Cressington Manor

A weekly book becomes the starting point for learning at Cressington Manor, while a reading shed gives stories their own place in the garden. Language runs through the offer: songs, games and conversation sit alongside drumming, dance and practical play. This purpose-built nursery on Aigburth Road in South Liverpool has separate outdoor spaces for younger children as well as a large garden behind the building. There is room for movement and for quieter moments.

Cressington Manor accepts children from three months to five years and has 186 places in total. At its February 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good overall. The practical appeal is the combination of age-specific rooms, an emphasis on early communication and concrete arrangements for helping children move between rooms.

Full days, afternoon attendance and shorter term-time early-years entitlement sessions form part of the attendance offer. Their timings need careful attention, because two different afternoon patterns sit alongside inconsistent morning labels.

Rooms and Ages

Buttercup Room, for babies up to 15 months, combines opportunities to crawl and climb with a designated soft play area, a nursery gym and garden, plus the separate Sleeping Bunnies Room, milk kitchen and nappy room.

Daisy Room takes babies from 15 months to two years, emphasising sensory exploration and practical play, with its own gym, garden, milk kitchen and changing room.

Bluebell Room serves younger toddlers, pairing direct access to a small garden with practice in putting on coats, toilet training and serving food independently.

Daffodil Room, for children between two and a half and three and a half, gives independence and sensory exploration prominence, with choices during play and direct access to its own garden.

Sunflower Room occupies a double-sided space upstairs, with a kitchen area and separate toilets; language, early number work and problem solving accompany access to the main garden.

Tulip Room also sits upstairs, combining its own kitchen and toilets with an emphasis on social skills, language, early numbers and independence, plus access to the main garden.

These are useful differences for families to weigh. A baby's sleeping and feeding spaces are separate from active play, while toddlers have outdoor access attached to their rooms. For older children, the emphasis shifts towards managing everyday tasks and working alongside other children.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the framework for learning through play, covering children's care and development alongside their learning. Here, baking, role play, dance and messy play give staff ways to respond to children's interests rather than treating learning as a sequence of formal lessons. Observations help practitioners plan what a child is ready to try next.

Book as a Hook is the weekly organising idea: a book anchors activities that introduce vocabulary and give children opportunities to practise speaking and listening. Topics provide structure, with flexibility to follow individual interests. For parents who want books to shape activities throughout the day, this is a clear curriculum choice.

The additions are specific. Mitchy Titch Yoga uses gentle movement, music and instruments with the youngest babies, while Didi Dance brings themed music and movement sessions to toddlers and preschool children. Beat Life Drumming delivers weekly sessions using Afro-Brazilian and Cuban drumming. Funzo's Phonics adds weekly preschool activities built around early sounds, reading, games and small-group work. DC Minis provides football and other physical skills activities for toddlers and preschool children.

In February 2024, songs accompanied pretend farm play, and children used story props to recreate a favourite book. Number learning also extended beyond counting: children compared quantities and explored shapes through patterns. Those examples give substance to the language-led approach, while showing that mathematics had a place in play too.

Outdoor and Community Life

The garden contains a mud kitchen, bikes, playhouses, a sand pit and an area where children tend vegetables and herbs. Puddle suits allow outdoor exploration in wet weather. These resources create different kinds of activity: energetic movement, imaginative play and watching plants change over time.

A reading shed offers a quieter outdoor option. Indoors, smaller spaces within rooms support conversation and activities with fewer children, and areas for rest give children somewhere to pause. The physical layout therefore serves more than exercise alone.

Children also help influence nursery life. Cressington Council takes part in choosing meals by tasting candidates when menus are reviewed. Family Favourites brings recipes from home into the nursery's food offer. These are practical ways for children's preferences and family experiences to shape part of their day.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person who plans activities, observes development and shares progress with the family. Before a child starts, the key person gathers information about preferences, sleep and diet. Settling sessions introduce the room and its routines gradually. The value is continuity: information about home life becomes part of planning care rather than remaining separate from it.

Room changes receive similar preparation. Practitioners exchange information and accompany children during sessions in their next room; parents are introduced to the new key person and told about the routines and activities. Another arrangement allows the next key person to meet the child in their existing room first. Familiar adults help bridge the change.

Through eyWorks, parents receive observations from nursery and can contribute moments from home to their child's digital learning journey. That exchange gives staff more than an account of nursery activities alone. A new word, interest or experience at home can inform what happens next in the setting.

Monthly newsletters cover topics, celebrations and parent information. Regular parents' evenings provide time with the key person, while Stay and Play sessions and Grandparents Play Days involve families in activities. SEND coffee mornings create another opportunity for discussion. These routes complement everyday conversations rather than replacing them.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At its February 2024 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and identified SEND support as a strength, with the SENCO coordinating parents, professionals and staff to obtain timely help for children. Current support mechanisms include individual play plans, visual timetables, objects used to support communication and sensory circuits where needed. Makaton combines speech with signs and symbols to help children communicate.

Staff receive sensory and autism training from OSSME, and the SENCO works with speech and language services, community paediatricians and health visitors. Adaptations can include wobble cushions and smaller-group activities. These are concrete arrangements for discussing an individual child's needs, rather than a general promise of inclusion.

All staff hold paediatric first aid certificates. Specialist roles include early reading advocates, a Physical Activity and Nutrition Co-ordinator (PANCO), supporting activity and healthy lifestyles, and an emotional health and wellbeing coordinator. Operation Encompass provides an information-sharing arrangement through which police alert the nursery's trained key adult after a domestic abuse incident, enabling support to be planned around the child.

The February 2024 findings also require attention. Some group activities did not engage every child, leaving parts of the intended learning unfinished. Managers and staff did not consistently understand and apply procedures, affecting the organisation of care and wellbeing; significant changes had also gone unreported to the regulator, although children's safety, welfare and learning were unaffected by that notification failure.

For sleep, staff work with families on individual routines, and all rooms have places to rest. Moving towards school includes information sharing at the Early Transition Conference, possible teacher visits and play using school bags and uniforms. The annual Graduation ceremony marks that transition; it is a celebration of development, rather than an admissions arrangement.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery is at 521 Aigburth Road, Liverpool, L19 9DN. Current opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, with full-day attendance covering that window and an afternoon option from 1pm to 6pm. Early-years entitlement sessions are also offered during term time: mornings from 9am to noon and afternoons from noon to 3pm.

It operates across the year and closes on bank holidays. When Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve falls on a weekday, an occasional 1pm closing applies. That shorter day matters for families whose working hours extend into the afternoon.

An online enrolment form supports applications, and enquiries can be made by telephone or through the contact form. The nursery also provides wraparound care for children aged four to 11 in Tulip Room. Breakfast Club operates from 8am to 8.45am, Monday to Friday; After School Club runs during term time until 6pm, and holiday care runs from 8am to 6pm, excluding one week over Christmas.

Getting There

Parking is provided at the front of the building, with bays allocated to families for dropping children off. The younger children's separate outdoor areas and the main garden sit within the nursery's own site, so outdoor play is part of the setting's daily offer.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes entitlements for qualifying working families with children aged nine to 23 months, eligible two-year-olds receiving additional government support, working families with two-year-olds, and three- and four-year-olds. The funding arrangements include universal entitlement for three- and four-year-olds and additional entitlement for eligible working families. Eligibility conditions apply to the relevant categories.

Private childcare is also offered. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the fees and funding page sets out the entitlement categories and links to its charging policy.

An in-house chef prepares meals on the premises, with menus reviewed twice yearly and contributions from children and families. The nursery's dietary arrangements include adapting menus for allergies and other requirements, with individually labelled meals checked in the rooms.

• Activity planning and procedures. February 2024 brought recommendations to make group activities more purposeful and improve staff understanding of policies. At a visit, ask how managers now check that every child participates and that procedures are applied consistently.
• Morning and afternoon timings. The Aigburth session table labels a morning period as 8am to 6pm, while early-years entitlement mornings run from 9am to noon; afternoon patterns are noon to 3pm and 1pm to 6pm. Have the precise pattern and its funding basis written into the booking agreement.
• The complete quotation. Funding sits alongside private childcare and visiting activity providers. Ask for one written breakdown showing how entitlement is delivered, and the treatment of meals, nappies, wipes and activities within your chosen attendance pattern.
• Individual care in practice. Buttercup has a separate sleeping room, and dietary arrangements include labelled meals and room checks. Use the visit to discuss your baby's sleep routine or your child's allergy needs and confirm how current practice will accommodate them.

Cressington Manor suits families looking for full-day or afternoon childcare, as well as those considering shorter term-time entitlement sessions. Its appeal rests on tangible choices: books that shape weekly learning, separate baby facilities, gardens linked to younger rooms and named providers bringing music and movement into the day.

For children needing additional support, individual plans and communication adaptations offer useful starting points for a detailed discussion. The February 2024 concerns about group activities and consistent procedures deserve equally direct attention. This is a nursery with a substantial practical offer, best assessed through both its everyday arrangements and the way management checks staff practice.