My Little Explorers Forest Nursery

What it’s like

A daily nursery where under-fives spend their time outdoors, building dens, climbing trees and cooking on a campfire.

This is a nursery that lives outside. Instead of a classroom, the children have a meadow to play in and woods to walk through, and the days are built around den building, tree climbing and campfire cooking rather than sitting at a table. For a two-year-old that might mean pottering about the meadow; for a four or five-year-old it's more likely to mean an actual den going up and a proper climb.

It runs daily, 8am to 6pm, for 51 weeks of the year, so it's set up as a real childcare option rather than an occasional day out. That's a long day outdoors for a small child, and one thing worth thinking through is what that looks like in the depths of winter versus a warm July.

Campfire cooking is the bit most children will talk about at home. It's not every nursery that lets a three-year-old near a fire pit, even a supervised one, and it says something about how hands-on the whole setup is. Tree climbing and den building fill in the rest of the day, all outdoors, all weather dependent in the sense that this is where the children actually are, not an indoor backup.

It suits under-fives specifically, with nothing here for school-age children. If you're weighing it up as a nursery rather than a one-off visit, the daily outdoor structure is the whole point rather than an add-on.

Need to know

Best for

0 to 5, with campfire cooking the bit they'll remember

• It's a proper nursery setting, not a drop-in visit, so it runs to daily hours rather than sessions
• Campfire cooking is a real part of the routine, supervised, not just a one-off treat
• Everything is outdoors, so pack for weather rather than expecting an indoor room

Plan your visit

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