Partou Smileys Day Nursery & Pre-school

Four gardens and wooden play resources give Smileys a clear character: room for outdoor play, alongside interiors decorated in neutral colours. Based on the Stafford General Hospital site, Partou Smileys Day Nursery & Pre-school caters for NHS staff and families from the surrounding community. The hospital location is a practical part of its identity, rather than a restriction on who can attend.

At its 10 June 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, judged safeguarding effective and found good support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. The accepted age range is 3 to 60 months. Full-day, morning, afternoon and school-day sessions provide several ways to arrange attendance.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care, bringing together play, communication and physical development. Alongside that foundation, Partou's group-wide child-led approach emphasises children's interests and choices. At Smileys, indoor and outdoor activities are tailored to individual children, giving their interests a place in planning.

In June 2025, learning followed a sequence designed to extend what children already understood. Older children explored making marks and explaining what those marks meant; younger children worked out how differently sized blocks fitted into spaces. Babies had room to practise movement, with staff helping them climb and attempt steps. These were concrete experiences suited to different stages of development, rather than the same activity offered to everyone.

Books were accessible for children to choose, alongside organised storytelling in June 2025. Extra resources helped children join discussions and retell stories. There was a significant qualification: noisy rooms sometimes made stories difficult to hear, and children could lose interest. Listening conditions matter as much as having books within reach.

Outdoor and Community Life

The purpose-built nursery has spacious playrooms, neutral decoration and wooden resources. Its four gardens support outdoor play for different age groups, with free-flow access in two. That arrangement gives outdoor activity a substantial place in the setting, while the separate age-group spaces allow play to be organised around children's stages.

In June 2025, learning also included knowledge of other people and the local community. The school transition work gave this a practical connection: local schools were invited into the nursery to learn about children before their move.

Relationships and Communication

In June 2025, children approached staff when they needed help, and practitioners responded to signs that more assistance was needed. Staff encouraged sharing and turn-taking; children sometimes offered toys to peers who were upset. The useful detail is the connection between adult attention and children's everyday interactions.

Practitioners knew their key children well in June 2025 and worked with parents to assess development and choose subsequent targets. Today, regular conversations and online journals give parents updates on their child's progress. These provide both a spoken exchange and a written account of nursery life.

In June 2025, staff supplied words for objects and allowed children time to consider their replies. That gave conversation room for children's responses. Leadership support included regular staff meetings to discuss how practitioners were getting on and identify training needs, drawing on observations and feedback from others. The remaining staff-development priority concerned how clearly practitioners understood what to change in their own work, making the connection between training and daily practice a useful point for families to explore.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

In June 2025, staff worked with families and other professionals to identify additional needs and develop individual support plans. Information about development and those plans was shared with parents, helping connect support at nursery with what families could do at home.

Independence appeared in small, useful tasks in June 2025. Younger children fetched tissues themselves, while toddlers recognised their placemats and helped get ready for lunch. Adults remained available to assist. School preparation included sharing information with other settings and inviting local schools to meet children, supporting continuity through the change.

Food is prepared on site, using a seasonal menu. Meals, snacks and drinks have their own charge, separate from care, so food needs to be considered alongside the attendance bill.

Sessions and Attendance

Smileys opens Monday to Friday, from 7.30am to 6pm, excluding bank holidays. A full day runs from 8am to 6pm; morning attendance is 8am to 1pm, and the afternoon session runs from 1pm to 6pm. The school-day session is 9am to 4pm, while an early drop-off session covers 7.30am to 8am. The early opening therefore has its own booking component.

Both year-round and term-time-only attendance are offered. Charges run across 52 weeks, including bank holidays, even though the nursery closes on those days. Families comparing attendance patterns should factor those billed closures into the overall arrangement.

Getting There

The address is General Hospital, Weston Rd, Stafford ST16 3SA. Visits can be booked, and the nursery can be contacted on 01785 220720.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered through Staffordshire Local Authority. For eligible families, funding typically covers 15 or 30 hours a week over 38 term weeks, across a maximum of 10 hours a day; for year-round attendance, funding is stretched over 52 weeks. That provides 10.96 or 21.92 funded hours each week respectively, rather than the full term-time weekly allowance throughout the year.

Funding pays for care. Meals and snacks are charged separately, as are consumables such as sun cream, nappies and wet wipes; these charges also apply during funded sessions. The separation is useful when comparing the care element with the total invoice.

A non-refundable registration charge or a deposit to reserve a place applies, with eligibility governed by the terms and conditions. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

• Listening and early language. In June 2025, room noise sometimes disrupted storytelling, and babies' dummies were not consistently removed when they tried to communicate. During a visit, ask how quieter listening spaces and support for babies' communication now work.
• Staff development. In June 2025, some practitioners needed clearer guidance about improving their practice. Ask how coaching turns feedback into changes in everyday interactions with children.
• The total attendance cost. Meals and consumables remain chargeable during funded sessions, and billing includes bank holidays. Compare a written quotation for the session pattern you would actually use.

Smileys suits families seeking morning or afternoon attendance as well as full-day or school-day sessions, with a useful hospital-site location for NHS staff and access for the wider community. Four gardens, on-site food preparation and online journals are practical strengths of the current offer. Its June 2025 assessment provides a positive quality benchmark, while the identified priorities around noise, early communication and staff coaching give families concrete points to explore when choosing it.