Safari Stars Nursery

Treasure baskets for babies, a homemade music wall for older children and a nursery post box for preschool letters give Safari Stars Nursery a recognisable character: children have plenty to handle, investigate and make. This Hatfield nursery combines age-specific rooms with outdoor exploration, while practical independence runs through the account of its day. There is substance behind the colourful room names.

At its September 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good overall and judged safeguarding effective. The setting accepts children from 3 months, with its Pre School Room serving children aged 3 to 5 years, and has 96 places in total. Its address is 4 Parkhouse Court, Hatfield, AL10 9RQ.

Morning, afternoon, full-day and school-day attendance patterns give families several ways to organise care. The strongest reasons to consider it are the detailed environments for different ages, practical learning experiences and communication through the Tapestry App.

Rooms and Ages

Twigas, for babies aged 3 to 16 months, separates quieter play, creative exploration and sensory experiences into different spaces, with soft furnishings, rattles, stacking toys and treasure baskets giving babies opportunities to grasp, build and investigate everyday objects at their own pace.

Tembos, for children aged 16 months to 2 years, combines puzzles and shape sorting with early words, animal sounds and simple signing, while its separate outdoor space includes a herb garden, digging area and sand pit for hands-on exploration beyond the room.

Kifarus, for children aged 2 to 3 years, places independence alongside imaginative play and early mark making, with a creative area, easel and drawing table supporting experimentation, and nature walks bringing bark rubbing and discussion of life cycles into children's experiences.

Simbas, for children aged 3 to rising 4 years, prepares children for the preschool room through baking, threading, problem solving and developing letter formation, with a home corner that changes with their interests and a quiet area for books, rest and shared conversation.

The Pre School Room, for ages 3 to 5, combines storytelling, writing and modelling with supervised use of hammers and nails, while a separate fantasy role play room, creative space and nursery post box give children ways to act out ideas and give their writing a purpose.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care here: play, conversation and everyday routines provide opportunities to build language, physical skills and independence. The detail lies in what children do with those opportunities. Preschool children invent poems and stories, experiment with messy materials and use jolly phonics alongside work on recognising letters. These sit alongside imaginative play rather than replacing it.

In September 2024, learning followed children's interests and previous experiences. A child's aquarium visit prompted exploration of sea creatures and London; collected rainwater became an opportunity to consider weight and volume. Those examples show how a familiar experience can open into new vocabulary and ideas. They also give parents a concrete picture of learning that extends a child's curiosity rather than stopping at the initial activity.

Everyday tasks mattered too. In September 2024, babies practised washing their hands, while older children managed shoes and coats and helped prepare snacks. Children also helped restore order to their play spaces. These are useful steps towards doing things for themselves, with opportunities to practise built into the day rather than reserved for a separate lesson.

Outdoor and Community Life

For older children, the outdoor choices include a mud kitchen, builders yard and homemade music wall. A fruit and vegetable growing patch adds another kind of activity: children can explore growing alongside movement and imaginative play. Simbas also has access to a large climbing frame, giving its outdoor provision a physical challenge beyond wheeled toys and ball games.

Outings extend the nursery's surroundings. The younger rooms use a six seated buggy for trips to the local park, pond and nature reserve, so outdoor experiences reach beyond their own play area. Older children also visit the local shop, police station and fire station; shopping for cooking ingredients or growing materials introduces money and quantity through a practical task. No fixed outing frequency is attached to these experiences.

Celebrations involve books, pictures, craft and dressing up, with parents invited into some activities. Monthly newsletters and the Events Board explain how events will be marked, giving families a connection between what happens at nursery and conversations at home.

Relationships and Communication

The Key Person System begins before a child starts, allowing the child and parent to build a relationship with a familiar practitioner. That gives settling a clear point of contact. It is especially relevant for families beginning nursery care with a baby, when sharing knowledge about the child's preferences and routines is an important part of the handover.

Tapestry App communication includes weekly photographs of nursery experiences, and parents can contribute information about life at home. The exchange works in both directions. A parent can see what has caught their child's interest and give staff context about experiences outside nursery, helping connect the two parts of the child's week.

In September 2024, staff used encouragement to support persistence and positive behaviour. Children listened to adults and treated friends kindly. The practical examples of trying again, caring for shared spaces and managing personal tasks make the approach easier to understand than a general promise about confidence.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the September 2024 inspection, Ofsted found that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities received support through work with parents and other professionals, and that the curriculum helped children make consistent progress. This is a dated judgement about practice, with collaboration the useful detail for families assessing support.

There was also a clear improvement point in September 2024: the environment needed to represent every child's cultural background more fully. Exploring festivals did not, by itself, ensure that each child could recognise their own identity in the setting. That matters alongside the nursery's current celebration activities and is a sensible subject for a visit.

Kitchen staff cook meals on site, with seasonal menus following a three-week cycle. Support for weaning is also offered, giving families of younger babies a practical connection between feeding at home and nursery care.

Sessions and Attendance

Full Day runs from 7.45am to 6pm, while School Day is 9am to 3pm. The morning session is 7.45am to 1pm and the afternoon session is 1pm to 6pm, with morning, afternoon and full-day choices offered Monday to Friday. These are different booking patterns, so the shorter sessions are meaningful alternatives to a full day.

The nursery operates throughout the year, closing for bank holidays and Christmas. It also closes for three staff-training days each year, without charging families for those days; the next listed closure is Friday 23 October 2026. Families arranging work around nursery attendance should include that date in their plans.

Enquiries can be made by telephone on 01707 268510 or by email to hello@safaristarsnursery.co.uk. New parents can also use the tour-booking form to enter their proposed start date and session requirements.

Getting There

The nursery is on Hatfield Business Park, with parking on site. Hatfield train station has Great Northern and Thameslink services into London, which may be relevant to families combining nursery care with a rail commute.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered to eligible children. Funded sessions carry optional, separate charges for food and other consumables, with the charge structure varying by attendance pattern; these extras should be considered separately from the funded hours themselves.

The funding and charges page sets out that structure. Families should obtain a current written quotation for their chosen attendance pattern so that the funding arrangement and any additional spending are clear together.

• Representation within the rooms. The September 2024 improvement point concerned how fully children's cultures and backgrounds were reflected in the environment. On a visit, ask how the rooms now represent the children attending.
• Baby-room organisation. Twigas divides its environment between quieter, creative and sensory experiences. Ask how your baby's feeding, rest and settling routines would fit around those spaces and the key-person relationship.
• Funded-session extras. Food and other consumables have optional separate charges on funded sessions. Discuss what your chosen arrangement includes and how declining those charges works before agreeing attendance.
• Training-day closure. Friday 23 October 2026 is a nursery closure for staff training, and families are not charged for it. Alternative care will matter for anyone working that day.

Safari Stars suits families seeking either morning or afternoon sessions as well as those using full-day or school-day care. Its appeal is concrete: carefully described age-group environments, practical activities, outdoor resources and a two-way parent app. Babies have several kinds of space to explore, while older children move towards greater independence through ordinary tasks, creative work and community outings.

The September 2024 Good judgement provides a useful quality reference, balanced by the specific cultural-representation improvement point. For parents who value learning through doing and want an active connection with nursery life, this is a strong candidate to consider.