Rand Farm Park Day Nursery & Pre-School

Collecting eggs, grooming rabbits and preparing animal feed give Rand Farm Park Day Nursery & Pre-School a character that reaches well beyond its rooms. Daily supervised farm visits turn living things into part of children's learning, while private gardens provide outdoor space closer to their everyday base. For families who want countryside experiences woven into childcare, this is the central attraction.

At its January 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and found safeguarding effective, although interactions with toddlers and older babies, and staff understanding of the toddler curriculum, needed strengthening. Those reservations matter alongside the farm setting. An appealing environment and consistent teaching are separate considerations.

Based at Whitehouse Farm, Rand, Market Rasen, LN8 5NJ, the nursery has capacity for 100 children, with a current age range of 2 to 60 months. Its purpose-built Pre-School and separate stages for younger children allow the environment and activities to change as children grow.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby Room uses colour, sounds and tactile experiences for babies up to 14 months, with a dedicated outdoor area in the private gardens and feeding, changing and sleep routines shaped around home life.

From 14 months to 2 years, the Pre-Toddler Room brings more structure through stories, creative play, early language and counting, using the nursery building, garden and supervised farm visits as learning spaces. Its staffing ratio is one adult to three children.

For children aged 24 to 36 months, the Toddler Room combines animal-counting activities, songs, conversation and imaginative play with time indoors, in the private garden and on the farm.

The purpose-built Pre-School serves children aged 3 to 5 years, with learning extending into its garden through free-flow access, the local community and farm activities involving animal care.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for learning through play, including communication, physical development and growing independence. Here, stories, singing and conversation sit alongside practical farm experiences, giving children things to talk about, count and investigate. The farm adds a concrete context to that everyday early-years work.

Daily supervised visits can include egg collecting, meeting young animals and tractor-and-trailer rides through the fields. Children also help with farm jobs, including preparing fruit and vegetables for smaller animals and grooming rabbits. Children participate in animal care.

Mini Farmers Programme introduces children to daily farm life. The programme complements EYFS learning through play. The nursery also follows a planning in the moment approach, with learning shaped around children's interests; an interest in an animal can become a starting point for language, counting or creative play.

There is a teaching caveat. In January 2024, staff working with toddlers and older babies sometimes positioned themselves in ways that left children with less help to develop their play. Some staff also lacked confidence in putting the toddler curriculum into practice. The improvement priorities were more purposeful adult interaction and a clearer understanding of how activities should extend children's learning.

Outdoor and Community Life

Private gardens offer free-flow access from the rooms, while visits to local woodland use the tractor and trailer. Children can also grow vegetables from seed. Outdoor learning connects plants, animals and their surroundings.

Cooking gives that connection another practical use. Preschool children make soup using vegetables they have grown, as well as baking cakes and decorating biscuits. Growing and cooking connect.

Relationships and Communication

Settling is organised in stages. Room leaders contact families approximately four weeks before the start date to arrange three sessions: around one hour, then two hours, then three hours, with the final session usually spanning lunchtime. Attendance builds gradually.

During the first session, a parent stays and completes the All About Me booklet, covering routines, preferences, allergies and intolerances. Parents may remain for the second session, although spending part of it apart is encouraged; parents are also encouraged to spend part of the third session apart from their child. The plan gives staff information about the individual child while allowing families to build familiarity gradually.

Communication continues through an app and structured feedback in person. For babies and toddlers, staff work with parents on feeding and sleep patterns, with rest responding to individual needs rather than a single fixed timetable for everyone.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

A Wellbeing Ambassador role supports emotional development and mental health, with monthly Wellbeing Missions providing themes for activities. March's Lucky Little Moments theme used reflection, mindful play and kindness to help children recognise what makes them feel calm, happy or supported.

Later safeguarding history is material: Ofsted's July 2025 complaint outcome recorded supervision training after a lapse around indoor-to-outdoor transitions, and its March 2026 compliance outcome recorded further supervision and risk-assessment failings, with the actions confirmed as met on 19 March 2026. Both outcomes include corrective action, but supervision recurred as an issue. The January 2024 safeguarding judgement therefore needs to be read alongside these later events.

Preparation for school emphasises everyday independence: putting on clothes, managing hygiene, tidying resources and looking after belongings. Conversation, shared play and taking turns develop alongside these practical tasks. Daily habits support the move to school.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery operates throughout the year and opens Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Flexible sessions are offered, together with early drop-off and later collection.

Enquiries go to sales@randfarmparkdaynursery.com or 01673 262021. A free guided tour with a member of the senior management team is available, and families receive a registration pack following their visit. The joining process then moves to the staged settling sessions once a child's place is confirmed.

Getting There

The address is Whitehouse Farm, Rand, Market Rasen, LN8 5NJ. The nursery sits just off the A158 between Lincoln and Wragby, with space for families to park; its usefulness will depend on how that road fits the family's daily route.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered, including the universal entitlement for children aged 3 and 4, income-based funding for eligible two-year-olds and the working-parent entitlement from the term after an eligible child's ninth month. Weekly entitlements are up to 15 or 30 hours, with stretched delivery across 51 weeks. Eligibility conditions apply to the income-based and working-parent routes; funding should not be treated as automatic for every family.

Private childcare is also offered. An enrichment charge sits alongside the core nursery fee and covers farm learning, meals, drinks, snacks, nappies and the parent app; meals and nappies therefore form part of that separate charge. Wipes and nappy cream are supplied, and babies' formula is supplied without an additional charge.

Food is cooked on site by the kitchen team, with nutritionist-designed menus expected to rotate over three weeks. Dietary adaptations are offered, and colour-coded plates are used to identify allergies and intolerances.

Current prices come in a written quotation tailored to the family's childcare requirements. The fees page explains the core fee and enrichment structure, so the useful comparison is the complete attendance quotation rather than core childcare alone.

• Repeated supervision concerns. Corrective action followed the July 2025 transition-supervision issue and the March 2026 supervision and risk-assessment failings, with the latter actions met on 19 March 2026. During a tour, ask how staff now organise movement between rooms, gardens and farm activities.
• Toddler teaching. The January 2024 improvement priorities concerned adult interaction with toddlers and older babies, and staff confidence with the toddler curriculum. Ask for examples of how practitioners extend children's play in those rooms now.
• The complete childcare bill. The enrichment charge covers meals and nappies alongside farm experiences. Ask how core fees, funded hours and enrichment are separated in your written quotation, so the proposed pattern is clear before joining.
• Individual care routines. The All About Me booklet and staged settling sessions give staff a route to understanding home routines. For a child with allergies or particular sleep needs, discuss current dietary arrangements and how those routines will work during the nursery day.

Rand Farm Park suits families who want hands-on animal care, garden access and practical outdoor experiences built into childcare. Its flexible sessions and early drop-off or later collection options serve different working routines, while the gradual settling programme gives joining families a defined starting process.

The farm is the strongest reason to choose it. The balance is the January 2024 teaching priorities and repeated later supervision concerns, even though corrective actions were recorded as completed. Families should weigh the quality of everyday adult support as carefully as the setting's opportunities for exploration.