Term dates for 2026 to 2027
The full calendar for term-time places, plus the two weeks we close and the five days we do not.
Now taking September places
A small nursery
where the day belongs to the children
Three rooms, a garden used in every weather, and the same faces at the door each morning. Open 7.30am to 6pm for children from three months to school.
Our rooms
Three rooms, and a garden
that counts as a fourth
Saplings, two to three years
Twelve children, three adults, and a room built for people who have just worked out what their hands are for. Sand, water, dough, paint and a door to the garden that stays open.
Acorns, three months to two years
One adult to every three babies. Sleep and feeds follow the pattern you already have at home, not a timetable.
Oaks, three to five years
The preschool room. Mark-making, early numbers, and the small independences that make the first week of school easier.
The garden, every day
Raised beds, a willow tunnel, a mud kitchen and a shed full of waterproofs. Every room goes out twice a day, in every weather except the genuinely dangerous kind.
The short version
What parents usually ask first
51
Weeks a year
We close for a week at Christmas and for bank holidays. Nothing else.
12
Years on Hartfield Road
Opened in 2014 in the old Marbury reading rooms, and still there.
46
Children a day
Three rooms, never more than 46 children, so staff know every family by name.
92%
Stay until school
Most children who start with us in Acorns leave from Oaks in the September they turn five.
Come and see
Come in on a Wednesday
and see an ordinary morning
Visits run at 9.30am and 2pm on Wednesdays, and last about half an hour. No appointment needed for the second Saturday of the month — that is our open morning. Bring your child.
Parents
What families tell us
Collected from the settling-in reviews we ask every family to fill in after a month, and from the leavers’ forms at the end of Oaks.
“Our daughter went in at eleven months clinging to my leg. By the second week she was waving me off from the window.”
Sarah A.
Acorns, then Saplings
“The handover at the door tells me what she actually did, not what the plan was.”
Rob O.
Saplings parent
“We moved to Marbury without knowing anyone. Little Acorns found us a place in six weeks, sorted the funded hours paperwork, and introduced us to two other families on our road. Three years on, both our boys have been through Oaks.”
Nadia K.
Two children, 2023 to now
“They come out muddy most days, which I have decided to take as a good sign.”
Tom H.
Oaks parent
“Our son has a dairy allergy and I spent the first month braced for a mistake. There has not been one. The kitchen prints his menu separately, the room keeps his own set of beakers, and someone always tells me what he actually ate rather than just saying he was fine.”
Claire B.
Saplings parent
“Same three faces in the room since he started. That is the whole review, really.”
Marcus D.
Acorns parent
“Our daughter went in at eleven months clinging to my leg. By the second week she was waving me off from the window.”
Sarah A.
Acorns, then Saplings
“The handover at the door tells me what she actually did, not what the plan was.”
Rob O.
Saplings parent
“We moved to Marbury without knowing anyone. Little Acorns found us a place in six weeks, sorted the funded hours paperwork, and introduced us to two other families on our road. Three years on, both our boys have been through Oaks.”
Nadia K.
Two children, 2023 to now
News
From the noticeboard
outside the Acorns room
Term dates, open mornings, menu changes and the occasional note about nits.
What actually happens in a settling week
Four sessions, one key person and a lot of standing quietly by the door. How we start children who have never been left before.
Mud is part of the curriculum
Why the garden runs in the rain, what we keep in the waterproofs shed, and the one kind of weather that keeps us in.
The kitchen, the four-week menu and the allergy folder
We cook on site for 46 children, 11 of whom cannot eat something. Here is how that works.
Funded hours, without the jargon
Fifteen hours, thirty hours, stretched or term time, and what the consumables charge actually pays for.
September places, and how the waiting list really works
Who gets offered first, how long the wait usually is, and why we will tell you to try elsewhere if we cannot help.