Tiny Treasures Morecombe

Woodland play, a sensory path and a baby room with space for sleep give Tiny Treasures Morecombe a recognisable character. Based at Lancaster & Morecambe College in Lancaster, it accepts children from birth to five. The physical setting matters: children have places for quiet play as well as digging, planting and exploring outdoors.

At its October 2021 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, recognising learning planned around children's interests and starting points. That judgement is dated. The main improvement priorities concerned clearer responsibilities within leadership and more regular support and supervision for staff.

Care is organised around a key worker, with parents contributing information about routines, interests and development. Settling extends beyond the first start: moving between rooms is also gradual. Weekday opening runs from 8am to 6pm, with care across 51 weeks of the year.

Rooms and Ages

The Caterpillar Room, for children aged 0–2, combines carpeted play space with a hard-floor area for meals and messy activities, alongside construction and imaginative play, a sleeping area, a cosy area and a sensory room. For a younger child, that means rest and quieter experiences have their own place within the room's layout.

For children aged 2–4, the butterfly room has seven continuing areas of learning, with photograph labels on resources and shelving that uses outlines to show where items belong. Those visual cues make choosing materials and returning them easier to understand.

Open-plan rooms contain movable wooden furniture. This gives staff scope to adjust the layout rather than expecting every child to use an unchanged arrangement. Resources are within children's reach, supporting their own choices during play.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage guides learning: children develop through play, conversation and a mixture of activities initiated by adults and children. It is the shared early-years framework, while the room arrangements and individual planning shape how it works here.

In October 2021, a Halloween story activity carried into later play, with children returning to vocabulary introduced through the books. The useful detail is the connection between experiences: a story was followed by opportunities to use its language elsewhere in the day.

Children's interests also inform planning through their Learning Journeys, the records of observations, photographs and development that parents can contribute to online. Information from home helps staff connect activities with what matters to the child beyond nursery.

Outdoor and Community Life

The woodland surroundings contain grass, bark and gravel surfaces, a growing area and a sensory path. Digging and planting sit alongside opportunities to investigate different materials. This is more varied ground for exploration than a single open play surface.

Access to outdoors is straightforward, and indoor play areas can continue outside. Nearby parks provide further opportunities to explore nature and practise movement. These are opportunities for outings, rather than a fixed trip timetable.

Relationships and Communication

Settling starts before a child's first booked day. Sessions are arranged two weeks ahead, can last between ten minutes and an hour, and are free, with children attending as many as they need. Parents have an induction with a manager during one of those sessions.

The All About me form gathers favourite things, dislikes and home routines so the key worker has something personal to work from. For families, its value is practical: familiar information can inform care from the beginning, rather than being pieced together afterwards.

Room changes begin with visits alongside the existing key worker before progressing to sessions with the new one. Readiness matters as well as age, with parents and practitioners involved in deciding when a child moves. That gives the transition time to develop around the child.

Parents can add photographs and observations to the online Learning Journey system and view their own child's records through password-protected access. Daily conversations, progress meetings and newsletters provide other routes for exchanging information. Communication does not depend on a single channel.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Targeted Learning Plans identify the areas where a child needs help and what parents and nursery staff can do together; reviews and parent meetings take place each half term. The SENCO works with the key worker on these plans, and specialist advice can be sought through an Inclusion Teacher and other agencies.

Physical access includes entrances suitable for wheelchairs, rear doors with extra width, play areas on one level and an accessible toilet. Sensory lights, sound games and sensory balls are among the resources used to support individual needs. These are concrete arrangements families can relate to their child's requirements.

At the October 2021 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and recognised support for children with SEND, including joint work with outside agencies. In October 2021, however, leadership responsibilities were not clearly defined, staff supervision was irregular and some practitioners did not fully understand the intended curriculum. Those weaknesses matter because consistent staff guidance affects how plans become everyday practice.

School preparation includes summer-term visits to primary schools or visits from teachers, alongside transition reports shared with the chosen school. Role-play and books introduce the change, and children with SEN can have a joint meeting involving parents and staff from both settings. This is preparation and information sharing, rather than an admissions advantage.

Sessions and Attendance

Full day care is offered for children aged 0–5. The nursery opens Monday to Friday, 8am–6pm, for 51 weeks annually, closing for bank holidays and a week at Christmas. Families needing care throughout the year should account for those closures when arranging their working pattern.

Getting There

The address is Lancaster & Morecambe College, Morecambe Road, Lancaster, LA1 2TY, with access via Torrisholme Road. Parking is provided on the college grounds, including a drop-off point reserved for nursery users.

Enquiries can be made through the contact form or by calling 01524 36992. This is the contact number for the college nursery.

• Leadership consistency. Clearer management responsibilities and more regular staff supervision were the October 2021 improvement priorities. At a visit, ask how responsibility for curriculum planning and practitioner support now works across the two rooms.
• The move between rooms. Caterpillar Room visits build towards sessions with a new key worker, with readiness influencing the timing. Discuss how that process would fit your child's confidence, mobility and routines.
• Your care package. Full day care runs across the year, with bank-holiday and Christmas closures. Before booking, request a written quotation covering your attendance pattern, funded hours if applicable, meals and non-food consumables.

Tiny Treasures Morecombe suits families seeking care across the year, with woodland exploration, separate room arrangements for younger and older children, and a gradual approach to settling. The Caterpillar Room's sleep and sensory spaces are useful details for parents weighing their baby's day; older children have accessible resources and continuity between indoor and outdoor play.

The October 2021 Good judgement provides a positive, dated assessment. Clearer leadership and regular practitioner supervision remain the questions to pursue when deciding whether the nursery's approach fits your family. Individual planning and parent contributions give that conversation a concrete starting point.