St Matthews Pre-School

A church hall, a school partnership and a parent-led committee give St Matthews Pre-School its character. Based in Stretton, Warrington, it combines indoor play space with an enclosed outdoor area, while visits to the neighbouring school and church connect children's learning with familiar local places. This is a preschool with a clear community setting.

Ofsted rated the preschool Outstanding on 9 January 2025. It has 20 places in total and welcomes children from age two until they begin school. That capacity describes the whole setting, rather than the size of any particular activity group.

Parents also have a role beyond their own child's attendance. A volunteer committee drawn from families manages the charity, giving parents and carers opportunities to contribute to its running. The educational emphasis is equally clear: communication, growing independence and confidence, developed through play and attentive interaction.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the framework for children's learning and care: here, play, conversation and exploration help children develop across its seven areas of learning. Alongside it sits St Matthew's Curriculum, the preschool's own progression-based approach, which uses children's interests and developmental stages to plan what comes next. The practical point is continuity. Activities should build on something a child already understands rather than simply fill the timetable.

In January 2025, children practised spatial vocabulary by arranging animal figures in a snowy scene and explaining their positions. Counting also moved beyond identifying separate groups of adults and children to working out a combined total. These examples show how familiar play materials can carry a more demanding learning task.

Language had similarly concrete outlets in January 2025. Children recorded messages for friends to hear, and group activities involved listening to one another. Squeezing wet sponges exercised their hands, while deciding where to put a car ramp gave them a practical choice to make. The experiences brought talking, physical practice and problem-solving into ordinary play.

Outdoor and Community Life

St Matthew's Church Hall provides a spacious indoor base, with a secure outdoor play area alongside it. Construction, sensory play, stories and role play sit within the daily offer, as do creative activities and learning outdoors. Fields and pathways around the setting add places for children to explore beyond the hall.

The preschool describes St Matthew's Church and Stretton St Matthew's Primary School as partners; children visit both regularly. These are tangible community connections rather than simply neighbouring names. For children moving to the primary school, classroom visits and meetings with their future teachers introduce people and spaces before school begins.

French lessons and baking were part of children's experiences in January 2025, alongside learning about caterpillars becoming butterflies. Those dated examples add useful detail to the curriculum: children encountered another language, worked with food and explored a living process. They should be read as examples from that period, rather than a fixed weekly programme.

At its January 2025 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective, children making excellent progress, and strong support for children with SEND and those learning English as an additional language. This gives families a dated assessment of how care and education worked together, rather than relying on the curriculum's name alone.

In January 2025, staff visited families at home before children started, helping them learn about the child in a familiar setting. Parents received detailed information about experiences at preschool and ways to extend learning at home. That connection matters because a child's interests and needs do not begin and end at the preschool door.

Home languages also featured in January 2025, and a sushi-making activity connected children's cultural backgrounds with something the whole group could share. Recipes went home to families. These are concrete examples of bringing family life into learning, rather than treating it as separate from the preschool day.

Communication includes an aim to issue a newsletter at least once each term. The committee provides another route for family involvement: its responsibilities include finances and employing staff, while practitioners handle the day-to-day operation. Families can help occasionally or take on a committee role; previous committee experience is unnecessary.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Church Hall, Stretton Road, Stretton, Warrington, WA4 4NT. Opening hours are 8.45am to 3.15pm, Monday to Friday; Thursday afternoons take place inside the main school. That Thursday arrangement matters when planning the child's routine across the week.

Attendance is term-time only, across 38 weeks, with a minimum of two sessions each week. Term dates broadly follow Stretton St Matthews Primary School, with additional staff-training closures. Joining involves a registration form and a provisional booking form, followed by confirmation and payment of an admission charge.

A half-term's written notice is required for withdrawal or changes to session days. Fees remain payable for booked attendance when a child is absent, including illness or holidays. These terms make the agreed pattern a financial commitment as well as a weekly routine. Enquiries can be made by telephone or email.

Funding and Paid Extras

The preschool accepts Universal 15 Hours Funding, eligible two-year-old funding and Extended 30 Hours Funding. Eligibility and the starting date depend on the child's age and circumstances; an eligibility code and funding declarations may be required. Non-funded hours are charged separately within the term-time offer.

Children can bring a healthy packed lunch, or have a separately charged hot meal made in the primary school kitchen. Snacks are covered by a requested per-session consumables contribution, which also supports cooking materials, craft resources, wipes and tissues.

Optional enrichment activities may involve a separate charge, with families told beforehand when one applies. The current structure is explained on the fees page; current prices come in the preschool's written quotation. Fee changes are communicated in writing with at least a month's notice.

Sharing school grounds does not guarantee a Reception place. Families still apply through the local authority admissions process, even when their child has visited classrooms and met teachers through preschool.

• Thursday's different base. Afternoon provision moves into the main school. On a visit, ask how the move works for children and where collection takes place.
• Term-time commitment. The 38-week calendar and minimum of two weekly sessions need to fit family routines; booked absences remain chargeable, and session changes require a half-term's written notice.
• Food and extras. Packed lunches, charged hot meals, the requested consumables contribution and optional enrichment create different cost components. Discuss allergy arrangements and the complete charge structure before agreeing a place.
• Family participation. This charity relies on a volunteer committee and family support. Consider whether occasional help or a committee role would suit the time you can give.

St Matthews Pre-School suits families seeking term-time preschool from age two, with community connections and opportunities to participate in a parent-led charity. Its school visits have a practical purpose: children can become familiar with future classrooms and teachers while Reception admission remains a separate application.

The January 2025 Outstanding judgement carries weight, and the learning examples give it substance: recorded messages, practical maths and activities shaped around children's development. The main family decisions concern the term-time calendar, Thursday's change of base and the combined attendance and extras bill.