Home Farm Day Nursery

Two acres of private grounds give Home Farm Day Nursery its strongest practical character: space for vegetable growing, a covered outdoor classroom and construction play alongside the rooms indoors. This family-run setting in Lydiate Ash, Bromsgrove, accepts children from 3 months to 5 years. Its outdoor provision gives families a concrete reason to look beyond the nursery’s homely style: children can explore, build and take part in growing things.

At its March 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated Home Farm Good and found safeguarding effective, with children making good progress and an effective key-person system helping them feel secure. The improvement priorities were specific: professional development needed to address individual staff needs more closely, and older children needed more chances to complete everyday tasks independently. Both matter when judging how care translates into learning.

Ducklings, Squirrels, Hedgehogs and Lambs organise the nursery into age-related rooms. Individual routines for the youngest children, play-based planning and a familiar horse character used to discuss worries give the setting an identifiable approach. Opening hours run from 8am to 5.30pm on weekdays, with a requested earlier start possible.

Rooms and Ages

Ducklings takes children from 3 months through the 18/20-month stage, with daily routines tailored to each child’s individual needs. For a baby, that is an important distinction: the starting point is their individual needs. Squirrels follows from 18/20 months to 2.5 years, Hedgehogs covers 2.5 to 3 years, and Lambs takes children from 3 to 5 years. The overlapping wording around the first move gives families a useful point to discuss when considering a room transition.

Across the rooms, children have spaces for pretend play, building, tabletop activities, creative mess and quieter reading. Children’s artwork connects the displays to monthly topics, so their own work forms part of the surroundings. These are different ways into the day’s learning: a child can construct something, act out an idea or settle with a book rather than depend on one kind of activity.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage sets the expectations for learning, development and care; here, activities are planned around children’s abilities and needs, with play providing opportunities to develop physical, social, emotional and intellectual skills. Children also help choose the toys put out in their rooms. That gives them a practical role in shaping what they explore, alongside activities initiated or led by adults.

Observation feeds the next stage of planning. Staff record what children do during ordinary activities, then use those observations to decide what comes next for each child. A learning journey gathers this work and goes home when the child finishes nursery. Planned activities are displayed for parents, making it easier to connect the day’s experiences with conversations at home.

In March 2023, communication was a clear emphasis in everyday play. Adults supplied new vocabulary for older children and described younger children’s actions as they happened. Books and songs sat alongside conversation, rather than language being confined to a separate activity. In another example from that month, children poured water containing fruit pieces from a teapot into cups; adults extended the play with ideas about counting, colour and weight. Familiar materials became opportunities to practise coordination and explore simple concepts.

Outdoor and Community Life

The covered outdoor classroom adds a sheltered place for learning within the private garden. Children participate in vegetable growing and explore the wild nature garden, while the wider outdoor provision includes nursery pets and a purpose-built construction zone. These features support different kinds of engagement: observing living things, handling materials and building through play.

In March 2023, outdoor experiences included moving gravel with large diggers and buckets, as well as throwing and kicking balls around other children. Those examples show how the grounds were used for both practical exploration and movement at that time. For families choosing between settings, the useful distinction is the combination of garden space, growing activities and construction resources, rather than outdoor access alone.

Relationships and Communication

Each child is allocated a key person who takes responsibility for their care and development. That gives parents a particular member of staff with whom to build a relationship, and gives the child a familiar adult whose role extends beyond supervising an activity. The learning journey provides another link between daily care and development, bringing observations together rather than leaving them as isolated moments.

Parent open evenings take place twice a year, when families can discuss learning journeys and pathway profiles with the key person. In March 2023, communication also included daily feedback, monthly developmental updates, online newsletters and suggestions for extending learning at home. Those dated practices add detail to the current arrangement for reviewing progress: parents had both brief everyday contact and more substantial information about development.

Humphrey the Home Farm Horse gives children a concrete way to talk about anxieties. The character wears different outfits, including a doctor’s outfit used to discuss a medical visit. Children can talk about worries individually or together. Rather than relying only on an abstract conversation about feelings, staff have a familiar character and a recognisable situation to help start it.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the March 2023 inspection, Ofsted found that children with SEND received individual support through outside agencies, adapted learning and target plans, including choice boards to help an overwhelmed child make decisions and manage feelings. This was a specific mechanism for support, with attention to how a child could participate, rather than a general statement about inclusion.

In March 2023, resources also addressed family changes such as bereavement, separation and the arrival of a new baby. The practical value lies in having ways to discuss experiences that can affect a child’s emotional life as well as their nursery day. Humphrey’s conversations about worries fit alongside that concern for helping children express what troubles them.

Access arrangements include a front-door intercom operated from the nursery office and a parent-chosen password when someone else collects or brings a child. Visitors provide identification and sign in and out. These are practical procedures families need to follow; the dated safeguarding judgement remains separate from the description of those arrangements.

Meals come from 5 aday Catering, with a three-week menu cycle and a weaning option for Ducklings; hot lunches carry a separate charge, families may instead send a cold packed lunch or food for Ducklings, and the nursery supplies morning and afternoon snacks. The caterer accommodates dietary requirements, allergies and intolerances, while the nursery’s food policy excludes specified higher-risk foods, including products containing nuts, and requires food from home to travel with an ice pack.

Sessions and Attendance

Home Farm’s address is 634 Birmingham Road, Lydiate Ash, Bromsgrove, B61 0QB. Weekday opening is from 8am to 5.30pm, with a 7.30am start available on request for an additional charge. The earlier option is useful where a family’s working day begins before the usual opening time, but it is an arrangement to request rather than assume.

The nursery operates across the year, closing for bank holidays and a week at Christmas. Nursery fees are waived during those closures. This makes the Christmas closure a practical consideration for families planning care across the working year.

Applications are handled in order of receipt. A completed registration form and registration payment reserve a place subject to availability. Ending a place or reducing agreed hours requires four weeks’ written notice to the manager, counted from receipt. That rule matters if working arrangements change: a reduction in attendance has its own notice requirement, not just leaving altogether.

Getting There

Private parking is provided for collection and drop-off. Enquiries can be made by telephone on 0121 453 4678, and prospective parents can call to arrange a look around under the nursery’s open-door policy.

Funding and Paid Extras

Fully funded places are part of the admission arrangements, alongside privately paid childcare. In March 2023, funded early education covered children aged two, three and four. Hot lunch is charged separately, with food from home an alternative; current prices should form part of the nursery’s written quotation. The registration refund terms need particular attention for fully funded attendance.

• Independence and staff development. The March 2023 improvement priorities concerned older children doing more for themselves and training tailored to individual practitioners. During a visit, ask how children now practise dressing for outdoor play and how staff development supports that work.
• Registration refund terms. One admission policy refunds the registration payment after 3 months of fully funded attendance; another makes the payment non-refundable. Confirm which terms will apply before paying, especially for a fully funded place.
• Funded attendance costs. Fully funded places feature in the admission arrangements, while hot lunches carry a separate charge. Request written terms covering the funded attendance pattern, meals and non-food consumables so the whole arrangement is clear.
• Food from home and allergies. The food policy restricts certain foods and requires an ice pack for food brought in. Families managing an allergy should confirm current catering and packed-lunch practice, including the Ducklings weaning option.

Home Farm will suit families who value garden-based experiences, age-related rooms and a key person linking care with development. The vegetable growing, covered outdoor classroom and Humphrey’s conversations about worries give substance to that choice. Its weekday hours also suit families seeking care across the year, including those who need to request an earlier start. The March 2023 Good judgement provides a dated quality assessment; the strongest visit discussion is how the nursery now develops older children’s independence and supports individual staff learning.