Lucy Lockets Day Nursery

Five babies at most in the youngest room, vegetables grown for dinner, and school preparation that includes practising with a loaded tray: Lucy Lockets Day Nursery has a recognisable character. Its converted house on Southbank Road in Southport combines small rooms with practical, play-based learning. The detail matters. Children can move from sensory exploration to growing food and rehearsing everyday tasks as they get older.

At its February 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and found safeguarding effective. The nursery accepts children aged 0 to 60 months, with separate provision for babies, younger children and those preparing for school. Morning, afternoon, half-day and full-day booking patterns give families different ways to use it.

Small groups are a central practical attraction: no room has more than eight children, and the youngest room has a lower cap. That should interest parents who want a setting organised around compact groups rather than a large shared space. It is not the whole quality picture, though. The February 2024 improvement priorities concerned extending children's spoken language and helping them recognise and express emotions.

Rooms and Ages

Babies and Toddlers, for ages 0 to 2 years, accommodates a maximum of five babies per session in a ground-floor room with sensory materials, movement-supporting fixtures and twice-daily garden time. This is the room whose size deserves most attention from parents of very young children: its cap describes the room, rather than the nursery as a whole.

Tinies, for children from 18 months to 2½ years, has a maximum of seven children, with an upstairs outlook over the garden, singing and stories, messy exploration and a day bed for rest. Tweenies, for ages 2½ to 3 years, has capacity for eight children, combining imaginative play and turn-taking games with a cosy resting area and garden activities that include planting.

Twinkles and Pre School are separate rooms for the eldest children, where group conversations, simple experiments and imaginative play accompany preparation for school. The progression is practical: younger children explore materials and movement, while older children rehearse friendships, independence and the everyday tasks that come next.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for learning and care, with play supporting language, physical development, relationships and the other areas of learning. Activities are adapted to children's development and interests, with information from parents helping shape the planning. The framework is the starting point; the nursery's named programmes add more specific experiences.

All About Me is a three-week preschool programme exploring belonging, differences and feelings. Children talk about what they enjoy, what makes them unhappy and how they can help a friend. Froggy Fingers runs for two weeks and uses small-hand activities to practise a comfortable pincer grip before writing. These are concrete additions: one works on expressing personal experiences, the other on the physical control needed to handle writing tools.

Language also runs through ordinary routines. Weekly planning includes songs, stories, listening activities and music with movement; role play gives children opportunities to try new words with one another. WELCOMM helps staff track communication and language development, alongside work with speech and language therapists where individual support is needed. This gives language work both a daily place and a route for closer attention.

Books travel home, too. Families can borrow story sacks free of charge, and the sacks include activity sheets that connect reading with play. Annual World Book Day celebrations involve dressing as book characters, with staff joining in. For children drawn to a particular story, the combination of shared celebrations and borrowing offers ways to keep that interest going beyond nursery hours.

Outdoor and Community Life

Outdoor play takes place twice daily in room groups. Bikes, scooters and trikes support steering and balance, while slides, climbing frames and a wobbly bridge offer different movement challenges. A covered play area and mud kitchen add spaces for imaginative and sensory play. The garden serves several purposes, rather than being simply a place to run.

Growing food is especially tangible. Children start seeds in their rooms, help transfer plants to the allotment, watch changes and water the crops. Harvested vegetables are washed, prepared and eaten at nursery. Onions and potatoes connect an extended growing project with something children can recognise on their plates; comparing shapes and sizes brings mathematical language into the activity.

Relationships and Communication

Every child has a keyworker, and younger children's home routines are carried into nursery through discussions with parents. For children under two, a daily diary records sleep, nappy changes, food and drinks. That gives families a practical account of the care day, rather than leaving them to piece it together from a brief conversation.

Settling starts with an All About Me document, a family-information form used to help the keyworker understand the child. This is separate from the preschool programme of the same name. Children are offered as many hourly settling visits as they need before a full session, and parents can contact the nursery while their child settles. The arrangement allows familiarity to build gradually.

Managers are available each day for face-to-face discussions. Rooms also have quiet areas where children can pause away from busier activity, and the daily routine allows some flexibility for spontaneous ideas. These arrangements give families specific mechanisms for communication and children places to take a break.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The SENCO develops a care plan agreed with parents, with the keyworker putting its strategies into daily routines. Professionals already involved with a child contribute to planning, and an access assessment can involve local SEND inclusion support. Applications for additional funding and education, health and care plans are supported where required; extra support staff, including individual support, are appointed when funding is secured.

At its February 2024 inspection, Ofsted found that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities made good progress, supported by professional collaboration and funding used to increase staffing support. That is a dated judgement, alongside the current care-planning arrangements. In February 2024, the improvement priorities also included giving children more opportunities to use their developing vocabulary and more help to identify and communicate feelings. Closed questions sometimes restricted conversation, while some children found managing emotions difficult.

Staff receive regular safeguarding and paediatric first aid training, and permanent practitioners hold qualifications ranging from level 3 to degree level. Annual development reviews and online training through Noodle Now provide routes for further learning. These describe the staff-development arrangements, rather than guaranteeing how any individual interaction will work.

Ready For School adds practical preparation for the next stage: children rehearse dressing in uniform, discuss their feelings about moving on and practise carrying a loaded tray. A book about their nursery experiences prompts conversation about what comes next. Independence and emotions are addressed together, so preparation extends beyond early writing.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 57 Southbank Road, Southport, PR8 6QN. Enquiries can be made by telephone on 01704 543522 or by email to lucylockets@btconnect.com.

Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, across the year. Morning sessions run from 8am to 12.30pm, afternoon sessions from 1.30pm to 6pm, and lunch occupies the intervening 12.30pm to 1.30pm period. Full-day, half-day and half-day-with-lunch bookings are also offered. The distinction between an afternoon session and a half day with lunch matters when matching attendance to a family's working hours.

Bank holidays and the closure days between Christmas and New Year are not charged. Two weeks of holiday attendance charges are reduced to half fees each year; illness or another absence from a booked place attracts the full fee, subject to the terms and conditions. Families therefore need to consider the cost of reserving their usual attendance pattern as well as the days they use.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered, with children from two years old potentially entitled to 30 or 15 free hours, subject to eligibility. Private childcare is also offered. Current prices should come in the nursery's written quotation, with payment due a week ahead of care, by the preceding Friday.

Drinks and snacks are included in session prices, while a half day with lunch is priced separately from a half day; children attending on vouchers only pay a lunch supplement if they stay for that meal. Parents provide nappies and wipes for the younger rooms, and milk for babies' bottle feeds as required, so these supplies need to be included in the family's routine.

A fully equipped kitchen and separate milk room support the food arrangements, with hot lunches, breakfast, tea and snacks provided. A daily menu lets parents see what their child has eaten, and alternative meals cater for individual dietary requirements.

• Language and feelings. The February 2024 improvement priorities concerned fuller conversations and helping children express emotions. During a visit, ask how staff now extend children's answers and support them when feelings become difficult.
• Small-room progression. The youngest room has a five-baby cap, while Tinies and Tweenies have different age bands and arrangements. Discuss how a move between rooms would fit your child's development and routines.
• Funded attendance and lunch. Voucher-only attendance carries a lunch supplement when a child stays to eat. Before joining, establish how the funded hours fit your chosen sessions and how lunch is treated in the quotation.
• Booked absences. Full fees apply to booked sessions missed through illness or other absence, subject to the terms and conditions. The holiday reduction is a separate allowance, so the distinction affects budgeting.

Lucy Lockets suits families seeking either morning or afternoon sessions as well as those using half-day or full-day care, with particular appeal for parents who value small rooms and gradual settling. Its character comes from usable detail: a five-baby cap, food grown in the allotment, story sacks to borrow and school preparation built around everyday independence.

The February 2024 Good judgement sits alongside specific work to strengthen children's conversations and emotional expression. Those priorities deserve attention when choosing, but the nursery offers clear care routines, individual planning mechanisms and a substantial account of what children do as they progress through the rooms.