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Happy Bunnies Nursery School, located in Shepreth Cambridgeshire, has two baby rooms that serve children aged 9 –18 months old and 18 – 24 months old. This blog post is based on a conversation with Annemarie Pratt (Third in Charge, Daisies Room Lead and SENCo) and Becca Wasyliw (Tulips Room Lead and SENCo) at Happy Bunnies. We explore their approach to delivering quality provision for babies, with a distinct focus on how small group sizes support staggered settling in and attachment-led pedagogy in the baby room.

Small group sizes

Happy Bunnies has always been committed to having small, calm baby rooms with the arrangement and flow of their baby rooms evolving over the years. Currently, Happy Bunnies operates two baby rooms, with a maximum of 9 babies in each, which sits well below the average of 13 babies per baby room in England (Sakr, Bonetti, and Halls, 2025).

Annemarie and Becca described how the small group sizes at Happy Bunnies enables them to deliver personalised, intimate provision where each baby and family is well known, and their individual needs can be met. This approach became particularly important with the expansion of the government entitlement to children as young as 9 months old, which has led to more babies entering their nursery. Annemarie and Becca highlighted the importance of maintaining small group sizes within the expansion, describing the close, nurturing nature of working with babies and explaining how challenging it is for educators to have attuned and responsive interactions in large baby rooms. The management and baby room teams were acutely aware that one of the best ways to maintain quality, even with increased demand, was to keep their baby rooms small.

Staggered settling in

The benefits of small group sizes are felt keenly in the context of settling in. Annemarie and Becca reflected on how, with small groups, they can tailor settling in to each family to ensure babies have a positive transition into nursery. Inevitably, while some babies have a smooth transition into the baby room, others find it difficult, making it crucial that educators can adjust settling in procedures on an individual basis. For example, some babies who struggle with the transition to nursery may not feel they can seek comfort from the staff. When this happens, Happy Bunnies pivots to short sessions where parents are encouraged to collect their child to ensure they are not crying uncomforted and can build a positive association with nursery. Annemarie and Becca shared how, for one child in particular, they chose to prolong short settle sessions as he was finding it difficult to settle. Annemarie and Becca made the decision to take a gradual approach to achieve an effective transition into the baby room: “He needed the time, and a slow transition into nursery, and now he’s like ‘Yes, I accept you.’”

Attachment-led pedagogy

Happy Bunnies’ baby room pedagogy is grounded in attachment, and small group sizes support those attachments to flourish. In small groups, educators have more time to be one-to-one with babies and consistently engage with their key children. For Annemarie and Becca, working in the baby room is about forming strong and secure attachments with children. They shared that, ‘Once secure attachments are in place and babies are settled, you can do more in your room, but if you have unsettled children, it just won’t work.’ Therefore, they focus on getting the attachments right from the start, laying a strong foundation for all that follows.

The nursery doesn’t follow strict timetables in their baby rooms; instead, they have a routine that is deeply responsive and child led. For example, if a baby had a hard time getting to sleep the night before, they’ll need more naps, and that’s okay. This approach works particularly well within the context of small groups where there is space for flexibility within the routine. While they take a flexible, child-led approach, they have also found that their babies eventually start to fall into the rhythm of the nursery day. Throughout the day, they focus on meeting their needs and ensuring that the babies are engaged and happy. They also send regular updates to families during the day, and if a family pops them a message asking how their baby’s day is going, they will always respond, prioritising keeping families in the loop. Annemarie and Becca remarked that baby room educators are not just there for the children, but the families as well.

Overall, Happy Bunnies delivers personalised, intimate baby provision, demonstrating how small group sizes support settling in and attachment-led pedagogy to ensure babies and families receive the best possible start to their nursery journey.

References

Sakr, M., Bonetti, S. & Halls, K. (2025) Opening the Door to the Baby Room: Learning from the Experiences and Perspectives of Baby Room Educators and Nursery Managers. Available online: www.thebabyroom.blog/report-2