Young Haymakers Montessori Nursery

A converted barn, an orchard and woodland learning give Young Haymakers Montessori Nursery its character. The countryside around Waldron is part of the children's education: growing food, investigating natural materials and spending sustained periods outdoors sit alongside Montessori practice, which gives children room to choose activities and develop at their own pace. This is a setting for children who enjoy doing things for themselves.

At its 16 June 2022 inspection, Ofsted judged the nursery Outstanding, finding that children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), progressed exceptionally well. That judgement belongs to 2022. Across the whole nursery, capacity is 30 children and the age range is 9 to 59 months.

The nursery operates during term time, with holiday sessions offering a separate attendance option. Its strongest practical attractions are the substantial outdoor spaces, child-led learning and a settling process that includes time with a key person at home.

Rooms and Ages

Oak Room combines indoor activity areas with direct access to outdoor spaces, using low shelves and resources within children's reach to support independent choices, sustained play and problem solving. The arrangement matters: children can select materials themselves rather than depend on an adult to distribute everything.

Beyond the room, a mud kitchen, bug habitat and outdoor lodge classroom extend the places children can investigate and play. The outdoor spaces are used through the seasons. This makes clothing and a child's comfort with outdoor activity practical considerations, rather than occasional preparations for a special outing.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is the required framework for learning and care. Here, play and enquiry connect communication, movement and relationships with literacy, mathematics, understanding the world and creative expression.

Montessori activities use structured equipment across practical life, sensory exploration, language, mathematics, cultural learning and creativity, allowing children to choose and work at their own pace. The Curiosity Approach adds recycled objects, natural materials and loose parts for open-ended investigation, including wood, metal, ceramics and china. Exploration matters more than identical finished pieces.

Enquiry Based Learning starts with children's questions and interests, which practitioners help investigate. Reggio inspiration adds an atelier for creative work and projects shaped by children's ideas. Children have scope to test their own possibilities.

In June 2022, children investigated sticky dough, trying rose petals before an adult's prompt about ingredients led them to add flour. Stories enriched activities, and older children wrote their own. Adult guidance helped children develop their experiments.

Outdoor and Community Life

Forest School provides hands-on exploration of nature, with sessions offered daily across the week for children from two years old. Children can spend a morning or afternoon in woodland, using either the on-site area or a larger site reached across fields. Outdoor learning therefore has substantial time allocated to it.

Pine Lodge Classroom provides a place to revisit an outdoor experience and continue related activities afterwards. Within the 40-acre woodland are a stream, a rope swing and a tree house developed with the children. Different parts of the site offer different kinds of activity, from water exploration to climbing and imaginative play.

The garden has its own physical challenges and quieter corners: a wobbly bridge, climbing wall and balance course sit alongside a covered sandpit and book corner. Children need not be in woodland to have opportunities for movement, investigation or reading outdoors.

The Orchard and Edible Garden connect growing with eating. Children cultivate seasonal produce, follow the stages from seed to harvest and use what they grow in cooking and baking. Apples, pears and plums give them materials to handle and prepare, while nearby farming offers opportunities to observe work on the land. Food becomes something children understand through experience.

Relationships and Communication

A week of settling sessions and a free home visit introduce the key person in familiar surroundings. Parents join in play before gradually stepping back; settling can be extended to suit the child.

The key person monitors development, keeps records and is the family's first contact. Parents can view records and add home observations to the online learning journal, connecting nursery learning with life at home.

Working in Partnership (WiP) meetings discuss development and next steps: usually six weeks after starting, then twice yearly, with informal termly conversations. Weekly newsletters and daily communication boards provide updates. The Parent Panel brings families into discussions about policies, routines, activities and future plans, giving them influence beyond their own child's care.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The staff structure includes a SENCO, designated safeguarding lead roles and key persons, alongside Montessori and Forest School teaching roles. These give parents identifiable responsibilities to discuss when a child needs additional support, rather than relying on a general promise of individual attention.

At the June 2022 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and highlighted shared planning with parents of children with SEND, helping care and support remain consistent between home and nursery. In June 2022, staff also used yoga to help children recognise feelings and practise calming themselves, while children took increasing responsibility for preparing for woodland walks.

Children bring packed lunches; staff provide snacks, with families invited to contribute fruit and vegetables, and children help with preparation and serving. Food and allergy policies guide arrangements with parents, so individual dietary needs form part of the care discussion.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Kirby Farm, Foxhunt Green, Waldron, Heathfield, TN21 0RU. Opening hours are 8am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, across 38 nursery weeks each year. Holiday sessions run on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays during school breaks, giving families an additional option beyond the term-time nursery calendar.

Attendance patterns are booked when a child joins. Changing the regular pattern requires a term's notice, and casual swapping is generally not possible. Leaving requires at least one full term's notice, specified as seven weeks excluding holidays. These terms make the original booking a consequential decision for families with changing work schedules.

Personal viewings can be arranged by telephone or email through the nursery's contact route. The nursery operates a waiting list.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered during term time, across 38 weeks. The entitlements described include 15 hours for eligible two-year-olds, the universal 15 hours for three- and four-year-olds from the first full term after their third birthday, and up to 30 hours for eligible working families with the required funding code. Young Haymakers applies five funded hours per day, amounting to 25 hours for a full-time child, so the entitlement and the nursery's delivery limit need to be considered together.

Funding is deducted from attended sessions, with parents paying for additional hours. Families must apply and supply the relevant codes and documentation. The fees and funding page explains that the charging policy permits charges for food, consumables and enrichment beyond government funding; current prices should come in the nursery's written quotation.

Parents supply lunch and non-food essentials: nappies, nappy sacks, wipes, any required nappy cream and sun cream. Outdoor kit includes waterproof clothing and wellington boots, with spare clothes needed for the nursery day. These are ongoing packing responsibilities alongside arranging attendance.

• The youngest children. The overall age range starts at nine months, while Oak Room serves children from two years. Families seeking care for a younger child should use a viewing to discuss their child's daily arrangements and environment.
• Outdoor clothing and comfort. Daily Forest School and year-round garden use make waterproofs, boots and spare clothing part of the routine. Consider how your child manages extended outdoor play and the practical demands of keeping their kit ready.
• Funding delivery. The nursery applies five funded hours per day, with funding restricted to term time. Request a written quotation showing how this fits your chosen attendance pattern and separates additional hours, food, consumables and enrichment.
• Changing attendance and dietary needs. Regular session changes require a term's notice, while families provide packed lunches. Discuss the proposed pattern carefully before booking and, for a child with allergies, confirm current food-handling arrangements during the care discussion.

Young Haymakers suits families seeking term-time nursery attendance or additional holiday sessions, with countryside exploration central to the day. Montessori activities, creative enquiry and growing food support learning through doing; Pine Lodge Classroom connects woodland experiences with follow-up activities.

The 2022 Outstanding judgement carries weight. Outdoor clothing, the funding delivery limit and a term's notice for attendance changes are practical considerations for the family routine.