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Mud Club at Foresters

Mud Club at Foresters is a pre-school in Bromley for children aged 5 to 10, with 48 registered places. Ofsted report card, 3 July 2026: Strong standard in 4 areas, Expected standard in 2 areas; safeguarding standards met.

Glade off Barnet Wood Road, Foresters, Barnet Wood Road, Bromley, BR2 8HJ

Key facts

Type
Pre-school (Sessional day care) (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
Ages
5 to 10 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
Registered places
48 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
Registered
10 September 2024 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)

Opening hours

Friday : 10:00 - 14:00

Source: Ofsted report, inspection on 3 July 2026

Who runs it

Mud Club at Foresters is run by Mud Club LLP (Ofsted register).

Latest inspection

  • Inclusion: Strong standard
  • Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard
  • Achievement: Strong standard
  • Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard
  • Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard
  • Leadership and governance: Expected standard
  • Safeguarding standards met

Source: Ofsted, inspection on 3 July 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

What it's like to be a child at this setting

Children enjoy freedom to explore at this outdoor setting. They collaborate together as they develop curiosity and discover different ways to learn. For example, children take risks in their play as they explore wood using different tools. They teach each other to be careful as they assess risks, including navigating the stream and crossing safely under the watchful eye of staff. Children learn to negotiate with one another and work together as they solve problems. All children feel equally valued as they share their knowledge and wisdom with others. This gives them confidence and a feeling of success.

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are fully included in all aspects of life in the forest-based setting. Staff create an environment that gives children the space to explore at their own pace. Children feel emotionally secure and happy as they repeat familiar sensory activities that help them to feel calm and manage their emotions. For example, different children bounce on the slack line or swing in the hammock as they develop physical awareness and balance. Leaders ensure that any barriers to attendance and punctuality are anticipated to support all children to access learning.

Children of all ages gain a wealth of skills that help prepare them for future success. For example, children have a wealth of opportunities to talk to adults and their friends as they learn to express themselves. Staff remove barriers for children who find different social situations challenging. They give them the right amount of support to express their needs. Staff tell children stories and hold discussions that allow all children to contribute. Children know that their opinions and feelings are valid. All children are critical-thinkers who feel motivated to discover the answers to questions. This helps them to build the skills they need for their future lives.

What Ofsted found in each area

Inclusion: Strong standard

Staff work diligently with parents to identify barriers to learning and wellbeing for all children. The way they adapt the teaching of rules at the setting is inspiring. Staff teach children to consider how to keep themselves safe in a variety of ways to ensure all children can access activities and understand. For example, children talk about tree-climbing safety and agree on strategies that help them to learn, as well as consider hazards. All children are included and involved in setting the expectations at this outdoor setting. The consistent reinforcement of these rules helps all children to thrive in a safe space.

Staff enable children to access group activities that help them to develop deep concentration skills. They adapt their teaching skilfully to ensure that they consider how best to help each child to focus. This includes choosing the right time and environment for children to sit and concentrate. All children develop deep levels of focus and concentration that they can apply in their learning. Staff work with a range of partners to identify and understand barriers to learning. This includes experts, health professionals and families. They diligently plan activities that focus on gaps in learning to help all children to thrive in all aspects of their learning and development.

Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard

Leaders create a curriculum that motivates children to learn a rich range of skills and knowledge through nature-based play. Staff embed the curriculum consistently, enabling children to develop key knowledge across the early years curriculum. They teach children to develop practical skills that help them to apply mathematical knowledge as they cook, exploring herbs and plants to make potions. Children explore measuring, estimating and a rich understanding of how things work.

Staff encourage children to think, describe what they know and can do, and celebrate their success. Staff carefully balance creating a flexible curriculum that enables children to make choices while ensuring that children complete important tasks that help them learn, for example, listening to stories and speaking to adults. Children enjoy spending time building on projects such as weaving creations and exploring colours. Staff give children exceptional levels of support and time to extend what they know and can do. Children get to repeat and reinforce activities that strengthen their skills. They feel confident to share these with other children and show them how to use equipment patiently and safely. All children show they feel motivated and excited as they explore the setting.

Achievement: Strong standard

Children feel consistently emotionally secure and confident in the environment. They receive embedded support that helps them to develop social skills. All children become curious learners who enjoy increasingly tricky physical tasks. For example, children build fundamental physical skills as they climb trees at their own pace. They talk to each other about how to stay safe as they decide which branches are suitable to climb under the watchful guidance of staff. Children build an impressive set of physical skills that help them to build strength, balance and coordination.

Children enjoy high-quality interactions of staff that are embedded throughout the setting so that at all times of the day. For example, children enjoy asking staff questions as they work things out. Children enjoy negotiating with friends and develop the social skills they need to take the lead in their own play. All children achieve well across the areas of learning; they gain a strong foundation of skills and knowledge in preparation for their future lives.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard

Leaders establish positive routines for all children that support them to access the curriculum consistently. Staff carefully consider the additional support that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities need to learn. For example, they encourage children with barriers to their wellbeing to make decisions about routines that promote positive behaviours. This includes encouraging children to say when they are hungry or need to rest. This flexibility is embedded by all staff and allow children to learn about their behaviour and how routines support them to feel good about themselves.

Children build exceptionally positive relationships with staff who know them well. Staff select activities that children feel excited about. For example, they recognise when children show an interest in birds and plan creative opportunities for them to express this through activities. Children focus consistently well as they spend time on their creations. They develop a positive self-image, celebrating their unique personalities as they share what they know and can do. Staff take steps to mitigate barriers to attendance and plan a curriculum around children who attend flexibly, including those who attend one session per week. This ensures that all children access a full curriculum.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard

Staff place children's mental health and wellbeing at the heart of their practice. This means that children's wellbeing needs are met well. Staff work with parents and partners to promote children's wellbeing and consider the background experiences of all children to inform their practice. Staff focus on supporting children's physical health and this is a curriculum priority. This helps children to understand their bodies, and they recognise the importance of physical exercise and spending time in the fresh air. For example, staff teach children to use equipment as they move across the forest, including using beams and plants to balance. All children are happy and motivated learners.

Staff take steps to teach children about a healthy diet through cooking activities. For example, they teach them about herbs and plants and how these can be used to promote health in different ways. However, staff do not enable all children to consistently apply this knowledge outside of the setting. For example, some children do not recognise which foods are nutritionally healthy. As a result, opportunities for children to develop life-long healthy habits are not yet fully embedded.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

Leaders are reflective of their practice. They work together to regularly review policies and procedures that enable the smooth running of the setting. Leaders engage with parents well. They give parents information about children's learning that helps them to extend their learning at home. Staff consider the learning experiences of children to enhance their curriculum. For example, they work with parents of children with gaps in their learning and wellbeing to understand and address these barriers. Leaders regularly ask for feedback to help inform their decisions. This includes working with external experts to support planning and development in the setting to promote children's learning. Leaders consider staff wellbeing, they help staff to feel able to come to them with any concerns or issues. This helps all staff to feel valued.

Leaders undertake training to enhance their own practice. They work with staff to ensure they understand the curriculum and what it means in practice. Leaders generally promote staff's ongoing development through discussions about training, relevant to their knowledge and skills. However, opportunities for leaders to support all staff to consistently benefit from professional development opportunities setting are limited. As a result, not all staff are able to develop their knowledge and skills over time.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

  • Leaders should further develop how they enable all staff to access professional development opportunities to consistently develop their teaching skills.
  • Leaders should develop how staff teach children to make healthy choices to support their life-long wellbeing.

Ofsted's words, from the report on the inspection on 3 July 2026. Read the full report on the Ofsted website. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Ofsted report cards (England, from November 2025)

Since 10 November 2025 Ofsted has graded nurseries and pre-schools on a report card. There is no single overall grade. Instead, each of six areas gets one of five grades: Exceptional, Strong standard, Expected standard, Needs attention, Urgent improvement.

The six areas are inclusion; curriculum and teaching; achievement; behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines; children's welfare and wellbeing; leadership and governance. Safeguarding is judged on its own, as met or not met.

Expected standard means the setting does what Ofsted expects of every setting. Strong standard and Exceptional are above that; Needs attention and Urgent improvement mean Ofsted found things the setting has to put right.

Source: Ofsted reports

Funded childcare hours in England

All 3 and 4 year olds in England can get 15 hours of free childcare a week, for 38 weeks of the year.

Working parents of children aged 9 months to 4 years old can get 30 hours of free childcare a week for 38 weeks of the year (Free Childcare for Working Parents), if they meet the earnings rules. You confirm your details every 3 months.

Some 2 year olds can get 15 hours a week when the family gets certain kinds of extra support.

The hours are used at a registered provider that offers them, so ask each nursery how it offers the funded hours.

Source: GOV.UK: Free Childcare for Working Parents, check if you're eligible · GOV.UK: Free childcare and education for 2 to 4 year olds (checked 31 October 2026)

Other nurseries nearby

  • Little Sunshine's Bromley - Day nursery, Bromley BR2 8HQ, ages 1 to 4, 50 places, 0.2 miles
    Ofsted report card, 31 March 2026: Strong standard in 1 area, Expected standard in 5 areas; safeguarding standards met
  • Pink Elephants Nursery Pre School - Pre-school, Bromley BR2 8HQ, ages 1 to 4, 24 places, 0.2 miles
    Ofsted report card, 30 January 2026: Expected standard in 1 area, Needs attention in 5 areas; safeguarding standards met
  • LITTLE CURIOSITIES - Pre-school, Bromley BR2 8LB, ages 2 to 4, 25 places, 0.6 miles
    Ofsted, 6 March 2023: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
  • Diddy Dinos Keston - Pre-school, Keston BR2 6BN, ages 2 to 4, 35 places, 0.7 miles
    Ofsted report card, 10 July 2026: Strong standard in 2 areas, Expected standard in 4 areas; safeguarding standards met
  • St Mary's Pre-school Playgroup - Pre-school, Hayes BR2 7BA, ages 2 to 4, 48 places, 0.9 miles
    Ofsted, 4 October 2023: Outstanding overall; safeguarding is effective

Schools nearby

Mud Club at Foresters on the Ofsted website