Under the Willow Nursery

Our son attended Under the Willow (UTW) Nursery for a year and had a fantastic time!

The staff at UTW are highly skilled and look after children with affection and great care. They ensured our son felt comfortable, and encouraged him to engage in a breadth of new activities with curiosity. The staff also communicate with parents effectively, and we felt our son was in good hands. They made sure we were aware of any important issues.

UTW also has an experienced and passionate cook who prepares fresh meals/snacks every day. Our son really enjoyed the food at UTW!

Another fantastic feature of UTW is their forest school. Our son really enjoyed experiencing new things in nature. We cannot forget how happy our son was when he had his first hot chocolate at forest school. Engaging with forest school truly enriched our son's experience.

It is with heavy heart that our son had to leave UTW due relocation. We highly recommend UTW, as we had such a wonderful experience there!

Our 3 year old son attended the holiday camp at Easter and summer. Each camp was one week long. He absolutely loved it and talked about for weeks afterwards.

He usually refuses food at nursery school and did same at his previous nursery but he tried different foods at camp. He settled in well and enjoyed 'lots and lots of play, making and eating pancakes with honey and arts and crafts'. He finished each day happy.

I only wish they held the camp for more than the single week in summer!

Our son attended Under the willow from when he was 9 months old. We have been very happy with care, development support and attention he's received here. We felt supported across the board with information in his language development, sleep and activity participation. He was always happy at pick up and readily shared how his day has been going. Regular football coach sessions, music with Kitty and forest school visits in the toddler room were always a blast too and we felt he's grown to be a confident and outspoken child at the nursery. Many thanks for all the team for always looking after him!

A brilliant place where I feel very confident knowing my daughter is very well-looked after and gets enough attention. The staff are very warm and the space is lovely. Every time I pick up my daughter at the end of the day I have a conversation with her key person to find out how she has been that day.

Our son has attended UTW since he was 11 months old (in preschool now) and we have been so grateful for the experience.mThe staff really care for the kids and he runs in every morning to tell them and his friends his updates. There is very little staff turnover and he has built a strong relationship with all the key people. The Montessori ethos is woven through teaching and has made a huge difference to our son. We have regular opportunities for feedback and discussion in the parent teaching meetings and the staff are always available for a chat. Weekly visits to forest school are a great addition though missed at times due to weather. Overall and amazing experience and we'll be sad to leave next year when our son goes to big school.

Our daughter has been attending UTW since she was about 10 mths old. She has absolutely loved it from her first day and is now heading into the pre-school room in September. The staff are fantastic and with the many languages spoken, our daughter has been exposed to different cultures, countries and languages which has been brilliant.

There are plenty of activities on offer, such as baking, football, music and trips to the park, forest school and local museums. The nursery also offers other social activities such as meeting with a dog who regularly comes into to see the children so they know how to be safe around dogs, as well as meeting more exotic animals such as spiders and snakes when an animal handling workshop came into visit.

Our daughter has a severe egg allergy and the staff have been great at the management plan we have in place for her and responding quickly if there are any incidents.

We have been so happy to be part of the UTW community!

My twins have attended UTW since they were ~18 months old; my older child attended from 8 months. The nursery is professionally run, clean and tidy with healthy homecooked meals and has an app for regular communication and photos to see the kids enjoying themselves. Staff are caring and friendly - many of the team have been there for a long time. The mix of activities the kids get up to is great, and the focus on learning the world around them through play, songs and daily activities is lovely; trips to Forest school will always be a favourite. The nursery team are supportive with educational needs and ready and able to offer advice when needed. It's a lovely place, with nice outside space too.

I enrolled my daughter at Under the Willow having been impressed by the reivews and thought it looked nice on the tour. However, when I attended the first settling in hour in the baby room, I found the baby room to have hardly any toys. I understand a lack of toys may be a Monetessori ethos thing but alongside this I found that the staff did not interact with the babies in thier play. The staff seemed over stretched and disconnected from the children. There was one slide in the outdoor area that was closed off. When my daughter showed an interest in it - the slide was opened up but I ended up helping out with keeping the babies safe on it. The other staff members did not help. It was very concerning to me that staff were like this while a parent was present as I wondered what it was like when they were unobserved. There was also an incident where it appeared to me that a crying child was pacified using one of the staff ipads. I would not reccomend this nursery for under 2s

The team has a great understanding of child development, and they engage the children in incredible activities. My little boy loves going to nursery and sometimes even refuses to leave. I can breathe easy knowing he is in kind, nurturing hands with Marta leading the team! We highly recommend this nursery!

Our youngest is currently in the pre-school room and has extra needs. The staff are always so inclusive and really delight in seeing him progress. He always comes out happy after each day and I am reassured in the day with updates and photos through the app. The food is freshly prepared on site, visits are made to forest school regularly and the garden has a lovely atmosphere with many activities for the children. Indoor learning is fun and informative. My son loves to come home with his baking and artwork to show us. We highly recommend this nursery to any new parent!

We've been so happy with our experience at Under the Willow. The staff at this nursery are incredibly caring, with very low turnover, which makes a big difference. The range of activities they offer is amazing - always fun, creative, and often things I'd never think to try at home. The staff truly go the extra mile to make everything feel special, not just for the children but for the parents too, with thoughtful touches like handmade cards for Mother's Day that create lasting memories. The food is freshly prepared on site every day, which gives us real peace of mind. The outdoor space is fantastic, with everything a child could wish for - sandpit, slides, swings, even a little botanical garden. We're constantly impressed by how much effort the staff put in and how much our child learns and grows while having so much fun.

It's been a total pleasure to have Under The Willow be such a positive and lasting part of my son's early years education and we will miss them all dearly.

Between our two boys, we have been coming to the nursery for 5 years now, both of them started in the baby room at under a year old and have stayed in the preschool room. It has been a lovely nurturing environment for them to grow up in, and having some of the key members of staff there for the entirety has been key in making them feel safe and secure. We have been really pleased with their development and the way their confidence has grown, the communication from the staff has been good and the extra activities of forest school, football, baking and trips to the park have been great. They have also made some wonderful friends which helped our eldest transition well into school and I hope will be the same for our youngest in September. We would definitely recommend our experience to others.

Our daughter loved her time at Under the Willow, formed great relationships with the staff, developed her enthusiasm for learning, and left feeling ready and well-prepared for school. They were great with us as parents, and I would certainly recommend them.

Overall I'm happy with my child's education and care. My only issues are around staff churn (too many new people in less than a year), although my child's key person has not changed yet. We also feel that the potty training support could have been better. The inset days when the whole nursery is closed is also an issue for working parents - hoping these will be changed for shorter period of time (couple of hours) across multiple days. Otherwise, good set of activities (sports, baking, music, arts and crafts, sensory play), plenty of pictures of the activities (through a mobile app), forest school trips, park trips and even a museum one. There are also plenty of project celebrations and parent events.

Our son started attending the pre-school at Under the Willow Nursery when he turned two. The staff are friendly, enthusiastic, caring and provide a lovely environment for the children to learn, explore and thrive! We particularly liked the incorporation of Forest School trips into the nursery week which gives a fantastic opportunity for the children to be immersed in nature and gain independence. Since attending the nursery, our son has grown in confidence and really enjoys learning. Every day has a different focus and our son has taken part in baking, football, gardening and yoga. The food menu is healthy and nutritious and is cooked on site by the nursery chef. All of the children sit down to eat together and it is lovely to see them all enjoying their food! We have had a great experience with Under the Willow and are very thankful to the staff members who have supported our son over the years in preparing him for primary school. Would highly recommend this nursery.

The staff are wonderful, my little boy has excellent care and rushes into nursery every day so he clearly loves it. There is a nice garden area and it is set far back from the main road. We are very pleased so far.

Our daughter never had a day when she didn't want to go to nursery and we were all so happy with our experience with Under The Willow. During our time there, staff turnover seemed low, and morale very high - we were impressed with the management and communication. Food was wonderful (better than at home!), healthy and warming. Her keyworker really took the time to find what made our daughter tick and there was always a happy, upbeat energy at drop-off and pick up. We miss it.

We had a lovely experience at Under the Willow with both our children. Our daughter was appropriately stretched and cared for, with great activities and lovely staff and our son, who has severe special needs, was brilliantly supported. The nursery applied for an EHCP on our behalf and the chef cooked special food for his dietary needs. Highly recommended.

My daughter has been at Under The Willow nursery for over a year and a half now, having started when she was just over a year old. She loves it and is visibly very happy to go in each morning. We have found the team at the nursery very engaged - they clearly have an excellent knowledge and understanding of each individual child and their needs and are very good at communicating with parents about this regularly, both formally and informally. It’s also clear that a lot of thought goes into providing a variety of activities and exercises for the children, to make nursery fun as well as meeting objectives for early years learning and development. We chose Under The Willow nursery partly for the nursery environment which is great, with a garden and plenty of outdoor space set well back from the road, and indoor areas all on one level. The menus are also good and certainly meet with my daughter’s approval! We’re very happy with our choice, and we’ve now signed up our new baby to start in autumn 2022.