Tall Trees Kindergarten

Mud, Montessori and meals cooked from scratch give Tall Trees Kindergarten a clear identity. At Oldford House in Oldford, near Frome, outdoor exploration runs from the baby stage through preschool, while hands-on learning becomes more explicitly Montessori as children get older. This is a nursery for families who value practical discovery and expect clothes to get dirty.

At its 8 July 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated Tall Trees Good, finding effective safeguarding and good progress, while identifying improvements needed in the oversight of baby-room practice and the resources used to extend children's own ideas. Those qualifications matter alongside the strengths. The detail points to an engaging nursery day, with consistency in the youngest children's learning an important consideration.

Attendance is across the year, with a minimum booking of two full days each week.

Rooms and Ages

The rooms follow a progression from sensory discovery to more structured opportunities for independent learning. Age groupings for the older rooms use the September-to-August year.

Nest serves babies and toddlers, pairing a quieter space for Heuristic Play, sensory exploration and open-ended discovery, with a separate area for messy creativity and meals. Saplings, for children aged two within that annual grouping, uses a similar arrangement, combining heuristic and general play with a creative space that also accommodates eating. These layouts give quieter exploration and messier activities their own settings.

Lower Pre School, for the three-year-old grouping, introduces Montessori alongside heuristic and general play, with regular Nature School sessions in an open-air classroom. Upper Pre School, for the four-year-old grouping, has a bright Montessori classroom and regular Forest School sessions in the Nature Garden Area. The progression changes the balance of activities as children grow, while retaining outdoor learning.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care: play and everyday experiences build communication, physical skills and increasing independence. Montessori adds an approach based on children choosing purposeful, hands-on activities and working at their own pace. It is most prominent in preschool, although child-led experiences extend across the nursery.

Heuristic Play gives babies and toddlers opportunities to discover through their senses, with open-ended exploration rather than a single prescribed result. Daily singing and music sit alongside art and craft, where the emphasis is on making and experimenting. Gentle music, including classical pieces, is also played in the rooms.

In July 2024, toddlers practised careful hand movements by threading spaghetti into a colander, while babies reached towards floating bubbles. Older children discussed pets, sorted their friends into groups according to the animals they owned and explored vocabulary about the body. These examples show how ordinary materials and conversations can support several areas of learning together. Numbers need not be confined to a counting activity; language need not wait for story time.

Outdoor and Community Life

Outdoor time is part of the daily offer for every age group, across seasons and weather conditions. Nature School takes the lower preschool group into an open-air classroom; Forest School gives the upper group an on-site nature-learning space with movement between indoors and outdoors throughout the year. Outdoor learning is part of the setting's routine, rather than an occasional trip.

In July 2024, children used earth, water and leaves in imaginative mixtures, assembled a nest from twigs and used small apples as pretend eggs. They also explored a butterfly's life cycle and worked with staff using woodworking tools to make a butterfly model. The same inspection identified a need for more resources to develop children's spontaneous interests further. Having grounds is one strength; making full use of children's ideas within them is another.

Tall Trees also supports Purple Elephant, a charity working with families in Frome and neighbouring villages. That provides a named local community connection alongside the nursery's nature-based activities.

Everyday independence runs through the care as well as the learning. In July 2024, children helped themselves to lunch, babies were encouraged to begin feeding independently, and staff taught older children about teeth and brushing. Daily exercise and supported risk-taking also formed part of that day's provision. These are practical experiences of doing things for oneself, with adult help.

Relationships with families featured in the same period: parents reported receiving information about activities and feeling reassured by room transitions. Staff used consistent expectations for behaviour, and children shared materials and played cooperatively. For a family moving from the youngest room towards preschool, continuity between stages deserves as much attention as the activities in each room.

Food is prepared on site each day by a chef, using ingredients that are organic and/or locally sourced; the nursery has achieved a Soil Association Gold Award. Snacks and drinks are included in the fee, as are biodegradable nappies, lavender wipes and sun cream where required, reducing the everyday supplies families need to pack.

Outdoor clothing is also supplied within the fee, including rain suits and wellies. Families still need to check and replenish their child's bag for each attendance day and label clothing. The practical expectation is clear: children will encounter mud, water and weather.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Oldford House, Lullington Lane, Oldford, Frome, Somerset, BA11 2NF. Opening hours are 8am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday, for 51 weeks each year, with bank-holiday closures.

The booking requirement is at least two full-day sessions per week. Term-time-only attendance is not offered, so this is an across-the-year commitment even for families whose working arrangements follow school terms. Enquiries begin through the contact form, which collects preferred days and a proposed start date.

Funding and Paid Extras

Tall Trees offers government-funded early education from the term after a child's third birthday, alongside funding for eligible two-year-olds. Funding is applied to the monthly invoice, with the calculation made individually. Families should obtain a current written quotation setting out how funding and any paid hours fit their chosen attendance pattern.

The fee includes snacks and drinks, nappies and wipes where needed, sun cream and outdoor clothing. These inclusions make the everyday charge structure easier to understand, but they should remain separate from the calculation of funded hours. The fee information sets out the included supplies.

• Baby-room consistency. In July 2024, monitoring of staff deployment and practice needed strengthening so that babies' next steps received consistent attention. On a visit, ask how practitioners now plan and review those individual next steps.
• Following children's ideas. The July 2024 improvement work included using more resources to extend spontaneous learning, including outdoors. Ask for an example of how a child's recent interest changed the activities or materials offered.
• An across-the-year commitment. The minimum is two full days weekly, and term-time-only attendance is excluded. That makes the booking model a significant decision for families seeking shorter attendance or school-holiday breaks.

Tall Trees suits families seeking regular, across-the-year attendance who want outdoor exploration, sensory play and a progression towards independent Montessori activities. The open-air classroom, Nature Garden Area and included outdoor kit make that character concrete.

The July 2024 Good judgement is balanced by specific improvement priorities around baby-room consistency and extending child-led learning. Families comfortable with the two-full-day minimum have a clear offer to assess: practical independence, daily nature experiences and hands-on learning, with those priorities worth exploring during a visit.