Bunny Run Nursery and Pre-school

A woodland clearing on the Sham Farm Estate gives Bunny Run’s outdoor life a clear centre of gravity. Preschool children visit its Forest School at least twice a week, while under-threes go at least weekly, throughout the year. This is a nursery where exploring nature has a regular place in the timetable, rather than depending on an occasional outing.

Bunny Run Nursery and Pre-school, in Eridge Green, has capacity for 60 children aged three months to five years. At its January 2024 inspection, Ofsted judged it Good overall and found safeguarding effective, with good support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The important qualification concerns the youngest children: staff needed more coaching to make their care and learning consistently effective.

The Bunnies room centres on sensory exploration, while Rabbits supports growing independence and preschool learning. Morning, afternoon, short-day and full-day attendance give families several ways to use the setting. Its strongest practical combination is regular woodland learning, a key person responsible for each child’s care and development, and attendance options that extend beyond a single daily pattern.

Rooms and Ages

Bunnies takes children from three months to two years, with low-level resources for sensory investigation, its own play area, garden access, a sleep space and a nappy-changing room. Babies can explore materials within reach, while their sleeping and changing needs have designated spaces. Settling sessions include discussion of each child’s routine, interests and care requirements, so the starting point is the baby’s existing day.

Rabbits takes children from 24 months to school age, with activities supporting cooperation and independence, access to potties and toilets, and a garden children can use freely. From age three, the routine becomes more structured, introducing group work and longer periods of attention while retaining play. For families, the progression is practical: choosing activities, managing toileting and participating with other children become part of the day.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the common framework for children’s learning, development and care; here, play and activities planned around individual learning goals give it everyday form. A child’s key person uses their interests and developmental needs to shape those activities. Ideas from home can carry into nursery planning, giving parents a useful role beyond receiving updates.

Forest School adds outdoor exploration through activities in a dedicated woodland area. Children have made perfumes while considering their senses, looked for small creatures and sorted collected natural objects into categories. These are concrete ways to investigate materials, notice differences and organise discoveries. The activities start with each child’s interests.

In January 2024, older children investigated shapes through puzzles and experimented with paper aeroplanes of different sizes, discussing how high they could fly. A pretend-noodle game combined counting, colour matching and sharing. These examples show how a single activity can bring together conversation, mathematical thinking and cooperation, rather than separating learning into isolated exercises.

Outdoor and Community Life

Two gardens extend the indoor day. The main play area allows children to move between inside and outside, while the Forest School garden includes planting, bug searches and a mud kitchen using natural materials. That gives outdoor play several purposes: movement, investigation and making things. Regular adventures also take children beyond the nursery into the surrounding country lanes.

The woodland clearing has different visiting frequencies for different ages: preschoolers go at least twice weekly and children under three at least once weekly. In January 2024, children also enjoyed woodland walks and feeding horses. Conversations outdoors included investigating ice and learning language to describe what they could see through it, connecting a physical discovery with new vocabulary.

Family events include the Toddle Waddle, a charity event, and Bunny Run’s annual art auction. Alongside stay-and-play sessions and coffee mornings, these create opportunities for families to take part in nursery life beyond the daily handover.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person, introduced during settling sessions, who plans developmental activities, tracks progress and acts as the family’s main contact in the room. That responsibility is backed by the room leader and wider team. It gives parents a clear starting point for conversations while allowing other practitioners to know and care for the child too.

Communication has several routes. Bunnies families receive a daily diary, and parents’ evenings take place twice a year with a written account of development and progress. Daily handovers, contact books, home stories and stay-and-play sessions provide further opportunities to exchange information. The distinction matters: a handover deals with today, while a progress discussion allows a longer view of how a child is developing.

In January 2024, children sought comfort from familiar practitioners and settled readily. Staff learnt words in children’s home languages to help those learning English feel more confident. Older children used timers when sharing bikes and waited while friends chose songs, making turn-taking something they practised during activities.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The team includes Special Education Needs Co-ordinators (SENCO) and specialist safeguarding officers. Most practitioners hold a childcare qualification, and the team undertakes continuing professional development. These are concrete elements of the staffing structure; for a child needing additional help, the SENCO role provides a point of responsibility within the nursery.

At the January 2024 inspection, Ofsted found that staff worked with parents and the local authority to obtain support for children with SEND, but identified inconsistencies among practitioners caring for younger children, including avoidable waits at meals and positioning that did not always include everyone. The improvement requirement was more support, training and coaching for those staff. For parents of babies and toddlers, this is the main issue to explore alongside the sensory resources and settling arrangements.

Sleep is included according to age and the child’s usual routine. The Bunnies sleep space and conversations during settling make rest a practical part of care planning, rather than simply another activity on the timetable.

Food is prepared fresh each day, with breakfast, snacks, a hot lunch and tea; children are encouraged to help lay the table, serve themselves and clear away. The nursery offers to accommodate dietary needs and allergies, so families managing an allergy should confirm how their child’s requirements will be handled.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Unit 7B Sham Farm, Sham Farm Road, Eridge Green, TN3 9JA. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks of the year. Closures include public holidays, the period between Christmas and New Year, and an annual staff training day.

Full-day sessions run from 7.30am to 6.30pm; mornings finish at 1pm, when afternoon sessions begin and continue until 6.30pm. A short day runs from 8am to 4.30pm. An earlier start at 7am or a later collection at 7pm can be arranged for an additional charge, allowing families to extend either end of the usual day.

The minimum attendance is two sessions per week, which can be a combination of mornings, afternoons or short days, or one full-day session. That rule gives families some choice in assembling attendance while preserving a regular pattern for settling and relationships. Enquiries can be made by telephone, email or the contact form.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded hours are offered to eligible children from nine months, stretched across 51 weeks. Up to 10 funded hours can be used in a day until the weekly maximum is reached; further hours on a funded day are charged at the normal private rate. The distinction is important when comparing a funded allocation with the length of a full-day session.

Standard private fees cover food and care supplies, including nappies, wipes, nappy cream, sun cream and milk. Funded attendance has a separate voluntary consumables charge covering meals, care supplies, bedding and activities; families choosing not to pay must supply the listed items each funded day. This makes the funded arrangement different from the standard private package.

Fees are payable monthly at the start of the month. A refundable deposit is required for a nursery booking and is returned within a month of leaving, provided the child has attended for at least six months. Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation, which should distinguish private hours from the funded-day arrangements.

• Care for the youngest children. In January 2024, avoidable waiting and inconsistent staff positioning affected younger children’s participation. During a visit, ask how coaching now supports mealtimes and inclusive activities in Bunnies.
• Funded-day supplies. Declining the voluntary consumables charge means bringing the listed food, care supplies, bedding and activity items on each funded day. Consider how that arrangement would work alongside your intended attendance.
• Woodland participation. Forest School runs throughout the year, with different visiting frequencies for preschoolers and under-threes. Ask during a visit how clothing and participation are arranged for your child’s age.
• Booking commitment. Attendance starts at two sessions a week or one full day, and deposit repayment requires at least six months of attendance. Those conditions matter if you need a short period of childcare or a very occasional session.

Bunny Run suits families who want countryside exploration woven into nursery life and a choice between morning or afternoon sessions, short days and full days. The woodland timetable, garden access and sensory provision give that offer substance. The key-person arrangements also provide a clear route for connecting home routines with nursery care.

The January 2024 findings deserve equal weight: the youngest children’s care required greater consistency. For parents choosing Bunnies, how staff have addressed that requirement is a more useful deciding question than the appeal of the outdoor setting alone.