STAFF at a new Hampshire nursery have been praised for helping babies and young children thrive in their early years of learning development.

Provisions and quality of care at the Little Acorns Children's Day Nursery in Eastleigh has been given an overall mark of satisfactory by inspectors from the Office for Standards in education.

The nursery, which caters for infants from birth until the age of five years, received a glowing report in its first inspection since opening in September last year.

Inspectors praised the knowledge of staff and also highlighted many of the nursery's provisions as being at a good level of helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do.

"Babies and toddlers thrive on the routines for sleep, feed, and play, which are discussed to parents to give flexibility according to personal preference. Children are relaxed and content as staff talk to and interact well with them," the report said.

A range of sensory experiences with brightly coloured toys and shakers have been credited to helping babies develop their hand-eye co-ordination, while children under three benefit from hand painting, playing with sand, water and play dough.

The day care centre in Chestnut Avenue shares the site with Eastleigh College and is popular with staff and students who use the education facilities.

The nursery owner, Kevin Crowley, who with his wife Teri also owns the Little Acorns Children's Day Nursery in Hedge End and have 13 years of professional childcare experience, said the result was a great credit to the centre.

'Very happy'

"We are very happy with the report which shows how hard our staff work and how much the parents and children like the nursery.

"It's a great achievement because we haven't been open that long and did not expect to get this level of feedback."

Area manager for Little Acorns, Kim Pearson added: "I'm ecstatic about the result. We have so much positive feedback about what we are doing here from the parents and we have a good working team."

For more information email Kevin and Teri at littleacornsnursery@hotmail.co.uk.