The Railway House

A Tudor-style house, mixed-age play and an allotment give The Railway House a recognisable character: domestic in scale, with learning that reaches into Littleborough’s community. Children share experiences across ages rather than spending the whole day within separate age groups. For parents drawn to a family-style setting, that arrangement matters as much as the activities themselves.

At its June 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, judged safeguarding effective and praised the support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The setting has capacity for 30 children in total; its wider childcare offer extends from birth to 11 years, including care around the school day.

Outdoor exploration and close key-person relationships are central to the offer. Attendance choices include longer days and school-hours sessions, with term-time-only places also offered.

Rooms and Ages

Baby room, Toddler room and Preschool are named spaces, alongside a Conservatory. Both the Baby room and Toddler room have an indoor sand pit, giving younger children a physical resource for exploratory play. These spaces sit within an approach that also brings different ages together, including at shared meals.

For babies, sensory exploration uses fabrics and mirrors alongside light, sand and water. A dedicated key person handles care as well as play, connecting feeding and nappy changes with the relationship a baby is building. That is a practical expression of the nursery’s preference for continuity: personal care belongs to a familiar adult.

Preschool combines open areas that children can rearrange with spaces for imaginative play, building and creative work. An early years teacher leads this provision, and observation informs what practitioners plan next. The emphasis is on following children’s interests while adults contribute vocabulary, questions and new possibilities, rather than simply leaving children to occupy themselves.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for children’s learning, development and care, with play used to build communication, physical skills and independence. Alongside it, the Curiosity Approach uses authentic, open-ended materials and children’s interests to shape exploration. The nursery is working towards accreditation; the approach is already part of its daily practice, but accreditation is a separate step.

Natural resources and soft furnishings help give the rooms their domestic character. Children have time to return to an activity, investigate it and try again. For a parent choosing this approach, the useful detail is the combination of materials that can be used in different ways and adults who watch closely before extending the play.

In June 2024, babies experimented with instruments, toddlers searched outside for insects and preschool children used superhero role play. Reading also had a clear place: adults discussed illustrations and characters with children, who could borrow books to enjoy with their families. That connection between nursery and home gives parents a concrete way to join in with learning.

Outdoor and Community Life

The garden has a workshop with tools and open-ended materials, a mud kitchen beside herbs, and an artificial-grass area for movement. Children can use a hose to obtain water for play. Doors between indoors and outdoors remain open in different weather conditions, allowing children to move between the two environments.

An allotment adds planting, digging and looking for small creatures. The emphasis is participation rather than producing a successful crop, so the value lies in handling soil, noticing living things and caring for plants. In June 2024, children also practised balance on an outdoor obstacle course with contrasting surfaces.

Beyond the garden, preschool children attend weekly P.E. at Littleborough Amateur Boxing club. Outings include Walsden garden centre, with public transport used for journeys further afield, as well as visits to nearby shops and green spaces. These are specific extensions of the nursery’s learning: movement has a recurring venue, while everyday community places become opportunities to talk, observe and practise social skills.

Relationships and Communication

Settling is organised around the child’s key person rather than a fixed number of introductory sessions. During the first week, the parent, child and practitioner spend time together, with the practitioner’s attention reserved for that child. Other children are introduced after the relationship has begun to develop; parents then start leaving for short periods.

That sequence gives families time to build trust before separation. Some children need more sessions than others, and the pace follows the individual child. Settling sessions carry no charge, so this introductory period is separate from paid attendance.

Everyday conversations with parents sit alongside termly parents’ meetings. The key-person arrangement provides a consistent point of contact, while the meetings create a more deliberate opportunity to discuss learning and development. For families who prefer personal conversation, this is a substantial part of the nursery’s communication model.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

In June 2024, leaders worked with parents and external agencies to obtain support for children with SEND. Staff also spent time learning about families during settling. Together, those practices show how individual information informed care at that visit, rather than support being treated as a separate activity.

Meals and snacks are included without extra charges, including for children using funded hours; practitioners cook on site, and children sometimes help prepare food before eating together across ages. The nursery works with families on complex dietary requirements, making mealtimes both a care arrangement and a shared daily experience.

Preparation for school includes developing independence towards the end of the preschool year. In June 2024, children practised putting on coats, clearing toys and preparing equipment for gym activities, and new teachers visited. These are useful transition experiences: children rehearse practical tasks and meet adults associated with their next setting, rather than school preparation being reduced to early reading alone.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 1A Railway Street, Littleborough, OL15 8AG. Nursery opening hours are Monday to Friday, 7.30am to 5.30pm. Enquiries can be made by telephone or email.

Four daytime patterns are offered: 7.30am to 5.30pm, 7.30am to 3pm, 9am to 3pm and 9am to 5.30pm. The longest is labelled a long day, while the 9am to 3pm pattern is a short day that follows school hours. Different start and finish combinations give families choices beyond a single full-day booking.

Term-time-only places can be paid for through a plan that spreads the cost across the year. Breakfast and teatime clubs extend the offer to school-age children, and a holiday club provides care during school holidays. Children are walked to school in the morning and collected afterwards, giving families a continuing childcare relationship beyond preschool.

Four weeks of nursery closure are planned each year around key-person annual leave. Families receive the dates at the start of the year, and those weeks are not charged. Bank holidays and a child’s absence for illness or a family holiday remain chargeable, so closure and personal absence have different billing consequences.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes 30 hours for eligible children aged nine months and eligible two-year-olds, as well as 15 hours for eligible two-year-olds. Three- and four-year-olds can use the universal 15 hours, with an additional 15 hours where eligible. Term-time-only attendance is offered; spreading payments over the year is a billing arrangement rather than an extension of the funded entitlement.

Private childcare is also offered. Meals and snacks carry no additional charge for either private or funded attendance, and consumables are not charged separately. Families can obtain a current written quotation, with the attendance and payment terms explained on the session and fees page.

Late collection and late payment attract additional charges. These terms matter alongside the session choice, especially for families whose working day makes collection times difficult to predict.

• Mixed ages and personal care. Shared meals and overlapping age groups are deliberate parts of the model. On a visit, ask how the Baby room’s quieter care needs fit alongside these shared experiences.
• Planned closures. Four weeks close each year around key-person leave, with dates supplied at the beginning of the year. Families needing continuous childcare will need to plan around those weeks.
• Two improvement priorities. In June 2024, children’s understanding of communities beyond their own needed broadening, and staff coaching needed more consistent follow-through. Ask how those priorities now shape activities and feedback to practitioners.
• Dietary requirements. Practitioners prepare meals on site and work with families on complex diets. Allergy-affected families should discuss current ingredient handling and meal arrangements before joining.

The Railway House suits families who want personal key-person care, mixed-age relationships and frequent learning beyond the playrooms. The allotment, weekly P.E. at Littleborough Amateur Boxing club and community outings give that preference tangible substance. It also serves different routines: school-hours short days, longer days and term-time attendance, with school-age clubs extending the relationship.

The June 2024 Good judgement sits alongside two clear priorities for teaching and staff development. The strongest reason to choose this nursery is its combination of relationship-led care and hands-on exploration. Families comfortable with shared-age experiences and planned closure weeks have a coherent offer to weigh.