The Ark Nursery Littleborough

Woodland Explorers, a wet room with a bubble wall and a preschool mascot called Lenny Lion give The Ark Nursery Littleborough its character. Outdoor discovery sits alongside spaces for stories, messy play and shared meals. The appeal is concrete: children can build dens, investigate colours and shadows, and take a familiar nursery companion on a family trip.

On Featherstall Road in Littleborough, the nursery has capacity for 125 children and accepts children aged 3 to 60 months. At its March 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the provision Good, found safeguarding effective and judged that children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), were making good progress. That is a dated assessment, rather than a guarantee about an individual child's experience.

Full-day, morning and afternoon bookings sit alongside funded term-time arrangements. For parents, the combination of different attendance patterns and clearly described learning spaces is useful: choosing The Ark need not mean choosing the same length of day for every family.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby Room's dedicated baby area extends to 15 months, with sensory and creative exploration supported by a cushion-floored space for tummy time, a sleep area with calming music, bottle-preparation facilities and access to a garden baby pod. These are practical provisions for a stage when feeding, resting and exploring need to fit together.

For children aged 18 to 24 months, the Toddler area combines independently accessible resources for building, pretend play and books with access to the wet room and sensory room, while shared meals introduce handwashing and serving food. Its emphasis is on making small choices and attempting everyday tasks.

Nursery Room, for children aged 24 to 36 months, develops communication and independence through construction, creative work and role play, with an accessible bathroom, outdoor space and support for toilet training that follows routines agreed with parents. Consistency between home and nursery is especially useful during this change.

Pre-School, for children aged 36 to 60 months, brings phonics, mathematical and scientific activities together with creative and sensory play, access to the library and outdoor space, and a weekly PE session that includes practising dressing and undressing. Physical activity and self-care are linked rather than treated as separate parts of the day.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for learning, development and care: here, play, conversation, books and practical activities give children opportunities to build skills. Woodland Explorers adds a defined outdoor programme based on Forest School principles, with exploration of the environment and supervised opportunities to judge risk. It is an addition to the everyday framework, rather than a replacement for it.

Preschool phonics sessions develop awareness of sounds and letter formation. Sustained Shared Thinking means that children's ideas and experiences help shape discussion and activity. Show and tell gives them another opportunity to express themselves, while Lenny Lion can accompany children on holidays or family outings, bringing care for a familiar mascot into life beyond nursery.

In March 2023, children chose a group story by voting, used props to retell stories and borrowed books through a book swap that also accepted donations. Mathematical ideas appeared in number songs, comparisons between story characters and counting during movement. The connection matters: early reading and mathematics were part of play and conversation, rather than confined to a single formal activity.

Outdoor and Community Life

Woodland Explorers runs twice weekly for children aged 24 to 60 months in a designated space beside the outdoor play area. Waterproof clothing is supplied for activities such as searching for small creatures, building dens, planting and cooking with ingredients the children have grown. The preschool timetable places Woodland Explorer sessions on Mondays and Fridays.

There is a useful link between growing and eating: garlic grown by children can become garlic bread. Rope walking and supervised risk decisions give the programme another dimension, asking children to consider what they can manage rather than simply follow an adult's instructions.

Indoor facilities have equally specific purposes. The Sensory Room uses contrasts, colours and shadows for exploration; the Wet Room supports painting, pouring and squeezing, with a bubble wall to look through. A library and ICT suite provides a separate setting for stories and computer use. These spaces broaden the kinds of activity available within the nursery building.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person in their room, giving parents a consistent contact and someone responsible for following development. Families can contribute to the Learning Journey, recording achievements at home and significant family events alongside nursery progress. Communication therefore works in both directions: staff learn about the child beyond the nursery day, while parents follow what happens during it.

Settling visits take place after registration and help staff become familiar with the family's routine. The Toddler area also uses a daily record covering sleep, eating and changing. For parents of younger children, those practical details can make the handover between nursery and home more useful than a broad description of the day.

In March 2023, parents exchanged updates with key people, including achievements outside nursery, and received guidance about supporting learning at home. Children invited staff into pretend play and sought them out for conversation. Those observations give substance to the key-person arrangement, while remaining a picture of practice at that time.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Toilet training in Nursery Room is coordinated with parents so that home routines continue during nursery hours. Children also practise serving themselves at meals and using the bathroom independently. These arrangements put everyday care alongside learning, with adult help available as children attempt more for themselves.

In March 2023, the SENCo had established links with other professionals so staff could obtain advice about children's learning needs. Allergy and dietary arrangements, recruitment checks and accident reviews were also part of the safeguarding systems at that date. These mechanisms explain the work behind the dated inspection judgement without turning it into a present-day blanket assurance.

A full-time cook prepares food on site each day, and children eat in a separate dining room. Menus follow the seasons, with monthly information for parents, a daily vegetarian alternative and provision for individual dietary requirements.

Sessions and Attendance

The Ark opens Monday to Friday, from 7.15am to 6.15pm, across 51 weeks of the year. A Full Day runs from 7.15am to 6.15pm; Morning bookings run from 7.15am to 1pm; Afternoon bookings run from 1pm to 6.15pm. These are separate attendance choices, not simply different descriptions of the opening window.

Funded session options run from 9am to noon and from 1pm to 4pm, with lunchtime wrap-around from noon to 1pm. Funded term-time bookings and a stretched arrangement across the year are also offered. The distinction matters when matching childcare to work: a funded session and a private morning booking have different start and finish times.

Closures include bank holidays, two training days each year and the period from 25 December to 1 January. The nursery closes at 1pm on Christmas Eve when it falls on a normal working day. These exceptions need to sit alongside the usual weekly timetable when planning care.

Getting There

The address is Featherstall Road, Littleborough, Rochdale, OL15 8DH. A large car park sits in front of the building, giving families an on-site place to park for collection and drop-off.

An enquiry form starts the application process, followed by contact from the team. Visit arrangements are also made through an enquiry, with a member of staff agreeing a day and time with the family.

Funding and Paid Extras

Eligible children aged 9 months and older may receive 15 or 30 hours of funded childcare per week. The nursery offers personalised written quotations based on attendance and entitlement, covering the combination of funded time and additional private hours. Its fees and funding information explains the options.

Meals are charged separately. During funded hours, snacks and drinks also carry separate charges. Private fees include nappies, wipes, formula milk and sun cream; funded hours have separate meal and consumable charges, with funded consumables also covering items and experiences such as trips, celebrations, Forest School and seasonal resources. The funded-extra terms need particular attention because their descriptions of voluntary extras and an applicable consumable fee conflict.

A registration charge is payable within 3 working days of accepting a place, although it may be waived in specific circumstances. That condition belongs in the written quotation alongside the attendance pattern and funded extras, so families can assess the whole arrangement before accepting.

• Funded-extra terms. Extras are voluntary under one set of terms, while another says a consumable fee applies. Ask how declining extras works for the funded attendance pattern you want.
• Mealtime organisation. In March 2023, staff deployment during lunch reduced learning opportunities and noise disrupted interaction. During a visit, ask how lunch and movement between activities are organised now.
• Room changes and settling. The baby, toddler and nursery areas have different age bands and daily routines. Use the settling discussion to establish how a move between them will work for your child.

The Ark suits families looking for morning or afternoon sessions as well as full-day attendance, with funded term-time and stretched options adding further choices. Woodland Explorers, the Wet Room and Lenny Lion provide recognisable experiences rather than a curriculum described only in broad promises.

The March 2023 Good judgement is a useful reference point, and its concern about mealtime organisation deserves a practical conversation. The other decision is financial: funded attendance carries a different charge structure from private care, and the conflicting terms for extras need resolving before a family accepts its quotation.