The Counting House Nursery, High Street

Three outdoor spaces give High Street a clear organising principle: toddlers have their own garden, older nursery children have a larger area, and babies have a sheltered space with a gazebo. That separation matters in a setting with capacity for 102 children aged three months to five years. Outdoor play can take place in surroundings intended for each stage, rather than one shared space doing every job.

At its May 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, finding effective safeguarding and strong support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), while asking managers to make the quality of staff interactions more consistent. This is an encouraging dated judgement, with a specific improvement point that deserves attention alongside the praise.

The nursery occupies a former youth club in Birstall, with accommodation across two floors. A separate space for school-age care adds another practical dimension for families whose children are at different stages. Nursery attendance includes full-day, morning and afternoon patterns, rather than a single long booking window.

Rooms and Ages

The Toddler Room serves children aged two to three and has a dedicated outdoor area; the Over 3’s have a larger garden, while Babies have a sheltered corner containing a gazebo. These are useful physical differences: the youngest children have shelter, and the older groups have their own outdoor settings for movement and exploration.

Indoors, the nursery has large rooms with resources intended for different developmental stages. The building’s two-floor layout and separate outdoor areas are more useful descriptions of its scale than treating its overall capacity as the size of a child’s daily group. The total place count is a whole-setting measure.

Learning and Activities

The nursery follows the early years foundation stage, the framework for young children’s learning, development and care. In parent language, this brings learning and everyday care together: communication, physical development and growing independence are part of the nursery day, rather than separate lessons added to it.

In May 2023, planning used assessments of children’s development to decide their next learning steps, with independence and communication receiving particular attention. Adults talked alongside children’s play and used familiar songs to encourage participation. Babies heard words connected with dolls and body parts, giving language a concrete connection to what they were handling and noticing.

Problem-solving also featured in May 2023. Children worked together on an imaginary castle, with adults asking questions that encouraged them to consider their next move. Magnetic materials provided another opportunity to make a prediction and test it. These examples show what learning through play meant in practice at that time: children had something to investigate, rather than simply an activity to complete.

Outdoor and Community Life

The current gardens support climbing, building, gardening and imaginative play. Their separation by stage gives the outdoor provision a practical shape, with the gazebo adding shelter to the babies’ area.

In May 2023, outdoor activities included stirring mud with utensils and making large chalk marks, alongside steps and balancing beams for younger children. These experiences exercised hands, arms and balance through play. They also show why outdoor provision matters beyond fresh air: it can give children different ways to practise movement from those available indoors.

In May 2023, babies received comfort and songs during feeding and nappy changes. Staff responded to individual needs, making routine care part of the relationship between a child and the adult looking after them. For parents choosing care for a baby, that detail is more informative than a broad claim about a homely atmosphere.

At the May 2023 inspection, Ofsted found that the key-person arrangements helped staff understand children, that targeted SEND support involved other agencies where needed, and that performance management had not yet secured consistently good interactions across every age group. The balance is important: individual relationships and support were strengths, but managers still needed to translate their expectations into more consistent daily practice.

During May 2023, staff helped children recognise emotions and understand how their actions affected others. Praise was used to acknowledge effort, and children began encouraging their friends too. The emphasis was on learning how to manage relationships, as well as following nursery routines.

School preparation in May 2023 centred on communication and independence. This is a practical interpretation of readiness: helping children express themselves and do more for themselves. It does not imply an admissions advantage at any school.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery’s address is Nelson House, High Street, Birstall, WF17 9RG. It opens between 7am and 6pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks of the year, with public-holiday closures and a Christmas closure of one week.

Nursery bookings include Full Day, from 7am to 6pm; Morning, from 7am to 1pm; Afternoon, from 1pm to 6pm; and a ¾ Day, from 7am to 3.30pm. The shorter daytime pattern may suit a family needing an earlier finish, while the morning and afternoon options offer genuinely different attendance choices. Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation.

School-age Care

Breakfast, After School & Holiday Club has separate accommodation on the lower ground floor, including its own activity rooms and outdoor space. Breakfast Club runs from 7am to 8.30am, and After School Club from 3.30pm to 6pm. School runs cover Windmill School, St. Peter’s School and St. Patrick’s School; families can book different numbers of sessions each week.

Breakfast is included in the breakfast-club fee, and snack tea in the after-school fee. Holiday Club welcomes children aged four to eleven during school holidays, excluding bank holidays, with parents supplying lunch and the club providing snacks and drinks.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded nursery education is offered at High Street. Funded sessions attract a separate Nursery Care Package charge covering freshly prepared meals and everyday consumables: nappies, wipes, sacks and creams. Keep that offer separate from the attendance decision: the nursery’s daytime session patterns and its school-age clubs serve different purposes, and a family’s quotation should relate to the provision they are choosing.

• Consistency of interactions. In May 2023, some staff had not fully absorbed managers’ expectations for teaching. During a visit, ask how supervision now helps staff apply those expectations across the age groups.
• A building across two floors. The nursery combines upstairs and downstairs accommodation with separate gardens. Visits need no appointment; use one to discuss how your child’s room uses indoor and outdoor space during the day.
• Care for siblings. School runs serve Windmill School, St. Peter’s School and St. Patrick’s School, while Holiday Club accepts children from any school within its stated age range. The named school-run routes are the practical boundary for families combining nursery and school-age care.

High Street suits families looking for a choice between full days and morning or afternoon attendance, especially those who can also use its named school-run routes. Its strongest current physical feature is the separation of outdoor space for babies, toddlers and older nursery children. The May 2023 picture adds concrete examples of language development, practical investigation and attentive baby care, balanced by the need for greater consistency in staff interactions. That combination gives parents a clear basis for assessing both the nursery’s layout and its day-to-day teaching.