A HAMPSHIRE pre-school is celebrating an “outstanding” achievement.

Happy Days pre-school on Shorts Road, Fair Oak, was given the top rating by Ofsted inspectors, judged to be “outstanding” in all four key categories.

Inspectors praised the effectiveness of the leadership and management, the quality of teaching and learning, the personal development and behaviour and the outcomes for children.

In a report issued by Ofsted, the environment has been described as “highly stimulating and interesting with rich learning opportunities provided through a range of inspiring activities and resources”.

The report said: “Resources are extremely well organised to enable children to explore and discover things for themselves.

“Children are self-motivated and confident to initiate their own play and make use of the excellent opportunities that are available to them.

“All children, including those who have special educational needs and those who speak English as an additional language, are making rapid progress from their starting points.”

Inspectors have also described the manager as “inspirational” and the staff as “excellent role models”.

They concluded that the staff are skilled at finding innovative ways to improve their provision.

Sue Plowman, 53, from Horton Heat, is the school manager and founded the school in 2001.

She said: “We are really proud.

“I think it’s well deserved, we worked really hard.

“We are preparing the children for life so it’s essential we do it in the best way possible.”

Ms Plowman said that teamwork is the key to their success.

She added: “The team has been working together a long time which I think is very important because we all know each other very well.

“We work well together so we can provide good quality early year education.”

Ms Plowman said that all the eight staff members know the 50 pupils who attend the pre-school “very well” and work to make sure children are happy and make progress.

“We want to thank all the parent because they are always very supportive and we work in partnership with them”, Ms Plowman added.