Chorlton, Manchester · Ofsted registered
A 42-place nursery for children from three months to school age. Forest school twice a week, food cooked in our own kitchen, and the same familiar faces every single day.
Rated Good by Ofsted · on Beech Road since 2009
We’ve been on Beech Road since 2009 and we’ve deliberately stayed one site and 42 places. It means the manager knows every child, every parent gets a proper handover at the door, and nobody disappears into the middle of a big setting.
Come and see itThree rooms
Each room has its own pace, its own garden slot and its own key people. Moves are planned with you, with visits first.
Ages 3–18 months
A low, calm room with the sleep space next door. Babies keep their own routine rather than ours, and it goes home with you written down.
Ages 18 months–3 years
The busiest room in the building. Water, sand, mud and paint most days, and the first proper friendships turning up.
Ages 3–5 years
School-ready without the worksheets. Phonics and numbers arrive through play, and we walk over to the primaries in the summer term.
Last inspected March 2025 and rated Good across all four judgements. The full report is on the wall by the door.
Every room lead holds a Level 3 minimum, and there are two paediatric first-aiders on site at all times.
15 and 30 funded hours for eligible two, three and four-year-olds, taken off your invoice with no top-up charge.
A day here
The shape of the day is the same every day, which is what makes it possible to be flexible inside it.
Breakfast is on until 8.30, and there’s a quiet corner for anyone who needs a slow start.
Everyone together in the big room, then the three rooms split off for the morning.
Whatever the weather. Waterproofs and wellies live on your child’s peg.
Cooked in our kitchen that morning. Allergies are handled from a written plan, never from memory.
Cots for the babies, mats and a story for everyone else. Nobody is made to sleep.
Phonics, numbers, music or something deliberately messy, in groups of five or six.
A proper hot tea rather than a snack, which makes the evening at home considerably easier.
Children choose where they are and what they do. Staff follow rather than direct.
A handover at the door from someone who was actually with your child, plus the day’s photos.
The building
Half of it is deliberately unlandscaped: a mud kitchen, logs to shift about, a digging patch and a slope worth rolling down. The other half is decked and covered, so we get out in the rain too.
Where the three rooms come together first thing and last thing. A climbing wall, rings and ropes down one side, and enough floor to leave a game where it is until after lunch.
The quietest spot in the nursery. Cushions, a low shelf with the covers turned face-out so a two-year-old can choose for themselves, and a standing rule that nobody has to join in.
Bricks, blocks and a floor nobody tidies at teatime. A build that took three days is allowed to still be there on Thursday, which is usually when it gets interesting.
Track, cars, small world and whatever has been dragged over from somewhere else. Children choose where they are and what they do, and staff follow rather than direct.
Fees
One rate per session, all ages. Nappies, wipes, suncream and every meal are already in it.
Funded 15 and 30 hours are taken here and come straight off your invoice — we don’t add a top-up charge to access them. Invoices go out on the 25th for the month ahead, and we hold places over the summer at no cost.
❤️ From parents
She cried for about four days and then started asking to go at weekends. That’s the whole review, really.
They rang me at ten in the morning to say he’d barely touched breakfast. No nursery has ever done that before.
Our daughter has a dairy allergy and I have not once had to remind them about it. Not once.
Questions
Three free sessions across a fortnight, starting with an hour where you stay in the building. If your child needs six sessions rather than three, they get six, and we don’t charge for those either. Nobody is left to cry it out.
Yes, for eligible two, three and four-year-olds, and there is no top-up charge to access them. Meals and nappies are already inside the fee rather than added on afterwards. Bring your eligibility code and we’ll handle the rest with the council.
Cooked here every morning by our own cook on a four-week rotating menu, which is on the wall by the office and goes out with the newsletter. Allergies and intolerances are recorded on a written plan that you sign, and the kitchen works from that rather than from memory.
It moves mainly in September, when the oldest children leave for school. For a baby room place most families join around six months ahead, and earlier if you need full-time. Joining the list is free and doesn’t commit you to anything.
One adult to three babies in Acorns, one to four in Saplings and one to eight in Bramblers. Room leads hold a Level 3 as a minimum, everyone is DBS-checked, and there are always two paediatric first-aiders in the building.
Book a visit
We don’t do polished show-rounds. Turn up mid-morning when it’s noisy and the garden is full, and have a proper look at what’s actually happening.
On the real thing you’d get a confirmation email here and the enquiry would already be on the waiting list. This is a demonstration site, so nothing was sent.