The Barn Nursery – Debden, Saffron Walden

Welcome to Debden Barn Day Nursery

Growing Together

Debden Barns Day Nursery is a welcoming and nurturing early years setting supporting families with quality child care and education for children from 6 months to school age.

Our mission is to ensure that all children are provided with the opportunity to learn and develop through real life, hands on experiences.[cite: 1] Becoming independent, curious and resilient life long learners.

Our stimulating and exciting indoor and outdoor environment is thoughtfully designed to provide children with enhanced opportunities to learn and develop in their early learning goals, across all seven areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Parent Guide - What To Expect When

What We Offer

“Freedom to learn through Nature"

Through exciting outdoor exploration and discovery children develop their confidence, resilience, and physical and mental wellbeing. As well as this, children gain an understanding of the world we live in and the importance of sharing our space with nature, leading them to think about what we can do to protect and preserve our environment.

We provide hands on exciting experiences such as Forest School, Gardening, growing flowers to encourage the bees and other insects, encouraging wildlife such as birds and hedgehogs, den building, composting, growing vegetables for our kitchen, and learning where our food comes from.

Opening Times

Here at Debden Barn Nursery we offer full day sessions which are fully inclusive of all meals, extra-curricular activities, snacks, nappies, wipes and nappy creams.

The All Day session runs from 7.30am – 6.00pm

The Nursery is open 51 weeks of the year, closed on bank holidays and a week at Christmas.

The Nursery Kitchen

Good nutrition is essential for children’s growth and development, with diet being one of the most important parts of living a healthy lifestyle. It’s important to us to ensure that children receive a variety of nutritional meals, packed full of goodness to fuel their busy day.

We provide children with a variety of well balanced meals and encourage positive eating habits and patterns. Our nursery cook prepares and cooks all meals in our nursery kitchen, using a variety of fresh quality produce. Our rolling menu provides a selection of seasonal dishes and can be adapted to meet any dietary requirements.

Parent Partnership

We believe working in partnership with parents is essential in supporting children’s development and building positive relationships.

Sharing home learning ideas creates opportunities for children to learn and develop at home, as well as at nursery.

We use our online app, Famly to communicate and share your child’s progress throughout their day. We also share helpful links, local community information and nursery events.

The Nursery Team

Our wonderful nursery team have a wealth of skills, experience and qualifications, and are passionate in providing children with an outstanding level of care every day.

Each member of staff is qualified in paediatric first aid, safeguarding and all relevant mandatory training. Debden Barn Nursery encourages and supports our team to learn and develop within their roles, through in house training, additional training courses and apprenticeships.

Debden Barns Nursery Standard Year Round Fees April 2026

Here at Debden Barn Nursery we offer full day sessions which are fully inclusive of all meals, extra-curricular activities, snacks, nappies, wipes and nappy creams.

Standard Session

Fee per Month without funding

2 All Day

£850

3 All Day

£1,275

4 All Day

£1,700

5 All Day

£2,125

A minimum attendance of two sessions per week must be taken in order to secure a place.

Extra Ad Hoc Session from April 2026

Extra Sessions may be requested for occasional additional sessions to facilitate unexpected work or other commitments, and the following charges will apply and be added to your next invoice.

Ad Hoc All Day session: £100.00

Early Years Government Funding Information

Funded hours are passed onto the parent with no charge, however some parents like the flexibility of attending more hours or days.

Below is an example of using funding alongside private hours or days on our optional ‘All Aboard’ offer. Parents can also opt to use just funded hours with no additional voluntary charges. Please see our ‘Parent Funding Guide’ for detailed information.

Monthly Cost

Using 15 hours per week

Using 30 hours per week

1 Day

n/a

2 Day

£508.43

£231.80

3 Day

£933.43

£591.47

4 Day

£1,358.43

£1016.47

5 Day

£1,783.43

£1,441.47

Per calendar month. Fees example is based on the ‘All Aboard’ funding offer, which is optional and inclusive of any remaining private hours outside of funded hours, and additional services costs. 15 hours – Based on 11.17 hours per week stretched over 51 weeks. 30 hours – Based on 20 or 22.35 hours per week stretched over 51 weeks.

If you would like to attend your funded hours only, without any optional charges then please see our ‘Parent Funding Guide’ for all the details.[cite: 1]

Save on your costs using Tax Free Childcare

If you’re a working parent, you can save money on your childcare fees by opening an online account to pay for registered childcare.

The government will top-up the money you pay into the account. For every £8 you pay in, the government will add an extra £2. You can receive up to £2,000 per child per year – that’s up to £500 every three months. If you have a disabled child, you can receive up to £4,000 per child – that’s up to £1,000 every three months.

For more information or to register for an account please visit www.beststartinlife.gov.uk