Folly Farm Day Nursery

A nine-baby room, fields beyond the gardens and children helping to unpack the food shopping give Folly Farm Day Nursery a recognisable character. This is childcare in a house in Tickenham, surrounded by woodland and fields, with outdoor exploration and everyday practical tasks woven into the day. There are 34 places in total for children aged six months to five years.

Ofsted rated the nursery Good on 29 June 2022. The current offer combines accessible play materials, paper learning journals and a settling process that starts with a conversation about each child's needs. Morning, afternoon and several lengths of full-day session give families more than one way to organise attendance.

Rooms and Ages

Baby Barn accepts children from six months to two years, with a maximum of nine babies each day, accessible low-level materials, daily stories and songs, and a sheltered garden with a safety surface for sensory exploration. Its routine aims to follow each child's home pattern, helping preserve familiar routines.

Orchard accommodates up to 25 children daily, from 18 months to five years, combining freely accessible outdoor space with practical tasks, early mathematics, literacy and preparation for school. The age bands overlap.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the foundation: children develop their learning through play, communication and practical experiences, including early literacy and mathematics. Orchard also uses Birth to Five matters alongside that framework. Its concrete learning opportunities include making marks throughout the day and using the poetry basket and helicopter stories as literacy tools.

The Curiosity Approach adds an emphasis on exploring loose parts and everyday objects. Baby Barn is gradually adopting more of this approach through treasure baskets, sensory experiences and real-world items; Orchard uses similar materials indoors. Objects are placed within children's reach, giving them a direct way to choose what to investigate.

Planning combines children's emerging interests with practitioner-led activities. Orchard children help sort and put away shopping and hang wet clothes, taking an active part in everyday nursery jobs.

Makaton is used during Baby Barn's songs and stories, together with puppets, actions and signs. The emphasis is on giving children several ways to join in and express themselves. Conversations about emotions also form part of this routine, connecting language with feelings rather than reserving it for a separate activity.

Outdoor and Community Life

Outdoor access is substantial. Orchard's garden includes water play, mud kitchens and sand pits, with obstacle courses and loose materials such as guttering, tunnels and tyres. These resources invite children to rearrange, explore and test ideas as well as move their bodies. The outside area stays open for free-flow play.

Baby Barn's children and practitioners go outdoors together at least once daily, using fields, walks or their sheltered all-weather garden.

In June 2022, children explored grassy slopes, a climbing frame and wheeled toys, while older children used a sand timer to organise turns themselves. Community experiences included visits from local businesses and professionals. The development point from that period was broader cultural understanding: children needed more opportunities to learn about lives and communities beyond their familiar experience.

Relationships and Communication

Both rooms begin settling with a meeting about individual needs, followed by three or four settling sessions before the start date. Families have time to discuss routines and get to know the team.

A key person supports babies as they settle into play. Baby Barn also sends a daybook home, covering the child's routine and some of the experiences they have explored. Paper learning journeys can be taken home by parents, while Orchard keeps paper journals of children's development. Daily care information and longer-term learning observations therefore have separate routes.

In June 2022, families received termly learning reports and took part in coffee mornings and a summer fete. However, home-learning arrangements had been paused during the pandemic, and more consistent information exchange between families and nursery was an improvement priority.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the June 2022 inspection, Ofsted found effective safeguarding arrangements and strong SEND support, with the SENCo coordinating strategies with families, practitioners and other professionals. These are dated judgements. The individual-needs discussion at the start of settling provides a current opportunity to explain a child's routine and support requirements.

In June 2022, children practised independence through serving food, composting leftovers and personal hygiene. Stories about feelings connected language with emotional understanding.

Food is freshly prepared in the nursery kitchen, with local sourcing where possible, and children help with preparation and table setting. The allergy information warns that food may contain nuts, milk, celery, gluten, soya and wheat, so families managing allergies need a specific discussion about current arrangements.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Clevedon Road, Tickenham, Clevedon, BS21 6RY. Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, throughout the year, with closures on bank holidays and between Christmas and New Year. Telephone, email and a contact form provide enquiry routes.

Private morning sessions finish at noon, starting at either 8am or 8.30am; Morning and Lunch sessions extend either start to 1pm. Short Full Day sessions finish at 4.30pm, again with an 8am or 8.30am start. Mid Full Day choices are 8.30am to 6pm, 8am to 5.30pm or 8.30am to 5.30pm, while Long Full Day runs from 8am to 6pm.

Afternoon choices are also separate bookings: Short afternoon is 1pm to 4.30pm, Mid afternoon is noon to 4.30pm, and Long afternoon is noon to 6pm. The distinction affects both collection time and food: morning bookings include a snack, lunch-inclusive sessions add lunch, and the longer afternoon and full-day patterns include tea where specified.

Changes to sessions require eight weeks' written notice, and swapping bookings between days or families is prohibited. Holidays, sickness absences and sessions cut short because a child becomes unwell remain chargeable. When Christmas Eve is a working day, opening ends at noon and the usual afternoon booking is not charged.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered through three options. Options 2 and 3 run from 9am to noon or 1pm to 4pm, without wraparound care: Option 2 has a voluntary contribution for snacks and additional services, while Option 3 replaces that contribution with fruit supplied ready-cut by parents.

Option 1 combines funding with paid care around it, with morning, afternoon and daytime patterns. Additional early care, lunchtime care with lunch, and later care with a meal are separately charged; breakfast also carries an extra charge. Families should distinguish the funded portion from the additional care and food when considering the whole booking.

Private session prices include the snacks and meals specified for that pattern, while breakfast is separately charged for children aged two and over and included with an 8am start for under-twos. A registration charge is non-refundable, and current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. The fees and session terms set out the booking structure.

School preparation takes place within Orchard's day, and links with local schools support transition. This concerns preparation and relationships; it does not establish an admissions advantage.

• The overlapping room ages. Baby Barn continues to two years and Orchard begins at 18 months. At a visit, discuss how the nursery decides when a child is ready to move and how familiar routines carry across.
• Communication and wider cultural learning. In June 2022, the improvement priorities were more consistent exchanges with home and broader experiences of other communities. Ask how these now work alongside the daybook and paper journals.
• Funding and booking commitments. Funded-only sessions and paid wraparound arrangements have different food provisions, while session changes require eight weeks' written notice. Compare a written quotation against the attendance pattern your family actually needs.
• Allergy arrangements. Food may contain the allergens listed in the nursery's policy. Families managing allergies should confirm how preparation, serving and individual dietary needs are handled in current practice.

Folly Farm suits families seeking either shorter morning or afternoon attendance, or one of several full-day patterns, with outdoor exploration and practical participation central to the experience. Baby Barn's daily cap gives the youngest room a clear scale; Orchard offers a mixed-age setting with continuous access outside.

The June 2022 Good judgement is a dated quality reference. The practical choice rests on the child's room and the family's funded or private booking.