Rave reviews from parents earn dedicated Brookham Nursery a place in the top 20 nurseries in the south-east of England.
A thriving nursery in Hampshire has earned another glowing endorsement – having been named as one of the top 20 nurseries in South-East England by daynurseries.co.uk. Brookham School – the nursery and pre-prep element of the prestigious Highfield and Brookham Schools in Liphook – earned the accolade as one of the very best nurseries in the south-east on the back of a wealth of successful parental reviews.
In fact one delighted mum with older school-age children said that her family would even have “moved out of London earlier” had they known about the delightful Nursery on the leafy borders of Surrey, Hampshire and West Sussex.
It comes as another huge seal of approval for Brookham headteacher Sophie Baber and her skilled, popular and caring team of teachers and assistants.
“We are absolutely delighted to have been named among the Top 20 nurseries in the South East, but what makes it particularly special is that the reviews have come from parents of our pupils, so there really can be no better endorsement,” said Mrs Baber, who has been the headteacher at Brookham School for the past six years.
“There’s an awful lot of competition out there when it comes to top-quality nursery provision, so it’s hugely important that we stay ahead of the curve and continue to offer our children a varied, interesting, thought-provoking and fun education. Happy children equals happy parents, and the positive response we continue to have from our parents suggests that we are very much on the right track.”
One reviewer on the daynurseries.co.uk website said: “I can’t rate the nursery highly enough. My son was quite a little monkey when he started and yet [Brookham] welcomed him with nothing but kindness, support and love. The facilities and opportunities for the children are amazing. I just wish we’d known about it for my older two. We would have moved out of London earlier for them to attend!”
Another happy mum described Brookham Nursery as ‘phenomenal’ with a curriculum ‘second to none’ which includes swimming, ballet, Spanish, sport, art and music, and plenty of time in the fresh air in the school’s 175-acre grounds, with the undoubted highlight being Brookham’s very own ‘exceptional’ Forest School.
And she added that it was ‘virtually unheard of’ for a nursery to have such a high level of pastoral care and facilities and that ‘no London nursery school could compare’.
Such is the regard in which Brookham is held that it currently boasts its highest number of young pupils since its inception in 1992. To meet the ever-growing demand, two existing rooms have been renovated to create a large new nursery room with its own dedicated garden. The refurbishment ensures that class sizes don’t increase and that staff-to-child ratios remain low.
As far as education goes, Highfield and Brookham’s ethos is simple – if it doesn’t benefit the children, they don’t do it. Meta-cognition is at the heart of the educational approach, raising awareness of a child’s own thought process as they discover how to learn effectively, a skill that will stay with them on every step of their learning journey. And the schools never rest on their laurels, they are always looking at ways in which they can make their teaching more effective. Like the children, the schools are always learning too.
One key area is teaching language, with teachers never dumbing down language and using it to challenge children to really think and spark their imaginations with simple but highly-effective phrases such as ‘I wonder…’ and ‘tell me more…’. The result is vibrant classrooms, a truly healthy sign of learning.
Brookham has long championed its extensive Forest School and child-initiated learning to build independent thinking and develop future skills, but the school is constantly looking to evolve and provide new opportunities for its children. As a result, there’s time in every lesson for children to demonstrate their independence, to give voice to their inner curiosities and not simply accept what is told to them. They are encouraged to think, asking ‘why?’, ‘how?’, ‘what for?’.
And a wonderful ‘playground pals’ scheme was introduced when the children returned to school in March in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Empowered with a sense of responsibility these children have been learning lifelong values of empathy, care and reflection as they lookout for their classmates at break times.
These are just some of the many and varied reasons why Brookham Nursery has earned a place in the top echelon of nurseries in the south-east – reasons which have clearly struck a chord with a great many parents over the years.
And that’s a sentiment firmly endorsed by this mum, who said: “I couldn’t ask for any more, idyllic in every respect. My husband and I are truly delighted with the school and its teachers and feel our children are experiencing a childhood which is really rather special.”
Find out more about Highfield and Brookham Schools.
