Kensington Nursery

Bug hotels made from logs and leaves, babies exploring Hurst Grange Park and toddlers turning their room into a doctor's surgery give Kensington Nursery a recognisable character. Learning connects with living things, familiar places and the people children encounter outside nursery. There is plenty for small children to investigate.

At its May 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated Kensington Nursery Good and found safeguarding effective. That is a dated assessment: the everyday examples from that visit below describe practice in May 2023, while more recent activities show how the nursery has subsequently used themes, outings and family events.

Based in Penwortham, Preston, Kensington has 50 places in total and accepts children aged 0 to 60 months. Its spaces are named Baby Room, Toddler Room and Pre School Room. Full-day and half-day sessions sit alongside term-time-only attendance, giving families different ways to organise childcare.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby Room, Toddler Room and Pre School Room distinguish the nursery's stages of care. Activities are adapted to those stages: babies have explored park equipment and woodland, toddlers have used medical role play, and preschool children have cared for snails and joined library visits. These are concrete differences in experience, rather than simply different room labels.

In May 2023, babies had room to practise crawling and early walking, while older children devised obstacle courses and challenged friends to climb and aim beanbags. Staff helped children notice their heartbeat after exercise. Physical play therefore included opportunities to talk about what their bodies were doing.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for children's learning, development and care. In everyday language, that means play and routines contribute to learning as well as meeting children's care needs; Kensington's themed activities give that learning tangible subjects to explore.

In January 2026, the toddler room became a doctor's surgery, with medical clothing and a kit for pretend treatment. Stories about hospitals and doctors connected the play with children's own experiences, while bandages and plasters gave them ways to act out caring for one another. This was an imaginative activity with a familiar purpose.

March 2026 brought Mini beast month and an indoor Mini beast investigation station. Children assembled bug hotels using leaves and logs, and preschool children helped care for African land snails by feeding and spraying them. These activities made the needs of living creatures something children could respond to directly.

Other themes have offered different kinds of exploration. During Science week in March 2025, children experimented with erupting volcanoes, coloured foam and changing textures. The September 2025 All about me topic used family photographs and mirrors for conversations and self-portraits, connecting children's home lives with their play.

A Star Sports visited in June 2025 to support the Healthy Eating topic through movement. Balancing, catching, running and throwing were among the activities. This was a documented visit, giving preschool children another way to explore exercise alongside the nursery's own physical play.

Outdoor and Community Life

Hurst Grange Park is part of the babies' local outings, with equipment to try and woodland to explore. Rainy Day Play also includes puddle splashing in wellies and wetsuits. Outdoor experience extends beyond waiting for dry weather.

Library outings link books with the wider community. In February 2026, preschool children travelled by bus, explored books and joined story time with librarians; toddlers had also made a bus trip to the library in November 2025. Choosing books and speaking with people beyond nursery give these outings a purpose beyond the journey itself.

The annual Toddle Waddle is a family stay-and-play event at Longton Brickcroft. Its May 2025 outing combined wildlife spotting, a walk and a picnic while raising money for Barnardos. It gives parents and children a shared outdoor experience, rather than keeping all nursery activities within the building.

Relationships and Communication

Nursery In A Box is the communication app used here. Parents can see photographs, learning observations, assessments and daily routines, and message their child's key person directly. Individual and nursery-wide notifications sit alongside those exchanges, giving families a practical route for following the day and keeping in touch.

In May 2023, staff offered comfort when children woke and prepared them for nappy changes by showing them a nappy beforehand. Familiar care routines included small signals about what would happen next. Younger children practised managing belongings and coats, while older children served food and filled water bottles themselves.

Family involvement also takes a more hands-on form. Halloween Stay and Play gives parents a Saturday session with their children and opportunities to meet other families; the October 2025 activities included biscuit decorating, sensory play and making spiders from dough. The annual Christmas party brings families together for games and food, while preschool leavers celebrated with a graduation ceremony in July 2025.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

In May 2023, sleeping children were continuously monitored, staff received safeguarding training and children practised noticing hazards before outdoor play. These are examples from that visit, rather than a claim about today's staffing or routines.

The nursery has a cook, and its menu includes dishes such as salmon noodles, vegetable-accompanied cottage pie and chicken curry; it also caters for vegetarian and vegan diets and offers arrangements for allergies. Water is accessible through the day, with milk at snack times, giving drinking a place in the daily routine alongside food.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 44-46 Kensington Avenue, Penwortham, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 0EE. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, with weekends closed for ordinary nursery attendance.

A Full Day runs from 7.30am to 6pm. Half Day Session options run from 7.30am to 1pm or from 12.30pm to 6pm, so families can choose an earlier or later part of the day rather than a full day. Term-time-only attendance is also offered, following the nursery's term dates.

Bank holidays bring closures, and booked sessions on those days cannot be transferred; fees remain payable to retain the place. The Christmas closure begins at 1pm on 24 December 2026, with reopening at 7.30am on 4 January 2027, and the same payment and non-transfer rules apply during that closure. Those terms matter when planning both childcare cover and the household budget.

Enquiries can be made by telephone on 01772 749888 or through the contact form. Nursery In A Box also supports payments for additional sessions, hours, meals and chargeable events, bringing booking-related payments into the same app used for communication.

Funding and Paid Extras

Education grant sessions are offered, and there is a term-time funded calendar. Meals are included for full-time attendance, full days and morning sessions; children attending education grant sessions can purchase food and snacks separately. The funded-session food arrangement therefore needs to be distinguished from the inclusion attached to those paid attendance patterns.

Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. For families comparing attendance options, the useful distinction is between the hours booked and the food purchased alongside them, rather than assuming every session has the same inclusions.

• Staff development. At the May 2023 inspection, Ofsted found that staff absences had drawn the manager into direct childcare, reducing opportunities to observe colleagues and address minor teaching weaknesses, and asked for better monitoring of professional development. During a visit, ask how staff observation and feedback now work when colleagues are absent.
• Closure costs. Bank-holiday and Christmas closures retain fees, and affected sessions cannot be moved to another date. Families needing cover throughout the working year should include these breaks in their planning.
• Food and allergies. Meal inclusion depends on the attendance pattern, with food and snacks charged separately for education grant sessions. Allergy-affected families should confirm current meal preparation and allergy arrangements before agreeing their child's provision.

Kensington suits families considering full-day care, either half-day option or term-time-only attendance, with a nursery experience built around practical themes and local outings. Hurst Grange Park, library trips and the annual Toddle Waddle give its activities a clear connection with the surrounding community.

The Good judgement from May 2023 provides a dated quality assessment, balanced by a specific improvement point about oversight of staff development. More recent examples add useful detail about what children do: caring for creatures, investigating materials and using pretend play to explore familiar experiences. Closure charges and session-dependent meal inclusion are the practical terms to weigh alongside that experience.