Great Wood Farm Early Years Centre

A working farm and neighbouring woodland give Great Wood Farm Early Years Centre its defining character. Children follow the seasons through animals, growing food and woodland play, while a purpose-built nursery provides the indoor base. This is an outdoor childhood with practical substance: collecting eggs, watching sheep being shorn and exploring nature are part of the learning offer.

At its 2 April 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and found safeguarding effective. Two improvements were required: clearer, more consistently applied behaviour expectations and group activities that kept children of different needs involved. Those points matter alongside the appeal of the setting.

The centre serves children aged 2 to 60 months in Boothby Pagnell, near Grantham. Its nursery rooms move from babies and toddlers into Kindergarten Foxes, Kindergarten Badgers and Kindergarten Hares, with full days, morning and afternoon sessions, and a term-time option for Hares.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby Room accommodates babies and younger toddlers up to around 20 months, with separate spaces for younger and older babies and a bedroom; treasure baskets and collections of everyday objects give children things to investigate through touch and play. That arrangement allows the youngest children to spend time together or apart, rather than requiring one shared space for every activity.

The Toddler Room takes children approaching two through to those approaching three. Kindergarten Foxes serves children approaching three and those aged three, while Kindergarten Badgers is for the preschool year, including children approaching four and four-year-olds. Kindergarten Hares takes three- and four-year-olds on a term-time pattern. These are different stages and attendance arrangements, rather than interchangeable room names.

A separate Sensory Room adjoining Rangers gives every age group access to a quieter space. Ceiling lights sparkle above a light box and sensory materials. It provides an indoor change of pace from the farm and gardens, with opportunities to explore light and other sensations.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for learning through play, covering children's development across its areas of learning. Here, gardens and natural materials give that everyday work a practical setting. Planning in the moment means practitioners respond to children's interests as play develops, rather than treating every child's day as the same sequence of activities.

Forest School adds regular learning in woodland through exploration, tools and cooking over a fire, with adults supporting children to approach risks responsibly. Babies, toddlers and Kindergarten children each have a weekly small-group session during term time. The frequency is useful: the woods are a recurring part of nursery life, rather than an occasional excursion.

In April 2024, woodland discoveries became opportunities for language and mathematics. Preschool children identified insects using a chart and counted their finds; books helped them investigate a bee and how pollen is collected. These examples show how outdoor interests can lead into counting, vocabulary and finding answers.

Creative play also took different forms in April 2024. Babies investigated mud, toddlers helped prepare dough and preschool children painted frogs. The activities connected sensory exploration with making and drawing, giving each age group a different way into the same broad learning territory.

Outdoor and Community Life

Boothby Great Wood belongs to Forestry England, and an agreement gives the nursery its own Forest School base camps there. Access through the nursery is not open to the public. Even babies who cannot yet walk visit in pushchairs, so woodland experiences begin before independent movement.

Each age group has its own garden. Across the outdoor spaces, children can use a bike track, an art house and a large sand pit; the environmental area includes a vegetable patch, a fire pit and a greenhouse constructed from reused plastic bottles. Children can choose between environments for much of the day, making outdoor play part of the daily rhythm.

The farm supplies a different kind of continuity. Children see lambing, egg collection, sheep shearing and crop growing, while the animals include the donkeys Freddy and Misty and alpacas Cyril and Riley. Growing and caring are tangible experiences here. The centre also won the Royal Forestry Society's Education and Learning Award in July 2024, giving its outdoor work recognition beyond the nursery itself.

Relationships and Communication

A key person in each room acts as the family's main contact and follows the child's care and learning. Progress is shared through Eylog. In The Baby Room, the online journal also carries a daily account of routines, which gives parents information about the practical day as well as development.

Settling can be gradual. The nursery usually offers up to three complimentary taster sessions, each lasting up to two hours, with longer or further sessions carrying a charge. These sessions give parents time to discuss routines and individual needs with the key person or room leader. Familiar habits can therefore form part of the conversation before regular attendance begins.

The staff team includes 11 qualified teachers or Early Years Professionals/Teachers, alongside a further five staff with degrees. There are also 13 Forest School Level 3 Leaders working across nursery ages. The relevant point for families is the combination of early-years experience and specialist outdoor leadership, rather than the woodland offer resting with one practitioner.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the April 2024 inspection, Ofsted found that staff recognised when children needed extra developmental help, worked with families and other professionals on targeted support, and used additional funding effectively. This gives a dated account of how support worked in practice, rather than a general promise about inclusion.

Sleep arrangements include an outdoor sleep hut and an indoor sleep room for babies, with parents able to choose indoor sleeping. Families supply bedding suited to their child, and it returns home for washing. In April 2024, children's rest followed their individual routines and staff watched sleeping children closely.

Food is cooked in the nursery kitchen, and the dietary arrangements include discussion with parents about individual requirements and babies' weaning. Growing vegetables also belongs to the children's experience: toddlers and older children sow, water and harvest, linking what they eat with where it comes from.

Medicines require written parental permission, including dose information and timing, and must come from home with clear labels. This is a practical arrangement to plan around when a child needs medication during the nursery day.

Sessions and Attendance

Full days run from 8am to 6pm, mornings from 8am to 1pm and afternoons from 1pm to 6pm. Kindergarten Hares offers 9am to 3pm and 9am to 1pm patterns, with additional Friday choices of 9am to noon or noon to 3pm. The application form allows families to select a pattern for each weekday.

Opening hours extend from 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, but the early start needs prior arrangement and carries an additional charge. The centre operates across the year, closing on bank holidays and between Christmas and New Year; Kindergarten Hares is the term-time room.

Rangers provides separate before-school and after-school care, with a holiday full day as well. The current fee schedule gives before-school hours of 8am to 9am, after-school hours of 3pm to 6pm and holiday days of 8am to 6pm. These arrangements sit alongside the nursery sessions for younger children.

Getting There

The address is Greatwood Farm, Ponton Road, Boothby Pagnell, Grantham, NG33 4DH. Parking is provided at the centre. Families can enquire through the contact form or by telephone, while the application form records the sessions requested.

An application requires a deposit, which is credited against the first invoice when the child starts. Invoices are issued at the end of a month for the following month's sessions, with payment due by the 15th.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes 15 weekly hours for all three- and four-year-olds and up to 30 for eligible working families. Delivery can be term-time or stretched to 22 weekly hours over 51 weeks; eligible working families can also use funding from the term after a baby reaches nine months, with up to 22 weekly hours across 51 weeks.

Private session fees include applicable meals and snacks, while funded sessions have optional additional service charges covering food, non-food consumables and farm and Forest School activities. Families also supply nappies, wipes and any nappy cream, and parents of babies can send breast milk or measured formula powder.

Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. The funding and fees information explains the charge structure, which matters when comparing private hours with a funded attendance pattern.

• Behaviour and group activities. In April 2024, expectations were applied unevenly and some group activities lost children's attention. At a visit, ask how practitioners now explain boundaries and adapt shared activities for children at different stages.
• An outdoor wardrobe. Waterproof clothing and wellingtons are required, and families need spare clothes. This is a practical part of choosing a nursery built around farm and woodland experiences; a uniform is optional.
• Settling and sleep. Babies can sleep outdoors or inside, and the usual settling offer comprises up to three complimentary tasters. Use those sessions to discuss the preferred sleep arrangement and how the child's routine will be carried through.
• The funded package. Optional service charges cover food, consumables and outdoor activities, while nappies and wipes come from home. Ask how your chosen sessions would work with or without those additional services before committing to the pattern.

Great Wood Farm suits families who want farm and woodland experiences to shape ordinary nursery days, with gardens, animal contact and weekly term-time Forest School giving that preference practical form. It also serves different working patterns: full days and morning or afternoon sessions sit alongside the shorter, term-time Kindergarten Hares option.

The Good judgement from April 2024 provides a useful quality reference, with behaviour consistency and engagement in group activities the clear reservations. For parents attracted to an outdoor childhood, the deciding questions are how those improvements now work and whether the room, settling arrangements and attendance pattern fit their child.