Buttercup Corner Day Nursery

A roof top garden for preschool children and a baby room capped at 12 give Buttercup Corner Day Nursery a recognisable character: outdoor play belongs to individual rooms, while the youngest children have their own space and somewhere to sleep. At its August 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Outstanding and judged its education highly ambitious. That is a dated judgement, rather than a substitute for understanding the care arrangements now.

At 19 Mough Lane, Chadderton, Oldham, OL9 9NT, the nursery cares for children from birth to five and has 96 places in total. The room sequence moves from Poppy room to Daisy Room and then Sunflowers, with Bluebell room also accommodating funded sessions. Morning and afternoon bookings allow families to choose a shorter attendance pattern.

Daily communication is practical. Parents receive an email covering their child's day, while an online learning journey holds photographs and achievements and accepts contributions from home. For a parent of a baby, information about feeds and nappy changes can matter as much as a photograph of an activity.

Rooms and Ages

Poppy room takes babies aged zero to two, with a maximum of 12 at one time; sensory play, books and construction sit alongside opportunities to practise movement, and a sleep area allows rest within the room's arrangements. This is a room cap; care follows individual baby routines.

Children move to Daisy Room shortly after turning two, where physical and sensory play have a strong emphasis and a covered outdoor area gives them a choice between inside and outside. Its activities recognise the stage when movement and language are expanding together. Painting, stories and singing share the day with opportunities to run and climb.

Sunflowers combines preschool work on early literacy, numbers and patterns with investigation and computer activities, and has a roof top garden with shelter for outdoor play. Bluebell room is used by different groups, including children attending funded sessions, with drawing, building and pretend play and a garden of its own. These are different room purposes, rather than four interchangeable age groups.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) connects the nursery day to children's communication, physical development and relationships, then to learning such as literacy and mathematics as those foundations become secure. Buttercup Corner gives children under three particular attention in those foundational areas. Play and planned activities provide the experiences through which children practise them.

Jolly Phonics supplies the emphasis within Sunflowers' letters-and-sounds sessions. These sessions complement the EYFS, alongside number work and investigation. For families considering the preschool stage, the useful detail is that early reading has an identifiable place in the day, alongside other areas of learning.

Daisy Room children can join Wiggle and Roll at a local gymnastics club, plus Yoginis, described as yoga for young children. Dance, movement, music and singing also feature. Sunflowers children have swimming once a week. These activities add different kinds of movement to room-based play; swimming is specifically attached to the preschool offer.

Outdoor and Community Life

Muddyboots is the nature-exploration part of Sunflowers' curriculum, using the neighbouring park and drawing loosely on Forest Schools principles. The concrete offer is exploration of nature and the surrounding world, rather than a claim about a separate qualification or guaranteed outcome. The mud kitchen adds another outdoor resource for hands-on play.

Each playroom has direct access to its own outdoor space, with covered areas helping children continue outside in changing weather. This makes outdoor play part of the room arrangements rather than solely an occasional outing. Families supply clothing for the weather, including wellies and a suitable coat.

In August 2022, weekly parktastic sessions used the local park to teach practical safety: dealing with unfamiliar people, responding to dogs and using swings sensibly. Preschool children also learnt basic first aid through visits from the ambulance service and health professionals. Those examples show the practical life skills included at that time; they are not a current timetable of visitors.

Individual baby routines and keyworkers are part of Poppy room's arrangements. Parents can add photographs of experiences at home to the learning journey, giving staff another way to connect nursery activities with family life. Interactive screens in the playrooms also allow parents to record medication information and injuries that happened away from nursery.

Daily emails record activities, milk feeds, clothing changes and nappy changes, giving parents a written account of routine care alongside the learning journey.

At the August 2022 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and praised support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, including individual interventions and work with other professionals. In August 2022, communication support included language screening and small-group sessions following staff training. These were specific methods for identifying and addressing children's needs, rather than a general assurance about support today.

During August 2022, video meetings helped staff learn about children joining the nursery or changing rooms. Parent drop-ins and social events provided opportunities to discuss learning, while a literacy project involved families in storytelling and encouraged library membership. Work with local schools also informed activities to develop hand control and confidence in larger groups, useful preparation for the demands of school life.

Meals are prepared fresh each day by an in-house catering team. The practical distinction is that cooking is part of the nursery's own daily operation.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, with an early drop-off option at 7.30am for an additional charge. Morning sessions run from 8am to 1pm; afternoon sessions run from 1pm to 6pm. A regular booking can be as small as one half day each week. The nursery recommends attending twice weekly to help establish a routine, while leaving the choice with parents.

Buttercup Corner operates across the year, closing for bank holidays and a week between Christmas and New Year. It also has two staff-training closure days, with at least four weeks' notice. The Christmas arrangements include closing at 1pm on Christmas Eve and returning on the first working day in January, so these dates matter when planning cover.

The address is 19 Mough Lane, Chadderton, Oldham, OL9 9NT. Telephone contact is through 0161 222 0834, and a viewing can be booked through the nursery's contact route.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes 15 hours per week for children aged three to five from the term after their third birthday, and for eligible two-year-olds, with Bluebell room used for those sessions. Funding and privately paid attendance are separate parts of the offer. The nursery's room and curriculum information explains Bluebell room's role alongside the other rooms.

Fees are payable in advance, either weekly or monthly, and are charged for 51 weeks, including bank holidays. Prices are reviewed each September; current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. Parents supply sun cream as part of the backpack kept at nursery, along with a sun hat and cold-weather clothing.

• Notification compliance. On 18 November 2025, the nursery had not reported changes that could affect its suitability to Ofsted; the compliance notice was dated 21 November 2025. Ask how significant changes are now identified and reported.
• Bluebell room timetable. The morning end time conflicts with the stated three-hour funded-session pattern. Clarify the funded timetable before choosing an attendance arrangement.
• Baby routines. Poppy room has a maximum of 12 babies and its own sleep area. A viewing is the opportunity to discuss how your child's feeding and sleep routines would work within that space.
• Annual costs and closures. Fees cover 51 weeks and include bank holidays, while the nursery also closes for staff training. Obtain a written quotation covering your attendance pattern, meals and consumables, and plan care around the closure dates.

Buttercup Corner suits families choosing morning or afternoon sessions who value room-based outdoor access, a defined baby-room cap and detailed daily communication. Sunflowers adds a roof top garden, weekly swimming and nature exploration, while Daisy Room offers gymnastics and yoga opportunities. The August 2022 Outstanding judgement carries weight, but the later notification-compliance issue deserves a direct discussion. The strongest decision is one that matches these practical arrangements to a child's stage and the family's actual weekly pattern.