Happy Bunnies Nursery School

A village-hall base anchors Happy Bunnies Nursery School. Community exploration shaped its October 2023 inspection picture. In October 2023, children explored a meadow, visited a wildlife park and spent time at a local primary school. These experiences gave learning a setting beyond the nursery itself.

At its October 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, found safeguarding effective and judged that children were progressing well. The current age range is 9 to 60 months, with capacity for 30 children in total.

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care: the day brings learning and everyday care together rather than treating them as separate tasks.

In October 2023, stories, songs and conversations on walks encouraged children to speak and share ideas. Questions during storytelling invited their contributions. Dance and sport offered opportunities to move and follow instructions, while cooking gave children practice handling small tools.

Creative activities connected outdoor exploration with making things. Children collected twigs and sticks to shape dough hedgehogs, and used paint to make pictures for display or home. Indoor and outdoor learning both featured daily in October 2023; the meadow walks and wildlife-park outings broadened the places children could explore.

In October 2023, younger children sought cuddles from staff, while older children shared stories with them. Staff treated personal care sensitively, and conversations over meals gave children another opportunity to talk about their experiences. Praise for helping others encouraged kindness as well as confidence.

Parents received updates through an online system and spoke with the manager, but October 2023 brought an important limitation: contact with each child's key person was too infrequent to give parents enough help with continuing learning at home. Children whose home language was not English also had too little opportunity to use and develop that language. Both points matter when judging how closely care connects with family life.

The nursery's address is Shepreth Village Hall, Station Road, Shepreth, SG8 6PZ. Opening hours are 8am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, across the year, with closures for Bank Holidays, Easter and Christmas.

In October 2023, funded early education was provided for children aged two, three and four. That is a dated account of participation, rather than a promise about an individual child's entitlement today.

• Key-person communication. October 2023 identified too little direct contact between parents and their child's key person. Discuss how that relationship now supports learning at home.
• Home languages. Opportunities to develop and use languages other than English needed attention in October 2023. Families using another language should explore how it becomes part of play and conversation.
• Community experiences. Meadow walks, wildlife-park outings and primary-school visits featured in October 2023. On a visit, ask how these experiences fit into the day for your child's age.

Happy Bunnies suits families seeking a village-based nursery with an 8am-to-5pm opening window. Its October 2023 picture combines outdoor exploration, creative play and close staff-child relationships. The two improvement points deserve equal weight: communication with a key person and support for home languages are central to whether that experience works for an individual family.