Highgate Day Nursery

Cooking with the nursery cook, obstacle courses with Super Star Sports and outings to Handsworth Methodist Church give Highgate Day Nursery a recognisable Handsworth character. These are concrete examples of children learning through practical tasks and encounters beyond their usual play. The nursery is at 225 Handsworth Road, Sheffield, S13 9BH, with capacity for 113 children aged 2–60 months.

At its October 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated Highgate Good and found effective safeguarding arrangements alongside especially strong support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). A later July 2025 regulatory outcome also matters to the decision: two significant events had gone unreported to Ofsted, despite the notification requirement.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care: in everyday terms, play supports communication, physical skills and children's understanding of the world. Highgate's practical activities give that learning tangible material to work with. Making food, discussing stories and experimenting with materials provide different ways for children to participate.

In October 2024, babies explored textured materials and made marks with crayons and pencils, while toddlers manipulated dough and used cutters and rolling pins. These activities gave small hands practice in controlling tools as well as opportunities to describe shapes. Preschool children extended a story through squeezing oranges and transferring liquid with pipettes. Books became something to investigate, rather than simply listen to.

The January 2025 All About Me topic devoted the first two weeks of a new term to children's similarities and differences. Preschool children made dough self-portraits, choosing how to represent their faces and hair. As part of National Storytelling Week that month, they created a book themselves, contributing words, illustrations and cover designs. The combination gave children opportunities to represent themselves and develop their own ideas for a story.

Cooking club began in summer 2025 as a weekly activity led by the nursery cook, who visited rooms to teach recipes. Apple crumble and jam roly poly were early examples. Children also visited shops for baking supplies and prepared pitta pizzas, cutting vegetables and cheese. The practical value is clear: ingredients, tools and the finished food give children something concrete to discuss and work on together.

March 2026 brought a Super Star Sports visit for Rising 3s and Pre-School, with equipment used to build and tackle obstacle courses. Children raced and noticed their faster heartbeats afterwards. This linked movement with noticing what happens to their bodies, rather than treating exercise as a separate break from learning.

Outdoor and Community Life

Handsworth Recreation Ground featured in toddler outings in July 2024, with a large slide, roundabout and seesaw providing opportunities to test balance and movement. In summer 2025, further trips included the park and local shops. These examples show how the surrounding neighbourhood has been used for both physical play and purposeful errands.

Community encounters extend beyond outings for exercise. In summer 2025, Pre-School visited the lunch club at Handsworth Methodist Church, talking with older local residents and staying to sing after their meal. The weekly frequency belongs to the church's lunch club, rather than the children's visits. In March 2026, another church visit introduced the Palm Sunday and Easter story with large props and a song.

World Book Day in March 2026 included fancy dress or pyjamas, story-related sensory activities, crafts and baking. Children received book vouchers to use with their families. That month, World Bear Day involved bringing a bear for a picnic and exploring habitats; preschool children constructed habitats from materials, while Rising 3s considered polar bears and their food. These dated examples show familiar celebrations being used to prompt reading, making and discussion.

Relationships and Communication

In October 2024, staff shared advice with families about bedtime routines, sleep and healthy eating. A dummy tree gave children a playful way to leave their soothers behind. This was a practical example of support extending to a change that parents might also be managing at home.

Superhero Sid, introduced to Pre-School in February 2024, was another link between nursery and home. The character went home with a different child at weekends, carrying bedtime guidance and a banana muffin recipe, with information from Start Well Sheffield and Change for Life. The arrangement connected a familiar nursery character with ideas families could use together.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the October 2024 inspection, Ofsted praised the SEND coordinators' expertise and the use of funding for individual needs, but asked leaders to sharpen staff support for focused activities with babies and toddlers and make coaching more precisely targeted. Parents of younger children should give those improvement points weight alongside the positive judgement. The issue was how confidently staff identified and extended the next learning step during some planned activities.

In summer 2025, Total Orthodontics visited Pre-School to discuss toothbrushing and oral hygiene, followed by activities and dental bags to take home. This gave children another encounter with people whose work relates directly to their health.

The July 2025 regulatory outcome identified two significant events that had gone unreported to Ofsted. This notification failure forms part of the latest published regulatory position.

Highgate opens Monday to Friday, from 7am to 7pm, throughout the year, with closures on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day. That opening window is useful for comparing the nursery with a family's working hours. Enquiries can be made on 0114 243 8884 or through the contact form by selecting Highgate Day Nursery.

In October 2024, the nursery provided funded early education for children aged two, three and four. That is a dated account of participation, rather than a statement of today's funded attendance arrangements. Families should obtain current prices in the nursery's written quotation.

• Learning for the youngest children. The October 2024 improvement points concerned engagement during focused activities and more targeted coaching. On a visit, ask how practitioners now plan and extend activities for babies and toddlers.
• Significant-event notifications. The July 2025 outcome recorded failure to notify Ofsted of two significant events. Ask how leaders ensure significant events are reported.
• Attendance and total cost. The 7am–7pm opening window may fit a working day, but the contract determines what a family buys. Request a written breakdown of session choices, funded hours, meals and consumables before committing.

Highgate suits Handsworth families who value practical learning and contact with the surrounding community. Cooking club, sports visits and encounters at the local church give substance to that character, while the weekday opening window may help parents whose work begins early or finishes late.

The decision needs to balance those experiences against the July 2025 significant-event notification finding. For families with babies and toddlers, the October 2024 teaching improvement points also matter.