Westlands Nursery

Outdoor learning runs through Westlands Nursery, from the babies’ own outside space to an allotment where older children help grow ingredients for meals. This Kilkhampton setting pairs a nature-led day with practical care: dedicated sleep rooms, food cooked from scratch, and nappies and wipes included in the fee. At its September 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Outstanding.

Westlands has 62 places in total, with its current age range extending from birth to five. Ferns Room starts at three months, followed by Willows Room and Oaks Room. Those room bands give families a useful picture of the stages, while flexibility between rooms allows children’s development to influence the arrangement.

Attendance can combine daytime sessions, breakfast/supper club extensions and flexible bookings. The strongest reason to consider Westlands, though, is how closely the outdoor spaces, food-growing activities and room environments connect with children’s everyday learning.

Rooms and Ages

Ferns Room, for children from three months to two years, supports individual feeding and sleeping routines, with natural materials to explore indoors and a dedicated outdoor classroom and free-flow space. For babies, that puts outdoor exploration within their own room’s provision rather than making it solely an older-child activity.

Willows Room serves children aged two to three, combining child-led indoor and outdoor play with regular allotment sessions that connect growing produce with the food they eat. The activity has a concrete purpose: toddlers take part in the beginnings of a meal, rather than encountering vegetables only on a plate.

Oaks Room, for ages three to five, combines independence, regular forest school learning and free-flow access to a covered outside space; older children also prepare for school routines. The shelter gives outdoor play a physical base beyond an uncovered garden.

Across the building, open partitions and natural colours shape the rooms. Outdoors, children can use a climbing wall, mud kitchens, growing trays, and spaces for water and sand play. These are different kinds of activity: climbing calls for movement, while growing and handling materials make room for exploration and conversation.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children’s learning, development and care; here, its everyday expression includes play, conversation, stories and opportunities to practise independence. Westlands adds a daily forest school element, using outdoor learning as a regular part of the nursery day, alongside a regularly attended allotment club involving children in gathering or preparing food.

In September 2022, babies watched a container being filled with rice and emptied, while preschool children compared bean pods from the allotment and estimated their contents. These examples put early investigation and mathematical thinking into familiar materials. Toddlers also practised pouring their own drinks. Small tasks gave them something meaningful to master.

The same September 2022 account included songs for younger children, storytelling by preschool children and music activities involving arm and wrist movements. Outdoor exploration involved wooded paths, climbing and den-making. These details show the variety within that inspection-era day, rather than a timetable of separate lessons.

Outdoor and Community Life

The community allotment connects the nursery with its surroundings and gives children a practical introduction to where food comes from. On-site pets add opportunities to learn about caring for living things. Growing trays and the older children’s covered outdoor space extend this nature-led approach into the nursery grounds.

In September 2022, visits from a local care home included shared knitting and conversation sessions. Children also grew and harvested produce before watching the cook prepare it. Both experiences linked nursery activities with people and processes beyond an individual play task.

Relationships and Communication

Individual routines matter most in Ferns Room, where feeding and sleep follow the child. Two dedicated sleep rooms provide separate spaces for rest, with one also serving as a sensory room. That arrangement gives sleep a place of its own within a building used for active play.

In September 2022, babies sought comfort from their key person, and staff offered reassurance as younger children settled. Staff also shared activities and achievements with parents, explaining the learning involved. The current learning app allows family contributions as well as nursery updates, and includes play ideas, educational information and advice. Communication can therefore carry useful material between home and nursery.

Taster sessions form part of joining, alongside flexible booking options and swaps where the nursery can accommodate them. Policies and contract information are provided through an app once families proceed, giving the practical terms a defined place in the joining process.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the September 2022 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and judged that children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, made excellent progress, with staff supporting communication through spoken language and signs.

In September 2022, staff learnt words from children’s home languages and used shared stories to help them feel familiar with nursery life. The current approach encourages multilingual families to contribute words, and staff receive training in basic Makaton. The team also has specialisms in forest school, special educational needs, and speech and language, while observations and planning are used to identify how to support each child.

The nursery’s chef makes meals and snacks from scratch, using local ingredients when obtainable; allotment activities involve children in gathering or preparing food. Snacks, hot meals, nappies and wipes are included in the fee, bringing several everyday care items into the same arrangement.

Sessions and Attendance

Westlands is on West Street, Kilkhampton, EX23 9QW, and operates for 50 weeks each year. Daytime sessions run from 8am to 6pm, with breakfast/supper club extending the day from 7.30am to 6.30pm. Flexible bookings are also offered, with swaps accommodated where possible.

School pick-up sessions serve Kilkhampton primary school, and the holiday club caters for children up to nine. This is a separate offer from the nursery’s early-years age range and may be useful to families arranging care for siblings at different stages.

The registration form provides a route to arrange a visit. Taster sessions are offered, and families receive policies and contract information through the app when they proceed.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded places and government support schemes are accepted. Once families are on board, the manager can help them work through potential entitlements. Private childcare is also offered, and current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation.

Meals and snacks are included in the fee, as are nappies and wipes. Those inclusions are useful when comparing the whole childcare arrangement, alongside the hours booked and the terms applying to funded attendance.

• The youngest room. Ferns Room begins at three months and supports individual sleep and feeding routines. During a visit, ask how your baby’s routine would be carried through the day and how the sleep spaces are used.
• Funding and the extended day. Funded places sit alongside daytime sessions and breakfast/supper club extensions. Ask how funded attendance would fit your preferred booking and what meal or consumable terms apply specifically to those hours.
• Development between rooms. The room bands are age-based, but movement between rooms allows flexibility for each child’s stage. Discuss how a move would be planned and how the family would be involved.

Westlands suits families who want nature to be part of ordinary nursery life: babies have their own outside space, toddlers take part in food-growing, and older children combine covered outdoor access with forest school learning. Dedicated sleep rooms and inclusive meal and consumable arrangements add practical substance to that approach.

It also suits different attendance needs, from daytime sessions to extended days with breakfast/supper club and flexible bookings. The September 2022 Outstanding judgement is a strong dated endorsement; the current room arrangements, allotment activities and family app give parents concrete features on which to base a choice.