Clubmoor Nursery

A vegetable-growing garden gives Clubmoor Nursery's learning a practical character. Based at Clubmoor Children's Centre in Liverpool, it also connects learning with local culture: in January 2025, children explored music by The Beatles, and families received support through the children's centre. At its 16 January 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Outstanding and judged safeguarding effective.

Children aged two to four attend during term time. The emphasis is on learning through play, developing independence and building relationships, with food preparation and outdoor activity giving children concrete things to explore. Morning and afternoon sessions run on Monday to Wednesday, with a term-time day on Thursday and Friday.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the framework for children's learning, development and care: here, play and adult-led activities cover language, movement, relationships, early literacy and mathematics, alongside understanding the world and creative expression. It is the common foundation for nursery education. Birth to 5 Matters, non-statutory guidance supporting that framework, also informs the curriculum material.

Practical learning gives that framework substance. Children help prepare healthy snacks and contribute to menu choices. Handling vegetables, smelling spices and tasting unfamiliar foods turns healthy eating into something they can investigate, rather than simply being told what to eat. Growing vegetables in the garden connects those experiences with where food comes from.

In January 2025, music and movement took place daily, with children using sticks to explore rhythm and joining in songs. Language teaching also happened during ordinary routines: filling water cups became a chance to introduce vocabulary about quantity and overflowing. These are useful examples of adults making everyday activity serve a learning purpose.

Books linked nursery and home in January 2025. Children requested stories, and the lending library sent a book home each week for families to share. Mathematics was similarly woven into routines, including counting while lining up and discussing positions in the line. Neither experience depended on a separate lesson.

Outdoor and Community Life

Outdoor play forms part of every session, except in extreme weather. That makes outdoor activity part of the attendance pattern even for children coming for a morning or afternoon. The garden provides another practical connection between the nursery's food activities and the natural world.

Visits include a local farm, food shops and a supermarket, alongside cooking activities back at nursery. These experiences connect growing, buying and preparing food. They also give children familiar places and objects to talk about.

In January 2025, outings included parks, shops and museums. Learning about The Beatles connected music with local culture, while visits to doctors and opticians included taking flowers to thank them. In the outdoor area, older children used bikes and scooters; younger children practised precise hand movements by threading cereal hoops onto pipe cleaners. The examples show different ways of building physical skills, indoors and outside.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person who supports their development and serves as the family's main staff contact. Helping a child become comfortable with nursery is part of that role, so settling and communication sit with someone responsible for knowing the individual child.

The staff structure includes a manager, deputy, room leaders, practitioners and apprentices. Staff undertake safeguarding, food-hygiene and paediatric first-aid training, hold enhanced DBS checks and continue training both within nursery and elsewhere. Regular training supports staff's continuing professional development.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the January 2025 inspection, Ofsted found that staff planned targeted support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, worked with parents and professionals on early intervention, and supported progress across the areas of learning. Small-group listening and attention activities were one concrete example of how extra support was organised.

The children's centre connection had a practical role in January 2025: families were referred to local services and centre sessions. Support extended beyond activities within nursery. Children also practised everyday independence, including putting on coats, managing zips with help and recognising when to ask an adult for assistance.

Healthy eating connects care with learning. Children prepare snacks and help shape menus, while in January 2025 a weekly fruit van let them choose fruit and parents were invited to learn about healthy food preparation. The combination gives families and children opportunities to engage with the same subject.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Clubmoor Children's Centre, Utting Avenue East, Liverpool, L11 1DQ. Opening hours are 8am to 6pm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and 8.30am to 4pm on Thursday and Friday.

The booking patterns are specific: morning sessions run from 8am to 1pm and afternoon sessions from 1pm to 6pm on Monday to Wednesday. Thursday and Friday offer an 8.30am to 4pm term-time day. These differences matter when matching nursery attendance to work or other commitments.

Clubmoor opens for 38 weeks each year and closes during school holidays and on bank holidays. It also finishes early on the final day of each full term. The contact form, email and telephone provide enquiry routes, and visits can be booked.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered for eligible children within the nursery's two-to-four age range, including the 30-hour entitlement for eligible three- and four-year-olds. Attendance is term-time rather than stretched across the year. Eligibility conditions apply; an entitlement should not be read as a guarantee of a particular booking pattern.

For paid sessions, snack is included in the session charge, while nappies and wipes are excluded. On funded attendance, breakfast and snack carry an optional separate charge; families declining it supply their own. This makes the food arrangement different for funded attendance and paid sessions.

There is no registration charge. Outings are charged when children take part, and the terms make bank holidays payable despite the nursery being closed. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the fees and charges information explains the charging structure.

• A term-time calendar. The 38-week year excludes school holidays and bank holidays, with an early finish at each full term's end. Families needing care through those breaks should weigh that calendar alongside the weekday sessions.
• Different food arrangements. Snack is included in paid session charges, while funded attendance has an optional breakfast-and-snack charge or food supplied from home. Outings also attract a charge, so the written quotation matters when comparing the total arrangement.
• Seeing individual support in practice. The key-person model and children's centre links are central to Clubmoor's care. At a visit, ask how the key person would organise settling and support your child's particular needs.

Clubmoor suits families seeking morning or afternoon attendance on Monday to Wednesday, or a longer term-time day on Thursday and Friday. Its garden, food activities and community outings give learning a practical character, while the key-person arrangement provides a clear family contact. The Outstanding January 2025 judgement adds weight to that offer. The main practical trade-off is the term-time calendar, together with differing food charges for funded and paid attendance.