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About The Willow Tree Nursery
Our Mission
At The Willow Tree Nursery, our mission is to provide high-quality child care services that promote child development and growth. We strive to create a safe, nurturing, and stimulating environment where children can learn and explore.
Our methods combine child led and adult guided play and learning indoors and out to build a sense of self and a feeling of 'It's Good to be Me'.
Healthy body, healthy mind. Our setting promotes well-being inside and out. Parent cooperation and partnership is vital for the child's successes in the early years.
Our Staff
We are a training nursery, promoting life long learning. Most of our staff at The Willow Tree Nursery are highly trained and experienced in child care. Others are learning on the job; learning the required skills alongside their coaches for a real hands on experience.
Although apprentices are very important to the smooth running of the setting, we encourage them to gain a wealth of experience, which may result in shorter employment periods with us. The setting also supports students from school and collage, providing young people with the opportunity to gain experience in the work place and also get a taster for the education sector, as they make important life decisions. This turnover of staff assists the industry as a whole, but also allows for children to gain the ability to make relationships with a variety of people.
All of our staff are passionate about working with children and are committed to providing the best possible care and education for your child.
Our Offer
We offer a variety of opportunities at The Willow Tree Nursery to meet the individual needs and interests of each child. Our learning opportunities, and invitations to play, work on the skills, knowledge and understanding needed to meet the early learning goals by the end of Reception year.
Our curriculum is built around 'Birth to 5 Matters', and adheres to the EYFS which is a legal requirements for all early years settings.
Please find a link to these important documents below.
As a parent we would appreciate your assistance in the teaching and learning of your child. Using the trackers to work together on solidifying those essential building blocks which the rest of their understanding will form upon.
Please find the trackers on the policy page. Please consult with your child's key person as to which range they are currently working on in each of the 7 areas of learning.
Working Together to Safeguard Children
Social services support families, helping to ensure the children safety and well-being is at the centre of all decisions. The setting will work closely with all families and will inform social services of any concerns.
If a child divulges that a person outside of the setting has harmed them, the setting will refer this to social services as part of our duty of care. This is regardless to the relationship the setting holds with the family or the predictions made about the family. The setting appreciates this may be very unsettling for most however is a requirement set out by the regulatory bodies to safeguard children. We would appreciate you working with us should a situation like this ever occur and not let it be the breakdown of the relationship we have worked hard to create.
If a child divulges that a person inside the setting has harmed them, the setting with refer this to LADO and work with them to gain an understanding of the persons continued suitability. All staff go through an intense vetting process before employment, which includes safeguarding questions and scenarios during interview, enhanced DBS check, references including most recent employer/educator, web check. Our staff also receive suitability checks throughout employment which includes self declaration forms, monthly supervisions which includes safeguarding and annual DBS checks through the update service. Through this vigorous process we are able to confidently state our employees are fit and suitable to work with children.
Did you know that most schools obtain an enhanced DBS certificate during the recruitment of their staff and then never again throughout their entire employment. We know by serious case reviews that this simply is not good enough.
Ongoing Training
Our staff have access to a wealth of training opportunities, having full access to over 75 courses on NoodleNow, 50 courses on BrightHR and courses provided by Wakefield Council and other independent suppliers.
All of our staff have a basic training package of:
Paediatric first aid
Safeguarding
Child Protection
Health and Safety
Safer sleep
The Prevent Duty
Food safety
Manual handling for childcare professionals
Supporting neurodiversity in early years
Congratulations to the manager, Shannon, who completed her SENCO training in December 2025.
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