Watchdog admires Mansfield Woodhouse nursery where 'babies beam' and 'staff show passion and pride'

Safe Haven Day Nursery, which is based in a renovated barn on High Street, received ratings of ‘Good’ in all five categories when it was inspected last month by Ofsted.

These categories covered overall effectiveness, quality of education, behaviour and attitudes of children, personal development of children, and leadership and management.

Inspector Lianne McElvaney’s report said: “Children show they feel safe and secure in the caring and nurturing environment that staff create.

"Babies reach out to a familiar member of staff and beam with happiness as they play together.

"The management team and staff show a great deal of passion and pride in the nursery. They build relationships with parents, who praise the ‘home-from-home’ setting.

"Parents value the communication and warmth from staff members. They comment that their children are eager to tell them about their day and the things they have enjoyed doing at nursery.”

Safe Haven, which opened in 2000, has 164 youngsters, aged four and under, on its books. It is owned by Sarah Atkins, while the manager is Paula White.

The nursery employs 20 members of staff and is open Mondays to Fridays (7.30 am to 6 pm) all year round, except for Bank Holidays and a week at Christmas.

Ofsted found that “children behave well and create good relationships with others”. They also “learned skills in preparation for their move on to school, including how to be independent”.

Staff were praised for “creating an environment that is interesting and exciting for children to engage in”. This led to children “focusing on their chosen activity and showing a high level of curiosity”.

“Well thought-out activities” included “many opportunities to learn safely outside”, the inspector reported. Staff also supported children to “develop their communication and language skills, recognising the value of singing songs and rhymes and reading stories”.

The management team worked closely with staff, providing regular supervision and training opportunities to improve their teaching and “setting targets to enhance their skills”.

The only areas for improvement pinpointed by the inspector were the need to challenge able children to think for themselves more and “extending children’s language skills” by “encouraging more two-way conversations”.