Fountain House Farm Day Nursery

Lambing, egg collecting and oak woodland give Fountain House Farm Day Nursery a character that an ordinary playground cannot reproduce. This working livestock and arable farm in Watton brings the natural world into children's learning, with a large playing field adding space for active play. The farm is more than a backdrop: caring for animals and watching seasonal changes supply concrete subjects for conversation, observation and discovery.

At its 12 December 2025 inspection, Ofsted judged behaviour, attitudes and routines to be at a strong standard, the remaining education and care areas at the expected standard, and safeguarding standards met. Those are separate judgements, rather than an overall grade. The strongest endorsement concerns how children behave and relate to one another; the qualifications concern the consistency of babies' learning and support for younger children learning English as an additional language.

The service accepts children from six weeks to twelve years, with nursery areas spanning babies through preschool and an Out of School Club for older children. Full-time and part-time attendance sit alongside care before and after school. That breadth may help families whose children need different kinds of care at different stages.

Rooms and Ages

Baby Room, for ages 0–2, combines a soft area for crawling and exploration with stories and songs, while a separate sleep room and adjoining deck offer different sleeping arrangements.

Toddler Area, for ages 2–3, brings sand, water, creative work and cooking into a larger nursery space, with tunnels, slides and tricycles outdoors and a quieter resting area and book corner indoors. Its stated staffing pattern is one adult to four children, compared with the legal minimum of one to five for two-year-olds; that is an enhancement to staffing, not a statement about group size.

Nursery and Pre-School, for ages 3–5, emphasises dressing, eating and making choices independently, alongside matching and coordination activities and access to computers.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for learning through play, including language, physical development and social and emotional skills. Here, half-termly themes respond to children's ages and interests, while observations inform the next activities planned for each child. This gives the day a structure while allowing individual development to shape what comes next.

Books have a physical place in that offer. A well-stocked book corner supports both looking up information and enjoying stories, while songs, rhymes and conversation build familiarity with language. Early mathematics comes through sorting, matching, counting and comparing objects. Paint, collage materials and imaginative play give children ways to explore ideas beyond spoken answers.

The farm adds experiences that are harder to recreate indoors. Children encounter lambing and shearing, chicks and ducklings hatching, and collecting eggs. The oak woods provide opportunities to notice wildlife and the changing seasons. These experiences give staff something tangible to discuss: where animals live, how things grow and what changes over time.

In December 2025, children's activities included looking after ponies, searching woodland soil for worms and discussing a root uncovered while digging. Everyday independence also featured, including serving food and preparing vegetables. Those examples show the connection between practical tasks and learning, rather than a timetable made entirely of separate teaching sessions.

Ofsted identified at the December 2025 inspection that babies' curriculum needed more precise planning, younger children learning English needed stronger support for their home languages and cultural identity, and monitoring of teaching feedback needed strengthening. These are material qualifications to the attractive farm offer. Parents choosing baby care or multilingual support should give them proper weight.

Outdoor and Community Life

The Nature Walk connects woodland, ponds and a chalk stream, with named areas including SHARWOOD and ISSAWOOD. SHARWOOD contains native trees and open grassland; ISSAWOOD includes wetter planting and grassy clearings.

Daily outdoor activity in December 2025 included farm walks and woodland exploration across different weather conditions. All-weather suits had been introduced to extend babies' outdoor experiences during colder months.

Relationships and Communication

A keyworker gives families a consistent adult for information about their child and helps shape individual learning plans.

In December 2025, key persons accompanied children between rooms when extra emotional reassurance was needed. Staff helped children express feelings in words and settle small disagreements through conversation. Families received daily updates, newsletters and parents' evenings each term, giving communication both an immediate and a longer-term rhythm.

School preparation includes practical transition arrangements. Visits to a local school may be organised for children aged four and over when parents cannot take them, and transfer documents are shared after discussion and with parental permission. This supports the handover of information as children move on to school.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

In December 2025, support arrangements included individual plans, adaptations to activities and the environment, targeted interventions and one-to-one help where appropriate. Staff sought specialist advice from language and speech therapists and from the local authority's SEND team. These are concrete mechanisms for responding to a child's needs, rather than a general promise that one arrangement suits everyone.

Sleep deserves attention alongside learning. The baby facilities include indoor rest space and the option of sleeping in prams on the deck; in December 2025, sleeping children outdoors were monitored. Families should consider the offered sleeping arrangements against the routines their baby already knows.

The nursery's cook prepares food on site using locally sourced ingredients, and the allergy arrangements describe adapting ingredients to individual dietary needs. Lunch and requested tea are charged separately, while families supply babies' breast or formula milk and discuss weaning with their keyworker.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Fountain House Farm, Watton, Driffield, YO25 9HY. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, and attendance can be full-time or part-time. The Out of School Club also provides care before and after school, with transport between school and the nursery by minibus.

Bookings are handled in order of receipt of the Provisional Booking Form; receipt of the completed Admission Form confirms the place. A waiting-list procedure applies when a place cannot be offered immediately. This is a booking rule, rather than a promise of space on a particular day.

There is a non-refundable administration charge when the Provisional Booking Form is completed. Fees are invoiced monthly and payable within seven days; leaving requires at least a month's written notice, with fees in lieu if that notice is not given. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, so the notice commitment belongs alongside the weekly attendance pattern when assessing the arrangement.

Getting There

The rural farm site has private parking. That gives families an on-site option for bringing children by car, alongside the club's school transport arrangements.

Funding and Paid Extras

Enquiries can be made by telephone on 01377 270164 or by email to admin@fountainfarm.co.uk. Payment methods include bank transfer, cash and cheque.

• Babies' learning. The December 2025 improvement point concerns making babies' play more consistently purposeful. During an appointment, ask how activities now connect with your baby's interests and next steps.
• Home languages and identity. Support for younger children learning English was a December 2025 development point. Multilingual families should discuss how their child's language, traditions and family experiences will be included.
• Sleep and dietary routines. Baby care includes a separate sleep room and an outdoor pram option, while milk comes from home. Discuss your baby's sleep preferences and confirm current allergy practice where relevant.
• Attendance and funding. Full-time, part-time and school-day wraparound serve different needs; visits are arranged by telephone appointment. Ask which funded entitlements and attendance arrangements could apply to your proposed booking, and weigh the written notice requirement before committing.

Fountain House Farm suits families who want farm and woodland experiences to be part of their child's early learning, with full-time or part-time nursery attendance and before-and-after-school care for older children. The separate baby sleeping space, toddler outdoor equipment and practical preschool independence give the offer substance beyond its rural setting.

The December 2025 position also calls for discrimination: behaviour and routines were a strength, while babies' curriculum and younger multilingual children's sense of belonging needed further work. For families considering those stages, the deciding detail is how the nursery now addresses those specific needs. The farm experiences are compelling; the care and learning arrangements for the individual child still deserve equal attention.