Growing Together
Set in a beautiful rural part of Thaxted, overlooking open fields and farm life, our nursery embraces the natural environment as part of everyday learning. Our passion for the outdoors shines through in our play and learning opportunities, ensuring children have a wide range of outdoor experiences to explore and enjoy. We encourage children’s learning through their own interests, individual learning styles, and needs, both indoors and outdoors.
Our mission is to ensure that all children are given the opportunity to learn and develop through real-life, hands-on experiences, helping them to become independent, curious, and resilient lifelong learners.
Our stimulating and exciting indoor and outdoor environments are thoughtfully designed to provide children with enhanced opportunities to learn and develop across all seven areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage, supporting them in achieving their early learning goals.
A key person is assigned to every child, ensuring their individual needs are met and helping them to feel safe, secure, and settled within the nursery environment. Each key person observes and monitors your child’s progress and development through ongoing observations, including photos and videos, which are shared with parents via our online nursery app, Famly. This enables parents to understand and be part of their child’s learning journey, as well as support their next steps in development.
The Great Outdoors
Freedom to learn through Nature
Through exciting outdoor exploration and discovery, children develop confidence, resilience, and both their physical and mental wellbeing. They also gain an understanding of the world around them and the importance of sharing our space with nature, encouraging them to think about how we can protect and preserve our environment.
We provide hands-on, exciting experiences such as Forest School, gardening, growing flowers to encourage bees and other insects, attracting wildlife such as birds and hedgehogs, den building, composting, growing vegetables for our kitchen, and learning where our food comes from. These experiences help children to connect with nature while developing valuable life skills.
We are very fortunate to care for some very special farm animals. Our pigs, Peppa and Penelope, love seeing the children and having their ears scratched! Children are encouraged to help care for our on-site animals, building confidence and responsibility. Our animals include pigs, chickens, fish, cats, rabbits, and guinea pigs.
What We Offer
Wonder Wood
Our large woodland, accessible through our Green Garden, is used daily by all children at the nursery. Our planned forest school sessions, and free play allows for risky play activities such as climbing trees, camp fires, den building, using tools, ladders and tyre swings.
Gardening
We love planting, and caring for our seedlings, watching them grow into flowers, fruits & Vegetables. Observing the seasons and making our own compost and leaf mould. We enjoy encouraging insects such as worms, bees and other wildlife into our garden.
Our Farm Animals
Caring and respecting all living things. Each day the children have the opportunity to feed and care for our two pigs, chickens, cats and rabbits. Children collect and count fresh eggs, returning them to our nursery kitchen to add to our meals.
Garden & Meadow
Children have plenty of opportunities for water play, football, and parachute games. As well as climbing equipment, steppingstone logs, painting easel, Mud cafe, net swing, sand pit, tepee and tyre swings are all there to be explored. The garden has gated access into the forest, and petting farm, ensuring that, the children can also extend their learning into different outdoor spaces.
Adventure
We enjoy walks, nature and wildlife searching, paddling in streams, and watching the tractors and combines in our surrounding fields. We also have our own mini bus providing us with opportunities to engage in the local community, such as the food market, windmill, primary school, Library and church.
Playground
Our playground space is a great area for ride on toys. Children move in different speeds, manoeuvring in and out of spaces and cones. We have a range of cars, bikes, and scooters that they can use independently or in partnership with their friends. The playground space also has a construction area, sheltered mark making station and water butt.
Indoor Learning Environment
All of our thoughtfully designed indoor classrooms have been created with a cosy and calming feel. Each room is equipped with large, comfortable furnishings and accessible resources to support children’s learning and development. Every classroom has its own wooden home corner, featuring real-life resources to enhance children’s imaginative play, alongside creative stations filled with a variety of mark-making materials.
Our classrooms provide a homely, comfortable, and welcoming atmosphere, helping children to feel happy, relaxed, and secure in their environment.
All of our classrooms open directly onto the outdoor spaces, giving children the opportunity to move freely and safely between indoor and outdoor areas, supporting continuous exploration and learning.
Food & Health
All of our thoughtfully designed indoor classrooms have been created with a cosy and calming feel. Each room is equipped with comfortable furnishings and accessible resources to support children’s learning and development. Every classroom features its own wooden home corner, complete with real-life resources to enhance children’s imaginative play, alongside creative stations filled with a variety of mark-making materials.
Our classrooms provide a homely, welcoming, and nurturing atmosphere, helping children to feel happy, relaxed, and secure in their environment.
Each classroom opens directly onto our outdoor spaces, allowing children to move freely and safely between indoor and outdoor areas, supporting continuous exploration and learning.
The Barn Family Team
Our dedicated nursery team bring with them a wealth of skills, experience, and qualifications, and are passionate about providing every child with the highest standard of care, support, and learning opportunities each day.
Every member of our team is fully trained in paediatric first aid, safeguarding, and all relevant mandatory training, ensuring children are cared for in a safe and nurturing environment. At The Barn Nursery, we are committed to supporting our staff to grow and thrive in their roles through ongoing in-house training, additional professional development courses, and apprenticeships.
Photos
Get in Touch
Buckinghams Farm,
Stanbrook,
Thaxted,
CM6 2NJ
We are open 7.45am – 6.15pm Monday – Friday
Closed Bank Holidays and one week at Christmas