ABOUT US
Parent Partnership
Under the Willow believe that parents and staff need to work together in a close partnership in order for children to receive the quality of care and early learning to meet their individual needs. We welcome parents as partners and support a two-way sharing of information that helps establish trust and understanding. We are committed to supporting parents in an open and sensitive manner to include them as an integral part of the care and early learning team within the nursery.
The Famly App
We use Famly, an all in one early childhood platform, that gives you real-time updates on your child's day straight to an app on your phone.
With Famly, you’ll be able to access pictures, videos, and announcements via the newsfeed, or your child’s profile. At the click of a button, you can update permissions, report sickness and holidays, pay your bill, and send direct messages to us whenever you need. At the same time, there’s a bunch of admin tools and support, that will give our staff even more time to spend with your children
Key Person
The key person system supports engagement with all parents and will use strategies to ensure that all parents can contribute to their child’s learning and development. Parents contribute to initial assessments of children’s starting points on entry and they are kept well informed about their children’s progress. Parents are encouraged to support and share information about their children’s learning and development at home. The key person system ensures all practitioners use effective, targeted strategies and interventions to support learning that match most children’s individual needs.
Culture Capital
In Under the Willow, we believe that parental cultural capital encompasses a rich and diverse set of resources that parents pass down to their children. Because of this inherited cultural capital, we want to also find a way to enhance each child’s experience without detriment to what they have already learnt from home prior to entering nursery. We support parents care arrangements for their children and recognise the importance of parent’s involvement.
Parent Events
We hold lots of parent events throughout the year. Through knowledge, skills, language, food, religion, beliefs or ideas - we believe that the cultural capital learnt within the home/family environment can positively influence children’s educational outcomes and for this reason we aim to work with parents to celebrate their culture and improve our partnership with parents.
We want parents to feel free to be themselves when entering our setting and are very keen to learn from parents their own ways of teaching and supporting their children.
Each term parents are invited in to our project celebrations. The children display their work from what they have been learning about. In addition to our wonderful project celebrations, we hold lots of parent events throughout the year such as a Father’s day breakfast, messy play event, world culture day etc.
When your child is ready to leave us to transition into Primary School they will have their Graduation ceremony from Under the Willow. Our parents have said “The most special part of our child’s time at UTW, was the gift of a handmade memory book by his teacher. He absolutely loves to look at it and remind himself of the all the fantastic memories he made there”.
Parent Feedback
We also strive to extract the views of parents to contribute to internal quality improvement measures within the nursery and helps us to understand how well our nursery is in providing quality provision and supporting children’s holistic development and wellbeing.
“Unlike many parents, I had no worries leaving my five-month-old baby at Under the Willow, even in a pandemic. As my oldest had attended from six months, I knew how well he would be cared for and looked after and how he would thrive in such a nurturing environment. My oldest went there till just over two when he transferred to the Outdoor School (which we love!) and my youngest has now been there for three months and both are loving it. They have helped wean him and even getting him to nap - something that is mission impossible. Importantly, I value the ethos of the nursery and the emphasis on learning through play and can see the benefits of this in my eldest child with his imagination and vocabulary and social skill. Additionally, I value the staff there, particularly because of how hard they have worked through the pandemic and the regular communication they provided. This nursery has been amazing and I would totally recommend it to anyone.”
Mother of 3 boys
"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."
Father of 4 year old son
“Our daughter has been attending UTW full time since she was 7 months old. We found everyone to be extremely helpful and accommodating from the outset, allowing us to view the nursery on two separate occasions before we signed up. The team are down to earth, professional, always smiling and extremely approachable. As our baby was quite young when she joined, we felt a bit apprehensive but she absolutely loved it from day 1. In fact, she likes it so much that she brings us her coat and shoes in the morning when she is 'ready' to leave. We love the Montessori approach, especially the promotion of independence, wooden toys, amazing healthy freshly prepared meals and the fact that the kids spend a lot of their time playing outdoors and gardening. Parents are kept well informed about their child's progress via an app with regular updates and pictures and are encouraged to share observations at home also. We are extremely happy and cannot recommend this nursery highly enough!”
Mother of 3 year old daughter
"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."
Mother of 3 year old daughter