New Amigo's Day Nursery

A separate sleep room for babies and outdoor play every day give New Amigo's Day Nursery a practical character: rest has its own space, while fresh air remains part of the routine throughout the year. This Levenshulme nursery takes children from three months, with Babies, Toddler Room and Preschool providing successive stages before Reception.

Ofsted rated the nursery Good on 3 July 2024. The useful detail beneath that judgement is a day combining child-led exploration with prepared activities, gradual settling and regular contact with parents. There were also two clear development priorities: better coaching for practitioners and closer connections between planned teaching and each child's next learning step. Those priorities deserve attention alongside the strengths.

Rooms and Ages

Babies caters for children from three months to two years, with sensory exploration of colours, shapes and textures, changing facilities and an attached sleeping space. That separation matters for families whose baby still needs daytime naps: sleeping has a dedicated setting alongside the play room.

Toddler Room serves children aged two to three, encouraging their interests through observation and supporting independence during potty training. Preschool takes children aged three and over until Reception, continuing interest-led exploration and support with personal independence. Spare clothes from home are part of the potty-training arrangement, so children can change into familiar clothing after an accident.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS guides planning and observation, with staff using children's interests to shape further opportunities to explore and learn through play. This is the educational framework rather than an extra programme. For parents, the practical point is the relationship between what a child enjoys, what staff notice and what they offer next.

In July 2024, prepared activities sat alongside play that developed spontaneously. Books were within children's reach across the nursery, and older children discussed favourite stories, their characters and what happened in them. That gives a concrete picture of early literacy: access to books was supported by conversation, rather than reading being confined to a single organised activity.

Sensory play also prompted discussion in July 2024. While children explored jelly, staff asked questions and introduced language for its texture. Activities were organised around a theme each term, with equipment and teaching adjusted between rooms. The limitation was that planned teaching sometimes missed the individual learning steps staff had already identified. An attractive activity and a precisely targeted one are different things.

Outdoor and Community Life

Outdoor Play runs daily across the year, making movement a regular part of nursery life. In July 2024, children practised climbing outdoor steps and moving over grassy slopes, with practitioners joining their play and supporting manageable physical challenges. These are useful examples of what outdoor learning can involve: balance, confidence and judging movement through doing.

Relationships and Communication

Settling starts with sessions that parents initially attend, giving them time to discuss their baby's routines and particular requirements with staff. Familiarisation therefore includes the family as well as the child. Continuity of practitioners is a stated priority in the baby room, an important consideration when a young child is learning to trust unfamiliar adults.

In July 2024, new families used introductory visits before children began attending, and admission proceeded gradually. Daily conversations with parents covered key information, while an online observation system and newsletters each term provided further updates. Staff also offered ideas for extending learning at home. Together, these channels gave parents both immediate information about the day and a longer view of their child's experiences.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At its July 2024 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities strong, with shared care plans helping practitioners respond consistently to individual needs. In July 2024, staff checked equipment and play spaces and used repeated headcounts during the day. These were concrete supervision practices, separate from the building's security equipment.

Access arrangements include fingerprint recognition, video entry at the door and coded access to rooms. The baby sleeping area contains cots and sleep mattresses; children have individual linen, washed on site, and sleep checks are recorded. For a family balancing play, naps and personal routines, those physical and procedural details are more useful than a broad promise of care.

Food is prepared daily using fresh, locally sourced ingredients, and a four-week menu includes Quorn chilli with rice, homemade pitta pizzas and fish with spinach in a pie. The nursery's dietary policy covers religious requirements, special diets and food allergies, while younger babies have a separate menu introducing purées before other textures.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks of the year. Closures cover bank holidays and a week at Christmas. The early-start period from 7.30am to 8am carries an additional charge, so the opening time alone does not tell a family the cost of their chosen attendance.

The Christmas closure is a concrete planning consideration for parents arranging cover around work. Equally, families using the earliest part of the day should distinguish that charged period from the rest of their agreement. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

Getting There

The address is Haniwells Business Park, Hardicker Street, Levenshulme, Manchester M19 2RB. Enquiries can be made by telephone on 0161 443 1700 or through the contact form, which also accepts requests for a nursery tour.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered for eligible two-, three- and four-year-olds. Eligibility remains a condition, so the offer should not be read as an entitlement for every child in those age groups. The separately charged early start is another consideration when comparing the attendance agreement with a family's working day.

• Teaching linked to the child. In July 2024, planned activities did not consistently address children's next learning steps, and practitioner feedback needed strengthening. During a tour, ask how observations now shape an individual child's activities and how staff receive coaching.
• Baby sleep and settling. The attached sleeping space and parent-attended settling sessions are concrete parts of the baby offer. Use a visit to discuss how your child's nap routine and familiarisation would work in practice.
• Attendance agreement. The nursery opens for 51 weeks, closes over Christmas and bank holidays, and charges separately for the early-start period. Ask for a written agreement covering your booking pattern, funded hours, meals and consumables; allergy-affected families should also confirm current dietary practice.

New Amigo's suits families who value gradual familiarisation, a separate baby sleeping space and daily outdoor play, with care continuing through toddler and preschool stages. Its practical appeal lies in those tangible arrangements and the several ways parents received updates in July 2024.

The balanced judgement is positive, with a specific reservation about teaching precision and staff coaching. For parents, the strongest next step is to weigh those development priorities alongside the nursery's rooms, routines and year-round opening calendar.