Together we learn

Our Nursery

Where confident, curious children begin.At Highfield School, Nursery is where we lay the foundations for every child’s future. Set within 175 acres of stunning grounds in the South Downs National Park, on the borders of Hampshire, Surrey and West Sussex, our independent nursery welcomes children from age two into a calm, spacious and expertly staffed setting that’s part of a wider school community

Three things set our Nursery apart:

Specialist teachers and coaches. Our children are taught by specialist teachers in Swimming, Gymnastics, Spanish, PE, Music and Forest School, alongside a Nursery Manager who is herself a qualified teacher.
Carefully designed environments. Our environment, indoors and out, is designed around how young children learn best. Inside is calm and neutral to reduce cognitive load. Outside is purposefully challenging to build resilience through managed risk.
Part of a wider school community. Because Highfield Nursery is part of the wider school, our youngest children enjoy opportunities most standalone nurseries cannot offer – helping build school readiness long before they start Reception.

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It is a phenomenal nursery school. The children are given so many opportunities to grow, explore and develop, with amazing staff, fabulous facilities and a first-rate approach to learning and childcare.

Nursery parent

Why Choose Highfield Nursery?

We know choosing a nursery is one of the biggest decisions a family makes, so here’s what we can tell you honestly, backed by evidence:

Families rate us. We hold a 10 out of 10 rating across 65 independent parent reviews on daynurseries.co.uk.
Families stay. Our retention rate from Nursery into Reception is 86%, and rising. 56% of our nursery families first heard about us through word of mouth, and 100% say they’d recommend us.
Families notice the difference. Several of our children joined us after starting at another nursery, and their families chose to move them here full time.

Our Nursery Rooms

Nursery is organised into three distinct rooms, each matched to your child’s age and stage of development. For much of the day, children enjoy free-flow movement across all three rooms and our shared outdoor provision. Older children build empathy looking out for their younger peers, while younger children learn by watching and following their older role models. This mixed-age approach gives children daily opportunities to learn from one another, building skills that support them throughout their Early Years.

The Den (Early Nursery, from age 2)

From age two, children join The Den, our Early Nursery room, a dedicated space for developing communication, creativity and resilience at their own pace. The Den also gives our youngest children a quiet space to sleep after lunch, while older peers carry on exploring elsewhere.

Meadows (Middle Nursery, from age 3)

When they turn three, and when they are developmentally ready, children move up to Meadows, our Middle Nursery room, where independence and curiosity continue to flourish.

Woodlands (Pre-school, final year before Reception)

In the year before starting school, children progress to Woodlands, our Pre-School room, where the focus turns towards a confident transition into Reception. Story time becomes longer, while Phonics and early Maths take on a clearer focus. This helps children develop the confidence and school readiness they need for the next stage.

Our Specialist Teachers and Curriculum

Children follow the Early Years Foundation Stage through a balance of child-initiated exploration, carefully planned adult guidance and specialist teaching. The curriculum grows from what children notice and care about, while ensuring they develop the communication, early literacy, mathematical understanding and physical skills needed for the next stage. This isn’t about rushing children through Nursery. It’s about guiding them towards Reception at a pace that gently challenges and appropriately supports them

Our nursery children are also taught Swimming, Gymnastics, Spanish, Music and Forest School by five specialist teachers, who teach throughout the whole school. This gives children access to specialist teaching from the very beginning of their Early Years education, an opportunity rarely found in a nursery. A child practising gymnastics in Nursery may well be taught by the same teacher they have in Year 2. This continuity means teachers aren’t starting from scratch each September; they build a deep, multi-year understanding of your child’s progress.

Qualified Early Years Leadership

Our Nursery Manager and Head of EYFS are both qualified teachers, bringing pedagogical knowledge and expertise in curriculum design and assessment- the same expertise that shapes teaching across the school. This means the person leading Highfield Nursery understands not only how to care for young children, but also how they learn and develop.

Staff-to-Child Ratios

Our staff-to-child ratios go beyond legal requirements, allowing our team work as genuine learning partners who respond to each child individually. These higher ratios also let us closely supervise managed risk-taking, like climbing, balancing and tool use. Rather than holding children back through caution, we support them to challenge themselves safely and confidently. Our September 2025 ISI inspection confirmed that appropriate staff-to-child ratios are maintained throughout the early years, and that staff are highly responsive to children’s needs and interests

There’s such a happy, calm and nurturing atmosphere. The breadth of opportunities is fantastic. Our son gets to take part in swimming, music, Spanish and forest school

Nursery parent

Our Nursery Environment

Step into Highfield Nursery and the first thing you’ll notice is what’s missing: primary colours, cluttered walls, sensory overload. Our indoor space is deliberately calm and neutral, designed around research into cognitive load- the theory that a busy environment competes for a young child’s attention. We let the children bring the colour and energy, rather than the walls!

Open-Ended Learning

Our space is filled with open-ended learning resources across three spacious rooms, materials that don’t tell a child what to do with them. A toy fire engine is always a fire engine. But a pile of building blocks might become a castle, a police car, or a bridge to escape a troll. Children decide what they play with, where, and how, building resourcefulness and wonder from the start. Our ISI inspection found that child-initiated activities support and develop independent learning skills from an early age.

Our carefully planned provision gives children the chance to take risks at our woodworking bench. They get messy in our tuff trays, building vocabulary through hands-on sensory exploration. They cook courgette fritters from courgettes grown in our own kitchen garden, a taste of garden-to-table from the very start. They curl up with a favourite book in the reading corner, then act it out with puppets. And there’s no shortage of creativity beyond that either, from outdoor painting easels to cutting-and-sticking collage.

Our Nursery Garden

Every nursery room has direct access to our garden, available throughout the day, whatever the weather. In fact, it’s often busiest when it’s raining. Puddles, the mud kitchen and the sandpit after a downpour are some of our children’s favourite classrooms. Our philosophy is one of high expectations within a carefully curated risk-taking environment. We don’t remove challenge, we scaffold it.

The garden has been designed to offer challenge rather than remove it. We deliberately kept the ground uneven so children can practise balance and gross motor control across different surfaces. The mud kitchen uses a water pump instead of a tap, so children have to work out how to access the water. Buckets and pulleys introduce forces through real experience, while weaving frames and upright drawing boards strengthen the muscles needed for early writing.

This kind of purposeful risk-taking is central to how we help children grow. We want children to have a go, get things wrong, and build the resilience to try again. Genuine free-flow between all three rooms and the garden is made possible by staffing structures that support it safely and consistently, holding high expectations for children while keeping them safe.

Beyond the Nursery Classroom

Just beyond the Nursery are 175 acres of grounds and woodland, including our dedicated Forest School. Children search for minibeasts, build dens and spend time developing a genuine love of wildlife only a short walk from the classroom door.Our ISI inspection noted that staff encourage pupils to develop and reflect upon their connection with nature from the early years.

Because our nursery sits within Highfield School, our youngest children get access to a breadth of experience most nurseries can’t provide. Aswell as weekly swimming lessons in the school pool and gymnastics in the main hall, they take part in Sports Day, perform their Nativity in our own theatre, eat lunch in the main school dining room, and visit our Forest School in the school’s own grounds. All of this happens on one site, just a short totter from their classroom, so two and three-year-olds get the rhythms of school life long before they join Reception. This makes the transition feel entirely natural, rather than a daunting first step through a new gate.

The Nursery is completely on my team, and I feel like we are in it together, raising my child to be happy, independent, confident and academically able.

Nursery Parent

Pastoral Care and Wellbeing

Every child’s emotional wellbeing is tracked weekly, allowing our team to notice and support a child well before a small worry becomes a big one. Our Head of Pre-Prep and EYFS runs small pastoral groups from Nursery age, teaching children the tools to understand their own emotions. Parents are kept closely informed too; our ISI inspection confirmed regular contact between staff, parents and carers on progress and wellbeing. Find out more about our whole-school approach to pupil care.

Nursery Opening Hours and Fees

Highfield Nursery is open for 34 weeks of the school year, with an optional additional 11 weeks during the school holidays.

We welcome children from age two, attending a minimum of two mornings per week. In their final Nursery year, children attend a minimum of three mornings per week with lunch, helping build readiness for the transition to Reception.

Session Options

Morning sessions run from 8.20am to 11.20am.Children can stay for lunch (eaten in our main dining hall) and be collected at 12.20pm, or remain for a full day until 3.20pm. Families can choose any available combination of mornings, mornings with lunch and full days sessions, up to five days each week

The Nursery Day

7.30am	Breakfast Club (optional and chargeable)
8.00am	Free before-school care
8.20am	Nursery doors open
11.20am	Morning session ends
11.45am	Lunch
12.20pm	Collection after lunch
3.20pm	Nursery day ends
3.30pm-4.30pm	Stay and Play (optional and chargeable)
4.30pm -6.30pm	After-School Care (optional and chargeable

Drop Off

Doors open for our Nursery children at 8.20am. We know mornings can be busy, with parents juggling drop-offs, work and other commitments, so a calm, stress-free start matters. That’s why we offer an earlier 8am drop-off option at no extra charge.

Many families use our Breakfast Club, open from 7.30am in the main dining hall, with a hot option such as beans on toast alongside cereal, porridge, yoghurt, toast and fresh fruit.

After School

The Nursery day ends at 3.20pm. For a later pick-up, Stay and Play offers a choice of games and activities until 4.30pm. After School Care then runs until 6.30pm, with high tea served at 5pm.

Fees and Funding

Our daily rate is £85.61. Universal 15 hours government funding is available for afternoon sessions for three and four-year-olds, and we accept Tax-Free Childcare and Employer Childcare Vouchers towards fees. Our team is happy to talk you through how this works for your family.

Your child’s next chapter starts here

We’d always recommend visiting before you decide. Come and see the garden, meet the team, and get a feel for the calm of the space for yourself. If you’d like to talk to us about a place for your child, or arrange a visit, our admissions team would love to hear from you.

Request a prospectus

Book a visit

Pre-Prep

Prep School

Admissions

What we’re up to

7 hours ago

What happens when you put a tomato plant in the Curiosity Cube? 🍅 Middle Nursery got straight to work investigating, sparking some wonderfully honest comments: “The seeds inside are squidgy” and “It is green and smells funny!” At this age, curiosity is where so much learning begins. Exploring what’s inside the cube helps our children develop their observation and language skills. It also gives them the confidence to express their ideas – no matter how squidgy the seeds or funny the smell! We wonder what will appear in the cube next… 🔍

9 hours ago

🏆 We’re Mind Champions! We’re incredibly proud to have won the Mind Champion Award at the School House Awards 2026, recognising our commitment to supporting children’s mental health and wellbeing. A huge well done to our wonderful pastoral team and every member of staff who helps make wellbeing part of everyday life at Highfield. Read more via the link in our bio. #IndependentSchool #SchoolHouseAwards2026 #ChildWellbeing #MentalHealth

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9 hours ago

On Friday, our Year 8 pupils heard from Martin Cosser – Charlie’s dad and the founder of Charlie’s Promise, a charity working to fight and prevent knife crime through youth education and community engagement. At Highfield, we want our pupils to grow up with the confidence to make safe, positive choices, and to know it’s always ok to speak up and ask for help when they need it. Today was a brilliant example of that in action. Thank you Martin, for sharing such an important and powerful message with our pupils! 💙

3 days ago

This morning our Year 8 pupils heard from Martin Cosser – Charlie’s dad and the founder of @charliespromisecharity, a charity working to fight and prevent knife crime through youth education and community engagement. At Highfield, we want our pupils to grow up with the confidence to make safe, positive choices, and to know it’s always ok to speak up and ask for help when they need it. Today was a brilliant example of that in action. Thank you Martin, for sharing such an important and powerful message with our pupils! 💙 #HighfieldSchool #Safeguarding #KnifeCrimeAwareness #KeepingChildrenSafe #PositveChoices

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3 days ago

We’re so pleased these special weekly visits are back! Our connection with Liphook Day Centre has grown over many years, giving our children a lovely opportunity to spend time with different generations and play an active part in their local community. 💙

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3 days ago

🏆 We’re Mind Champions! We’re incredibly proud to have won the Mind Champion award at the School House Awards 2026, recognising our work to support children’s mental health and wellbeing. Judge and child psychotherapist Emily Samuel praised “the emphasis Highfield School places not only on supporting children, but also parents and teachers. This is genuinely a whole-community approach to wellbeing.” A huge well done to our brilliant pastoral team and all our staff, who make wellbeing part of everyday life at Highfield. Read more 👇

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4 days ago

Today, we have welcomed our children back through the doors, filling the school once again with the unmistakable energy of Highfield! With everyone together again, now feels like the perfect moment to share something very special: ONE, our new school film. A huge thanks to the exceptionally talented team @bobbicee @nathantheys @rojwhitelockphotography & @fin.bunce for bringing our story to life. 🎬 Discover the story behind ONE and watch the full film in our latest blog via the link in our bio.

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4 days ago

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5 days ago

The final preparations are underway across Highfield. We can’t wait to welcome everyone back tomorrow! 💙

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5 days ago

The final preparations are underway across Highfield. We can’t wait to welcome everyone back tomorrow! 💙 #HighfieldSchool #BacktoSchool #IndependentSchool #September2026

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6 days ago

We’re delighted to feature once again in this year’s Tatler Schools Guide! 👏 “As a truly independent, family-owned prep, Highfield puts its energy into understanding the aspirations of every single child.” A wonderful recognition of what makes Highfield so special.

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6 days ago

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1 weeks ago

We’re counting down to our first Open Morning of the term and the chance to welcome new families through our doors! Book your place here 👉 https://highfieldandbrookham.co.uk/open-morning/

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1 weeks ago

Only a few more days until we welcome everyone back to Highfield! As we prepare to begin our next chapter as Highfield School, we’re also looking forward to opening our doors for our first Open Morning of the term. If you’re considering Highfield for your family, we’d love you to come and spend the morning with us. If you’re already part of our Highfield community and know someone who might love it here too, please spread the word and invite them along. 🔗Book your place via the link in our bio.

350

1 weeks ago

Ending the week on a high! We’re incredibly proud to be one of just five schools shortlisted in the Pastoral Care and Wellbeing category of the @talkeducation Awards for Innovation in Education 2026! 👏 To be recognised for something so central to who we are as a school, alongside others doing such important work in this area, is a wonderful honour. We’ll find out the result on Thursday 10 September, so until then, keep everything crossed for us. 🤞 Read more via the link in our bio. #HighfieldSchool #TalkEducation #TalkEducationAwards #PastoralCare #PupilWellbeing

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1 weeks ago

Happy Friday, everyone! As we get everything ready to welcome our children and families back next week, we’re delighted to end the week on a high… Highfield School has been shortlisted in the Pastoral Care and Wellbeing category of the Talk Education Awards for Innovation in Education 2026! 👏 This recognition celebrates our whole-community approach to wellbeing and the care our staff show every day to ensure that every child is known and supported. We’re incredibly proud to be one of just five schools shortlisted in this category. The winners will be announced on Thursday 10 September. Keep everything crossed for us! 🤞

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2 weeks ago

We’re in The Times! @thetimes 🗞️ Our Head of Pre-Prep and Early Years, Georgie Hunter, shares her expertise in a thoughtful piece about helping August-born children thrive in Reception, with Highfield parent Olivia Watkins also offering her perspective as a mum. As Georgie explains, what matters most is seeing the individual child, rather than making assumptions based on their birthday. Read more via the link in our bio

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2 weeks ago

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2 weeks ago

An important update from us on how we’ll be sharing school life online going forward. Swipe to find out more. ➡ #HighfieldSchool #DigitalResponsibility #OnlineSafety #ResponsibleSharing #LeadingWithCare

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2 weeks ago

Over the past few weeks, we’ve loved sharing our next chapter as Highfield School with you. Alongside our new look, we’ve also been thinking carefully about how we share school life here. As the digital world evolves, we’re adapting our approach to sharing photographs and videos, with the privacy of the children in our care at its heart. This means we’re moving away from publishing clear, identifiable photos of children’s faces on our public digital channels. We know how much you love seeing your child in a school photograph. Those glimpses into their day matter, especially when they capture moments you can’t be there for. You’ll still see plenty of life at Highfield here, as we find creative ways to capture the moments that make our school so special. There is so much to share, and we’re looking forward to showing it to you through a slightly different lens. Please do take a few minutes to read our blog. This is an important change for our school community, and the article explains why we’re making it and what it means for the photographs you’ll see and receive.

150

2 weeks ago

We’re incredibly proud of our maths and sports teacher, @sumattingly, who has been representing South Africa at the Masters Hockey World Cup in Belgium! 🏑 Three World Cups and still loving the game she first played at school. Who better to inspire our next generation of hockey players here at Highfield? 🔗Read more about Su’s World Cup experience via the link in our bio.

562

2 weeks ago

When is a summer-born child ready to start school? It’s a question many families find themselves considering. We’re delighted to see Highfield featured in The Times in a thoughtful piece about helping August-born children thrive as they start Reception. Our Head of Pre-Prep and Early Years, Georgie Hunter, shares her expertise, while Highfield parent Olivia Watkins offers her perspective as a mum. As Georgie explains, what matters most is seeing the individual child in front of us, rather than making assumptions based on when they were born. 👉 Read the full article below.

2 weeks ago

We’re incredibly proud of our maths and sports teacher, Su Mattingly, who has been representing South Africa at the Masters Hockey World Cup in Belgium! 🏑 What an experience to bring back and share with the young players she coaches here at Highfield. Read more 👇

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2 weeks ago

And here it is… our new Highfield School logo. 🗝️💚 A new identity for the next chapter of our story, rooted in more than a century of Highfield history. At its heart are our familiar cross keys, a symbol that has been part of Highfield for generations, now enclosed within a circle to represent us coming together as one. One Story. One Purpose. One Highfield.

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2 weeks ago

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Together we learn

Nursery

Our Nursery

Why Choose Highfield Nursery?

Our Nursery Rooms

The Den (Early Nursery, from age 2)

Meadows (Middle Nursery, from age 3)

Woodlands (Pre-school, final year before Reception)

Our Specialist Teachers and Curriculum

Qualified Early Years Leadership

Staff-to-Child Ratios

Our Nursery Environment

Open-Ended Learning

Our Nursery Garden

Beyond the Nursery Classroom

Pastoral Care and Wellbeing

Nursery Opening Hours and Fees

Session Options

The Nursery Day

Drop Off

After School

Fees and Funding

Your child’s next chapter starts here

Pre-Prep

Prep School

Admissions

What we’re up to

view all news

view all news