Searching for nurseries in Guildford for your two to five year old? Child's Play Pre-School is a warm, play-based early years setting in GU2, and it is worth knowing how we compare with a typical day nursery.

Nursery or pre-school, what is the difference?

The two words get used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. A day nursery in Guildford usually offers full-day childcare from early morning until early evening, aimed at working parents who need cover for a whole working day.

Child's Play Pre-School is a sessional setting. We offer term time and school hours rather than all-day wraparound care.

If what you need is all-day nursery childcare every day of the week, we may not be the right fit on our own, and we would rather say so now. Plenty of our families combine our sessions with a childminder or a grandparent for the rest of the day. If what you are after is a calm setting with the community around it and a real focus on early education, we would love to show you round.

What our sessions offer

Structured Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) learning, through play
Open 8.30am to 3.45pm
A small, experienced team, with First Aid, SENCO and safeguarding training between them
Forest School, yoga, music and sports sessions built into the week
Free-flow indoor and outdoor play every day

Exact times for every session are on our Sessions & Curriculum page.

Funded hours and fees

Like most nurseries in Guildford, we accept the Government's 15 and 30 funded hours schemes, Funded Early Education for Two-year-olds (FEET), Tax-Free Childcare and childcare vouchers. Current rates, and who is eligible for what, are set out on our Admission & Fees page. If the funding rules are not making sense, ring us: they confuse everybody and we explain them several times a week.

Local to GU1, GU2, GU3 and Godalming

We are at Guildford United Reformed Church, 83 Portsmouth Road, Guildford, GU2 4BS, five minutes' walk from the town centre, and we welcome families from across:

GU1
GU2
GU3
Godalming
The Surrey villages around Guildford

Visit Child's Play Pre-School

Come and see whether our sessional model suits your family better than a traditional Guildford nursery. You can register your interest in a place, or book a visit.

Come and have a look round.

Tell us a little about your child and when you are hoping to start, and we will be in touch to arrange a visit. No obligation, and no waiting list fee.

Support your local independent pre-school

We have been run by the same small team in Guildford since 2008. Child's Play is not part of a nursery chain: there is no head office, no area manager and no shareholders, just the people you meet at the door.

We are one pre-school, not a branch of one. Decisions about your child are made by the people who know your child, in this building, that week.
The same faces every morning. Our team stay for years, which is the thing that matters most to a two-year-old working out whether this is somewhere safe.
Small enough to be flexible. A settling-in visit, an awkward session time or a funding question can be sorted out with us, because there is nobody above us to ask.
We take every kind of Government funding, so choosing an independent pre-school does not cost you more.
A pre-school that closes does not come back. It becomes a church hall that is empty on a Tuesday morning, and the next family has one fewer choice.