Daisy Chain Nursery Emsworth

A walled garden, a conservatory for messy play and an upstairs baby unit give Daisy Chain Nursery Emsworth a clear physical character. Daisy Cottage, a rubber track and an outdoor classroom add further reasons for children to spend time outside. This is a nursery with space for movement, exploration and quieter rest, rather than a day organised around a single room.

At its 15 January 2026 inspection, Ofsted judged curriculum and teaching to need attention, with achievement, inclusion, welfare, behaviour and leadership at the expected standard, and safeguarding standards met. That mixed position matters: the outdoor setting and care arrangements have practical appeal, but teaching consistency deserves close attention when choosing this nursery.

Children join from three months, with Hedgehogs upstairs and Squirrels and Wise Owls using the ground floor as they approach school age. Morning, afternoon and all-day attendance patterns serve different family routines. The Emsworth address is 99 Havant Road, PO10 7LF.

Rooms and Ages

Hedgehogs occupies the upstairs Baby Unit, where singing, books, sensory experiences and physical play accompany care for children from three months to two and a quarter years. A separate sleep room keeps rest apart from the activity rooms.

Squirrels and Wise Owls share the ground-floor provision for children from two and a quarter years to school age, with garden access and a conservatory used for creative, wet and physical activities. The conservatory connects the main classroom with the outdoors, making the garden part of the learning space. The building dates from 1895 and has high ceilings and spacious rooms.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for learning through play, including language, physical development, relationships, early mathematics and creative expression. It is the common foundation for early-years provision. Here, free-flow play gives children choices across the classrooms, conservatory and garden, while activities are adapted to their stage of development.

Practitioners can adjust activities that become too easy. Cooking also connects practical learning with food.

The January 2026 picture was less consistent than that intention. Some practitioners understood the curriculum more securely than others, so teaching did not reliably work towards shared learning aims. A training plan had begun, but the changes were still being established. The required action was to strengthen practitioners’ understanding of curriculum intentions by 1 March 2026.

In January 2026, activities included counting alongside play, repeated naming of objects and opportunities to handle tools. Background music sometimes made listening and communication harder, and approaches to behaviour were not fully consistent. These are useful details for parents: the question is how reliably everyday interactions support learning across the staff team.

Outdoor and Community Life

Daisy Cottage, a sensory area, a grow garden, an outdoor classroom and a rubber track give children different spaces for outdoor exploration.

A sand pit and a patch for fruit and vegetables add hands-on activity. Children can tend plants and watch growth over time, bringing food and living things into everyday learning. Garden activities also include familiar indoor play materials, such as building bricks and dressing-up resources, so outdoor time can extend a chosen activity as well as provide exercise.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person responsible for settling, developmental observations and activity planning. That person is the family’s first contact, giving parents a clear route for discussing routines or concerns. An optional home visit allows the child to meet their key person in familiar surroundings before starting nursery.

Settling includes two pre-visits, with more offered when needed. Parents can also contribute to famly, the online journal used for photographs and developmental updates. It supports communication in both directions: families can add information as well as receive it. Key person evenings provide another opportunity to discuss the child’s experience.

In January 2026, home learning bags supported toilet training, while play-and-stay sessions helped parents get to know staff through nursery activities.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the January 2026 inspection, Ofsted found that children made typical progress, practitioners adjusted care routines with families, and support for additional needs involved prompt assessment, review and work with outside professionals, including occupational therapists. That gives the inspection position substance beyond its judgement labels: individual needs were considered through specific strategies and adjustments.

A nursery SENCo role supports additional-needs provision. Safeguarding concerns can go to the designated safeguarding lead or through Safecall, an independent anonymous reporting service accessible by telephone or online.

For babies, the sleep room has a monitoring system alongside staff checks every fifteen minutes. Older children who need a rest after lunch can use sleep mats. This recognises that the need for sleep does not end when a child moves out of baby provision.

Food is cooked fresh in the nursery kitchen, using a four-week-and-one-day menu rotation intended to vary dishes even for children attending on fixed days. The dietary policy asks families to identify allergies, intolerances and other requirements before starting and keep the nursery informed of changes.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks of the year. The nursery closes over Christmas and New Year and on recognised bank holidays.

Morning sessions run from 8am to 1pm, afternoons from 1pm to 6pm, and all-day sessions from 8am to 6pm. Funded attendance also uses the morning and afternoon windows. This gives families separate session choices as well as the option of combining them into a day.

The nursery operates a first-come, first-served waiting list. Same-week session swaps carry no change charge when the nursery can accommodate them. Enquiries go through the Emsworth form or by telephone on 01243 370401.

Getting There

The address is 99 Havant Road, Emsworth, PO10 7LF, on the main road through the town. A car park supports collection and drop-off.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes up to 30 hours for eligible working families with children from nine months, universal 15-hour funding for three- and four-year-olds, and additional support for qualifying two-year-olds. Funding is stretched across the year, rather than restricted to attendance during school terms. Eligibility remains a condition of the relevant entitlement.

Private morning-session fees include breakfast, a snack and lunch; afternoon fees include a snack and tea. Funding covers educational provision, with a stated exception for two-year-olds receiving extra support. Food, snacks, consumables and additional activities are otherwise separate voluntary extras, supplied on request.

Parents bring nappies and formula, while the nursery supplies wipes and nappy sacks. Sunscreen can be supplied from home or provided by the nursery for an annual charge.

A registration charge applies when a place has been confirmed and the registration form is returned. Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation. The funded childcare information explains the distinction between funded provision, additional hours and requested extras.

School preparation includes an information pack for parents, a transition programme before children leave and invitations for Reception teachers to visit during the summer term. These activities support familiarity and preparation for the next stage.

• Teaching consistency. Curriculum and teaching needed attention in January 2026, with a staff-training action due by 1 March 2026. During a visit, ask how practitioners now share learning aims and how leaders assess the effect of that training.
• Funded-hours calculation. The funding terms give differing weekly totals for the stretched entitlement. Request a written attendance and funding breakdown showing the hours applied to your chosen sessions and the voluntary extras you select.
• Baby routines and allergies. Hedgehogs has a separate sleep room with fifteen-minute staff checks, and families must communicate dietary needs before starting. Use settling discussions to agree sleep routines and confirm current allergy practice for your child.

Daisy Chain Nursery Emsworth suits families seeking morning or afternoon sessions as well as all-day attendance, with baby care separated from older children’s ground-floor provision. Its garden, conservatory and sleep arrangements give families concrete features to weigh, while key-person contact and famly offer practical ways to stay involved.

Outdoor play and session choices have practical appeal. The January 2026 teaching concern remains central to the decision: consistent curriculum delivery across practitioners deserves scrutiny.