Kids Planet Clifton Lodge

Sports coaches, seaside outings and a sensory room give Kids Planet Clifton Lodge a clear character: active exploration with space for quieter play. Its two-storey detached building sits within its own grounds in St Annes, with refurbished indoor spaces and a substantial outdoor play area. Trips include Fairhaven Lake, bringing the surrounding area into children's experiences rather than keeping learning within the nursery grounds.

Ofsted rated the nursery Good on 20 June 2024, with physical development a strength, although teaching during transitions and consistency in handling behaviour needed attention. Those qualifications matter alongside the positive judgement. This is a setting with concrete strengths and specific areas for improvement.

Clifton Lodge accepts children from birth to five and has 97 places in total. Full days, mornings, afternoons and a shorter daytime option give families different ways to arrange attendance.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care: in everyday terms, play and interaction support skills such as communication and movement. Clifton Lodge adds regular coach-led sports sessions, including obstacle courses and team games. These give active children purposeful ways to practise coordination and participate with others.

In June 2024, babies practised reaching for toys while lying on their fronts, while older children ran and skipped outdoors with a sports coach. The activities matched different stages of physical development. Movement was part of learning, rather than simply a break between indoor activities.

Language also ran through everyday experiences in June 2024. Babies joined action songs, toddlers encountered vocabulary linked to what they were doing, and staff talked through older children's activities. That makes conversation useful and immediate: a child hears words connected to an action, rather than only during a separate group activity.

Outdoor and Community Life

Seaside adventures, local park visits and walks around Fairhaven Lake extend the current offer beyond the outdoor play area. The combination gives children different surroundings to explore. These are outings with a local identity, alongside the movement and play available within the nursery's own grounds.

In June 2024, children also participated in the local carnival and discussed what made people similar or different. Community involvement gave those conversations a practical setting. The value lies in children encountering the world around them, alongside talking about their own experiences.

Rooms and Ages

The sensory room provides a different pace from sport and outdoor activity. Light, texture, movement and sound form part of its design, and it is used for quiet time, therapeutic play and activities with small groups. For families whose children need pauses within a busy day, that dedicated space is a useful feature to explore.

Relationships and Communication

In June 2024, key persons gathered information from parents and built relationships with children, including babies who were new to nursery. The practical point is continuity: knowing a child's preferences and family routines helps staff respond to that individual, rather than treating settling as the same process for everyone.

Work with families extended to oral health in June 2024. Learning bags containing stories helped parents support children who were reducing their use of dummies. This connected an everyday care issue with something families could use at home, giving children a part in the change.

Famly, the parent app included in the nursery's offer, provides real-time updates. It adds a practical communication route alongside relationships with staff. Families can receive information about their child's day while away from the setting.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the June 2024 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities making good progress, supported through individual adult help, work with other professionals and additional funded holiday sessions to ease the move to school. That is a dated assessment of practice, with specific support behind it.

The current sensory room adds a physical resource for quieter experiences. Its uses include therapeutic play and small-group activity, so it serves a different purpose from the large outdoor area. The two spaces give parents concrete examples to consider when thinking about their child's preferences and needs.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 228 Clifton Drive South, Lytham St. Annes, FY8 1HY. Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, across 52 weeks of the year, with bank holidays closed.

Full Day runs from 8am to 6pm; Morning is 8am to 1pm, and Afternoon is 1pm to 6pm. Short Day runs from 9am to 3pm, while Full Time is also listed with an 8am to 6pm window. These are different booking options within the opening day. Morning and afternoon care offer shorter attendance, while Short Day starts later and finishes earlier than Full Day.

Ad hoc hourly care is charged at a higher rate than regular bookings. That distinction matters for families comparing a recurring arrangement with occasional extra attendance. Enquiries can be made by telephone or email directly to Clifton Lodge.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare and privately paid care are both offered. Private fees include meals and snacks, together with nappies, formula, wipes and sun cream; the group-wide inclusive offer reproduced for Clifton Lodge also includes sports activities and Famly. Freshly prepared food accommodates dietary needs.

On days when early years funding is applied, meals, consumables and activities attract separate charges. The charge category depends on the funded hours used that day, so the inclusive private-fee arrangement should be kept separate from the funded-day arrangement. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

• Teaching between activities. In June 2024, children sometimes lost engagement while staff prepared lunch or completed other duties. During a tour, ask how children are occupied and supported through these transitions today.
• Responses to behaviour. The June 2024 improvement work included making staff responses more consistent and helping children understand how their actions affect others. Ask for a practical example of how the team handles a disagreement between children.
• Funded-day extras. Meals, activities and consumables are charged separately on days using early years funding. A written quotation matching your intended sessions will make the difference between private and funded attendance clear.

Clifton Lodge suits families who value active play, local outings and a dedicated sensory room, whether they need morning or afternoon sessions, a Short Day or Full Day attendance. Sports coaching and Fairhaven Lake outings give the offer substance, while Famly supports day-to-day communication.

The balance rests on those practical strengths alongside the June 2024 concerns about transitions and behaviour responses. Families should give those everyday interactions as much attention as the facilities when deciding whether the nursery fits their child.