Discovery Day Nursery

A separate sleep room for babies, a private garden and walks to the beach give Discovery Day Nursery a clear Worthing character. Its three themed rooms take children from their earliest months towards school, with different spaces for rest, toilet training and preschool learning. The practical details matter here: a cot room is a concrete provision for sleep, while outings extend children's experiences beyond the nursery building.

Discovery accepts children aged three months to five years and has capacity for 56 children. At its 27 June 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good across all assessed areas. The improvement priorities were consistency in children's behaviour expectations and stronger help for parents continuing learning at home. Both deserve attention alongside the positive judgement.

Weekday opening runs from 7.30am to 6pm, across 51 weeks of the year. For families, that gives the nursery a substantial operating window around work, while the room arrangements and approach to settling provide the more useful starting points for judging a child's daily experience.

Rooms and Ages

Little Explorers serves the youngest children in a bright, spacious room for exploration, with cots in a separate sleep room. Little Adventurers adds language and creative play to a more structured routine, with its own changing room supporting toilet training. Little Inventors prepares preschool children for school through opportunities to develop individual skills, with a computer and interactive whiteboard among its resources.

Those differences give parents something tangible to compare as their child develops. Sleep has its own space; toilet training has a dedicated practical provision; older children gain access to different learning resources. The rooms are organised around developmental stages rather than offering the same environment throughout nursery life.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS shapes everyday learning through communication, movement, relationships, early literacy, mathematics, understanding the world and creative expression. These areas connect play with children's development: stories support language, construction introduces problems to solve, and dance gives children opportunities to move and express themselves. This is the shared early-years framework, rather than an extra unique to Discovery.

Alongside it, QuILT is a scheme for examining and improving nursery practice through targets, service evaluation and recognition of good performance. Its role is organisational: it concerns how the setting reviews its work, rather than replacing the children's learning framework. Parents can read more about the rooms and activities in the nursery learning and facilities information.

In June 2024, children investigated which objects floated or sank and discussed rockets, astronauts and planets. Staff also used repeated sounds and words with babies, following their interest in insects with opportunities to look at real ones. These examples connect learning with things children can examine and talk about, rather than treating new vocabulary as an isolated exercise.

More recent activities keep that hands-on emphasis visible. During May 2026, babies painted stars for a black-and-white sensory board and explored textures through a sensory tray walk. Preschool children also planted coriander, parsley and mint for use in the nursery kitchen. Planting gives an everyday food ingredient a starting point children can help create.

Outdoor and Community Life

The private garden provides outdoor play on site, while walks take children to parks, the beach and a local older people's home. A Walkodile, a child walking safety system, is used on outings. In July 2026, toddlers visited a park and preschool children walked to the beach, giving recent examples of the nursery's use of its surroundings.

Victoria Park, Worthing Museum and Worthing Library are nearby, alongside the town centre and coast. Proximity is useful context, but the value for children lies in the outings themselves. In August 2024, a group visited St Mary’s care home for dancing and music with residents. That offers a different kind of social experience from playing with children of a similar age.

Relationships and Communication

Three free settling-in sessions are offered, with flexibility around individual families' needs. Parents complete an All About Me form covering home routines, preferences and favourite activities, which staff can incorporate into nursery life. This makes the start more personal: familiar interests and routines give practitioners something specific to work with while a child adjusts.

Daily conversations provide opportunities to pass information between home and nursery. Through Famly, parents can view and comment on their child's online learning journal whenever they choose. Two parents' evenings each year add time with the child's key worker to discuss development, while pop in and play sessions let parents observe their child in the nursery setting.

These are useful routes for communication, but access to information and help applying it at home are different things. In June 2024, staff shared children's activities and achievements, yet support for extending learning at home was inconsistent. The practical question is how an update becomes an activity or conversation a parent can use with their own child.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the June 2024 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective, close and responsive care for babies, and strong support for children with special educational needs and disabilities through work with other professionals. The current team structure includes a SENCO role, and additional specialist training can be sought to support an individual child's needs. That provides a mechanism for discussing support, rather than a general promise about every child's experience.

Security arrangements include controlled door entry, daily signing in and out, and a password procedure when someone different collects a child. Staff are first-aid trained and DBS checked. These are practical arrangements for care and collection; the dated inspection judgement supplies the assessment of safeguarding effectiveness.

Homemade food is cooked each day in the nursery's on-site kitchen, with fruit accompanying meals and snacks. Alternatives are offered when a menu is unsuitable for a child's age or dietary needs.

In June 2024, children practised independence by pouring milk at breakfast and taking their bowls to the sink afterwards. Staff also discussed food and dental health during meals. Relationships with local primary schools supported the move to school at that time, adding transition work to the nursery's preparation of older children.

Sessions and Attendance

Discovery's address is 1 Grosvenor Road, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 1QF. It opens Monday to Friday from 7.30am until 6pm and operates for 51 weeks each year. Bank holidays and Christmas week are closure periods, so those dates matter when planning care around work.

Enquiries can be made through the contact route, and tours can be booked. A show-around offers families a way to explore the themed rooms and discuss how their child's routines would fit into nursery life.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes the 15- and 30-hour entitlements for three- and four-year-olds under Free Early Education Entitlement Funding (FEEE), with funding also offered for eligible two-year-olds. Eligibility remains a condition of the offer. Families should obtain current prices in the nursery's written quotation, with the attendance arrangement and any additional charges set out together.

The nursery uses biodegradable disposable nappies and teaches children about recycling. This is a practical environmental choice within everyday care, alongside the learning opportunities offered by its outdoor surroundings.

• Consistency across rooms. In June 2024, children received differing messages about behaviour expectations. During a visit, discuss how practitioners now apply the same rules as children move between rooms and activities.
• Learning beyond nursery. The June 2024 improvement priority included more help for parents continuing learning at home. Ask to see how a Famly update or key-worker conversation translates into a useful next step for your child.
• Attendance and the total bill. Opening extends from 7.30am to 6pm across 51 weeks, and funded entitlements are offered. What booking pattern would apply to your child, how would funding be delivered, and which meals, consumables or additional hours would the written quotation charge for?
• Rest and dietary routines. Little Explorers has a separate cot room, and unsuitable menus can be replaced for age or dietary reasons. Families managing allergies should confirm current food-handling practice; parents of babies should discuss how their home sleep routine is accommodated.

Discovery suits families seeking nursery care from babyhood towards school, with a separate sleep space, developmental room changes and opportunities to explore Worthing beyond the garden. Its appeal is concrete: free settling sessions, Famly journals, an on-site kitchen and recent park and beach outings each address a different part of family life.

The Good judgement from June 2024 gives the review a positive foundation, while behaviour consistency and support for learning at home remain worthwhile discussion points. Parents who value communication and outdoor experiences have clear features to weigh here, alongside how the nursery's routines fit their own child.