Willows Farm Day Nursery

Willows Activity Farm, Coursers Road, London Colney, St Albans AL4 0PF
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9.3 86 Reviews
  • Willows Farm Day Nursery, St Albans
Fresh air, nature-based play and farm animals are aplenty at Willows Farm Day Nursery and Pre-School, set amidst the grounds of Willows Activity Farm.

The modern, purpose-built day nursery is split into four rooms (based on the children’s age). As children become toddlers, they enjoy free flow access to large private nursery and pre-school gardens. And as you would expect being based at Willows Activity Farm, one of the daily highlights are supervised visits to the farm attraction’s outdoor play and animal barn.

Throughout the week and seasons, the activities vary. Children enjoy weekly pony grooming sessions, hatch ducklings for the farm’s duck pond and get extra close during the lambing season.   

This is in addition to weekly French lessons and weekly forest schools, which help develop children’s five senses. The wide range of activities give children numerous rich learning experiences, both indoor and outside.

The Nursery was also proud when they updated their teaching ethos to ‘Planning in the Moment’ in 2019. The child-led teaching builds upon a child’s natural interest in an activity and fits well with the Early Years Framework.

The nursery cares for children aged from six weeks to five-years-old with staff working in partnership with parents and guardians to ensure they are happy, healthy and ready for mainstream school.

Tours are available daily for prospective parents, however, the Nursery also usually opens on the first Saturday of each month for tours. Please see the website for details and how to pre-book tours.

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Care Provided by Willows Farm Day Nursery

  • Type of Service
  • Day Nursery – Privately Owned
  • Open all year
  • Full Day Care
  • Sessional Day Care

Good to Know

  • Person in charge
  • Lucy Nicholson (Senior Childcare Manager)
  • Number of Childcare Staff
  • 70
  • Total Places for Children
  • 188
  • Age Range
    • from 0 years 2 months
    • to 5 years 0 months
  • Opening Times
  • Monday 07:30-18:30
    Tuesday 07:30-18:30
    Wednesday 07:30-18:30
    Thursday 07:30-18:30
    Friday 07:30-18:30
  • When Closed
  • Bank Holidays & Christmas

Funding & Fees Guide for Willows Farm Day Nursery

  • Full-day session: 7:30 am - 6:30 pm
    Morning session: 7:30 am - 1:00 pm
    Afternoon session: 1:00 pm - 6:30 pm

  • Each situation is different and bespoke to your childcare needs. To find out more about our fees, please do get in touch so we are able to build a profile and give you a breakdown of what we believe best suits your child’s needs.

Willows Farm Day Nursery Reviews (86)

Total of 86, showing 81-86
9.3

Willows Farm Day Nursery has a Review Score of 9.3 (9.319) out of 10, based on 27 reviews in the last 2 years. Over all time Willows Farm Day Nursery has 86 reviews.

Overall Experience

  • 77
  • 6
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1

Date Published

86
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Review from Liz F (Mother of Child) published on 10 August 2018
Submitted via Postal Card • Report

Overall Experience  Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5

Excellent experience. Great standard of care and wonderful staff. We love it, as does our child.

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Review from Michael H (Father of Child) published on 10 August 2018
Submitted via Postal Card • Report

Overall Experience  Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5

I think the nursery is very good. Both my children have benefited from coming here. They always seem so happy to be dropped off and say they have really enjoyed their day at nursery. All the staff are very friendly and helpful, plus they all seem to have great relationships with both my children.

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Review from Kate L (Mother of Child) published on 7 August 2018
Submitted via Postal Card • Report

Overall Experience  Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5

Fantastic care of our son. He is thriving at Willows Farm. He loves it! He loves being with his friends and two members of staff have looked after him to the highest standard!

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Review from Hayley S (Mother of Child) published on 7 August 2018
Submitted via Postal Card • Report

Overall Experience  Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5

Willows Farm Day Nursery is brilliant, my son loves the baby room and he has progressed no end. He loves his key worker and every morning he's desperate to go in to start his day. The setting is wonderful and the trips to the farm are so fun. The nursery lacks air con and is too hot. This could be improved.

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Review from Amber M (Mother of Child) published on 7 August 2018
Submitted via Postal Card • Report

Overall Experience  Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5

My son has been coming to this nursery since he was 6 months old. He loves it and is very well cared for and is excited to come. I am happy as a parent and love that my son gets good quality carers and teaching.

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Review from Patricia H (Mother of Child) published on 19 November 2015
Submitted via Postal Card • Report

Overall Experience  Overall Experience 5.0 out of 5

Both my daughters attended the nursery for over a year and have experienced all of the rooms between them. They love going to nursery and are very happy. They especially enjoy the regular trips to the farm and the activities like French and football in the pre-school. There are some excellent, consistent
members of staff who they are very fond of.

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Current Review Score: 9.3 (9.319)

Overview of Review Score

The Review Score of 9.3 (9.319) out of 10 for Willows Farm Day Nursery is based on a) the Average Rating and b) the number of positive Reviews.

  • a) The Average Rating is 4.7 out of 5 from 27 Reviews in the last 24 months.

  • b) The score for the number of positive Reviews is 4.7 out of 5 from 25 positive Reviews in the last 24 months.

Detailed Breakdown of Review Score

The maximum Review Score for a Day Nursery is 10, which is made up from the Average Rating of Reviews (maximum of 5 points) and the Number of Reviews (maximum of 5 points) in the last 24 months:

  • a) 5 Points are available for the Average Rating from all Reviews in the last 24 months.

    The Average Rating of 4.654 for Willows Farm Day Nursery is calculated as follows: ( (248 Excellents x 5) + (55 Goods x 4) + (12 Satisfactorys x 3) + (3 Poors x 2) + (6 Very Poors x 1) ) ÷ 324 Ratings = 4.654

  • b) 5 Points are available for the number of Positive Reviews in the last 24 months. A Positive Review is defined as any Review with an 'Overall Experience' of '4' or '5' (out of a max rating '5').

    The 4.665 Points relating to the number of positive Reviews for Willows Farm Day Nursery is based on 25 positive Reviews in the last 24 months and is calculated as per below:

    The 5 points available are broken down as follows:

    • i) 4 points are available for the first 10 Positive Reviews in the last 24 months; 3 points for the first Positive Review, and then 0.125 Points for each of the next four Positive Reviews and then 0.1 Points for the next five Positive Reviews. (1st = 3.000, 2nd = 0.125, 3rd = 0.125, 4th = 0.125, 5th = 0.125, 6th = 0.100, 7th = 0.100, 8th = 0.100, 9th = 0.100, 10th = 0.100) 3 + 0.125 + 0.125 + 0.125 + 0.125 + 0.1 + 0.1 + 0.1 + 0.1 + 0.1 = 4

    • ii) 1 point is available for the number of Positive Reviews reaching 20% of the number of registered child places in the last 24 months. If this number is partially reached, then that proportion of 1 point is given. eg a Day Nursery registered for a maximum of 50 child places has to reach 10 Positive Reviews to receive 1 point, if it has 7 reviews it will receive 0.7 points. 20% of the 188 number of registered child places is 37.6. 25 Positive Reviews ÷ 37.6 = 0.665

  • When a Review is submitted by someone who has previously submitted a Review, only the latest Review will count towards the Review Score.

  • If a Day Nursery does not have a review in the last 24 months, then it will not have a Review Score.

Child Vacancies

Please Contact Us for Latest Vacancies

Awards / Recognitions (1)

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Meet the Team (1)

Lucy

Lucy Nicholson

Job Title: Senior Childcare Manager

Hi, I’m Lucy Nicholson, Senior Childcare Manager of Willows Farm Day Nursery & Pre-School! Our Day Nursery offers childcare full of discovery and rich learning experiences, with the daily opportunity to meet the farm animals and enjoy forest school sessions in the great outdoors. We are located in the heart of the countryside of St. Albans, where we provide our children with the best in early year’s education and learn through the ‘Planning in the moment’ child-led teaching approach.


Information on this page is displayed without responsibility for its accuracy on the part of daynurseries.co.uk. Please contact Willows Farm Day Nursery to verify any information. View our terms and conditions. Willows Farm Day Nursery has a Platinum Service – more info.