Smarties Day Nursery

A decked outdoor area for babies, twice-weekly Forest School for preschool children and weekly visits to care-home residents give Smarties Day Nursery a recognisable character. Outdoor play and contact with people beyond the nursery sit alongside the practical work of learning to choose, communicate and manage everyday routines. This is a setting with plenty happening beyond the playroom.

Smarties serves children from birth to five on Field Top Road in Brighouse. At its November 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated it Outstanding and found safeguarding effective, with strong teaching, attentive care and purposeful outdoor learning contributing to the judgement. The useful detail is beneath that headline: babies explored tactile materials, older children handled tools during outdoor activities, and stories extended into play.

Morning, afternoon, full-day and wraparound bookings give families different ways to use the nursery. The strongest reason to consider it, though, is the connection between its rooms, outdoor spaces and experiences in the wider community.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby Rooms cover birth to two, split between younger and older babies, with low furniture for choosing resources independently and a dedicated outdoor deck. The younger room caters for nine babies daily and the older room for twelve. These are room-level figures, rather than a measure of the whole nursery, and give parents a useful starting point for understanding the scale of their baby's day.

Toddler Rooms serve children aged two to three, combining interactive stories and movement with a book area that doubles as a sleeping space, plus a bathroom with child-sized toilets and low sinks. The Pre-School Room serves children aged three to five, with an open-plan layout, direct playground access and an emphasis on independent choices, phonics and practical self-care.

The physical arrangements make the progression tangible. A toddler can practise washing their hands at a sink they can reach; a preschool child can serve food or put on their own clothing. Those ordinary tasks sit alongside group activities, giving growing independence a place in the daily routine rather than leaving it as an abstract aim.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for learning through play across seven areas of development. Adult-led activities sit alongside play children choose themselves, and staff extend activities from children's interests. For parents, that means learning is woven into stories, construction, movement and everyday conversation, as well as more structured group time.

Forest School adds hands-on exploration and supported risk-taking in a natural setting. Preschool children use the on-site area twice a week, with activities including planting, den construction and campfires. The programme also introduces woodworking tools, natural crafts and care for the environment. Its appeal is concrete: children have opportunities to investigate materials and work through practical challenges outdoors.

In November 2024, outdoor activities included making sparks with flint and steel and cutting plant stems with secateurs. Physical challenges extended from soft blocks for crawling babies to balance bicycles and a slackline for older children. These examples show the breadth of activity at that time, from early movement to tasks requiring coordination and careful attention to instructions.

Outdoor and Community Life

Children have daily access between their rooms and secure outdoor play areas, where digging, planting and exploration accompany physical play. Outdoor time therefore reaches beyond the preschool Forest School sessions. Babies have their decked area, while the preschool room opens directly onto the playground.

Weekly visits to a local care home bring another kind of experience. The intergenerational projects allow children and residents to spend time together through shared activities, and residents also join nursery occasions, including the Graduation Ceremony and Christmas Party. This gives the relationship continuity beyond a single outing.

In November 2024, children also encountered emergency-service personnel, animal workshops and experiments in a science lab. Outings included journeys by bus or train, and even babies visited the local library. The combination matters: books, people, transport and practical investigation broadened what children could draw on in their play and conversation.

Relationships and Communication

Settling begins with free sessions, usually in the week before a child's start date. Smarties recommends at least three, while adjusting the number to the child and family. The sequence starts with parents sharing information, moves towards time playing apart from them and includes a meal before the child begins their usual attendance. It gives families a gradual introduction to both people and routines.

Care for babies follows familiar patterns from home, including feeds, sleep, weaning and nappy changes. Parents share information with their child's key person during settling, so the relationship begins with practical knowledge of the child rather than simply a list of developmental goals. That continuity is especially relevant when nursery is the baby's first regular care away from home.

The ParentZone app connects nursery and home through updates about meals, sleep and photographs, with daily notifications sent to parents' devices. Families can contribute their own observations and milestones, while room changes bring a developmental assessment. It provides a way to understand the day and share information beyond a brief conversation.

Toddlers also have a lending library: families take a book home and record comments about the shared reading. That feedback can shape activities back at nursery. The arrangement makes parent communication useful to the child's learning, rather than treating it solely as an update on what has already happened.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the November 2024 inspection, Ofsted found that staff worked with parents and other professionals to address developmental needs, planned communication support, and carefully prepared children for changes within the nursery. The judgement was supported by practical examples, including story resources shared with families and close attention to children's individual next steps.

In November 2024, children could use left-handed scissors, explore differences between families and homes, and take part in yoga or meditation. Quiet dens gave another option within the day. These were specific ways of accommodating differences and helping children manage their feelings, rather than expecting every child to participate in the same way.

All team members are trained in paediatric first aid, and Smarties holds Millie’s Mark, an endorsement recognising whole-team paediatric first-aid training. A qualified teacher works in preschool. These staffing details sit alongside, rather than replace, the dated safeguarding judgement.

Moving to school is prepared through teacher visits and detailed transition reports. Children can meet their future teacher before leaving, and information about their development travels with them. A graduation ceremony includes families in marking that change.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery opens from 7am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, for 51 weeks each year. Christmas week and Bank Holidays are closures, so the annual calendar matters alongside the daily opening window.

Morning half-days run from 7am to 1pm, afternoon half-days from 1pm to 6pm, and full days from 7am to 6pm. Full-time weekly places and wraparound sessions are also offered. These are different booking patterns: a family needing a morning has an alternative to booking the whole day, while an afternoon covers the later part of the opening window.

Enquiries can be made by telephone or through the joining form, which takes the required weekdays and an approximate start date. A child entry document and a registration charge, where applicable, form part of securing a booking. A waiting list is used when the requested sessions cannot be accommodated.

Getting There

The address is Field Top Road, Rastrick, Brighouse, HD6 3XB. School facilities are used outside school hours, when school children are absent; nursery attendance does not guarantee a Reception place, and families still apply through the local authority admissions process.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered to eligible children from nine months, with term-time-only or stretched year-round delivery. The funded offer includes 15 and 30 hours of childcare support; eligibility conditions apply. For stretched attendance, Smarties also offers a free weekly subsidised session of three to four hours to help families use their funded hours.

Private childcare and a new-child registration charge are offered alongside funded places. Settling sessions are free. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, with the attendance pattern and applicable registration terms set out for the family.

• Baby-room scale. The younger room caters for nine babies daily and the older room for twelve. On a visit, explore how sleep, feeds and play are organised within the room your child would join.
• Preschool outdoor learning. Twice-weekly Forest School includes campfires, tools and planting. Discuss how children are introduced to these activities and what clothing they need for the outdoor day.
• The funded package. Term-time and stretched options serve different calendars, and the stretched offer includes a subsidised weekly session. For your proposed funded pattern, discuss how meals, snacks and consumables are handled and which charges apply.
• Holiday cover. Christmas week and Bank Holidays are closures. Families using year-round childcare need to plan cover for those dates rather than assume the usual weekday pattern continues.

Smarties suits families looking for morning or afternoon sessions as well as full-day attendance, with term-time and stretched funded options adding another choice. Its strongest practical attractions are the baby-room outdoor deck, preschool Forest School and sustained contact with care-home residents.

The November 2024 Outstanding judgement gives those arrangements a substantial inspection context. Equally useful are the everyday details: gradual settling, routines carried over from home, accessible self-care facilities and ParentZone communication. Parents choosing between settings should weigh that combination against the precise booking package and annual closures. There is a clear character here, built from outdoor activity, relationships and steadily increasing independence.