About us

Welcome to Rye Hills Farm Day Nursery

The nursery was historically a poultry farm which included four poultry sheds and a farmer’s bungalow which sits in ten acres of farm land. When the farm closed down the poultry sheds were redeveloped into rural office space and we took on the farmers bungalow situated in five acres to create an eighty one place children’s day nursery. Daily we can take 21 babies (0-2yrs), 28 toddlers (2-3yrs) and 32 pre-schooler’s (3-4yrs).

There are several village pre-schools and primary schools within a five mile radius of the nursery and our pre-school team have excellent relationships with pre-school staff, reception teachers and head teachers.

To the back of the nursery we have in excess of three acres of land which has been turned into three separate outdoor classroom areas which are decked. This allows us to offer all our children plenty of outdoor experiences and opportunities. Two of these areas are covered so children can access them whatever the weather. We have several grassed areas which we use to develop our creative play and recreational play. We supply our kitchen with seasonal organic fresh fruit and vegetables which we grow from our own allotments and orchard areas. The children are actively involved in helping to grow and pick the vegetables/fruit for the cook to use for their daily meals.

Outdoor Play engages children in physical learning through enjoyable, exploratory experiences, using the body meaningfully, purposefully and with Imagination’

We have in total 5 chickens and 12 ducks in which the pre-school children help feed daily and collect any eggs they may have laid. The toddlers and babies also enjoy a daily visit and have fun looking in on them in their enclosure which sits in the nursery garden. We also have a fish which lives in the pre-school room and a hamster in the toddlers room.

Every family and their children who attend Rye Hills Farm Day Nursery are treated equally and we will take any child’s individual needs and beliefs into consideration as inclusion is meant in the widest sense. This is all children regardless of gender, individual special educational needs and/or disability, as well as those from minority ethnic groups or those with English as additional language. Children who attend our nursery who have additional needs are included fully within our nursery and a partnership with parents and outside agencies are formed to support them. All areas of our setting have been adapted to allow access for disabled people with resources and equipment being put at a child’s height where this is safe to do so.

At our nursery we provide a safe and stimulating environment but enabling children to have freedom of choice. All children’s care and development is enhanced by the highly qualified and experienced practitioners that are all CRB checked. I take great pride in the staff that care for the children at Rye Hills Farm Day Nursery as they not only hold a childcare qualification and have nursery experience but many staff are parents themselves. We have a varied age range of staff from 19 years of age up to 60 years of age this giving the children a healthy balanced of role models within the nursery. We work to identify and protect children to ensure they receive the best care and attention. Our nursery promotes a healthy lifestyle, healthy nutritional menu and a high standard of hygiene in its day to day work with children.

The nursery team and I recognise that working in partnership with parents by encouraging their involvement is of major value and importance to the nursery in enabling the team to provide a happy, caring and stable environment for both children and their parents. At Rye Hills Farm Day Nursery we aim to form a good relationship with parents and their children so they feel welcome and involved right from the beginning.

When a child starts at our setting they are assigned to a key person who helps the child and parent through the induction process thus building up a relationship which we believe is important to the development of the child. The key person is encouraged to be the first point of contact for all our parents. The key person plays an important role in the emotional development of the child so they take on responsibility for those aspects of the child’s day which have a greater impact on their well being this includes personal care routines. These special times of the day help to underpin healthy emotional, social and cognitive development for the child and help the bond with the key person. For practical reasons all the children have a secondary key person who shares the responsibility for the children in the absence of their primary key person.

‘Parents are children’s first and most enduring educators. When parents and practitioners work together in early years settings the results have a positive impact on children’s development and learning’

We have a vast amount of policies and procedures in place that support all areas of the setting enabling us to provide a safe and stimulating environment for all babies and young children. All of these policies are written and held in files on the premises of the nursery therefore allowing parents to have access to them at any time.