Fees and Funding Summer 2026 - Willow Tree - Flipbook - Page 12
What makes your journey at Willow Tree a special one?
At Willow Tree, our goal is to provide children and families with a nurturing, home-like atmosphere where they can thrive in a warm, caring environment. Our dedicated team is
committed to ensuring that every day is filled with engaging activities for children to explore and learn.
We are fortunate to be situated near Sale town center and close to Sale Water Park, allowing us to take full advantage of the community’s offerings. Our adventures include pond
dipping at the water park, tram rides to the airport, and visits to the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester. For our younger children, we have two turtle buses that help us
venture out. Worthington Park is just down the road, and we frequently visit the greengrocers in Sale Moor to teach children about healthy living and active lifestyles.
Over the past five years, we have made significant improvements to the nursery, including the creation of a new garden space that allows all children to fully utilize the outdoors
throughout the day. Our garden features dedicated allotment boxes where children are encouraged to grow fruit and vegetables used in cooking activities. We also have an apple and
pear tree, and children participate in harvesting the annual crops with our outdoor lead, Mark, who visits several times a week. Currently, we are working towards the RHS School
Gardening Awards, having successfully completed levels 1 and 2.
At the back of the nursery, we have a dedicated Pre-School classroom where children spend their final year with us. A devoted teacher oversees the curriculum for our school leavers
and collaborates with local primary schools to ensure a smooth transition to formal education.
Our nursery offers a variety of extra-curricular activities, including weekly yoga sessions, forest school trips where children explore local woodlands with our forest school lead, and
music and movement sessions with Moo Music for our younger children, facilitated by an external expert. Our kitchen team prepares freshly cooked meals daily, ensuring they are
nutritious and balanced, helping children meet their five-a-day goals while including protein, carbohydrates, and dairy in each meal. We’ve worked hard to reduce ultra-processed
foods, focusing on using pure ingredients whenever possible.
Throughout the year, we host various family events, such as grandparents’ afternoon tea, Mother’s Day craft sessions, Father’s Day breakfasts, parents’ evenings, stay and play sessions,
an Easter bonnet parade, and much more. Our team is dedicated to ongoing training, enhancing their knowledge and skills to ensure our practices remain current. We express our
gratitude through monthly events that include well-being baskets, non-uniform days, special breakfasts, birthday days off, and additional holidays during the Christmas break.
As a nursery, we strive to provide the highest quality service to all our stakeholders, including children, parents, extended families, and our team. We utilize various quality assurance
schemes to benchmark our practices, including audits from Hopscotch Early Years Consultancy. Our in-house Early Years lead, Diane, spends two days a week supporting the nursery,
alongside our committed management team who participate in local authority network meetings to share best practices from across the borough.
