Little Explorers Nursery

Daily woodland exploration, an on-site farm and a garden where children grow food give Little Explorers Nursery a clear identity. Its setting is Derby College’s Broomfield Hall campus in Morley, with access to grounds extending across 450 acres. Outdoor learning is part of the ordinary nursery day, including for babies, rather than an occasional outing added to an indoor routine.

The nursery has capacity for 54 children and accepts ages from three months to five years. At its November 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated it Outstanding and found that teaching extended children’s learning successfully, children made excellent progress and safeguarding arrangements were effective. That judgement belongs to 2022; the current offer includes daily Forest School sessions, garden access from the baby room and practical growing activities.

Indoors, natural materials and open-ended resources support exploration.

Rooms and Ages

Provision is organised around two base rooms, each with a room co-ordinator. The baby room combines an indoor play space opening straight onto the garden, a separate sleep room also used for sensory exploration, and daily woodland experiences. Regular visits to the campus farm and animal unit extend that exploration beyond the garden. Outdoor participation begins early here.

For children over two, the main nursery room joins two play spaces with an enclosed garden, emphasising relationships, communication, imaginative play and practical exploration. A tool bench lets children work with real tools under close supervision. This gives persistence a concrete purpose: an activity requires effort and careful handling, rather than merely producing a finished picture to take home.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for children’s learning, development and care. In everyday terms, play connects language, movement, relationships and practical discovery. Forest School adds a woodland approach to personal, social and emotional development, with daily outdoor access for babies and older children. Staff plan experiences around what children already know and their developing interests.

Blue Bells wood is a daily destination. Typical Forest School experiences include making shelters, investigating ponds, hunting for natural objects and creating art from outdoor materials. Tractor rides and farm visits broaden the possibilities. The activities vary; daily woodland access is the constant.

In November 2022, children voted on where to go using pictures: options included the walled garden, roly-poly hill, forest, outdoor classroom and farm. That gave decision-making a practical form: children expressed a preference and encountered the idea of a shared choice. Counting the group also brought numbers into an activity with an immediate purpose.

The same month, staff gave each child both an extension to an existing skill and a new challenge. Outdoor language work included comparing branches and talking about the size of a stride needed to avoid a puddle. These examples explain how the surroundings can become teaching material, rather than serving only as somewhere to expend energy.

Outdoor and Community Life

An organic vegetable garden and a poly tunnel green house connect planting with harvesting. Children tend crops and collect eggs from the campus farm, giving them direct experience of where some food comes from.

In November 2022, a storytelling throne provided a setting for sharing The Rascally Cake, followed by imaginative play involving twigs and pretend ingredients. Children also practised moving over uneven woodland ground. Story, movement and small hand actions were linked within the same experience.

Community activity at that date included a Remembrance Day service at the college and visits from local emergency service staff. The visitors talked about keeping people safe, bringing an identifiable role into children’s understanding of the world around them.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key worker who helps with settling, provides care and maintains communication with home. Feedback sheets go home after each session, covering activities, food and achievements. This gives parents something specific to discuss with their child and helps connect experiences at nursery with life at home.

Newsletters, parent forums and regular open sessions provide other ways to participate. During open sessions, parents can share activities alongside their children. The different formats serve different purposes: session feedback concerns the individual child, while forums allow parents to contribute to the nursery’s broader practice.

The manager also holds the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator role. Room co-ordinators and practitioners work with the manager to tailor care and learning to individual needs. That gives families an identifiable role for discussing support, while the key worker remains the link for everyday communication and settling.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

In November 2022, children were encouraged to respect another child’s wish not to be splashed and to negotiate when play ideas competed for space. Staff supported persistence during practical tasks, including hammering a nail into a log. These examples show how relationships and perseverance were addressed through real situations rather than treated as separate lessons.

Daily outdoor risk assessments consider the surroundings, weather, activities and children’s developmental stage. These checks help staff plan suitable outdoor challenges.

Staff development includes continuing training, and the team includes practitioners with Forest School Practitioner Status. In November 2022, literacy training had led staff to slow down rhymes so children had more time to hear and process their sounds. That is a useful example of training changing an everyday activity.

Meals are freshly cooked each day by a cook, using some organic and locally sourced ingredients, and staff eat alongside children. Daily make and bake activities include preparing pizza, salads and fruit kebabs, connecting food preparation with learning about ingredients.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Derby College, Broomfield Hall Campus, Broomfield Estate, Morley, Ilkeston, DE7 6DN. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, across the year except bank holidays. Enquiries can be made through the contact form or by telephone.

The 2019/2020 attendance schedule offered a Full Day from 7.30am to 6pm and a Morning Session from 8.30am to 1pm, alongside an Afternoon Session. It also included hourly booking and a Full Week described as 52-week provision. These are dated booking arrangements, so they should not be treated as a current contractual timetable.

That schedule also offered funded three-hour sessions from 8.30am to 11.30am and from 12.30pm to 3.30pm. Longer funded combinations used different windows: 7.30am to 5.30pm, 8.30am to 4pm, or 8.30am to 5.30pm, depending on the funding arrangement. Opening hours and a funded booking window are therefore separate considerations.

Funding and Paid Extras

Little Explorers offers the universal entitlement for three- and four-year-olds as 15 hours each week for up to 38 weeks. Working families meeting the eligibility conditions can claim an additional 15 hours a week. The term-time funding pattern is distinct from the nursery’s year-round opening.

In the 2019/2020 terms, the full-day arrangement using ten funded hours carried a separate supplement for meals and snacks; the six-funded-hour arrangement combined meal and additional-care charges. These historical terms distinguish funded education from food and extra attendance. Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation, and the fees page sets out the funding arrangements.

• Outdoor life starts with babies. Daily woodland experiences and regular farm visits are part of the baby-room offer. A visit can explore how outdoor time, rest and your child’s usual routine fit together; bring wellingtons, as the nursery recommends.
• A dated booking timetable. The attendance table is labelled 2019/2020, and its Afternoon Session starts at 1.00am as printed. Before choosing a pattern, obtain the current written timetable and quotation, including the afternoon start and the treatment of food and consumables.
• Individual support. The manager combines nursery leadership with the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator role. For a child needing additional support, discuss how that role and the key worker will coordinate care and communication.

Little Explorers makes outdoor learning a daily organising principle, with Blue Bells wood, growing spaces and the campus farm giving that choice substance. Babies participate too, while their room retains direct garden access and a separate sleep space. The November 2022 Outstanding judgement adds a strong dated assessment of the education and care.

It suits families who actively want woodland exploration and practical experiences woven into nursery life. The dated schedule serves both full-day attendance and shorter morning or funded-session patterns, so its appeal extends beyond one booking model.