Diggle Day Nursery & Education Centre

A six-child baby room and a nature classroom give Diggle Day Nursery & Education Centre two clear points of character: a small starting space for the youngest children, and room for exploration as they grow. The Caterpillar Room has a family-photo wall and furniture low enough to support early standing; Leafy Learners Lodge takes learning towards leaves, minibeasts and seasonal projects. These are practical differences in a child's day.

On Huddersfield Road in Diggle, Saddleworth, the nursery accepts children from birth to five and has 98 places in total. At its 9 November 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated it Good and found safeguarding effective, with staff able to act on welfare concerns and recruitment checks supporting children's safety.

Communication has several layers: a key person, individual Focus Weeks that draw on family input, and ParentZone for sharing observations and messages. Full days and half days serve different attendance needs, alongside funded day arrangements.

Rooms and Ages

The Caterpillar Room, for 0–12 months and capped at six children, combines daily sensory and creative play with treasure baskets, low furniture and a comfortable area containing family photographs, giving babies resources for exploration alongside familiar images and somewhere to rest.

For 12–24 months, the Butterfly Room has a maximum of 12 children, with a role-play kitchen, a cosy den and a non-slip floor for messy activities, bringing active exploration and quieter stories into the same room.

The Ladybird Room serves children aged 24–36 months, with construction, mark-making and small-world areas supporting choice, while an easily reached separate bathroom allows toileting support with a child's key person.

Preschool, labelled for 36–48 months, combines child-chosen play with adult-led language activities, a workshop and block play, while supported snack-time conversations give children practice in taking turns and talking together.

These rooms give families concrete differences to weigh rather than simply a sequence of age labels. The youngest room's cap is especially useful when considering a baby's first experience of group care; it is a room maximum, separate from the nursery's overall capacity.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS, or Early Years Foundation Stage, provides the framework for learning through play, movement, conversation and creative activity, covering children's communication, relationships, physical development and early literacy and mathematics. It is the foundation of the day. Diggle adds named activities with recognisable purposes: Sing and Sign introduces simple signing through music, while Every Child Is A Talker (ECAT) provides daily language and communication activities in the baby room.

Physical activity has several forms. Mini Soccer Stars uses football to practise coordination and teamwork, and the Oldham Active partnership adds sports and movement opportunities. Forest School centres on practical woodland play. These activities complement the EYFS framework, giving children different ways to participate through music, football and outdoor exploration.

In November 2023, children compared the lengths of dough shapes, younger children counted through songs, and adults introduced vocabulary during play. Books had different uses too: younger children could settle in a book corner, while older children discussed authors and illustrators and used books to find information.

At the November 2023 inspection, Ofsted found the curriculum generally well ordered and helpful to most children, but some activities did not carry through its intended ambition, leaving some children less involved; the improvement required was to make learning sufficiently ambitious and responsive to every child's needs.

Outdoor and Community Life

Leafy Learners Lodge is an indoor-outdoor classroom within the grounds, using natural materials and open-ended resources for child-led exploration. Identifying minibeasts, examining leaves and making seasonal crafts give nature-based learning a concrete setting. Outside, mud kitchens, climbing equipment and ride-on toys support different kinds of movement and imaginative play, with outdoor areas used throughout the year.

Preschool children make regular community outings, including the library, a local park, shops, the duck pond and an adventure trail. Visits to local schools also form part of this wider experience. These regular outings give children contact with places beyond the nursery grounds.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person responsible for observing development, planning around interests and keeping a Learning Journey that parents can discuss. A settling-in period is recommended, giving the child time to become familiar with the setting and its staff. The relationship continues beyond those first days through everyday conversations and parents' evenings held twice a year.

Focus Weeks bring together observations from staff, parents and the child to shape subsequent activities indoors and outside. Termly assessments are shared with families, who can contribute their own observations, and the two-year progress check is also discussed with parents. This gives family knowledge a place in planning, rather than keeping nursery and home experiences separate.

ParentZone adds a digital route: families can see daily events, photographs, videos and assessments, contribute observations from home and exchange messages. Wow Moments highlights individual achievements. Together, these arrangements give parents both an ongoing account of the day and opportunities for more considered discussion about development.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Blossoming Buddies is a peer-buddy system intended to develop friendships, empathy and social skills. Alongside individual planning through the key person, it gives relationships an explicit place in the nursery's approach. In November 2023, staff used what families shared about children's interests and existing skills when planning activities.

Everyday independence also featured in November 2023: children practised putting on coats, managing toileting and serving lunch. Health activities included cleaning marks from model teeth and lunchtime conversations about food and oral care. These examples connect preparation for the next stage with manageable daily tasks.

Home-cooked meals use fresh, locally sourced ingredients, and Doorstep Milk supplies local milk and dairy. Meals, snacks, drinks and care consumables are covered by a separately charged daily supplement, so they need to be considered alongside the childcare arrangement rather than treated as included in the session fee.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, for 51 weeks a year. A full day runs from 7.30am to 6pm, while half days are offered from 7.30am to 1pm or from 1pm to 6pm; a full-week pattern covers Monday to Friday within the full-day window.

The fully funded day arrangement has two ten-hour windows: 7.30am to 5.30pm or 8am to 6pm. Additional private hours are charged separately. Those start and finish choices matter when matching nursery attendance to work and family routines, especially where the opening window is longer than the funded day.

Closures include bank holidays and the week between Christmas and New Year, with no charges for closure days. Booked sessions remain payable when a child is absent through sickness. Leaving requires four weeks' written notice, with fees payable throughout that notice period.

Getting There

The address is Huddersfield Road, Diggle, Saddleworth, OL3 5PJ. Enquiries can be made by telephone on 01457 877915, by email at digglenursery@aol.co.uk or through the contact form. A registration request comes first, followed by the registration form if a place can be offered; a deposit holds the place and is credited against the first month's fees.

Funding and Paid Extras

The nursery offers 15 or 30 hours of funded childcare, depending on eligibility, alongside privately paid sessions and extra hours. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, and the fees and funding page explains the charging structure.

The daily supplement separately covers food and drinks, including formula for children under two, as well as nappies, wipes, nappy cream and sun cream. It also covers Calpol administered under the medication policy. For funded attendance, this supplement is separate from the funded childcare hours; the inclusive package does not allow families to select only some items, although alternative arrangements can be discussed with the nursery.

Payments are collected in advance, either weekly or monthly. Families weighing funded attendance therefore need to distinguish the entitlement, any extra private hours and the supplement, rather than treating the funded day as covering every element of care.

• Curriculum ambition. In November 2023, some activities did not fully engage children or realise the intended learning. During a visit, ask how individual next steps now shape activities for children who need a different level of challenge.
• The supplement package. Meals and care supplies sit within a separate daily charge, including on funded attendance, and partial participation is not permitted. Discuss how the package and any alternative arrangement would apply to your child's needs before booking.
• The baby-room day. The Caterpillar Room has a six-child maximum and a flexible routine. Use a visit to discuss how settling, rest and daily care would fit your baby's established pattern.
• Attendance commitments. Sickness absences remain chargeable and departure requires four weeks' paid notice. Factor both into the family budget alongside the Christmas closure and your chosen session pattern.

Diggle suits families seeking either full-day attendance or morning and afternoon half days, with further start-and-finish choices for funded days. Its appeal is concrete: a small baby-room cap, Leafy Learners Lodge, language activities and several ways for parents to contribute to learning.

The Good judgement provides a dated assessment of quality, while the curriculum improvement gives families a useful issue to explore. For those comfortable with the separate supplement and notice terms, the combination of age-specific rooms, outdoor exploration and structured communication makes a coherent childcare offer.