Partou Stonehouse Day Nursery & Pre-school

A former school building gives Stonehouse its defining character: spacious playrooms, a library, a sensory room and a physical room devoted to motor skills, alongside a substantial outdoor play area. For children who enjoy movement as much as quieter exploration, the choice of spaces is a clear attraction. There is room for different kinds of play.

Partou Stonehouse Day Nursery & Pre-school cares for children from birth to five at 90 School Lane, Leyland, PR25 2TU, with 115 places in total. At its August 2021 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and judged safeguarding effective, but asked for more consistent language teaching and better help for children who were quieter or less confident. Later compliance action also matters to the decision, and is covered below.

Full days, morning sessions and afternoon sessions sit alongside term-time attendance and year-round childcare. That gives families more than one way to organise the week.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards for children's learning, development and care: here, play can connect movement, conversation and understanding the world. Alongside that shared framework, Stonehouse uses a child-led approach, adapting its environments and activities to children's interests and individual needs. The practical distinction is that children's interests help shape what they explore next.

A Colour Run in March 2026 made that approach concrete. Children's interest in Holi led to an event combining running and colourful powders with fundraising for UNICEF. The activity brought physical play together with conversations about cultural celebrations and helping others. It was a particular event, rather than a promised recurring session.

In August 2021, activities also drew on children's experiences: a recent zoo visit inspired a small play zoo, giving staff opportunities to introduce animal vocabulary. Babies handled natural materials with contrasting textures, while older children experimented with paint, water and cornflour. Those examples show how sensory exploration and conversation could share the same activity.

Outdoor and Community Life

The physical room provides a space for developing motor skills; the sensory room and library offer different settings for exploration and books. Outdoors, younger children have soft-surfaced play areas within the larger play space. These are useful distinctions for families comparing how a baby and an older child might use the same setting.

In August 2021, the garden gave children opportunities to run, look for insects and learn about growing food through apples, beans and pears. Physical activities indoors included tummy time for babies, building with blocks and using tweezers to pick up pom-poms. Movement extended from whole-body activity to the smaller hand movements needed for increasingly precise tasks.

Relationships and Communication

Family involvement has a physical home here. A dedicated family room hosts regular coffee mornings, and interactive family days let parents take part in nursery life. These arrangements give families time with staff beyond a brief handover, as well as opportunities to meet other parents.

Updates about children's progress form part of the care fee. In August 2021, children had relationships with their key person, and staff used observations of children's interests and abilities to plan subsequent activities. That combination links a familiar adult with an understanding of what a child is ready to try next.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Some team members have backgrounds in SEN support. In August 2021, additional funding was used for resources and staff training aimed at individual children's needs. However, support did not consistently draw quieter children into activities, and adults did not reliably help children develop clearer pronunciation or extend their speech into sentences. These were practical weaknesses, rather than simply requests for more activities.

Ofsted's June 2024 compliance action recorded staff changes and training in safe handling and safeguarding, together with an action to improve staff supervision by 17 June 2024; its November 2025 outcome followed a notification about staff-to-child ratios and whether the nursery's spaces and equipment were safe and suitable for children, and recorded that some requirements were not met, followed by stronger risk assessments, internal security changes, more frequent headcounts and staff training. The later changes are dated actions, rather than a new graded judgement on the nursery as a whole.

Meals are prepared at the nursery using a seasonal menu. Food and drinks attract a separate charge, including during funded sessions, so eating at nursery needs to be considered alongside the care cost.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. A full day runs from 8am to 6pm; the morning session ends at 1pm, and the afternoon session runs from 1pm to 6pm. The split is useful for families who need a shorter attendance pattern as well as those covering a working day.

Both year-round and term-time childcare are offered. The nursery closes on bank holidays and between Christmas and New Year, with a 4pm finish on Christmas Eve. Charges apply over 51 weeks, including bank holidays, so the billing calendar and the days the building is open need to be considered separately.

Enquiries can be made through the Stonehouse enquiry form or by telephone on 01772 435529. The address is 90 School Lane, Leyland, PR25 2TU, just off B5256 Golden Hill Lane, with Leyland train station and the motorway network accessible from the location.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered through Lancashire Local Authority. Term-time attendance uses 15 or 30 funded hours a week over 38 weeks; for year-round attendance, funding is spread over 51 weeks, giving 11.17 or 22.35 funded hours weekly. The difference matters when matching childcare attendance to a family's funded entitlement.

Funding covers the care element. Meals and snacks, and non-food consumables, are charged separately for private and funded sessions alike; the consumables charge covers nappies, sun cream and wet wipes. A funded session therefore still has additional charges for these items.

Joining involves either a non-refundable registration charge or a registration deposit, subject to eligibility under the terms and conditions. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, allowing families to see the care, food and consumables components together.

• Supervision and safety. The June 2024 action required stronger staff supervision, and November 2025 brought further changes to security, risk assessment and headcounts. At a visit, ask how staff practice is monitored now and how the nursery maintains supervision across its different spaces.
• A quieter child's participation. In August 2021, quieter children sometimes needed more help to join learning, while language teaching was inconsistent. Ask for an example of how a key person now supports a hesitant child and develops their conversation during play.
• Attendance and billing. Morning, afternoon and full-day sessions offer different patterns, while charges run across 51 weeks, including bank holidays. Compare the written quotation with the actual days and sessions your family intends to use.

Stonehouse suits families looking for either morning or afternoon sessions, or full days, with a choice between term-time attendance and year-round childcare. Its strongest practical appeal is the combination of substantial play space, separate sensory and physical rooms, a library and opportunities for parents to spend time in nursery life.

The decision deserves care. The Good judgement dates to August 2021, and subsequent supervision and safety action must carry weight alongside the facilities and attendance options. For families considering Stonehouse, understanding how those changes work in everyday care is central to choosing it.