St Mark's Pre-school

Weekly library trips by bus, music with Jo Jingles and a Preschool Pantry stocked with recipes and ingredients give St Mark's Pre-school a character that reaches beyond its play activities. Families have practical ways to join in, too: monthly stay and play sessions, termly parents evenings and an online journal that accepts observations from home. Participation is built into the offer.

At its October 2021 inspection, Ofsted rated the setting Outstanding and found effective safeguarding, excellent progress for children including those with SEND, and strong support for families. That judgement is dated. The current offer combines play shaped around children's interests with a key person system, community outings and a carefully staged settling process.

St Mark's has capacity for 30 children aged two to five at 162 North Road, St. Helens, WA10 2TZ. Attendance is term-time only, with full-day and half-day choices alongside flexible sessions. Its scale and age range make this a preschool choice rather than a setting covering infancy onwards.

Learning and Activities

Children's interests help determine what happens next. The EYFS covers seven areas of learning and development, giving play and everyday experiences a purpose across communication, physical development, relationships and later learning. Alongside it, Birth to Five Matters informs activities matched to each child's stage and interests. The curriculum approach combines activities children initiate with those adults lead, using observation and conversation to decide how to extend learning.

That balance matters. A key person learns about a child's interests and development, while practitioners listen to what children are doing and help them think further. The approach gives adults a role beyond setting out resources: they join the learning and introduce the next idea. Phonics sessions support three- and four-year-olds, with early literacy work for younger children.

In October 2021, the dough station illustrated how this worked in practice: children learnt to make play dough with progressively less adult help, and scales added an opportunity to explore measurement. At the same visit, kneading and using litter pickers developed hand control before older children brought those skills into letter formation. These are useful examples of how practical play can build towards more demanding tasks, rather than separate activities filling a timetable.

Jo Jingles adds weekly music sessions. Regular sports sessions include experiences such as rugby, with throwing, catching and kicking followed by yoga in one account. These additions give children different ways to participate: listening and moving with music, handling a ball and practising control of their bodies.

Outdoor and Community Life

Outdoor provision mirrors the activities indoors, allowing play to continue outside rather than making outdoor time a separate break. Children need clothing for the weather, including waterproofs and wellies. The practical implication is straightforward: outdoor learning remains part of the day when conditions change.

Weekly bus journeys to the local library make books part of life beyond preschool. Children choose titles to bring back and take part in borrowing them, including handing over the library card and helping with scanning and stamping. It is reading with a real purpose and a routine children can recognise.

The community garden plot at Victoria park invites families to plant flowers or seeds and label their contributions. Visits to Mansion House bring children together with residents for shared nursery rhymes and handmade gifts. These experiences broaden the people and places children encounter; the garden also gives families something to care for together outside preschool hours.

World Book Day celebrations bring stories into play and welcome book-character costumes. The Kindness Jar works on a smaller, everyday scale: children add a pom pom when acts such as helping, sharing or listening are noticed, then celebrate together when the jar fills. Kind behaviour becomes something children can see accumulating.

Relationships and Communication

Settling starts with a minimum of three sessions, each lasting at least an hour. A parent stays throughout the first; separation during the second is agreed with the key person, and the third introduces the normal experience of being left for a session. Extra settling sessions can be arranged. This gives families a gradual progression rather than a single trial followed immediately by regular attendance.

Tapestry, the online learning journal, connects that relationship with home. Practitioners add pictures and observations, send messages, and give parents space to comment or contribute their own observations. Monthly stay and play sessions let relatives share activities with children, while termly parents evenings provide a separate opportunity to discuss development. Monthly newsletters add another regular point of contact.

The Preschool Pantry turns family support into something tangible. A small outdoor shed holds recipe cards, ingredients and bags for families to take home; weekly meal ideas encourage cooking together and help with food costs. This is a practical extension of the relationship with parents, with something useful to take away.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

A special educational needs coordinator works alongside parents and outside professionals to organise support. At the October 2021 inspection, Ofsted found that staff responded promptly to developmental concerns and incorporated individual learning programmes into everyday teaching through close work with external professionals. The current mechanism and the dated finding answer different questions: who helps organise support, and how that support worked at the inspection.

Children help shape behaviour expectations through their Golden Rules, displayed and reinforced daily. The behaviour policy requires positive support and prohibits shouting or humiliating practices. Staff receive regular safeguarding training, and the team includes a designated safeguarding role; accidents are recorded and incident forms shared with parents for signature.

Health routines reach home as well. Children receive a toothbrush and toothpaste pack after their first settling session, with replacement packs every three months. A dentist topic bag can help families prepare for a dental visit, while a toilet training topic bag supports conversations about that next step towards independence.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 8.30am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, during term time. The later closing time began in September 2026. School holidays therefore need a separate childcare arrangement for families requiring care throughout the year.

Full-day choices are 8.30am to 5pm, 8.30am to 3pm, 8.30am to 4pm, 9am to 3pm and 9am to 4pm; a 9am to 5pm full day is also offered. Half days run from 9am to noon or 1pm to 4pm, described separately as morning and afternoon sessions. Breakfast club begins at 8.30am, and flexible sessions are offered alongside these patterns.

The minimum attendance is three half-day sessions or one full day. That condition matters when comparing a short weekly introduction with a longer day: the two choices have different minimum commitments. Applications involve a show-around and an application form recording the preferred start date and sessions; the waiting-list rule allocates places according to date of birth and suitability to start.

Enquiries can be made by telephone, email or the contact form. Parents complete registration details with the key person during settling, giving the team information about their child's requirements before regular attendance begins.

Getting There

The address is 162 North Road, St. Helens, WA10 2TZ. There is no onsite car park; public parking is available in front of and behind the preschool.

Funding and Paid Extras

Both 15 and 30 hour funded spaces are offered, and funded places carry no extra cost under the session terms. Private paid sessions and a sibling discount are also offered; current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. The sessions and pricing page sets out the attendance choices alongside the charging structure.

Parents provide a packed lunch for full-day attendance, while the preschool supplies morning and afternoon snacks, milk and water; the snack menu changes across the week and is reviewed each term. The food policy addresses cultural and religious requirements, allergies and intolerances, and gives families guidance on packed-lunch contents.

For children who are not toilet trained, parents supply nappies and wipes, plus spare clothing and a water bottle. Parents also bring weather-appropriate clothing and sun cream; the sun protection procedure provides for reapplication and asks families whose child cannot use the preschool's usual cream to supply a labelled alternative.

• Term-time commitment. Full days and half days are available, but attendance is term-time only and the minimum is one full day or three half days. Match the pattern to both your working week and school-holiday arrangements.
• A gradual start. Settling involves at least three hour-long visits, beginning with a parent present. During a show-around, discuss how the later separation stages would work for your child and when extra visits would help.
• Food and personal supplies. Full-day children bring lunch, and families supply nappies and wipes when needed. If allergies affect your child, discuss current snack, packed-lunch and food-tasting practice before joining.
• The dated judgement. The Outstanding judgement is from October 2021. Use a visit to explore today's teaching and support, including how the key person uses Tapestry and plans around your child's interests.

St Mark's suits families seeking either full-day preschool attendance or shorter morning and afternoon sessions during term time. Its strongest practical attractions are the staged start, regular opportunities for parents to participate, and activities that take children into the library and wider community.

The October 2021 Outstanding judgement gives the setting a strong inspection position, while the present offer has plenty for families to weigh directly: weekly music, a shared garden plot and the Preschool Pantry. Holiday coverage and the minimum attendance commitment are the main planning considerations.