NurseryandME

In January 2025, home-language words, family books and bus journeys gave NurseryandME a community-minded character. At its January 2025 inspection, Ofsted judged the nursery Good, found safeguarding effective and highlighted personalised support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) as a particular strength.

Based at Sams Armed Forces Hub in Ashton-in-makerfield, Wigan, it has capacity for 30 children aged 12 to 60 months. Its current opening hours are 7.30am to 4.30pm, Monday to Friday, during term time, with school-holiday closures.

In January 2025, learning included practical experiments that children could revisit: dispensing paint with pump bottles to explore colours, making play dough and weighing portions to share with friends. These activities put experimentation and fairness into the same experience. Children chose challenges for themselves and kept working at them.

The early years foundation stage is the framework for children's learning, development and care; here, its inspection-era examples included learning through play, conversation and hands-on exploration. In January 2025, books representing different cultures sat alongside home-made books connecting children with their families. Children also borrowed books to share at home, extending those experiences beyond the nursery.

Community experiences brought learning into everyday situations. In January 2025, children regularly used buses, met people who help the community and gave gifts to local people as an act of kindness. The emphasis was on understanding other people through direct experience.

In January 2025, staff worked with bilingual families to bring home-language words, stories and traditional dances into children's experiences. This gave families concrete ways to contribute to nursery life. Community events also brought families together.

Parent communication was another practical strand of care at that time. Staff shared information about children's learning and their next steps. For SEND, the January 2025 approach included identifying possible needs early, collaborating with parents and helping families access support. These are useful mechanisms for families to explore, rather than a promise of any particular outcome.

The address is Sams Armed Forces Hub, 25 Heath Road, Ashton-in-makerfield, Wigan, WN4 9HH. Term-time opening makes the school-holiday closure pattern a significant part of planning childcare across the year.

In January 2025, the nursery offered funded care and early education for children from nine months to four years. That describes the funding offer at that time; the current accepted age range is 12 to 60 months.

• Learning next steps. In January 2025, activities did not always achieve the intended learning; the improvement priority was to build more consistently on children's existing knowledge and skills. On a visit, ask how practitioners now connect an activity with an individual child's next step.
• Holiday cover. The nursery closes during school holidays. Families needing childcare throughout the year should factor those breaks into their plans.
• Funded attendance. Funding was offered in January 2025. Ask for a written outline of the current funded attendance arrangements and any associated charges.

NurseryandME suits families seeking term-time childcare, with a January 2025 account of community experiences, practical play and close work with parents. The curriculum improvement point deserves attention alongside those strengths, especially for parents who want a clear explanation of how activities move their child's learning forward.