Harpole Pre-School

A mud kitchen, home baking bags and a wooden outdoor stage give Harpole Pre-School a character that extends well beyond its classrooms. Based in Old School Hall in the village of Harpole, this charity-run setting combines play, practical independence and opportunities for parents to take part in preschool life. Learning continues at home too.

Ofsted rated the preschool Outstanding on 13 September 2022, finding carefully planned teaching, substantial progress, effective safeguarding and strong support for children with special educational needs and disabilities. That judgement belongs to September 2022. The current offer includes a key-person system, individual learning records and SEND support through small groups and personalised play plans.

Children can attend from age two to school age. Bumblebees caters for two- to three-year-olds, while Caterpillars and Butterflies serve three- to four-year-olds. Attendance is term-time, with morning and afternoon sessions plus lunch club.

Rooms and Ages

Bumblebees combines construction, pretend play and messy activities with stories, rhymes and outdoor time at the mud kitchen, giving younger children opportunities to choose activities and join shared experiences. Caterpillars and Butterflies combine movement between rooms with puzzles, mathematical games, drawing and construction, followed by outdoor play using vehicles, playhouses and a wooden stage with a shop area.

Classroom arrangements change each term in response to children's interests. For the older groups, the choice to move between rooms gives children some control over their play; adults can join in to offer help or extend an activity. Shared stories and group conversations provide a different rhythm from independent exploration. Neither part of the day has to carry all the learning.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage guides learning and care through play, supporting language, physical development and relationships alongside early reading, mathematics and creative expression. Harpole's curriculum draws on Birth to Five and Developmental Matters as planning guidance for its own learning programme. These sit alongside the statutory framework rather than replacing it.

The practical activities make that approach easier to picture. Construction and small-world play offer opportunities to invent and solve problems; stories and songs give children language to share. In September 2022, children experimented with coloured rice and containers to explore volume, while light boards provided a surface for practising marks and strengthening hands. Staff also used conversations during painting and signs during songs to extend vocabulary.

Home learning has concrete resources behind it. Baking bags contain instructions, utensils and most of the ingredients needed for a shared baking activity. Busy boxes offer more than 30 choices, including puppets, sorting activities and measuring cups, with guidance explaining how to use them. Book bags add puppets and props to stories, giving families something to act out as well as read.

Outdoor and Community Life

Daily outdoor play includes the mud kitchen, vehicles and playhouses. An undercover area allows the older groups to continue outdoor activities in wet weather. The wooden stage and shop area add settings for imaginative play, while bikes, slides and sand play provide other ways to move and explore.

Forest Schools takes Butterflies into woodland each spring with Everden Activity Centre for outdoor exploration, including bug hunting and trying activities such as marshmallow toasting. Other outings include strawberry picking, seeing lambs, nature walks and visits to the village playing fields. These give children experiences beyond the preschool's own play spaces, without implying a fixed weekly trip schedule.

Parents can join the fundraising committee or take part in events held through the year. Coffee mornings, book sales and the barbecue at the Scarecrow festival connect preschool fundraising with village life. This is a setting where family involvement has practical outlets, from sharing activities at home to helping with community events.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person responsible for their care and education, providing a consistent contact for progress, achievements and concerns. A confidential Learning Journey brings together observations and achievements; parents can view it and contribute comments. Its purpose is practical: what staff learn about a child helps shape subsequent play and activities.

Communication also includes a home-to-preschool book, opportunities for brief conversations and appointments for longer discussions. Termly newsletters set out topics and dates, with weekly email reminders supporting the day-to-day arrangements. Baking bags and busy boxes give parents another way to participate, through a shared activity rather than a meeting.

Settling takes account of families who need extra comfort. Staff can offer assistance suited to the child and parent, rather than treating every separation in the same way. All staff have first-aid training. Collection uses a pre-agreed password, and families must notify staff when someone outside the authorised collection arrangements will pick up their child.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

SEND support includes speech groups, confidence-building groups and individual play plans, with a SENCO role and work involving other agencies. These are specific mechanisms families can discuss in relation to their child's needs. They matter more than a general promise of inclusion because they identify how support can be organised.

In September 2022, staff helped secure equipment and therapies and adapted the learning space for children needing additional support. At that time, children also practised independence by pouring drinks and washing their own crockery, and visited their local school to meet a teacher and become familiar with the surroundings. These were practical preparations for the next stage, rather than an admissions advantage.

Current Learning Journeys help staff prepare information for a child's transition to school. That gives the next setting a record of interests and development, keeping the emphasis on continuity of care and learning.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Old School Hall, School Lane, Harpole, Northampton, NN7 4DR. Opening hours are 9am to 1pm on Mondays and 9am to 3.30pm from Tuesday to Friday, during term time. This timetable needs to fit the family's working day as well as the child's preferred session length.

For Bumblebees, Caterpillars and Butterflies, Tuesday to Friday offers a morning session from 9am to noon, lunch club from noon to 1pm and an afternoon session from 1pm to 3.30pm. Monday attendance runs from 9am to 1pm. Lunch club can be covered by funded hours, making it part of the funding calculation rather than necessarily an additional private hour.

Enquiries go to the business manager by email at bmanager@harpolepreschool.co.uk or by telephone on 07497 593241. The preschool operates during terms and closes for training days as well as holiday breaks. Its autumn 2026 term ends on 16 December, earlier than the schools, with Christmas Party Morning on 17 December from 9am to 1pm.

Funding and Paid Extras

Two-year funding, the 15-hour entitlement and 30-hour funding are accepted, alongside private hours beyond funded attendance. Funding is delivered within the term-time timetable. Tax-free childcare and childcare vouchers are also accepted; individual eligibility remains separate from the preschool's participation.

For funded sessions, families are asked for voluntary contributions towards snacks, non-food consumables and additional activities. There is also a route to funded attendance without those contributions: parents supply the daily snack and non-food consumables, and the child does not take part in the additional activities. That condition matters when comparing the two arrangements.

Parents provide packed lunches; snacks are offered each session, with milk or water, and funded-session snack contributions are voluntary. Allergy and dietary requirements are incorporated into snack planning under the preschool's arrangements. Non-food consumables on funded sessions likewise have a voluntary contribution or parent-supply arrangement. Current prices come in the preschool's written quotation, with the charge structure explained on its sessions and fees page.

• Term-time coverage. Monday closes at 1pm, with later closing from Tuesday to Friday and holiday breaks between terms. Match that pattern to work commitments, including the earlier December finish.
• Funded-session choices. The contribution-free arrangement requires families to provide snacks and consumables and excludes additional activities. Ask which activities that affects for your child's group before choosing an arrangement.
• Settling and support. A key person, speech groups and individual play plans offer concrete starting points. During a visit, discuss how these would be used for your child's separation needs or existing support plan.
• Food arrangements. Lunch comes from home, while snack planning takes dietary needs into account. Families managing allergies should confirm current practice and how their child's requirements will be communicated to staff.

Harpole suits families seeking term-time morning sessions or afternoon sessions, with lunch club providing another attendance option. Its appeal lies in tangible details: outdoor imaginative play, resources that travel home and ways for parents to contribute to preschool life. Individual learning records and specific SEND mechanisms add useful structure to that play-based offer.

The September 2022 Outstanding judgement is a strong dated endorsement. The practical limits are equally clear: shorter Mondays, term-time operation and choices about contributions on funded sessions. For families whose schedules fit, this is a preschool with a recognisable village character and plenty of concrete ways to connect home learning with the child's day.