumable charge supporting snacks and activities. Allergy-affected families should confirm current food-handling practice and how their child's care plan will work.

Horns Drove suits families seeking morning or afternoon preschool sessions, a school-day preschool pattern, or breakfast and after-school care connected to Rownhams St John’s. Holiday mornings, afternoons and full days broaden that practical appeal. Its strongest reasons to consider it are the outdoor resources, familiar key-person arrangements and specific communication-support mechanisms. The March 2026 priorities around transitions and adult questioning deserve attention alongside those strengths.