Our Rooms

From September 2026 Little Lancing will comprise six rooms,

Explorers or The Nest for our youngest children, 2 months to approximately 2 years;
Investigators and Discoverers for active 2 to 3 year olds and
Adventurers and Voyagers for Rising Reception children in their last year of Early Years education at nursery level.

From September 2026 therefore a child’s transition from Explorers or The Nest to Investigators will take place at around their second birthday, following discussion and agreement with parents. They will be looked after using the same staff to child ratio until they turn 2. We arrange for the children to spend some time visiting Investigators and getting to know the staff and their new Key Person before they make the move.

From then on, the two toddler rooms cover this age range. Transitions from Investigators to Discoverers are dependent on various factors and some younger children will spend a whole year in Investigators. Older children may move to Discoverers during the course of the year and children aged 2 years & 6 months who are joining us for the first time are likely to go straight into Discoverers. This is always subject to space being available, so the amount of time a child will spend in either room is not solely dictated by their stage of development, although we will consider transitions, provided we have places available.

From either Investigators or Discoverers, the children will move up each September to our newly configured Rising Reception rooms in the adjoining flint cottage. There are two rooms, Adventurers and Voyagers, in the new space, and the children there will share its separate outdoor play area along with enjoying access to the main nursery garden and Forest School.

Our Rising Reception rooms will be for those children in the same school year cohort who will be spending their last year with us, until they leave us to join a reception class in full-time primary education.

Children may join Little Lancing at any stage in any of our Rooms, subject to space being available. You will find out more about the current Rooms in the sections below. We will be adding information about the new rooms very shortly.