Plans approved for Horsham village nursery

Secret Garden Childcare has announced that its planning application to construct a new building in Slinfold has been approved by Horsham District Council.

The new facilities will enable a significant expansion in its highly successful summer holiday childcare service, summer school at Secret Garden.

Lucinda Hill-Chambers, principal of the nursery, said: “The new building will allow us to provide an additional 15 places and offer up to 30 hours of funded (‘free entitlement’) hours for the over threes.”

The new pre-school operation will be run by qualified teachers and will focus on outdoor learning and school readiness.

Farm school (animal care, growing vegetables and more) and forest school (den building, bridge building and more) activities including daily outings are a key part of the Secret Garden programme, along with drama, dance and music workshops.

Secret Garden Childcare is an early years day nursery setting based in Slinfold, near Horsham.

The site is five acres in size and boasts its own farm and woodland.

Secret Garden was established in 2015, originally as a childminding service.

The business has grown to become a successful day care operation providing a high quality service to families and children from six months to school age.