Yaqadoodle Childcare Academy

Babies and toddlers give Bennett Street its current identity, with Stretford Library next door and play spaces built around books, construction and familiar home life. Yaqadoodle Childcare Academy has 25 places in total. This is the Bennett Street setting, rather than the separate preschool site.

At its October 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good overall, while requiring better matching of activities to children's development, clearer behaviour guidance and more useful feedback for staff. Those points matter alongside the positive picture of children singing, building and exploring. The judgement is dated; the practical offer below reflects the current arrangements.

Attendance choices include a shorter daytime session, a full day and morning or afternoon patterns. That breadth gives families more than one way to organise childcare.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) provides the framework for learning and care: children learn through play, developing language, movement, early reading and number skills. Here, the activities also include creative work and opportunities to explore how things are built. The useful detail is the organisation of play into recognisable areas, rather than a claim that the framework itself makes the nursery different.

Home Corner connects play with experiences children recognise from everyday life, giving them opportunities to explore feelings and practise conversation. Reading Corner allows children to enjoy books independently or share them with someone else. Engineering & Construction, Art & Crafts and Theatre & Drama add different ways to make, imagine and express ideas. These are activity areas, rather than separate age-banded rooms.

In October 2022, babies explored their reflections using mirrors positioned within reach and experimented with instruments. Practitioners helped younger children develop stability and coordination as they approached walking. These examples show how physical play and sensory exploration featured in the day at that time.

Older children's activities in October 2022 included water exploration, searching through sand and forming their names in flour. Wooden models gave children something they had made to discuss with others. The examples are concrete, but the curriculum also needed adjustment: some younger children were given shape-learning tasks beyond their understanding and lost interest. The lesson for families is to look at how an activity changes for different stages of development, rather than judging it by its theme alone.

Outdoor and Community Life

In October 2022, children used scooters, joined running games and talked about an outing to a nearby park. Library visits involved choosing books and discussing pictures. That brought reading beyond the nursery's own book area and gave children opportunities to make choices.

The current Bennett Street location sits beside Stretford Library and opposite Stretford Mall. Those named landmarks make the setting easy to place within the neighbourhood; the earlier outings remain examples from October 2022, rather than a timetable of current trips.

Relationships and Communication

In October 2022, settling involved staff getting to know children and their families, and parents were invited to coffee mornings. Staff also shared information about children's experiences during the day. Together, those practices made parent contact more than a conversation about collection times.

Keeping families informed about their child's development remains part of the current offer. For a parent of a baby or toddler, the practical value is continuity between home and nursery: information about what a child is doing helps both sides understand their changing interests.

Behaviour guidance was less consistent in October 2022. Some children received unclear messages about what staff expected, so the improvement point concerned everyday interactions rather than simply whether children followed instructions. Staff supervision also needed sharper feedback about those interactions. These are useful subjects for a visit because they affect the ordinary moments of play, disagreement and redirection.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the October 2022 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and praised support for children with special educational needs or disabilities and those learning English as an additional language, including individual learning plans and effective professional links. This is a dated assessment of practice, rather than a blanket assurance about every child's experience now.

Bennett Street has a SENCO lead role. That gives families a defined point of responsibility for discussing additional support. The team includes nursery practitioners and an apprentice; their roles describe the staffing structure rather than a promise about how many adults will work with a particular group.

Food is cooked on the premises each day, with three meals provided and dietary requirements catered for. Families using funded hours can choose separately charged food or supply their own where reasonably practicable.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Bennett Street, Stretford, M32 8SG, and opening hours run from 7.30am to 6pm. A full-day booking runs from 7.30am to 6pm, while the shorter daytime session runs from 9am to 3pm. The minimum contract is two days.

Morning and afternoon sessions are also offered, with half days for babies subject to availability. Flexible hours and before-school, after-school and evening arrangements broaden the attendance choices. Early starts before 7.30am are an enquiry-based option. These patterns should be distinguished from the separate weekend play-centre sessions, which are not nursery childcare bookings.

Enquiries can be made through the contact form or by email. Bennett Street's current age-group identity is babies and toddlers, so the location matters when discussing a booking across the provider's sites.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes the working-parent entitlement from nine months where eligibility conditions are met, additional-support funding for eligible two-year-olds, and the universal entitlement for three- and four-year-olds. Eligible working families can receive up to 30 hours. Funding covers 38 weeks each year; a stretched arrangement across more weeks may be offered, with fewer funded hours each week.

For funded attendance, meals and snacks are charged separately, as are nappies, wipes and the consumables-and-activities category. These additional charges are voluntary and do not determine access to funded childcare; families may bring food or consumables, or decline optional activities, where reasonably practicable. Additional childcare beyond the funded entitlement is paid separately. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

Parents must complete registration documents and a funding declaration before funding starts. Where an eligibility code is required, families are responsible for renewing it every three months. The funding and charges information explains these responsibilities alongside the attendance choices.

• Bennett Street age groups. This site is organised for babies and toddlers, with preschool provision at a separate location. On a visit, discuss which site and group would suit your child's stage.
• Activities and staff guidance. The October 2022 improvement points covered activity difficulty, behaviour messages and feedback to staff. Ask how practitioners adapt a shared activity and maintain consistent responses today.
• Funded attendance and extras. Food and consumable charges are voluntary for funded childcare, with alternatives where reasonably practicable. Agree the attendance pattern and chosen extras together before signing.

Yaqadoodle suits families seeking baby or toddler care at Bennett Street, whether they prefer the shorter 9am to 3pm session, a full day or morning and afternoon attendance. Home Corner and Reading Corner give its play-based offer a recognisable shape, while funding arrangements distinguish childcare from chosen extras.

The October 2022 Good judgement provides useful context, with clear improvement points about the quality of everyday staff interactions and the level of activities. Those details deserve as much attention as the booking flexibility when deciding whether the setting fits your child.