Butterflies Nursery School

Thursley common gives Butterflies Nursery School a clear outdoor identity: woodland exploration, den building and minibeast searches sit alongside a large grassed garden. The nursery occupies Thursley Village Hall in Godalming and welcomes children from six months to five years, with capacity for 45 children in total. This is a setting where the surroundings contribute directly to the day.

At its May 2026 inspection, Ofsted judged achievement, curriculum and teaching, inclusion, and leadership and governance to be at Strong standard, with behaviour and routines and children's welfare and wellbeing at Expected standard, and safeguarding standards met. The balance matters. Learning and inclusion earned the stronger judgements, while the next step concerned making transitions and mealtimes more consistent.

Morning, afternoon and full-day sessions sit alongside shorter funded-only patterns. For parents, the combination of outdoor activity, practical school preparation and different attendance options gives Butterflies a recognisable offer, with daily routines the point to examine closely.

Rooms and Ages

Caterpillars has a day built around play, outdoor exploration, stories and songs, with sleep offered according to children's needs and parents' wishes. Its meal timings can also respond to milk feeds and the routine a child follows at home. That flexibility is useful for younger children whose care needs do not fit neatly around a single timetable.

Cocoons and Butterflies begin with a welcome gathering that includes songs, sounds and children's news, alongside weekly small-group music exploring instruments, movement and rhythm. For Butterflies, preschool activities add opportunities to practise counting, early sound games and tasks such as cutting or threading, with attention to working independently and finishing an activity. The emphasis is participation as well as the finished result.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage guides learning and care, covering children's communication, physical development, relationships and early understanding of the world through play and everyday experiences. At Butterflies, painting and play with sand and water happen daily, giving children materials to explore and reasons to describe textures, colours and what they are doing. Adult-led tasks alternate with children's own choices.

The LENDING LIBRARY gives Butterflies children a book to borrow each week, carried home in a book bag and returned for an exchange. It makes looking after a book part of the experience. Weekly P.E. combines active team activities with practice in changing clothes and managing a kit bag, so independence develops through something concrete rather than a general instruction to be more grown-up.

In May 2026, a minibeast search brought counting, comparison and drawing into the same activity: children examined insects, counted legs and drew a beetle. Staff also introduced mathematical vocabulary during play and helped children reconsider mistaken answers. These examples show how a single interest can become several connected learning opportunities.

Outdoor and Community Life

Butterflies Woodland School uses the neighbouring Thursley common for a Forest School experience involving exploration and practical challenges outdoors. Children go out in small groups, build dens, climb trees and collect natural objects for later mark making. Seasonal changes become something to investigate through the materials children bring back.

The aim is for each child to have a woodland nature walk at least weekly, rather than a promise that every walk happens on a fixed day. Outings continue across the year, making suitable clothing part of participation. The nursery also takes children to the local park and church.

Within the enclosed garden, a water wall, bikes and cars provide other ways to experiment and move. Logs, a den and a tepee camp support stories and songs when a common visit cannot happen. Outdoor learning therefore has a base at the nursery as well as a destination beyond it.

A Christmas walk brings parents into this outdoor life: children search for glow sticks on the common at dusk before returning for refreshments. Annual sports day offers another shared occasion. These events give families a connection with the activities their children experience during ordinary nursery days.

Relationships and Communication

Settling starts with two introductory sessions, each lasting an hour. Children under two then attend half days the following week before beginning their regular hours in the week after that. This is a staged start, with the key person involved in discussing the process and the child's needs.

Each child has a key person who takes a closer role in their care and learning and serves as the family's everyday contact. An All about Me form supplies information for planning around the individual child. Tapestry, the online learning journal, records development and activities; daily conversations, communication books and a weekly newsletter provide further routes for sharing information. Parents have both a continuing record and opportunities for a direct exchange.

Sleep arrangements allow for different rhythms. A rest area remains accessible during the day, with a quieter period after lunch, and babies' home routines guide their sleep. Parents are encouraged to pass on changes so care can adjust as those routines develop.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the May 2026 inspection, Ofsted found that SEND support included adapting activities, using smaller teaching groups and working with families and external professionals, while sensory resources helped some children manage their emotions. These were practical responses to individual needs, rather than an expectation that every child participate in exactly the same way.

In May 2026, children used a sensory box to help settle their feelings, with some seeking it independently. Healthy-living activities included practising toothbrushing and noticing a faster heartbeat after exercise. Care and learning met in these everyday experiences, helping children connect words about their bodies with things they could do and feel.

There was also a clear limitation in May 2026: some transitions involved lengthy waits, including before meals, which could interrupt engagement or leave children upset. Leaders had plans to improve consistency. For families, the useful distinction is between the strength of individual relationships and the organisation of the day around them.

Meals come from Zebedees, and dietary needs are discussed with parents before a child starts. The nursery has a nut-free policy; allergy-affected families should establish how current arrangements will work for their child before enrolment.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Thursley Village Hall, Dye House Road, Thursley, Godalming, GU8 6QD. Butterflies opens Monday to Friday from 8am to 5.30pm across 51 weeks of the year, closing for bank and public holidays and over Christmas, from 24 December through the first working day in January.

Private booking options are a morning from 8am to 1pm, an afternoon from noon to 5pm, or a full day from 8am to 5.30pm. A minimum of two sessions applies; for children under two, these must fall across two days each week. The minimum is therefore a practical commitment even for families choosing shorter sessions.

Funded-only attendance has its own timetable: children from nine months to two years can attend from 8.30am to 2.30pm, children aged three and over from 8.30am to 1.30pm, and the shorter pattern for all ages runs from 8.30am to 11.30am. Paid extensions to half-day or full-day attendance are also offered.

Enquiries can be made by telephone or email, and registration uses a form with a welcome pack and consent form. The withdrawal rule requires two months' written notice; changing, reducing or increasing sessions requires one month's written notice. A non-refundable administration charge applies once a place has been confirmed.

Getting There

Parking is behind the nursery, with particular care requested when manoeuvring around children and parents. Drivers must keep the area beside the entrance door clear.

Funding and Paid Extras

Butterflies accepts funded childcare, including FEET funding, and offers the 15-hour and 30-hour entitlements to eligible families. Its funding arrangements use term-time hours, with the entitlement and usable hours depending on the child's age, eligibility and attendance pattern. Within mixed funded and private attendance, up to six funded hours can be used in a full day or three in a half day.

Private-hours prices include meals, drinks, consumables, nappies where appropriate and extra activities. For funded-only attendance, meals, consumables and extra activities are outside the funded provision. Separate voluntary contributions are requested; families using funded-only hours can supply agreed food and consumables instead. Those contributions are not a condition of taking the funded hours. Music and Dance and Cooking are among the activities listed within this contribution structure.

Private hours are billed as a fixed monthly payment calculated across 52 weeks, although the nursery opens for 51 weeks. Fees remain payable during sickness, holidays and public holidays, and missed sessions cannot be exchanged for another session. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the fees and funding page explains the structure.

Preparation for school concentrates on independence, cooperation and completing activities. Local Reception teachers have visited the nursery. Weekly book borrowing and managing P.E. belongings give children specific responsibilities to practise.

• Transitions and meals. In May 2026, waiting during changes of activity and before meals could leave children disengaged or upset. During a visit, ask how routines have changed and how staff keep children involved while they wait.
• The younger child's start. Under-twos have a staged settling period and a minimum attendance spread across two days. Allow for the introductory sessions and half-day week when planning the start of care.
• Funded hours and extras. Funded-only attendance follows shorter, age-dependent windows, with voluntary contributions for food, consumables and activities. Match the appropriate timetable and any paid extension to the hours your family needs.
• Outdoor participation. Woodland walks run throughout the year, while the Christmas walk includes an outing at dusk. Suitable clothing and the family's comfort with outdoor challenges are part of the decision.

Butterflies suits families who want morning or afternoon sessions as well as full-day attendance, and who value regular outdoor exploration alongside practical preparation for school. Thursley common, Butterflies Woodland School and the weekly borrowing library give that offer substance. The key-person arrangement and staged start are useful anchors for younger children.

The May 2026 findings make consistent transitions and mealtimes the central consideration. For parents comfortable with the attendance minimum and the separate funded-only timetable, this is a nursery with a clear outdoor character and concrete opportunities for children to practise independence.