Hanborough Meadows Pre School

Woodland mornings at Pinsley Woods, real tools in a woodworking area and a garden built for making things give Hanborough Meadows Pre School a clear outdoor character. This Long Hanborough pre-school combines children’s own ideas with planned activities. Forest Rangers adds woodland exploration on Tuesday and Friday mornings.

At its 6 October 2021 inspection, Ofsted judged the setting Good and found safeguarding effective. The current whole-setting capacity is 24 children, while its education offer is for children aged 2-5. Morning, afternoon and full-day attendance operate during school terms.

A volunteer committee manages the charity, with parents and local residents involved in its running. That gives families a route into decisions about the setting as well as opportunities to support fundraising. The practical limits are equally clear: this is term-time provision, sessions cannot be swapped, and attendance must cover at least two sessions each week.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage guides learning through play across language, physical development, relationships, literacy, mathematics, understanding the world and creative expression. It is the shared early-years framework; the character here comes from how staff connect those areas to children’s interests. Children choose some activities themselves, while practitioners plan and lead others.

A spider discovered by a child can become a starting point for number work or exploring nature. Staff can adapt planned activities to children’s interests, giving them room to contribute ideas.

Hygge informs planning and teaching, emphasising comfort and pleasure in ordinary experiences. A designated woodworking area gives children opportunities to use real tools and develop practical skills.

In October 2021, staff supported conversation by giving children time to respond, rather than filling every pause themselves. At the October 2021 inspection, Ofsted also identified two improvements: group teaching needed closer alignment with children’s immediate learning needs, and assessment needed better checks on what children had retained from activities. Those points put useful limits around the positive overall judgement: purposeful activities matter, but so does knowing what each child takes from them.

Outdoor and Community Life

Forest Rangers takes children outdoors twice a week, on Tuesday and Friday mornings, with exploration often extending into local woodland in all weather. Pinsley Woods provides a named setting for this learning, with access permitted by the Blenheim Palace estate. Natural materials and activities such as balancing on a log bring movement, conversation and discovery together. Families choosing particular mornings are also choosing whether these sessions form part of their child’s attendance.

Children choose between indoor and outdoor activities. Outside, a mud kitchen, water play, sand pit, raised stage areas and equipment for building structures give them opportunities to mix, perform and construct.

Meadows Veggie Garden adds space for exploration, play and growing. The Sharing Library lets children borrow books for family reading, extending their enjoyment of stories beyond the pre-school day.

In October 2021, litter picking, shopping visits and meeting people of different ages connected learning with local life. Foods and stories introduced children to different cultures.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person who undertakes observations, assesses development and makes an individual plan. The arrangement gives responsibility for following a child’s learning to a particular practitioner. Parents are treated as participants in the setting, with opportunities to be informed, consulted and involved, so the relationship extends beyond handing over a child at the beginning of a session.

In October 2021, newcomers spent time with their key staff to build familiarity. Practitioners also stayed alongside younger children who were interested in an activity but needed help to begin. For families with a child who watches before joining in, that dated account offers a concrete example of how adults supported participation.

A whiteboard in the entrance and cloakroom shares the day’s activities, giving families a starting point for conversations about their child’s day.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The staff structure includes designated safeguarding lead and SENCo roles. Autism-awareness and wellbeing training also feature in staff development. These are specific arrangements and training topics, rather than a blanket assurance about the support any individual child will receive.

Individual planning is intended to support personal development and the eventual move to school. In daily play, children are helped to build on what they already know and can do. The key person uses observations and assessments to plan for each child’s learning.

Parents supply a packed lunch, while the pre-school supplies snacks in the morning and afternoon; for funded attendance, a voluntary consumables contribution supports snacks and enrichment. At snack time, children practise pouring drinks and preparing food with staff assistance, giving everyday eating a practical role in developing independence.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 33 Norridge Way, Long Hanborough, OX29 8FL. Attendance follows school terms, generally matching Hanborough Manor School’s calendar, although inset days do not always coincide. This is a calendar arrangement, rather than a published school-admissions pathway.

Morning sessions run from 8.30am to 11.30am, and afternoons from 12.15pm to 3.15pm, Monday to Friday. Full Day Care with funded hours runs from 9.15am to 3.15pm; the chargeable extended full day starts at 8.30am and finishes at 3.15pm. The different starts matter when fitting attendance around a family’s working day.

Separate extensions cover 8.30am to 9.15am for morning or full-day attendance, and 11.30am to 12.15pm for afternoon-only attendance. Lunch Club runs from 11.30am to 12.15pm and can be added to either a morning or afternoon session. Children may use their six funded hours continuously, without a break.

The minimum booking is two sessions weekly. Booked sessions cannot be exchanged, although additional sessions may be accommodated on an ad hoc basis. That distinction matters for changing work patterns: flexibility here means potentially adding attendance, rather than moving an existing booking to another day.

Enquiries can be made by email to hanboroughmeadowsoffice@gmail.com. Uniform is optional, and each child receives a personalised book bag on their first day. Children need footwear reserved for indoor use, a small but useful preparation detail for families organising what to bring.

Funding and Paid Extras

The setting offers 15 hours funding for all three- and four-year-olds from the term following their third birthday, and 30 funded hours for eligible children of those ages from the same point. Eligible two-year-olds can receive 15 hours. Delivery is term-time, with additional private attendance and chargeable extensions alongside funded hours; entitlement should not be read as a promise of eligibility or a particular booking.

A voluntary consumables contribution applies per session to funded children and supports snacks, enrichment, outings and transport for trips. Its uses include visiting music, dance and cycling sessions. The contribution is therefore separate from funded hours, rather than part of an all-inclusive funded offer.

Lunch Club carries a separate charge for children aged three and five receiving funded hours, with two-year-olds and children receiving Early Years Pupil Premium excluded from that charge. Parents still bring the packed lunch. Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation; the session and funding terms explain the attendance and contribution structure.

• Term-time planning. Dates generally follow Hanborough Manor School, but inset days can differ. Families coordinating siblings’ calendars should allow for that distinction.
• Session size. The home-page session cap is 18 children, while the session terms give 20. Ask which cap applies to the sessions you are considering; neither figure is the whole-setting capacity of 24.
• Teaching and assessment. The October 2021 improvement points concerned matching group activities to children’s next learning steps and checking what they remembered. During a visit, ask how these now shape group teaching and individual planning.
• Fixed bookings and woodland mornings. Sessions cannot be swapped, and Forest Rangers runs on Tuesdays and Fridays. Choose the regular pattern with both the woodland programme and the two-session weekly minimum in mind.

Hanborough Meadows suits families seeking morning or afternoon sessions, as well as those wanting a full day within a term-time timetable. Forest Rangers at Pinsley Woods, woodworking with real tools and the Sharing Library give that choice substance: outdoor exploration, practical activity and family reading each have a clear place.

The Good judgement from October 2021 provides a dated quality reference, with teaching and assessment improvement points that deserve attention alongside it. The strongest fit is for families who value child-led exploration and can work with fixed session bookings and school-term attendance. Those practical boundaries should carry as much weight as the appeal of the woodland programme.