Cedars, Boot Farm Day Nursery & Pre-School

Garden exploration, music and movement give Boot Farm its countryside character. Cedars, Boot Farm Day Nursery & Pre-School serves children from birth to five in Brimpton Common, with capacity for 40 children in total. Its rural setting makes outdoor activity a natural part of the offer, while indoor spaces are arranged for different stages of development.

At its May 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and judged safeguarding effective. The practical appeal is the combination of outdoor exploration and regular information for parents, rather than a single branded teaching method. There are also clear teaching improvements to weigh: protecting children's uninterrupted play and explaining healthy habits more consistently.

Standard Day and Full Day bookings sit alongside shorter funded sessions, with a paid late finish option.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the statutory basis for children's learning, development and care, with activities planned around their next developmental steps. Alongside it, the group uses Development Matters to guide planning. That distinction matters: the framework sets the requirements, while practitioners choose experiences that help individual children move forward.

Boogie Mites, the group-wide music and movement programme, gives children regular opportunities to explore these activities. It adds a musical strand to the day alongside outdoor learning. The group-wide outdoor offer includes investigating bugs, measuring trees and building tents, giving children practical things to explore rather than keeping learning indoors.

In May 2024, children worked with staff to turn willow branches into crowns. Their ideas shaped the activity. Planting seeds also became an opportunity to introduce descriptive vocabulary, while counting jumps brought mathematical language into physical activity. These examples connect learning to something children are already doing, making words and numbers useful within play.

The balance between adult help and children's own ideas needs care. In May 2024, some practitioners stepped into independent play too readily, shortening the time children had to concentrate and test their thinking. This is a meaningful qualification to the emphasis on exploration: well-chosen resources matter, but so does knowing when to leave a child absorbed in an activity.

Outdoor and Community Life

Boot Farm's rural surroundings support outdoor exploration. The indoor rooms are equipped for their respective age groups, while the group-wide arrangement places resources within children's reach inside and outside. Accessible books, games and equipment allow children to make choices about what to use.

In May 2024, babies practised balancing on raised wooden planks with a practitioner's hand for support. Older children rearranged equipment into obstacle courses and tackled wooden ramps independently. The different challenges matched different stages of movement: supported balance for babies, and more self-directed construction and movement for older children.

Relationships and Communication

Comfort is part of the settling approach. The group-wide care model includes cuddles, shared books and time spent talking or playing with an adult, with physical reassurance becoming less central as children gain confidence. For a parent considering a first nursery place, that puts relationships alongside the activities and resources.

In May 2024, practitioners checked children's feelings during the day and responded with reassurance. Preschool children were encouraged to think about how they could help a friend who felt sad. This made emotions something children could discuss together, rather than leaving comfort solely to an adult.

Famly, the group-wide online communication system, shares observations and everyday information such as meals and sleep with parents. Regular progress meetings complement those updates, and an electronic Learning Journey containing photographs and observations goes to families when their child leaves for primary school. Daily information helps parents understand the immediate routine; the longer record brings together development over time.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Nursery cooks prepare meals and snacks on site each day, and the group-wide food policy allows adjustments for most allergies and dietary requirements. Families managing an allergy should confirm the current arrangements for their child before starting.

In May 2024, children practised hygiene routines, including handwashing, but staff did not consistently explain why exercise, food choices and hygiene benefit the body. The improvement needed was in the teaching around those routines. Doing the activity and understanding its purpose are separate steps.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Boot Farm, Wasing Back Lane, Brimpton Common, Reading, RG7 4RG. Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. The nursery operates across the year, closing for bank holidays and one week at Christmas.

Two core bookings are offered for three, four or five days a week: Standard Day runs from 8am to 4pm, and Full Day from 8am to 5.30pm. A separately charged Late Finish extends care to 6pm. The distinction between closing time and the end of a booked day matters when matching care to a working day.

Funded term-time sessions are also offered from 9am to 3pm, 9am to 1pm and 1pm to 4pm, each across 38 weeks. Enquiries can be made by telephone or email, and visits can be booked.

Funding and Paid Extras

The nursery participates in 15-hour and 30-hour funded entitlement arrangements, subject to individual eligibility. Funding is applied across 38 weeks rather than stretched through the year, with a maximum of six funded hours a day. For children eligible for the 15-hour entitlement, between three and six hours per day are funded. The terms place those funded hours between 9am and 3pm.

Hours beyond a child's entitlement are paid wraparound care. These paid hours include catering, activities and consumables within the charge, with no separate charge for those categories; for funded entitlement, a separate voluntary contribution is requested for lunch and snacks. During non-funded weeks, full session charges apply. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

A monthly payment plan averages annual charges across the remaining months, while invoices continue to show the actual monthly charges. Any difference is reconciled when the plan ends or a child leaves early. This makes payments steadier, with a final reconciliation against actual charges. Payment is by Direct Debit, and there is no administration fee.

• Time to finish an idea. In May 2024, adults sometimes interrupted independent play unnecessarily. During a visit, ask how practitioners now decide when to join in and when to let children continue.
• Healthy habits explained. The May 2024 improvement point concerned inconsistent explanations of exercise, hygiene and food choices. Ask how those explanations are built into everyday activities.
• Afternoon funding. The afternoon session runs from 1pm to 4pm, while the funding terms restrict funded hours to 9am to 3pm. Clarify how that final hour is treated in the quotation before choosing this pattern.

Boot Farm suits families seeking countryside nursery care with outdoor exploration, regular music and movement, and online updates about their child's day. Its attendance offer serves both families choosing Standard Day or Full Day bookings and those seeking shorter term-time funded sessions.

The Good judgement gives a positive inspection position, qualified by specific work on uninterrupted play and health education. The practical fit also depends on the sessions and funding terms.