Whitehouse Farm Day Nursery

An orchard with chickens, converted stable buildings and woodland learning give Whitehouse Farm Day Nursery its rural character. In Sedgebrook, the outdoor offer reaches beyond a playground: children can tend plants, investigate water and sand, and help care for animals. These are practical experiences with things that grow, change and need attention.

At its February 2024 inspection, Ofsted judged the nursery Good, found safeguarding effective and identified effective use of SEND funding for individual support, while calling for better engagement and conversational turn-taking during toddler and preschool group activities. That is the useful balance: positive findings alongside specific teaching improvements.

The nursery accepts children aged 6 to 60 months and has 71 places in total. Bunnies, Squirrels and Hedgehogs organise the early-years provision, with separate after-school and holiday services for older children. Both shorter sessions and full days are offered, with term-time and stretched funding arrangements.

Rooms and Ages

Bunnies, the under-two group, use several spaces including The Lounge, where books, songs, pretend play and a Heuristic station give babies opportunities to handle materials and explore how they work. Having quieter activities alongside exploratory play gives this youngest group different ways to engage, rather than relying on one busy activity space.

For Squirrels, aged two to three, The Den combines an area for pretend play with exploratory materials and a craft space equipped with an easel and trolley. These resources support the move towards making, imagining and trying things independently.

Hedgehogs preschool uses the Dining Room for baking, craft and physical activities, while the Playroom contains the literacy lodge, number activities, books and spaces for imaginative play; a door from the Dining Room connects directly with the gardens. This gives school preparation a concrete shape, with opportunities to write, handle numbers and practise sharing through play.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for children's learning, development and care, with play and observation helping staff plan what children do next. Whitehouse Farm adds in the moment planning (ITMP): practitioners respond to an interest as it develops, using the child's current activity as an opportunity to extend learning. An investigation can become a teaching opportunity while the child is still absorbed in it.

That approach gives children a say in their activities. Adults use observations to plan challenges, offer questions and help children think about whether their ideas worked. In Hedgehogs, children also influence the week's learning, alongside activities led by practitioners. The balance matters for families who want school preparation to include initiative as well as adult guidance.

In February 2024, babies explored animal vocabulary through community walks, books and toy animals, while toddlers practised handling tweezers with spaghetti. Preschool children used signs during songs and to communicate their names. These examples show different learning demands across the age groups: language connected to familiar experiences, careful hand movements and additional ways to communicate.

Outdoor and Community Life

The Secret Garden contains water play, a mud kitchen, sand and a pond, with a wooden garden room nearby. Elsewhere, garden resources include bikes, trikes and climbing equipment. Each early-years group has a doorway to the gardens, allowing children to move between indoor activities and outdoor play.

Daily visits to the Orchard bring children into contact with chickens, fruit trees and growing spaces. The Vegetable patch, Fairy Garden and bug hotel add different reasons to return: tending plants, imaginative play and observing small creatures. Outdoor learning here has places and materials to work with, rather than depending entirely on organised games.

Forest School offers Hedgehogs weekly woodland learning at Manor Farm on Allington Road, including den building, working with tools and cooking over a fire. It extends the nursery's outdoor provision into a separate setting where children can investigate natural materials and tackle practical tasks. The off-site sessions carry a separate charge, including minibus transport.

Children's ideas have also shaped the surroundings. In February 2024, preschool children requested more climbing resources through a nursery council; staff responded with wooden planks and cable reels. The same period included vegetable growing and woodland exploration. Those examples make children's participation tangible: their suggestions affected what they could use and do.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person, providing a consistent point of contact for care and learning. Observations and family information help shape planning, so the relationship has a practical purpose beyond allocating a familiar adult. In February 2024, baby-room interactions included playful face-to-face games and support for early movement, such as encouraging babies to reach and roll towards toys.

Tapestry is the nursery's secure online learning journal, containing photographs, videos and observations of children's development. Parents have individual access and can contribute material from home. That creates a shared picture of what a child is trying, enjoying and learning in different settings.

Hedgehogs also have book bags containing a communication book and correspondence, with home-learning materials supporting preparation for school. Stay-and-play gatherings, parent workshops and parents' evenings offer further contact with nursery life. These arrangements give families several ways to participate, including conversations and activities beyond an online update.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Individual plans draw on staff observations and information from parents or carers. For children with SEND, the nursery works with outside professionals, including speech and language therapists, through meetings, visits and written information. A SENDCO role and a safeguarding lead role are identified within the staff structure, alongside room leaders and a nursery cook.

The February 2024 improvement points concerned planned group activities in Squirrels and Hedgehogs: some children lost interest, and adults needed to do more to help children wait for their turn and hear other children's contributions. This is a specific issue with group teaching, rather than a reason to overlook the practical learning elsewhere in the day.

Meals are cooked from scratch each day, using local meat and vegetable suppliers, and menus rotate over four weeks with seasonal changes each term. Dietary requirements are discussed during settling, helping families establish their child's needs from the start.

Sessions and Attendance

White House Farm, Village Street, Sedgebrook, Grantham, NG32 2EN is the nursery's address. Normal opening hours are 7.45am to 6pm, Monday to Friday; an earlier start or later collection within 7am to 7pm can be booked beforehand for an additional charge. The contact form or telephone provides an enquiry route.

Paid full-day choices run from 7.45am to 5.45pm or 7.45am to 5pm, with an eight-hour day ending at 3.45pm. Five-hour sessions run from 8am to 1pm or 1pm to 6pm. The fulltime package covers five days, from 7.45am to 5.45pm, and is an all-year arrangement rather than a term-time package.

Standard funded attendance offers a full day from 7.45am to 5.45pm, or shorter sessions from 7.45am to 12.45pm and 12.45pm to 5.45pm. Stretched funding uses sessions from 8.30am to 4pm, 7.45am to 5.45pm or 7.45am to 1.15pm. Funded attendance requires at least two sessions each week, and paid hours can extend these arrangements.

Funded sessions cannot be exchanged for another session. Paid sessions lasting five hours or more can be swapped subject to availability. The nursery follows Lincolnshire term dates for term-time attendance; its 2026/27 Christmas closure runs from 5.45pm on 18 December 2026 to 3 January 2027, with neither fees nor funding claimed during that break.

Funding and Paid Extras

Early Years Entitlement is offered as 15 or 30 hours across 38 weeks, or stretched over 50 weeks. The stretched delivery provides 11 or 22.5 hours each week, with additional banked hours handled under the funding arrangement. Additional private hours and sessions can be purchased alongside funded attendance.

Meals, snacks and drinks are included in paid, non-funded sessions; funded attendance has a separate food charge, which families can decline for a term by supplying all food themselves. Funded activities and special events have their own charge, with an option to opt out of the whole category, while off-site Forest School is charged separately.

A non-refundable deposit secures the place and covers settling sessions, except for funded-only attendance without additional hours or sessions, when it is refunded once the child starts. For those fully funded places, settling begins when funding starts. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, with the funding and charges information explaining the arrangements.

• Group learning. The February 2024 improvement points concerned attention and conversational turn-taking in toddler and preschool activities. During a visit, ask how practitioners now keep children involved and help quieter voices participate.
• Choosing a funded pattern. Term-time and stretched attendance use different session windows, and funded sessions cannot be swapped. Compare the actual timetable with your working week, including the separate food and activity choices.
• Woodland timetable. Forest School descriptions give different session times and frequencies. Confirm which off-site timetable applies to your child's attendance before choosing a pattern around it.
• Dietary arrangements. Dietary needs are discussed at settling, and families declining the funded food charge supply their child's food, including for woodland trips. Allergy-affected families should confirm current preparation and handling arrangements.

Whitehouse Farm suits families who want rural, practical learning alongside either shorter sessions or full-day attendance, with term-time and stretched funding options. Its converted buildings, animal care, gardens and separate woodland sessions give that preference a clear expression. Children have opportunities to make, grow, explore and contribute ideas.

The February 2024 group-teaching improvement points concerned engagement and conversational turn-taking, while the funding structure needs careful matching to family routines. For parents drawn to outdoor experiences and a choice of attendance patterns, there is plenty here to weigh seriously.