Little Angels Nursery

A church-hall nursery with a strong outdoor thread, Little Angels pairs its Rainbow Room and Sunshine Room with local woodland outings, weekly music and storytelling visitors, and books that travel between nursery and home. Based at St Aidans Church Hall on Crompton Way in Bolton, it has 24 places in total. Its nursery provision accepts children from six weeks to five years.

At its October 2021 inspection, Ofsted rated Little Angels Good, judged safeguarding effective and found that leaders worked promptly with parents and specialist professionals on children's individual needs. The practical detail beneath that judgement matters: children tackled outdoor balancing challenges, explored seasonal materials and developed early communication skills. Those observations belong to October 2021, rather than describing today's provision.

The current offer gives parents several ways to stay involved: accessible learning journeys, regular interest sheets, shared progress summaries and settling visits tailored to the child. Attendance can combine full-day, morning or afternoon sessions, with a later session also offered. This is a nursery to weigh for its relationship with home and its use of outdoor space, alongside the fit of those attendance patterns.

Rooms and Ages

Rainbow Room serves babies and toddlers, with a stated room maximum of 14 children; its emphasis is communication, physical development and early relationships, supported by spaces for construction, creative work, music and quieter play. That room maximum is separate from the nursery's overall capacity. Moving into preschool depends on readiness, with the transition taking place between two and a half and three years rather than on a single fixed birthday.

Sunshine Room is the preschool room, where junk modelling, music and movement give children opportunities to create and express ideas.

Babies can explore natural household objects, sand and water, with a cosy book space and low-level furniture for eating and play.

Learning and Activities

EYFS provides the framework for children's learning, development and care: play and exploration build language, relationships, physical skills and early understanding. Children's interests shape planning, with Rainbow Room parents contributing ideas for subsequent activities.

A music teacher and storyteller visit weekly to support singing, listening and communication. Preschool uses Letters and sounds resources for early phonics, with mark-making outdoors and at the writing table.

Weekly story bags and the corridor's snuggle stories borrowing box connect reading at nursery and home. Preschool children vote for their daily story, making choice part of the routine.

In October 2021, toddlers lifted conkers with tweezers and counted them, combining hand control with number work. Preschool children explored letter sounds and purposeful mark-making.

Outdoor and Community Life

Preschool operates free flow between indoors and outdoors; Rainbow Room children go outside three times a day in different weather conditions. Clothing needs to suit active, messy play.

Outings to the park and Hallith wood forest offer space for movement and exploring nature. Trips require parental consent and risk assessments.

In October 2021, children tackled uneven stepping stones and balance beams and devised obstacle courses, practising balance and persistence.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person. Home visits and as many settling visits as the child needs allow familiarity to develop before a parent leaves.

Babies' daily diaries provide two-way communication. Parents can access learning journeys, contribute half-termly interest sheets and comment on learning summaries. Twice-yearly parents' evenings provide time to discuss development.

In October 2021, staff gathered children's interests, skills and additional needs before they started. Familiar adults supported babies' and toddlers' relationships and helped children manage feelings.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

A SENCO role supports children who need additional help, including with speech, and the nursery works with Bolton local authority for advice. Families have a designated role within the staff structure and a route to outside support.

Baby sleep follows individual needs rather than a set timetable, with a travel cot, mattress or indoor pram among the sleeping arrangements. Familiar comforters can come from home, and transitions between rooms involve parents and the child's key person. This makes the move into a new room part of an ongoing relationship.

Families supply packed lunches for full-day attendance and bring baby food and bottles; lunches are refrigerated, and the nursery can warm food brought from home. Homemade snacks are prepared by a kitchen manager, with milk and water offered during the day and a policy of catering for allergies and dietary requirements.

Collection arrangements require parents to authorise who can collect their child; a different collector requires advance information and a password. These are practical procedures, rather than a substitute for the dated safeguarding judgement.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is St Aidans Church Hall, Crompton Way, Bolton, BL1 8UP. Nursery opening hours are Monday to Friday, 9am to 3pm, with a 3pm to 4.30pm session offered when needed. The nursery operates for 49 weeks of the year and closes on bank holidays.

Full-day sessions run from 9am to 3pm, mornings from 9am to noon and afternoons from noon to 3pm; flexible sessions are also offered. Extra preschool and toddler attendance is charged per session rather than hourly, so extensions need to fit the session model.

Fees are payable in advance, with one week's fees required upfront. Booked sessions remain payable during sickness or family holidays, and ending the contract requires a month's notice. Session changes require notice and depend on room to accommodate the new pattern. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

Tours can be arranged through the nursery's contact route, and enquiries can be made by telephone. A childcare agreement and the child's personal information form part of joining.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded provision includes 15 hours for two-, three- and four-year-olds, 30 hours for three- and four-year-olds, and working-parent funding of 30 hours for children over nine months, subject to parents' work circumstances. Funding can be used term-time or spread across the year, with 38-week and 49-week arrangements.

Funded attendance carries separate snack charges and a resource fee. Parents provide lunch, baby food and bottles, so funded hours should be considered alongside those food arrangements rather than as a package including every item a child needs.

Nappies come from home. Baby-room wipes are supplied, while preschool instructions require parents to bring nappies and wipes; the practical arrangements therefore differ by stage. Cream supplied by parents needs written permission before staff can apply it.

Getting There

Parking uses the church spaces marked in red, with disabled bays kept clear. A stay exceeding two hours requires the car to be logged at reception, which matters for longer settling visits or other extended time at the nursery.

• Independence at mealtimes. In October 2021, adults sometimes prepared fruit or fed children who could manage those tasks themselves. The improvement priority was to recognise when children were ready for more independence; during a visit, ask how staff now balance help with letting children try.
• Funded sessions and supplies. Snacks and resources attract separate charges during funded attendance, and wipes arrangements differ between the baby and preschool instructions. Request a written quotation covering the proposed pattern and clarify the supplies to send for your child's room.
• The shape of the day. Morning and afternoon sessions sit alongside a 9am-to-3pm full day and a later session ending at 4.30pm. Compare those boundaries with work and collection commitments, including the requirement to pay for booked sessions during illness or holidays.

Little Angels suits families seeking morning or afternoon sessions as well as a full nursery day, with an optional later session and a choice between term-time and stretched funding. Its strongest practical attractions are the key-person relationship, flexible settling visits, weekly music and storytelling, and outdoor experiences that extend to Hallith wood forest.

The October 2021 Good judgement provides a dated quality reference, with independence the improvement point to explore. Weigh the attendance pattern, funded extras and room arrangements against your family's needs.