Croft House Nursery

Woodland learning gives Croft House Nursery its clearest character. Local woods are used for Forest School Sessions, outdoor learning with an emphasis on caring for the environment and considering risks, while the nursery occupies a renovated building on Bridge Street in Horwich. Nature is part of the educational offer, rather than simply a backdrop to outdoor play.

At its July 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated Croft House Outstanding and found that carefully ordered learning, communication work and early literacy teaching helped children make rapid progress. That judgement provides a strong basis for considering the nursery, with its date kept firmly in view.

Croft House accepts children aged 2 to 60 months and has capacity for 150 children. Support from the Bolton Start Well Team adds a named local connection. Attendance includes all-day care and a half-day arrangement associated with the nursery's 15 hour childcare scheme; the funding and allocation rules deserve close attention.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care: in everyday terms, play and shared activities help children develop communication, independence and early learning skills. Forest School adds an outdoor approach alongside that framework. Croft House uses local woodland for these sessions, giving children opportunities to explore beyond the nursery building.

In July 2022, children crossed streams using balance beams and explored water outdoors. These were practical experiences of judging a challenge and deciding how to tackle it. Conversations about handling ducklings gently connected discovery with consideration for living things. The learning was physical, but it also gave children something concrete to talk about.

Indoors in July 2022, dens and small tucked-away spaces extended the nature theme. Books were incorporated into play, and familiar stories helped shape the surroundings. This gave reading a place within children's chosen activities.

Water exploration offered another specific example that July: children experimented with pipettes and containers, moving water between them. Filling and emptying made ideas about capacity tangible. For parents, these examples explain the nursery's outdoor and investigative emphasis more clearly than a curriculum label alone.

Outdoor and Community Life

Parkland is close to the nursery, and local woodland is used extensively for Forest School Sessions. The renovated building gives Croft House a recognisable base in Horwich, while the surrounding area extends its learning opportunities. Families who value outdoor exploration have a concrete reason to consider it.

At the July 2022 inspection, Ofsted found exceptional support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, with staff identifying learning gaps, monitoring development and working with parents to obtain outside help; safeguarding arrangements were effective, including staff responses to concerns and safer intimate-care practice.

That July, key adults worked alongside parents when additional support was needed. The important mechanism was the link between noticing a difficulty, following the child's development and involving other agencies. It gives families a useful basis for discussing how support would work for their own child, rather than relying on a general promise of inclusion.

Croft House receives support from the Bolton Start Well Team, and parents can request its safeguarding policy.

Settling has a specific funding condition. Children taking funded-only places have their settling visits within their funded attendance hours, and no deposit is required for that arrangement. Families using this route should therefore plan settling as part of the child's funded pattern.

Sessions and Attendance

All-day care runs from 7.30am to 6pm on weekdays. The nursery operates across the year, closing for bank holidays and one week at Christmas. This gives working families an extended daily window, with those closures to factor into childcare plans.

For children aged 3 and 4 using the 15 hour childcare scheme, the half-day arrangement carries a minimum booking of 4 sessions. Funded-only attendance is allocated around the nursery's available spaces: parents can express preferred days, but those days are not guaranteed. The difference matters when a family's working pattern depends on particular days.

Applications use an online registration form and parental agreement, with the registration link supplied on request. Every applicant enters the waiting-list process until an attendance pattern can be matched. Submitting the form does not secure a place. Allocation gives precedence to fuller attendance patterns and priority to siblings of children already attending.

A later request to reduce or change attendance may also be difficult to accommodate. Where the remaining days cannot be filled, the nursery may retain the existing booking or return the child to its waiting list. Families expecting their childcare needs to change should weigh that rule before agreeing a pattern.

Getting There

The address is Bridge Street, Horwich, Bolton, BL6 7BT. Nursery enquiries can be made through the contact form, by telephone on 01204 697 613 or by email at hello@crofthousenursery.com.

Funding and Paid Extras

Croft House offers Working Families 30 hours funding and the Universal Entitlement, with funding primarily stretched across 51 weeks. Funded childcare and additional paid hours are separate parts of the arrangement. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

Under the enhanced funded model, meals, consumables, enrichment activities and extended hours are charged separately. Families choosing just funded hours can opt out of meals, consumables and activities, subject to the nursery's allocation arrangements; buying extra services is not a condition of accessing a funded place.

A non-refundable registration charge applies when a place is offered. Funded-only children do not require a deposit. These conditions make the agreed attendance pattern and the choice of additional services important parts of the family's overall decision.

• Attendance changes. Fuller booking patterns take precedence, and reducing agreed days can lead to a return to the waiting list. Consider how stable your required pattern is likely to be.
• Funded days and extras. Funded-only days are allocated around available spaces, while meals, consumables and activities can be declined. Ask how the proposed pattern and opt-out arrangements would work together for your child.
• Woodland learning. Local woods are used for Forest School Sessions. During a visit, ask how children of your child's age take part and what clothing families need to provide.

Croft House suits families seeking either weekday all-day care or the half-day pattern linked to its 15 hour scheme, especially those who value woodland exploration. The July 2022 Outstanding judgement supports its educational credentials, while the concrete examples of water investigation, books within play and outdoor challenges explain its character. The main practical consideration is flexibility: funding-only days and later changes to bookings operate within specific allocation rules.