Blackbrook Nursery School

Bikes, climbing and daily outdoor play give Blackbrook Nursery School a clear physical strand, while storytelling, science and take-home learning bring plenty to the quieter parts of the day. The youngest children have their own Toddler Room; the Early Learners Room carries children from around their second birthday towards starting school. This is a nursery with concrete things for children to do.

At its July 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated Blackbrook Good overall and found safeguarding effective. That judgement sits alongside improvement priorities concerning assessment, daily routines and staff understanding of what activities should teach. These are useful points for families to explore alongside the current room arrangements.

Part of Evolution Childcare, Blackbrook is on Orange Grove in Padgate, Warrington, with capacity for 50 children aged 9 to 60 months. Morning, afternoon and full-day sessions give families different ways to organise attendance.

Rooms and Ages

The Toddler Room takes children from approximately 9 months until around their second birthday and can accommodate up to 20 under-twos at one time. That is a room maximum, separate from the nursery’s overall capacity. For parents choosing care for a younger child, the room’s size deserves attention alongside its layout and the way practitioners support play.

Movement and sensory exploration are the emphasis here: dancing, investigating materials and physical play sit alongside opportunities to crawl, walk and explore. Children can choose between learning areas within the room, and daily outdoor sessions include climbing, riding bikes and exploring nature. Those arrangements give developing movement skills a place in both the room and the outdoor day.

Around the second birthday, children move into the Early Learners Room, which continues until they leave for school. Accessible resources and interactive displays at children’s height introduce letters, shapes, colours and numbers; conversation, stories and songs emphasise communication, while movement and self-care activities develop independence. The physical layout matters: children can reach materials and make choices about what to use.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the framework for the day: here, children learn through activities such as sensory exploration, storytelling, counting and investigating materials, with observations informing their next steps. It is the foundation of provision, while Blackbrook’s named sessions give parents a more detailed picture of how learning is organised.

In the Early Learners Room, Letters and Sounds is a 52-week programme developing attention, listening, early phonics and awareness of sounds. Show and Tell gives children practice speaking to a group. A reading scheme and weekly challenges taken home extend the connection between nursery learning and family life, giving parents something practical to join in with.

PE develops movement and self-help skills, while science sessions encourage investigation. Yoga addresses balance, coordination, body awareness and self-regulation. These additions are concrete: families can see which experiences support language, physical development and preparation for school, rather than relying on a broad curriculum label.

Recent activities show how ideas become something children can handle. During January 2026, toddlers explored winter outdoors, used tools to release toy animals from ice and retold Owl Babies with feathers and natural materials. The combination brought experimenting, vocabulary and storytelling into the same theme.

Outdoor and Community Life

A spacious garden supports active play, and Early Learners children visit a library and go to a park to feed ducks. These outings extend their experiences beyond the nursery itself. Gardening also gives children something to care for: peppers, strawberries, potatoes and radishes featured in Blackbrook’s July 2026 growing activities.

The outdoor offer has two useful strands for families to weigh. There is room for energetic movement, including bikes and climbing, and there are opportunities to explore seasons and growing plants. Toddlers have daily outdoor play; the community outings belong to the Early Learners offer.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a keyworker. In the Toddler Room, that role includes sharing information with families about routines, development and wellbeing; in the Early Learners Room, keyworkers maintain development records and make monthly observations. A consistent contact gives parents a clear person with whom to discuss their child’s experiences.

For Early Learners families, communication includes daily information sharing and parents’ evenings twice a year. The weekly take-home challenges add another practical connection: parents can participate in learning as well as hear about progress. Together, these arrangements create several points of contact, from everyday conversations to a longer discussion of next steps.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At its July 2022 inspection, Ofsted found that staff recognised children needing additional help, made targeted plans and sought professional advice, but assessment timings did not sufficiently reflect individual needs, staff did not consistently apply agreed support strategies, and curriculum intentions and mealtime interaction needed greater consistency. The important question is how that support works throughout a child’s day, as well as what a plan contains.

Current self-care activities in the Early Learners Room include toothbrushing and a potty-training programme. These give independence a practical meaning: children practise managing everyday needs as part of nursery life. Toddlers are also supported to explore food tastes and textures and develop early self-help skills during meals.

A seasonal menu is provided, with arrangements for dietary requirements arising from allergies, religious beliefs or personal preference. Families managing an allergy should discuss the arrangements for their own child before starting.

Sessions and Attendance

Blackbrook is open Monday to Friday from 7.30am to 6.30pm, throughout the year apart from bank holidays. Its main full-day session runs from 8am to 6pm. Morning attendance is 8am to 1pm, and the afternoon session is 1pm to 6pm.

Early-start and late-finish periods cover 7.30am to 8am and 6pm to 6.30pm, with separate charges. An additional hour from 1pm to 2pm is also sold. These distinctions matter when matching childcare to work: the opening window is longer than the main full-day booking, and extending attendance affects the charge structure.

Getting There

The address is 119a Orange Grove, Padgate, Warrington, WA2 0DS, with on-site parking. Enquiries can be made by telephone on 01925 816650 or by email at blackbrook@evolution-childcare.co.uk.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded provision includes 15 or 30 hours a week in term time, or stretched provision across 52 weeks, with funded attendance operating Monday to Friday between 8am and 6pm. The stretched equivalents are 10.96 and 21.92 hours a week respectively. Funding is organised as 10 hours for a full day or five hours for a half day, so the way entitlement is delivered matters when choosing attendance.

Additional privately paid hours are offered, and hours purchased beyond stretched funding use the standard session or day rate. Meals and snacks on funded sessions are charged separately: breakfast and lunch accompany mornings, snack and tea accompany afternoons, and the full-day food arrangement includes breakfast, lunch, tea and snacks. Activities also carry session-based charges, with different charges for full and half days.

The Blackbrook fees page explains the funding and paid-session structure. For current prices, ask the nursery for a quotation.

• The youngest room’s scale. The Toddler Room can take up to 20 under-twos. During a visit, explore how the learning areas and keyworker arrangements work for a child of your child’s age.
• Consistency through the day. July 2022 improvement priorities covered assessment, routines and staff understanding of intended learning. Ask how practitioners now share next steps and carry support strategies through activities and meals.
• Funding alongside extras. Funded meals, snacks and activities carry separate charges, while early and late attendance sits outside the funding window. Match the proposed booking to the entitlement and paid extras before deciding.
• Preparing for care. For a child with an allergy, discuss the current meal arrangements.

Blackbrook suits families seeking either morning or afternoon sessions as well as a full-day booking, with outdoor movement and practical early learning prominent in the offer. Letters and Sounds, Show and Tell and weekly home challenges give its school-readiness work substance. The Toddler Room’s published maximum and the July 2022 concerns about consistency deserve close attention when judging the fit for an individual child.