Smiles Day Nursery

An Astroturf Garden Room, an allotment and a minibus give Smiles Day Nursery in Sapcote a character built around movement and exploration. Children can grow and taste produce, play indoors with room to run, and take weekly trips beyond the nursery. Those are useful differences for families who want children's experiences to extend beyond their age-group room.

At its July 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, judged safeguarding effective and found that personalised support helped children with special educational needs and disabilities make very good progress. That judgement is dated: later regulatory findings about staffing and outings also matter to the decision and are covered below.

Smiles has 80 places in total and accepts children aged 3 to 60 months. Its Sapcote nursery is at Rugby House on Hinckley Road, distinct from the group's preschool at Hinckley Parks. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, with flexible attendance arrangements.

Rooms and Ages

Explorers and Discoverers, for children aged 3 to 20 months, combines accessible resources in an open-plan room with interest-led messy play, singing and baby signs, giving children opportunities to choose activities while developing movement and communication. Its maximum staff-to-child ratio is 1:3.

Adventurers, from 20 months to 2 years and 4 months, brings children's interest in nature into indoor play and Garden Room activities, alongside practice in taking turns and building friendships.

Creators, for children aged 2 years and 4 months to 3 years, uses weekly themes shaped by children's interests, with imaginative activities and baby sign language woven into communication.

Inventors, for children aged 3 years and over, occupies the upper floor, where free-flow spaces support games, stories and creative play alongside practical independence, including dressing, handwashing and recognising their names.

Across the rooms, quiet corners sit alongside construction, creative and role-play areas. Shared time in the dining room, Garden Room and sensory room gives children opportunities to see siblings and friends in other groups and become familiar with other practitioners. Room moves therefore involve relationships as well as a change of space.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care; here, play gives children opportunities to practise communication, movement and independence. Smiles also uses a Curiosity Approach-based nursery model, with children's interests shaping activities rather than every child following an identical task.

The rooms make that approach concrete. A child's interest can become a themed imaginary adventure in Creators or a messy-play activity in Explorers and Discoverers. Children have resources within reach and make choices about their play. For parents, that means looking beyond the finished craft to the conversation, experimentation and decisions involved in making it.

In July 2022, an animal skull discovered on a walk became a later investigation, with gloves used for handling and adults encouraging children's ideas through questions. Toddlers' interest in minibeasts also led to making habitats from different materials. There was a clear teaching limitation, however: adults did not consistently take children's existing knowledge further during play. The improvement priority was more reliable challenge, rather than simply providing more activities.

Outdoor and Community Life

The Garden Room has Astroturf and space for running and play, while the allotment connects growing food with tasting it. Weekly minibus trips add another setting for exploration. These arrangements give physical activity and experiences beyond the nursery a substantial place in the offer.

Inventors makes regular visits to a local residential home for shared craft and singing activities. The value is the repeated contact: children can build relationships with residents rather than encounter them only on a single outing. Visits to village shops and the park also connect the rooms with their surroundings.

In July 2022, children used a large indoor garden room for climbing, balancing and swinging, and took daily walks beyond the premises. That inspection-time pattern should be read alongside the later changes to outing supervision described below.

Relationships and Communication

Mixed-group time in communal spaces helps children get to know practitioners outside their own room before moving between age groups. For a child attached to familiar adults or friends, that gradual familiarity has practical value. It also gives siblings opportunities to spend time together during the nursery day.

An assistant manager holds the SENCo role and works with families and external professionals. This gives parents a defined route for discussing additional needs and coordinating support. In July 2022, additional funding was used for individual support, including turn-taking games to help children practise social interaction.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

A nursery cook prepares fresh meals each day, and children share a communal dining area. In July 2022, adults ate alongside children and used mealtimes to talk about vegetables and healthy eating. Food therefore provided an opportunity for conversation as well as nourishment.

Ofsted's later regulatory findings included insufficient staffing at some points in February 2025, followed by confirmation in March 2025 that staffing requirements were being met, and further safety findings in November 2025 followed by action on training, risk assessment and supervision during outings. The later outcome described route maps, approximate outing durations, repeated headcounts and keeping children visible to staff.

These are material findings even though corrective action was recorded. Staffing and children's safety arose again after the earlier action, so the outcomes deserve attention alongside the Good inspection judgement. They also make the organisation of trips a substantive decision point, given the nursery's emphasis on experiences beyond the premises.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery opens from 7.30am until 6pm on weekdays and operates throughout the year, closing for bank holidays and Christmas. Flexible packages accommodate different attendance needs. An enquiry form takes a proposed start date and the days a family requires, giving the nursery a concrete attendance request to work from.

The distinction between opening hours and a child's booked attendance matters here. The opening window describes the nursery's operating day; flexible hours describe the attendance arrangement. Families comparing work schedules can use the weekday window as their starting point.

Getting There

The address is Rugby House, Hinckley Road, Sapcote, Leicester, LE9 4FS. Access via the M69 and A5 may be useful for parents whose work journey already uses those roads.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded early learning is offered for eligible two-year-olds and for three- and four-year-olds. The two-year-old offer covers 15 hours each week across 38 weeks, beginning in the term after the second birthday and subject to qualifying benefits and other criteria; it is not an entitlement for every two-year-old.

For three- and four-year-olds, the funding information describes 15 hours a week, with 30 hours potentially available where parents meet the working-family conditions. The 15-hour entitlement applies to all three- and four-year-olds in England; the 30-hour entitlement depends on parents meeting the working-family conditions.

• Outing supervision. Corrective action in November 2025 included clearer route planning, headcounts and keeping children in sight. On a visit, ask how those arrangements work for your child's room and how staff respond when a route or activity changes.
• Challenge during play. In July 2022, adults did not consistently extend what children already understood. Look for how practitioners develop a child's question or idea, alongside the themed activities and accessible resources.
• Your attendance quotation. Flexible packages and funded early learning make the written arrangement important. Request a current written quotation covering the attendance pattern, funding delivery, meals and non-food consumables before agreeing a booking.

Smiles suits families seeking flexible weekday attendance and children who enjoy hands-on play, shared spaces and experiences around the village. The Garden Room, allotment and regular residential-home visits give parents concrete reasons to consider it, while the age-group rooms provide different ways to develop communication and independence.

The balance requires care. The Good judgement dates to July 2022, and later regulatory findings involved staffing and outing safety, with corrective action recorded. A family's decision should weigh those findings alongside the appeal of the nursery's trips and practical learning, with particular attention to how outings are organised now.