About Us
Little Hedgehogs Day Nursery and Preschool
Little Hedgehogs is an Ofsted registered Early Years setting, providing childcare for children aged 0-4 years old. We are open all year round, closing only for our Christmas holiday and on bank holidays.
We are based in the village of Boreham, Chelmsford, conveniently located less than 3 miles from Hatfield Peverel and less than 5 miles from Chelmsford Town centre.
We offer childcare in an environment that is safe, fun, educational and nurturing.
We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) for all children in our care. The EYFS sets the standards for the learning, development and care of all children from birth to 5 years in England & Wales.
At Little Hedgehogs our aim is to create a calm and nurturing environment. We focus on learning and development through exploration, discovery and growth. We support this through open-ended play combined with a strong curriculum, implemented carefully with well planned adult led activities, tailored to suit our children as individuals.
We spend our day between the house and garden, where we have a vegetable garden, garden hens, two friendly guinea pigs & rabbitt.
The children share the entire setting between them, regardless of their age. We operate a non segregated environment, creating a fully integrated and nurturing family environment. This helps create secure attachments and helps build on speech and language skills and personal, social, emotional development (PSED) development.
The setting
Our spacious setting offers free flowing rooms for the children to explore, a large outdoor area, calm bedroom for sleep & nap times and a large kitchen/dining room. Meal times are a time for us to all sit and eat together.
Our large fully enclosed garden offers a stimulating learning environment, offering lots of outdoor activities, including a large sand-pit, vegetable garden, garden hens, outdoor kitchen and mud play area.
Preschool funding & Extra curricular activities
At Little Hedgehogs we are pleased to be able to offer the 15 hours Universal Funded Early Education Entitlement (FEEE3-4) and the 15 hours Extended Childcare funding. Funding is available to your child in the term following their 3rd birthday. We are also able to offer 2 year old funding.
All of the children, regardless of age, are also invited to join our extra curriculum activities. We currently hold weekly forest school learning and phonics sessions.
Optional uniform
We have an optional uniform to help save your clothes for best.
Please visit the following link for further information. There is also a small selection to choose from for our school leavers.
Testimonials
The provider and staff help children to prepare for the next stage in their learning, such as school. They are in tune with children's emotional, physical and educational needs. Staff prepare detailed summaries of children's development to share with Reception teachers, in partnership with parents. As a result, children experience a seamless move to school.
Ofsted inspector JUNE 2022
Little Hedgehogs is a fantastic setting that enables our daughter to develop her social, mental and physical skills in a safe environment. It is wonderful to see her nurtured and cared for by the Little Hedgehogs team.
Parents of 2 year old.
The team at Little Hedgehogs are fabulous. They treat each child differently, listen, advise, teach and guide them through their early years with patience, kindness and love. My daughter loves the time she spends at Little Hedgehogs and we are excited about our youngest joining soon. I highly recommend Little Hedgehogs to all.
Parents of 4 year old.
Little Hedgehogs has been providing childcare for our son on a full time basis for 6 months now and we could not be happier with the care he is receiving. The team is approachable, caring and professional and we feel completely at ease with leaving our son in their care.
Parent of 14 month old.
