Park Community Nursery

Park Community Nursery
Unique reference number (URN): 2732729
Address: Park Community School, Middle Park Way, Havant, PO9 4BU
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registered with Ofsted: 23/05/2023
Registers: EYR
Registered person: Park Community School
Inspection report: 23 January 2026
Exceptional
Strong standard
Expected standard
Needs attention
Urgent improvement
Safeguarding standards met
The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for
governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open
culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively
identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, children are made safer and feel safe.
How we evaluate safeguarding
When we inspect settings for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:
Met: The setting has an open and positive culture of safeguarding.
Not met: The setting has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all
legal requirements are met.

Strong standard
Expected standard
Inclusion Strong standard
Leaders are passionate about inclusion. Children and their families are made to feel
welcome at this nursery. Leaders, alongside their staff team, recognise and value the
fundamental part parents and carers play in their children's lives and work seamlessly in
collaboration with them. Processes in place enable any gaps in children's learning to be
swiftly identified and prompt action to be taken. Staff with lead responsibility for supporting
children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are dedicated to their
roles and fully understand their responsibilities. They receive targeted training to offer
ongoing support, guidance and advice to families, as well as to other staff.
Staff work hard to identify any barriers children may face to their learning and put
appropriate interventions in place as a priority. This includes making timely referrals and
working closely with external professionals. Staff follow targeted plans to ensure that
children with SEND receive the right levels of consistent support to enable them to make
secure individual progress. Leaders ensure families are supported to understand referral
processes, and they work hard to provide ongoing support and guidance. They are always
available as a listening ear, which families greatly appreciate. Staff provide parents with
resources to use at home to mirror support that is available in nursery. This successfully
promotes consistency of care and ongoing learning at home.
Leaders, staff and families work together to consider how best to use any additional funding
they receive to support children's needs. This is robustly monitored to ensure the funds are
having the desired positive outcome for each child as intended.
Achievement Expected standard
Children, including those who face barriers to their learning, make secure progress in their
personal, social and emotional development, communication and language, and in their
physical development. This means that all children have the necessary self-confidence and
physical skills and a variety of ways to communicate, so they can benefit from the broader
curriculum on offer.
Children's physical skills are particularly well supported. Babies benefit from exploring the
well-considered environment as they begin to pull themselves up and take early steps. Older
children manoeuvre their whole bodies as they run, climb and balance. This supports
children's developing core muscle skills. Younger children use chunky tweezers to grasp
pom-poms, and older children relish using hand-held tools as they create holes in the soft
ground to plant their own bulbs. These experiences support children to strengthen their
small muscles, as well as develop their hand–eye coordination and dexterity.

Children typically achieve the individual next steps staff thoughtfully plan for them. Younger
children benefit from bespoke transitions to the older room where staff share relevant
information to enable their learning to be continued. Children are well prepared for their next
stages in learning.
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard
Staff create a positive, respectful culture throughout the nursery. They understand the
importance of children's regular attendance to fully promote children feeling safe, secure
and ready to learn. Generally, children are supported to engage and develop positive
attitudes to their learning as they join activities and play experiences. However, on some
occasions, staff do not always recognise when some children need further support to
engage in activities to promote their focus or fully encourage their positive attitudes to
learning.
Staff are positive role models and have high but appropriate expectations of children's
behaviour. They use encouragement and praise to build children's confidence and resilience
as they learn new skills and achieve. Overall, children are supported to understand rules
and boundaries, which in turn supports their understanding of how to keep themselves safe.
For instance, staff support children to recall why they have been asked not to run indoors
and the potential consequences. Generally, staff respond well to minor disputes children
have. This enables them to recognise their own and others' feelings as they resolve
problems. However, this is not consistent, and sometimes these disputes go unnoticed. On
these occasions, children do not receive consistent messages as they develop their
understanding of behavioural expectations.
Children's welfare and wellbeing Expected standard
Personalised care practices are carried out to meet the needs of all individual children. For
instance, staff working with the youngest children know their individual routines from home
and mirror these within the nursery day, such as milk times, weaning preferences and cues
for sleep. Key people play an important role in all children's days and promote consistency
of care between home and the nursery. Staff are respectful and nurturing in their interactions
with children. This supports the secure attachment staff strive to build with every child,
valuing their emotional security.
Leaders have re-evaluated their routines and transitional times to ensure these do not
interrupt children's explorations. Staff provide warnings in anticipation for a change in the
routine, such as getting ready for lunch and tidy-up time. This supports children's continued
learning and meets their individual emotional needs as they can prepare for what is
happening next. Generally, there are opportunities for children to build on their
independence skills as they learn how to do things for themselves. For example, older
children persist at getting their own puddle suits on to go outside. Children of all ages are
supported to take care of their personal needs, such as wiping their noses. Overall, these
opportunities support children's developing life skills as they learn how to keep themselves
healthy.

Curriculum and teaching Expected standard
Since the last inspection, leaders have worked hard to revise the curriculum, providing staff
with an array of training and ongoing coaching to support their understanding and delivery of
the curriculum in practice. Generally, leaders accurately reflect on the quality of their revised
curriculum. It is typically broad and ambitious to reflect children's interests and support all
children's individual development, including those with special educational needs and/or
disabilities. Children's progress is monitored through effective assessment processes from
their starting points to ensure they are continuously building on skills they already know and
can do.
Leaders continue to identify areas for improvement, such as coaching staff to consistently
recognise opportunities to entwine early mathematics into activities and daily routines. This
is having a positive impact on the delivery of mathematics within the curriculum. For
instance, younger children are supported to learn basic counting skills, and older children
compare the length of their wiggly worms. However, some minor variations in some staff's
teaching practice remain, which at times impacts some children's exposure to consistently
high-quality interactions.
Children's physical development, as well as their personal, social and emotional skills, are
well supported as they become confident communicators. Babies delight as they join in song
and rhyme times. Older children are encouraged to learn new words and their meanings in
context, such as 'habitat' and 'squelch'. Children develop their core muscle skills as they
bend, dig and manoeuvre their bodies during outdoor explorations. Children who are
receiving further support to develop their communication skills benefit from personalised
strategies to ensure they can make their needs and wants known. This supports all children
to feel valued.
Leadership and governance Expected standard
Leaders have worked hard since their last inspection to address areas for improvement.
They are passionate about their roles and the difference they can make to children and
families. They are reflective, understand their strengths and, generally, identify priorities for
improvement. They understand the importance of supporting staff to achieve these within
their own practice through training and ongoing mentoring. Leaders are still working on the
consistency of all staff's teaching practice and quality of interactions to strengthen outcomes
for children even further. The staff team benefits from the supportive leadership team, which
knows and values staff as individuals, personalising the support and coaching they receive.
Leaders maintain effective staff supervision arrangements and set aside regular time to
develop practice as a team. This supports the smooth running of the setting, promotes a
collaborative approach to improvement and creates a positive working environment.
Leaders are ambitious for all children, including those who face barriers to their learning.
They place a sharp focus on developing positive relationships with parents and carers. They
work in collaboration with them at every opportunity, as well as any external professionals,
to ensure all children thrive. Parents and carers are highly complimentary of the care and
learning their children receive. They talk positively about the effective two-way flow of
information that is shared and report they are extremely well supported as individual

families. They particularly value the entire staff team that contributes to having a positive
impact on their children's emotional wellbeing and progress.
What it's like to be a child at this setting
Children at this nursery are supported to feel settled and happy, and they quickly become
part of the nursery family. Staff understand the importance of supporting children's emotional
wellbeing and sense of belonging. As such, staff take time to get to know children and their
families as individuals, enabling them to meet their personalised care and learning needs.
Children, including those who have recently started to attend the nursery, are supported to
build positive bonds with their key person, which enables children to feel safe and secure.
Children generally have access to a broad and well-planned curriculum. This is ambitious for
all children, including those who may face barriers to their learning. Overall, staff know what
they want to teach children and why. They create tailored next steps that are woven into
everyday play experiences and activities. Typically, children are well engaged and have an
eagerness to learn and explore. For instance, older children benefit from joining carefully
planned lessons with the secondary school on site. In doing so, they have access to a
variety of experiences. For example, children learn about animals as they meet the resident
goats and chickens. They visit the school library to further develop their love of books and
join secondary school students in planting their own spring bulbs. These experiences
provide children with a breadth of opportunities that supports all aspects of their
development as they learn about the world around them and enhance their social skills.
Leaders recognise the benefits of promoting children's attendance. They work closely with
families to ensure children can attend their full sessions. They make adaptations where
needed to ensure children can fully access the range of experiences and activities that
nursery life provides them. This supports children to make the progress they are capable of
and prepares them for future transitions to school.
Next steps
Leaders should continue to support staff to help them to build on their existing skills to
promote consistency in teaching practice and high-quality interactions.
Leaders should support staff to ensure the messages children receive are always
consistent to fully support children's growing understanding of behavioural expectations

Inspector:
Natalie Moir
About this setting
Unique reference number (URN): 2732729
Address:
Park Community School
Middle Park Way
Havant
PO9 4BU
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registration date: 23/05/2023
Registered person: Park Community School
Register(s): EYR
Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 07:30 - 18:00
Local authority: Hampshire
Facts and figures used on inspection
This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.
as they learn right from wrong.
About this inspection
The inspector spoke with leaders, the special educational needs coordinator, practitioners,
assistants and parents/carers during the inspection.
We carried out this inspection under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the
quality and standards of provision that is registered on the Early Years Register. The
registered person must ensure that this provision complies with the statutory framework for
children's learning, development and care, known as the early years foundation stage.

This data is from 23 January 2026
Children numbers
Age range of children at the time of inspection
0 to 4
Total number of places
48
Our grades explained
Exceptional
Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other settings can learn from it.
Strong standard
The setting reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of
them.
Expected standard
The setting is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are
following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional
standards expected of them.
Needs attention
The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary
improvements.
Urgent improvement
The setting needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of
education and/or care.

The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) inspects
services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects
and regulates services that care for children and young people.
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