The Children's Garden Day Nursery

A child-sized kitchen, a slide into the garden and woodland journeys in Winther Cargoo bikes give The Children's Garden Day Nursery a practical, outdoors-minded character. This Stamford setting combines Montessori, an approach that builds independence through carefully introduced activities, with Forest School, hands-on learning in woodland. The Georgian house is only part of the experience. Its walled garden and outdoor classrooms make nature a substantial part of the day.

At its May 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Outstanding and found safeguarding effective, with children receiving SEND support making strong progress and staff working closely with their parents. That judgement belongs to that date. The current offer serves children from 2 to 60 months, with capacity for 80 children in total, at Roebuck House on Broad Street.

Morning and afternoon sessions sit alongside the nursery's weekday opening hours. The strongest reasons to consider it are more specific than its timetable: babies have their own garden, older children use real kitchen equipment, and creative work has a dedicated space in the Atelier.

Rooms and Ages

Discoverers, the baby room, combines sensory exploration with a mirror children can use while pulling themselves upright, handmade beds and direct access to a garden with a crawling surface and lawn. These are practical choices for children learning through movement and touch. Play can continue outdoors, while tired babies have a separate sleep room as another option.

Explorers serves older babies and young toddlers, with connected spaces for imaginative play, singing and growing independence, plus a snug for rest and a door onto the decking. The emphasis shifts towards doing more for themselves, including support with toilet training. Parents can contribute interests from home to the children's wall-based learning story, helping staff connect nursery experiences with family life.

For Adventurers, the emphasis is collaboration and creative investigation: interconnected rooms include an art studio and a larger space for exploring ideas, while the garden provides a mudpit. Materials can be used in different ways rather than directing children towards a single answer. Staff discuss their observations when planning what comes next, with parents' pictures and ideas contributing to that process.

The Montessori Room centres on choosing activities and mastering individual practical skills, with a fitted child-sized kitchen, sink, small dishwashers and a slide providing garden access. Kitchen tasks make independence tangible. The surroundings allow children to practise useful actions rather than simply hear instructions about them.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage is the required framework for children's learning, development and care; here, play, communication, physical exploration and practical tasks give those requirements an everyday form. Montessori adds a particular way of organising learning. An adult introduces a material or demonstrates an action, then gives the child room to work independently.

Scissor use illustrates the approach. Children learn the opening and closing movement separately from a more involved activity such as arranging flowers, so they tackle one difficulty at a time. Some materials also let children judge their own work, such as noticing water left on a table. The practical value is clear: adult help introduces the task, but does not have to accompany every attempt.

Reggio Emilia contributes another strand: child-led projects developed from children's questions and interests. In the Atelier, a creative space for exploring different media, themes such as darkness, light, music and sound change as children's interests change. This gives creative expression a place in the curriculum beyond a finished picture to take home.

In May 2022, babies investigated flowers through smell and touch, toddlers poured their own drinks, and preschool children made marks with muddy sticks. Those examples show how ordinary materials were used for sensory discovery, practical independence and early drawing. They also make the educational approach easier to understand than a list of philosophies alone.

Outdoor and Community Life

Forest School takes children into nearby woodland for exploration, climbing, woodwork and experiences around a fire. Children travel in Winther Cargoo bikes, keeping the journey outdoors too. A member of the Montessori Room team accompanies them, helping interests from the woods continue back at nursery rather than ending with the outing.

At home base, the walled garden has a lawn, mud kitchen, mud pit and decking for wheeled play. The Yurt is an outdoor classroom with a wood-burning stove, giving children somewhere to pause during a day outside. Preschool children can choose yurt days involving gardening, woodwork and fire building; Adventurers also rotate through whole-day outdoor classroom experiences, which run three days a week.

Adventurers' outings include the meadows, library, market, park and Arts Centre for children's shows. These extend the day into Stamford itself. Creative work has also reached a public audience: the Children's Art Exhibition took place at Stamford Arts Centre in September 2022, giving children's work a setting beyond the nursery walls.

Relationships and Communication

Settling starts with a recommended taster session before regular attendance, allowing children to become familiar with their room, practitioners and other children. The nursery recommends attending at least two days each week to help children settle and become involved in its routines. This is a recommendation rather than a stated compulsory booking minimum.

FAMLY App brings learning observations, messages, daily care updates and invoicing together. Parents can add photographs, videos and observations from home, so communication runs both ways. Development records can also be shared with a child's primary school at transition, providing continuity between nursery and the next setting.

Parent Representatives provide another channel for feedback and questions, while newsletters are sent three times a year. The Parent Hub includes Wi-Fi and a coffee machine, with drink donations supporting charity. These arrangements give families several ways to stay connected, from quick digital updates to conversations on site.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The nursery manager has SENCo training, an additional SEN qualification and experience supporting children with medical and developmental needs. For babies, care can follow the child's own routine, and food preparation accommodates purees or discussion of baby-led weaning. For Explorers, rest follows individual need rather than requiring every child to sleep for the same length of time.

In May 2022, babies received close reassurance from their key staff after waking, and staff supervised outdoor sleeping. Mindfulness activities also formed part of the day then. These are dated examples of care, rather than promises about every child's current routine.

Nursery cooks prepare food from scratch, including daily bread, with vegetables drawn from the garden and local market and meat supplied by Nelsons. Children help set tables, while older children help serve themselves and clear dishes, making mealtimes another opportunity to practise independence.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Roebuck House, 33 Broad Street, Stamford, PE9 1PJ. Opening hours are 8am to 6pm from Monday to Friday; morning sessions run from 8am to 12.30pm and afternoons from 1.30pm to 6pm. PJ Club adds a separately charged early drop-off option at 7.30am.

Attendance runs across the year, with closures for bank holidays, the Christmas-to-New-Year week and three training days, in April, August and November. Christmas Eve finishes at 3pm, with reopening on the first working day after New Year's Day. Families relying on weekday childcare need to accommodate those additional training closures.

Enquiries use the Famly form, telephone or email, and formal enrolment uses a registration form. Personal tours can be booked through the office. The recommended two-day attendance pattern also connects to the preschool Forest School programme, which requires a full day.

Funding and Paid Extras

Government-funded hours are offered. Standard fees include drinks, snacks and meals; nappies, wipes and sun cream are supplied for applicable children. Used nappies are collected for conversion into energy through Green Bottoms, keeping their disposal separate from landfill.

Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. A registration charge is payable when registering, and a refundable deposit is added to the first invoice; it comes off the final invoice only when the account is fully paid and at least one calendar month's written notice has been given.

Fees are divided into equal monthly payments, with closure days factored into the annual calculation. Family holidays do not receive a discount, while extra sessions can change the monthly bill. Government-funded hours are offered, and the funding and fees information includes links to the Charging Policy and Packed Lunch Policy.

• Outdoor days and attendance. Preschool Forest School requires a full day, while morning and afternoon sessions are also offered. At a tour, discuss how your intended pattern would fit woodland participation and yurt days.
• Baby sleep and routines. Discoverers has handmade beds, a separate sleep room and arrangements that can follow home routines. Use the taster session to discuss which sleep arrangement would suit your child.
• Funded attendance costs. Government-funded hours are offered, and standard fees include meals, snacks and drinks. Request a written breakdown covering food, consumables and any private hours for your chosen pattern.
• Closures and leaving terms. Training days add to the bank-holiday and Christmas closures, and deposit repayment depends on notice and a cleared account. Include those conditions when comparing the practical commitment.

The Children's Garden suits families attracted to practical independence, creative investigation and substantial outdoor learning, whether they need morning sessions or afternoon sessions. Its appeal lies in the details: a working child-sized kitchen, an Atelier shaped by children's interests, and woodland experiences connected back to classroom learning.

The May 2022 Outstanding judgement provides a dated quality reference, while the present arrangements give parents concrete choices about care and attendance. The main decision is how those choices fit the child's routine and the family's budget, especially where funded hours and whole-day outdoor experiences are involved.