St Alban's Pre School

Reading with older children, singing with nursing-home residents and exploring a mud kitchen give St Alban's Pre School a character that reaches beyond its classroom. Its close connection with St Alban's Catholic Primary School shapes both community activities and preparation for the next stage. This is a pre-school with a clear school connection, rather than an isolated childcare setting.

Ofsted rated the provision Good at its July 2022 inspection. There is capacity for 41 children in total, and children can start from two years and six months. Morning, afternoon and all-day attendance give families different ways to organise their child's time here.

The strongest practical attractions are the outdoor resources, shared reading and a key-person system that brings parents into planning children's next steps. The balance needs consideration too: the July 2022 findings called for clearer behaviour boundaries and better information about children's home languages and cultures. Those are useful subjects for a visit, alongside the Catholic admissions priorities and the school-day timetable.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for children's learning through play, covering language, physical development, relationships and the foundations of reading, mathematics and creative expression. Here, stories, role play and small-group games sit alongside painting, counting and outdoor exploration. Activities build on children's existing skills, rather than treating everyone as starting from the same point.

S.I.D.E is the pre-school's teaching approach: staff support learning, give activities a purpose, adapt play to different stages and extend it when children are ready. Its practical value is the connection between a child's current interests and the next challenge. Half-termly planning identifies individual next steps, with activities adjusted to those needs.

Boogie Beats brings music and actions into an interactive class. Little Strikers adds ball skills, balance and changes of direction, giving physical development a concrete form beyond general outdoor play. These are additions to the EYFS day, with recognisable activities that parents can discuss with their children afterwards.

Books travel between home and pre-school. Children borrow from a small cloakroom library, while reading buddies from Year 5 at St Alban's school provide another way to share stories. Small-group work introduces sounds and letters through play. The interactive whiteboard also supports art and early mark making, so learning to make a mark is approached through more than paper and pencils.

Outdoor and Community Life

Artificial grass, an outdoor house, a mud kitchen and trays for sand and water give the outside space several different uses. Indoor and outdoor climbing frames add opportunities for larger movements; painting and mark making exercise smaller hand movements. The combination gives children choices between imaginative, physical and exploratory play.

The wider community also enters the programme. Annual visitors include police, ambulance, dental and nursing professionals, and a dental hygienist talks about caring for teeth. An autumn walk takes children to a local park and farm, while farm visits include feeding animals. Singing with residents at a local nursing home introduces contact with another generation.

The yearly nativity combines singing and dancing, and the Easter Sing along provides another shared performance. A yearly sports day gives children races to prepare for. These experiences introduce practising together and taking part in a shared event, rather than making learning solely an individual activity.

In July 2022, children made their own drums and used them to explore rhythm and patterns. Guessing games also required them to work out answers from clues. Those examples show what the inspection-era day looked like: making something, trying it out and thinking through a problem, with staff responding to children's achievements.

Relationships and Communication

Each child's key person maintains observation records incorporating parents' comments, connecting home information with session planning. The learning journey records development and achievements; parents can view it and keep it when their child leaves. Two next steps go home for comment each subsequent half term, informing a two-week planning cycle.

Settling allows brief separations to build towards longer periods, with flexible admission procedures where appropriate. After-session conversations and appointments give families time to discuss concerns. Children who need a slower start can build up gradually.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At its July 2022 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and SEND support highly effective, with early identification, local-authority advice and additional adult support helping children participate and progress. Current arrangements include a SENCO role, adaptations to the curriculum and involvement from outside agencies where appropriate. These are mechanisms for responding to individual needs, rather than a promise that every child's support will look the same.

The July 2022 improvement priorities concerned two different aspects of participation. During some stories, unclear boundaries allowed interruptions that prevented other children hearing everything; information gathered from parents also failed to give staff a full understanding of home languages and cultural backgrounds. Both matter to whether a child can take part comfortably and be understood.

All staff have paediatric first-aid training. Collection procedures require written authority for another adult, with a confidential password arrangement for emergencies. These arrangements give families clear responsibilities when someone else needs to collect their child.

Children receive a drink and snack during morning and afternoon sessions. The allergy policy excludes nuts and nut products and sets out individual risk assessments covering allergens, reactions, medication and control measures.

Sessions and Attendance

Morning sessions run from 8.45am to 11.40am, afternoons from 12.20pm to 3.15pm, and all-day attendance from 8.45am to 3.15pm. Half days are also offered. Separately charged Lunch Club runs from 11.45am to 12.20pm.

The pre-school opens Monday to Friday, 8.45am to 3.15pm, following school terms and holidays. Children cannot attend before sessions begin and need prompt collection, so families must organise care around these hours.

Applications use a registration form; enquiries go through telephone or the contact form. The governing body decides admissions. Oversubscription priorities begin with baptised Catholic children in local-authority care, followed by Catholic school siblings and St Alban's parish children; other categories follow. Catholic applicants need baptismal certificates. Waiting lists use the same criteria.

Getting There

The address is St Alban's Catholic Primary School, Priory Lane, Macclesfield, SK10 3HJ. Parents must not use the staff car park, park inside the green school gates or park around the turning circle.

Uniform includes a white polo shirt, grey joggers and a blue logo sweatshirt, with pinafore and cardigan alternatives. Children also bring labelled indoor shoes and a school book bag. This adds a school-style routine to the practical preparation for attending.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered, subject to eligibility, including support for working two-year-olds and low-income two-year-olds, and up to 30 hours a week. Eligible families need a valid code. Hours outside government funding are invoiced, with current prices supplied in the pre-school's written quotation.

Invoices arrive two weeks before a half term and identify the sessions and lunch clubs being charged. Continued payment is a condition of attendance; the fee policy allows a place to be withdrawn when two or more invoices remain outstanding. Families therefore need to consider the payment schedule alongside their attendance plan.

The pre-school describes a close liaison with St Alban's Catholic Primary School, including contact with Reception teachers and opportunities to visit a future classroom in the preceding term. Attending the pre-school does not guarantee a Reception place: families still apply through the local authority admissions process. Familiarity with teachers and classrooms is valuable preparation, but the school application remains a separate step.

• School-day attendance. Sessions end at 3.15pm and holidays follow the school calendar. Consider how morning, afternoon or all-day attendance fits your family's care arrangements across term time and holidays.
• Catholic admissions priorities. Oversubscription is handled through a ranked policy, including baptism, sibling and parish criteria. Use a visit to discuss how the application process applies to your family's circumstances.
• Participation and communication. The July 2022 priorities were clearer behaviour boundaries and fuller understanding of home cultures and languages. Ask how staff now gather that information and help children listen during group activities.
• Allergy planning. The nut-exclusion policy sits alongside individual risk assessments. Families affected by allergies should confirm current practice and agree their child's medication and response arrangements before starting.

St Alban's suits families seeking morning or afternoon sessions or all-day attendance during school terms. Outdoor play, reading buddies and music sessions enrich that routine; primary-school links support familiarity with the next stage, and key-person records involve parents in planning.

The July 2022 Good judgement sits alongside priorities for behaviour boundaries and cultural understanding. Catholic admissions priorities and prompt collection also matter to the fit.