Welcome to our newest nursery, Little Forest Folk Winkworth!
Our newest nursery - open January 2025!
We’re excited to have opened our eighth nursery in wonderful Surrey! We are based within the stunning grounds of the National Trust Winkworth Arboretum in Godalming, Surrey, which is ideally located with good access for families from the local area, such as Guildford, Goldalming, Witley, Milford & Cranleigh.
We’re building on our 10 years of experience running fully outdoor forest nurseries in SW London to bring our forest school provision to this wonderful National Trust setting. We are passionate about providing an opportunity for our Little Forest Folk-ers to run, jump, explore and play in nature, as they learn about the world around them & become creative, resilient little learners. We are so proud to be able to provide this offering in such a unique setting, aided by our brilliant forest educators, in a ratio of 1 educator, to 4 children, at all times and for all ages.
A typical day at Little Forest Folk WINKWORTH
Our Full Day & Morning children start the day at our bespoke indoor space, in a converted cottage. We welcome children here when they are dropped off in the mornings and they will be able to enjoy lots of free play time both in our indoor space and its connected garden. Our little ones enjoy a hearty, nutritious breakfast to prepare them for a day of fun and physical activity in the great outdoors, before getting their waterproof gear on in preparation for heading to our outside location, ready for our adventures to begin!
Each day we have unrestricted access to the 95 acres of grounds within the arboretum. We set up camp at a variety of locations within the grounds where we enjoy hours of outdoor play time alongside the nature around us. Our base camp is made up of a cosy sleeping tent, a nappy changing tent, a toilet tent and a hand washing station.
Activities for the day range from treasure hunts, bug hunts, building dens & climbing trees, along with learning tool work skills & fire safety. There is mountains of creative play, story telling, mark making and forest mathematics (counting leaves, acorns, feathers, dividing, sharing, combining) in the forest. On Fridays we have Wild Cooking Fridays, exploring all things food related and honing our little chef skills.
We enjoy our morning snack and lunch out in the forest around our friendly snack circle. After lunch we are joined by our Afternoon friends, who join us for lots more playtime, plus afternoon snack around our snack circle. Towards late afternoon we start to make our way back to our base at the cottage, where we enjoy a delicious dinner, either indoors, or in our cottage garden. Here we take the time to reflect upon our day and discuss with the children what they enjoyed the most, using these discussions to help us plan our activities for the next day.
Sessions available at Little Forest Folk WINKWORTH
There are three options for attending Little Forest Folk Winkworth, Full Days, all year round (51 weeks), 8:00am to 6:00pm, and Half Days 51 weeks of the year, which can either be Morning Sessions (8:00am-1:00pm) or Afternoons Sessions (1:00pm-6:00pm).
Our Full Days include, Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, plus Morning & Afternoon Snack. Morning sessions include, Breakfast & Lunch, plus Morning Snack, Afternoon sessions include Afternoon Snack, plus Dinner.
We ask for a minimum commitment of at least two days per week per child and children can only join us in the forest once they have turned 2.
Our first intake is confirmed for January 2025!
Our waiting lists for 2025 & 2026 are open for families to sign up for a place
Location
Winkworth Arboretum, Hascombe Road, Godalming, Surrey, GU8 4AD
We are thrilled that we have the unique opportunity for our Little Forest Folk-ers to be based all day in the grounds of the stunning National Trust Winkworth Arboretum!
Our Full Day & Morning children start the day at our bespoke indoor space, in a converted cottage amidst the arboretum, which benefits from also having a lovely garden outside space on site.
We then head into the forest for the main part of the day, where our Afternoon friends will join us as we explore the wonderful 95 acre Winkworth Arboretum site, with unrestricted access.
Afternoon & Full Day Children then return to our indoor space to end the day.
There is some drop off parking available for families, however this can not be used for all day parking.
Indoor & Outdoor space/full day & Half day Drop off address
Winkworth Arboretum, GU8 4AD
Join Our Team
We have a fantastic manager in place to lead our magical days at Winkworth, who has been working across our sites for the last year. She is supported in the forest by the rest of our super star team!
If you’d like more information on joining us, please contact careers@littleforestfolk.com
“Surely there are few National Trust properties which give more delight to the very young and the very old – with all those in between.”
how do waiting lists work?
If you would like detailed information about how our waiting lists work, please follow the link below.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Have more questions? Visit our FAQ page to find out more about Little Forest Folk and our nurseries.