Little Penguins Day Nursery

A baby room capped at nine children, a toddler room with its own bathroom and a preschool outdoor area with shelter give Little Penguins Day Nursery a practical, age-by-age character. This Latchford setting has capacity for 41 children, with an overall age range of 3 to 60 months. The useful detail is how those stages differ: crawling space for babies, accessible toilets for toddlers and hands-on learning for older children.

At its February 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, while identifying two priorities: closer attention to each child's learning needs and better evaluation of how staff development affects practice. That judgement offers a positive starting point, with specific questions about teaching consistency rather than an unqualified endorsement.

Three age-group rooms organise the day, alongside a secure outdoor play area. Full-day, morning and afternoon sessions sit alongside single half days and term-time attendance, giving families several different ways to use the nursery.

Rooms and Ages

Seal Pups Room accommodates up to nine babies aged 3 to 24 months, combining musical, messy and exploratory play with a soft carpet for crawling, a separate area for changing and bottle preparation, and individual beds and bedding. These are useful details for parents weighing everyday baby care: the room's stated maximum is a room cap, rather than the nursery's overall capacity.

Little Penguins Room accommodates up to 14 children aged 2 to 3 years, with activities shaped around their interests, a bathroom within the room and continual access to outdoor gardening, bikes, ball games and fort-building. Keeping toilets close to play makes potty training part of the room's everyday arrangement; parents can also share interests from home to help inform activity planning.

Polar Bears Room accommodates up to 21 children aged 3 to 4 years, with play-led learning through counting, sorting, making books, letter sounds and planting, supported by a writing table, an accessible bathroom and covered outdoor space. Its emphasis moves towards independence and early literacy while retaining practical exploration, rather than replacing play with formal lessons.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS structures learning across seven areas, bringing communication, physical development and social learning into children's play and daily experiences. Within that framework, the room activities give parents a clearer picture of what children actually do: younger children use construction materials, sand and water, while older children investigate magnets and practise recognising numbers.

In Polar Bears, puppets and group conversation help children put feelings and worries into words, while role play and model-making encourage exploration.

Cooking also has a place in the day. Preschool children can help the cook prepare lunch and bake and decorate cakes, connecting an activity with the food they later eat. In Little Penguins, singing, dance, stories and craft sit alongside cooking, so children encounter language and movement through several kinds of play.

In February 2023, familiar stories and songs with repeated phrases were used to encourage children to join in, recall events and practise vocabulary. Babies explored sensory materials and worked on standing and walking; older children recognised letters from their own names. These are dated examples of the nursery day, rather than promises about a particular child's progress.

Outdoor and Community Life

Outdoor access is built into the toddler and preschool room arrangements. Polar Bears has a covered area for outdoor play in different weather, with opportunities to grow flowers and vegetables, climb, build and practise throwing and catching. The shelter matters because outdoor exploration need not depend entirely on dry conditions.

The garden also includes a Mud Kitchen, adding another physical setting for practical play. In February 2023, the nursery had invested in equipment for physical activity and was planning further outings, including visits to nature reserves; those plans should be read as part of that period's provision.

Relationships and Communication

Daily communication books in Little Penguins Room describe children's activities, giving parents something concrete to talk about at home. The same room invites families to contribute children's interests to planning and offers support with potty training and behaviour. That creates a useful link between everyday routines at nursery and at home.

In February 2023, families received updates about children's learning and the next steps staff were working towards. Group stories about emotions encouraged children to describe their feelings and consider how a friend might feel. Mealtimes also involved children serving themselves and helping one another, making care routines opportunities to practise independence.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The team includes a SENCO role and designated safeguarding lead roles, and staff have paediatric first-aid training.

At its February 2023 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and children with SEND well supported, with staff working with other professionals and making referrals when necessary. That dated finding matters for families whose children may need coordinated support, because it describes how help was organised rather than offering a general assurance.

For babies, individual bedding and separate changing and bottle-preparation space make the care arrangements easier to understand. The nursery's cook prepares fresh meals, using local ingredients where possible, and dietary or cultural requirements can be discussed directly with the cook. Breakfast and a two-course lunch are provided, alongside snacks and access to drinking water.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery is at Unit 2, 53 Kingsway South, Latchford, Warrington, WA4 1LQ. It opens Monday to Friday, from 7.30am to 6pm, across the year, closing for public holidays and approximately a week over Christmas. Those closures matter when planning childcare around work calendars.

Full-day attendance runs from 7.30am to 6pm. Morning sessions run from 7.30am to 12.30pm; afternoon sessions run from 1pm to 6pm. The morning and afternoon patterns therefore serve different parts of the working day, rather than simply shortening a full day by the same amount.

Single half-day and three-quarter-day sessions are also offered, together with term-time-only attendance. Additional hourly arrangements can be discussed individually. Wraparound care is offered for children who already attend a preschool, so that option has a specific attendance condition rather than applying automatically to every family.

Enquiries can be made on 01925 242425 or by email to info@little-penguins.co.uk.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered for babies from nine months and for two-, three- and four-year-olds. The entitlement options include 30-hour funding from nine months, 15- and 30-hour funding for two-year-olds, and 15- and 30-hour funding for three- and four-year-olds. Eligibility begins the next term following the child's birthday, subject to meeting the relevant criteria, and families using a funding code must obtain it before the applicable deadline.

Meals and snacks are charged separately during government-funded hours. Parents supply nappies and baby milk, and there is no additional consumables charge for those items; families also bring labelled bottles and a water bottle. Keeping those categories separate helps parents compare the childcare pattern with the food and items they need to budget for or bring from home.

Private sessions and additional hours are offered alongside funding. Families should obtain a current written quotation for their chosen arrangement, using the opening times and prices page to understand the session and charge structure.

• Teaching consistency. The February 2023 priorities concerned tailoring learning to individual children and evaluating staff development. At a visit, ask how those changes now shape planning and supervision across the rooms.
• Baby-room routines. Seal Pups has a stated maximum of nine babies, individual beds and a separate care area. Ask how your baby's sleep and feeding routines would be managed alongside the room's play activities.
• Funding and attendance. Several session lengths and term-time attendance are offered, while food is charged separately during funded hours. Request a written arrangement showing how your chosen pattern, funded hours and meal charges fit together.

Little Penguins suits families considering full-day attendance as well as those who want morning, afternoon or term-time care. Its strongest practical details are the nine-baby room cap, bathrooms within the older rooms and covered preschool outdoor space. Daily communication books and parent contributions to toddler planning add useful continuity between home and nursery.

The February 2023 Good judgement sits alongside clear teaching-development priorities. That balance makes the nursery worth considering on its concrete room and care arrangements, with individualised learning and consistency across staff the points to explore before choosing it.