Garden Cottage Nursery School is an 'Outstanding' (Ofsted) Child Care Setting, nestled in the beautiful South Downs, we are open for children aged 2-5 years old and we are located within the beautiful grounds of Highden Farm next to Windlesham House School.

The recent addition of a new sensory room, greenhouse and garden  have allowed us to create a flourishing vegetable patch where children explore and develop their senses and skills whilst enjoying the fruits of their labours at snacktime.

We like to extend into our community by supporting local and national charities, with the children themselves raising funds and participating in the events. Our most recent events having been dress-up days, summer fun day, harvest festival, bonfire night and our "Carols round the tree" being hugely successful.

Our philosophy and the aim of our nursery is to give your child the very best start possible to their school life. The nursery aims are as follows:

To provide a friendly, happy and stimulating environment for children from 2 to 5 years old in the attractive grounds of Highden Farm on the South Downs;

• Create and develop a caring, welcoming community for pre-school children which will enable them to feel happy, secure and special;
• Work closely with parents and provide a broad and balanced curriculum which fosters the intellectual, emotional, physical, moral, social and cultural development of children;
• Enable children to make an effective transition from home to school;
• Help the children become familiar with classroom routines;
• Develop independence and decision-making skills;
• Prepare children for a smooth and easy transition to mainstream education.

All this will be achieved by providing child-centred activities which:

• Stimulate children's creativity;
• Enrich their language and literacy development;
• Form the basis for mathematical understanding;
• Encourage the children to observe and find out about the world around them, thus developing their curiosity to ask questions;
• Encourage development of manipulative skills;
• Enable children to come to terms with their own lives and express their feelings.

Children learn about themselves and their world through concrete first hand experiences which include carefully directed play and the purposeful use of language as a tool for thinking about, exploring and expressing ideas.To make sure that this is achieved everything in the classroom (both indoors and outdoors) to the curriculum has been developed with early years learning in mind.

We aim to produce an atmosphere where children can learn and have fun in unrivalled surroundings, with friendly caring staff. We are looking forward to working with you and your children to give them an exceptional start in life and all the skills necessary to succeed.

We at Garden Cottage Nursery like to extend our community to support charities, whether local or national, with the children themselves being involved. We do this in different ways - for example dressing up, performing, parents' evening, summer fairs etc.

We also encourage the children in the performing arts. Every year we have Christmas nativities and summer concerts. This is especially good the childrens' confidence and self-esteem.