Whipper-snappers Day Care Nursery & Kids Club

Restored barns, approximately five acres of grounds and a woodland used for Forest School give Whipper-snappers a recognisable countryside character. At Felmoor Farm in Felsted, the setting combines separate spaces for babies, toddlers and preschool children with outdoor experiences that extend beyond a single garden. The youngest room accommodates nine babies. That is a useful starting point for parents weighing the scale of their baby's first childcare setting.

At its August 2021 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, judged safeguarding effective and found that children made good progress from their starting points. That judgement belongs to that visit. In August 2021, two areas needed further work: younger children's independence and the planning of outdoor learning.

Full-day and shorter school-day bookings sit alongside funded-only session patterns. The choice matters: families can compare different lengths of attendance rather than fitting every child into the same day.

Rooms and Ages

Baby barn, from one month, has room for nine babies, with floor-level resources for independent exploration, play and rest spaces, and a separate sleep room containing cots. Keeping sleep apart from active play gives the youngest children a dedicated place to rest, while their feeding and sleeping arrangements follow their routines at home.

Toddler barn serves children under two in a space for fifteen toddlers, combining two rooms, a milk kitchen and nappy room with low-level toys, areas for books and imaginative play, and an enclosed garden. Daily walks around the grounds extend the day beyond the room and give children another setting in which to explore.

For children aged two to three-plus, Big barn combines child-led indoor and outdoor activities with toilet-training support, optional naps after lunch and creative experiences involving movement, music and role-play. Its enclosed outside space supports activities in different group arrangements, while walks bring children into contact with plants and wildlife.

Pre-school barn, for ages three-plus to five, develops practical independence through self-service snacks, dressing and toileting, alongside creative play in bright rooms and an enclosed garden where indoor learning experiences can also take place outdoors. School preparation therefore includes ordinary tasks children will need to manage for themselves, rather than concentrating only on adult-led activities.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care: here, play, conversation, stories and practical activities give children opportunities to develop their skills. Planning follows individual interests and stages of development, with practitioners using observations to decide when to extend an activity or introduce a new challenge. This makes a child's current interests a starting point for the next step in learning.

Forest School adds sessions in the nursery's own woodland, using child-led outdoor play to support emotional, social and behavioural development alongside other areas of learning. The setting provides waterproof trousers for these sessions and wet-weather play; families supply clothing suitable for the weather. Outdoor participation has a practical clothing requirement as well as an educational purpose.

Big barn receives visits from the library bus and takes walks around the grounds, including picnics and bear hunts. These are concrete additions to the room's everyday play: books arrive through a visiting service, while familiar grounds become places for exploration and imaginative activity.

Outdoor and Community Life

In August 2021, children rode bikes around a road track and practised stopping at a zebra crossing for their friends. Babies walked in the garden and shared outdoor stories with their key person. These observations show how the grounds were used for movement, social cooperation and quieter experiences at that time.

At the August 2021 inspection, Ofsted also identified restricted opportunities for younger children to act independently and insufficiently developed outdoor activities for children who learned better outside. Some creative materials were beyond younger children's reach, and they had few chances to help with snacks or serve themselves. These are useful questions about the substance of the day, rather than simply the amount of outdoor space.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a designated key person, giving parents a regular relationship through which to discuss development, routines and concerns. Several complimentary settling sessions precede attendance, with parents staying for the first and joining further sessions as appropriate. An All About Me form captures the child's strengths and needs before the nursery plans their care.

Moving between rooms is also gradual. Children spend short periods in their next room before the permanent move, and the nursery may arrange for the new key person to spend time with them in their existing room. Parents can meet the next key person and discuss the change. That continuity is useful when a child finds unfamiliar people or routines difficult.

Communication includes daily written information and conversations for Baby barn and Toddler barn families. The online learning journey holds observations, photographs, examples of work and next steps, and parents can contribute comments. Two parents' evenings each year provide a separate opportunity for a fuller discussion, rather than leaving every conversation to the daily handover.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

SEND support has a defined process. The One Plan Process and Graduated Approach organise assessment, targeted planning, support and review with parents; regular Team Around the Family meetings bring together progress discussions and information from outside professionals. With parental permission, the SENCO can involve an Inclusion Partner to seek specialist advice.

Speech Club supplies short videos made by speech therapists with resources for follow-up activities. The WellComm Assessment tool checks speech and language development, while the Big Book of Ideas provides guidance for subsequent work. These mechanisms give families specific ways to understand how a concern is assessed and what activities may follow it, rather than relying on a broad promise of individual attention.

Personal Health Care Plans can be introduced where needed, with staff undertaking relevant training. Nursery rooms are on the ground floor and doorways accommodate wheelchairs; an accessible adult toilet has a handrail, and two children's toilets can take supporting frames. Those physical arrangements matter for families considering how care routines and movement around the setting would work for their child.

A chef and kitchen team prepare food on site using fresh local produce, and dietary requirements are catered for. Before children move on to school, preschool staff visit local schools and invite Reception teachers into the nursery, with additional discussions involving the school SENCO and teacher for children with SEND.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Felmoor Farm, Braintree Road, Watch House Green, Felsted, Essex CM6 3EF. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday. The nursery operates across the year, with closures for bank holidays and the Christmas to New Year break.

A full day runs from 7.30am to 6.30pm; a school day runs from 9am to 3.15pm. The all-inclusive package sets out attendance over two, three, four or five days, so the shorter school day is a separate booking choice rather than merely an early collection from a full day.

Funded-only choices include 7.30am to 1.15pm over two days, 7.30am to 11.15am over three days, and 7.30am to 11.45am over five days. Other patterns run from 7.30am to 2.45pm over two or three days, or from 7.30am to 1pm over four days. These timings make the relationship between funding and the weekly routine concrete.

One month's notice is required to change attendance or end a place. When a waiting list exists, siblings of children already attending receive preference. Prospective families can enquire by telephone or email and arrange a nursery visit.

Getting There

Parking is restricted to allocated areas, with grass verges and the courtyard entrance kept clear. Families using the toddler, big and preschool barns must take the courtyard route rather than walking through the staff parking area.

Funding and Paid Extras

Two charging structures are offered: all-inclusive and choose-your-own packages. Funded Early Education Entitlement and Universal Funded Early Education Entitlement are offered, including provision for eligible children from the term after nine months, universal provision from the term after the third birthday, and the supported two-year-old entitlement. Funded hours are stretched across 50 weeks, with bank holidays and the Christmas to New Year break deducted.

Meals, snacks, drinks, baby milk, nappies and creams are included in all-inclusive fees; during funded-only hours, food and the consumables-and-activities contribution are separately charged optional enhancements chosen by parents. Additional private hours can also be purchased, and eligible families can use Tax-Free Childcare alongside funded entitlement.

The all-inclusive package has a registration charge and an attendance-based deposit credited against the first month's fees; the choose-your-own package has a session-based deposit credited in the same way. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, and the fees page provides the two package routes.

• Younger children's independence. In August 2021, access to creative materials and opportunities to help with food were improvement points. During a visit, ask how children in the younger barns now choose resources and take part in everyday tasks.
• Outdoor learning. The woodland and separate gardens provide substantial outdoor space, but activity planning was an August 2021 improvement point. Ask how outdoor experiences are adapted for a child who learns most readily outside.
• Package choice. All-inclusive attendance and funded-only hours treat food and consumables differently. Compare written quotations for the actual session pattern and enhancements your family intends to use.
• Dietary needs. The kitchen caters for dietary requirements. Families managing allergies should confirm current food preparation and care arrangements before booking.

Whipper-snappers suits families seeking countryside grounds, separate age-stage barns and a choice of full days, school days or funded-only attendance. Baby barn's nine-child scale and separate sleep room deserve attention, as do the woodland sessions and structured SEND planning. The August 2021 Good judgement provides a dated quality reference; the independence and outdoor-planning improvement points give parents two precise subjects to explore on a visit.