We have a spacious outdoor adventure playground, with large structures including two camps, and four swings of differing designs. We also have a goat: Cocoa. Many of our children have no opportunity to keep pets of their own and keeping animals onsite allows them an interaction they would otherwise lack; participation in the care of the goat teaches them about the responsibilities involved in looking after a animal. We no longer have rabbits because of the foxes in the area. But we do have a squirrel who runs free called George, and a family of magpies, who visit Cocoa daily.
At the back of the building there is a quiet garden with an area we are developing as a 'grow it yourself' veggie garden and nature pond. Directly outside the building we have a small concrete play area where the children can play games such as Champ, badminton, volleyball and cricket. We have access to a sports pitch which forms part of Hornimans Pleasance park and is used at agreed times with the park keeper.
The building itself consists of one large main hall, an art room, office, store room, Mentor room, toilets for boys and girls and a disabled toilet with shower. We also have a bright and cheerful kitchen where many a cooking clubs takes place during the holiday periods and also a daily healthy eating tuck shop run by Tuck Shop T.
Hornimans provides the children an opportunity to learn and develop in their own time, offering planned activities alongside free play, which enables the children to build self confidence, to embrace different cultures, test their abilities and facilitate learning in a formal/informal way. Our activities take into consideration inclusion and the mixed ability levels of our children and are flexible enough for a child to develop at their own pace and feel justly proud of personal achievements made.
All children have choice and control over what they learn and have fun whilst being at Hornimans. Residential's and off site trips also provide the children with new experiences in new environments to build on life skills and allow them to be challenged in various ways.
Our centre offers opportunities for school aged children to develop their self esteem, physical strength, personal development and growth by adventure play and activities provided. The children have a sense of achievement, develop social and personal skills through our broad range of activities, trips off site and free play. We acknowledge the child’s right to develop through their own social interactions, to play alone or with others. We inspire children’s imaginations through a stimulating, interesting environment: play structures and a building which caters to their needs in different ways.
Staff are in the office from 11am
From 3,30pm the playground is open to the children and you can leave a message on the answer machine and one of the staff will get back to you as soon as we can. The office phone and answer machine is NOT for leaving messages for your children unless it is really important.
All children must be registered to be able to use the playground. and your child MUST be aged 5 yrs from the 1st September following their fifth birthday to register. If you pop into the playground one of the team will give you a registration form to fill in. This must be signed by the legal guardian of the child/ren. If your child is aged 11 years + please make sure you come to the playground with them to register. It's nice for staff to meet the parents and to ensure that you know your child is being registered here at
All photographs on this web site are used with permission of parents.
Charity Number: 802220
If you're sales please do not use the numbers on this site to cold call.
