Beulah preschool
Beulah preschool is a pre-school in Oldham for children aged 2 to 4, with 25 registered places. Ofsted report card, 9 June 2026: Expected standard in 6 areas; safeguarding standards met.
Beulah Community Church, Withins Road, Oldham, OL8 3QD
Key facts
- Type
- Pre-school (Sessional day care) (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
- Ages
- 2 to 4 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
- Registered places
- 25 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
- Registered
- 4 June 2024 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
Opening hours
Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 09:00 - 15:00
Source: Ofsted report, inspection on 9 June 2026
Who runs it
Beulah preschool is run by Beulah Pre-school CIO (Ofsted register).
Latest inspection
- Inclusion: Expected standard
- Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard
- Achievement: Expected standard
- Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard
- Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard
- Leadership and governance: Expected standard
- Safeguarding standards met
Source: Ofsted, inspection on 9 June 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
What it's like to be a child at this setting
Children enjoy attending the pre-school and develop positive relationships with the kind and encouraging staff members. They frequently laugh and smile and show that they feel comfortable, safe and emotionally secure. Staff create a welcoming environment, where children receive positive levels of attention, encouragement and support. This helps to build children's confidence, motivation to join in and interest in learning. Children benefit from a broad and varied curriculum. Overall, they receive effective support in hearing new words and in developing their communication skills during play. Children engage well with a range of different activities. For instance, they enjoy creating castles, towers and structures with a range of construction resources, such as guttering, tyres and blocks. As they experiment, they use lots of mathematical language, such as 'tallest' and 'smallest,' and discuss their intentions. They also enjoy playing 'cafes' and discussing their favourite flavoured ice cream. This helps to develop their social skills and turn-taking skills. Furthermore, they have fun colouring and drawing flowers and birds and talk about spring and summer. Staff support them in discussing the different parts of a flower, such as the petals, leaves and stem. This fosters their interest in nature and the wider world.
Children listen and behave well. They are polite and older children play cooperatively together. During mealtimes, they have conversations about their favourite foods and about making healthy choices. They also have plenty of opportunities to play outdoors and to climb on a range of indoor climbing equipment. This helps children develop their gross motor skills and engage in lots of active and physical play.
Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those known or previously known to social care make positive progress at the setting. Leaders and staff work closely with parents and other professionals to seek advice about providing specialised and targeted support. Leaders also prioritise ensuring children attend regularly and work closely with families to promote consistent patterns of attendance.
What Ofsted found in each area
Inclusion: Expected standard
Leaders and staff provide a welcoming and supportive environment for all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who face other barriers to their learning. Staff know children very well and swiftly identify when children may benefit from additional support. They work in close partnership with other early years professionals, such as the Local Authority Inclusion Team, health visitors and staff from local schools, to support children's individual development and ensure that transitions are smooth and positive experiences for children and families.
Leaders and staff use funding to create a highly welcoming and interactive sensory room. This provides daily opportunities for all children to develop their attention, concentration and language skills in small groups or on a one-to-one basis. Children display great interest as they explore a range of light boxes and light-up toys. They also develop their senses through the exploration of different textured resources. Staff use visuals throughout the day to support children's understanding and to help them understand what comes next in their routine. Children who require additional support evidently make clear progress in relation to their starting points when joining the setting.
Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard
Leaders and staff have a clear vision about what they want children to learn and why. Staff know individual children extremely well and plan an array of activities based on their interests and what they need to learn next. Staff tailor support to help children make positive progress in their development. This is evident as children confidently experiment with colour mixing and water play. They are encouraged to predict what colours will be created when different colours are combined and use a range of mathematical language, such as 'empty' and 'full', as they explore and investigate. They also engage in imaginative play, pretending to feed babies and change their nappies, showing they understand the importance of being kind and gentle during play. Furthermore, children show enjoyment when exploring a range of junk modelling resources and talk about the different shapes, colours and textures.
Children receive effective support to learn new skills and with their overall learning. However, at times staff do not extend children's thinking skills and breadth of vocabulary to support their learning to the very highest level. Furthermore, on occasions the shared church hall can become quite loud. This means there are periods of time when it becomes harder for children to fully focus and concentrate.
Achievement: Expected standard
All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who face other barriers to their learning, make positive progress from their starting points and develop the skills they need for their next stage of learning and eventual move on to school. Children enjoy a generally well-sequenced curriculum that boosts their confidence and helps them build on their existing skills. Children are eager to explore and join in. Younger children display confidence, when talking to new people, and older children show well-developed listening, turn-taking and sharing skills.
Children show positive interest in mark making and drawing, and discuss different birds and flowers as they play. They also like using a variety of notebooks to practise their early writing skills. Children enjoy exploring letters and sounds, when spelling out their names, and matching different letters to pictures and objects in books. This helps to develop children's early literacy skills. Children enjoy playing and exploring outdoors and have daily opportunities to develop their physical skills, stamina and coordination.
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard
Leaders and staff are caring and attentive. They act as positive role models and demonstrate positive behaviour as they engage in conversations and help children understand the importance of listening, kindness and turn-taking. Older children play together cooperatively and behave well. They encourage each other and share resources, often without staff needing to provide reminders. Staff use effective strategies to help children understand the expectations and boundaries of the setting. Children respond well to taking on different responsibilities, such as tidying up.
Leaders and staff work closely with parents and carers to promote regular attendance. They follow well-embedded policies and procedures if any concerns arise about children's attendance. Staff generally support children to understand their emotions. They use a range of resources, such as books, to help children discuss their feelings and emotions. Staff also have a clear understanding of the importance of risky and physical play and how this can positively support children's behaviour and self-regulation skills. Mealtimes are an enjoyable part of the day. Staff teach children to say please and thank you and talk to children about their favourite activities and resources on offer.
Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard
Leaders and staff create a safe and nurturing environment for children. Children build secure attachments with staff, and they frequently boost children's confidence as they acknowledge their efforts and willingness to try new things. Hygiene and care routines are generally implemented effectively. Children wash their hands after using the toilet and before eating and develop a growing understanding of appropriate hygiene routines. Children also show increasing independence as they make their own wraps at lunchtime. Throughout the day, children are well supported to make their own choices. Children choose whether to play indoors or outside. This supports their confidence and decision-making skills.
Leaders and staff actively promote children's understanding of different cultures, traditions and backgrounds. This is evident through the meaningful celebration of a range of festivals, such as Eid and Diwali. Staff also work closely with parents to learn about the languages children speak at home. They use key words in children's home language to help them to settle in and communicate at the setting. Furthermore, leaders and staff work together with parents to promote healthy lifestyles. Staff provide nutritious meals and snacks and help children to develop good oral health habits, when they support them to brush their teeth at the pre-school after lunch.
Leadership and governance: Expected standard
Leaders and staff are committed to their roles. Staff discuss feeling valued and very well supported at work. They state they have regular meetings to reflect on practice and agree new priorities for the term ahead. Staff engage in frequent training to help develop and enhance their knowledge and skills. Despite them engaging in a range of training, such as the importance of the key-person system and how to support children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, the staff members' teaching skills do not always stretch children's learning to the highest level.
Parent partnerships are effective. Parents comment positively on their children's progress and appreciate the support they receive from leaders and staff. They highlight the noticeable progress their children make. For instance, with their confidence and social skills. Parents highlight that they value the dedicated team and appreciate receiving photos and updates about their children's learning. Leaders and staff also work effectively with other professionals, including the local authority's Early Years and Inclusion teams. Leaders ensure additional funding is used well. This is evident as children benefit from targeted one-to-one support throughout the week, helping them to make progress in their learning and development. Leaders also invest in additional resources to support children's language development and emotional wellbeing, ensuring that individual needs are met effectively.
What the setting must and should do next
The provider should:
- Leaders should continue to develop their planning and teaching skills to extend children's language skills and learning to the very highest level.
- Leaders should review the indoor environment and look at further ways of reducing the noise level to best support children's concentration and learning.
Ofsted's words, from the report on the inspection on 9 June 2026. Read the full report on the Ofsted website. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Ofsted report cards (England, from November 2025)
Since 10 November 2025 Ofsted has graded nurseries and pre-schools on a report card. There is no single overall grade. Instead, each of six areas gets one of five grades: Exceptional, Strong standard, Expected standard, Needs attention, Urgent improvement.
The six areas are inclusion; curriculum and teaching; achievement; behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines; children's welfare and wellbeing; leadership and governance. Safeguarding is judged on its own, as met or not met.
Expected standard means the setting does what Ofsted expects of every setting. Strong standard and Exceptional are above that; Needs attention and Urgent improvement mean Ofsted found things the setting has to put right.
Source: Ofsted reports
Funded childcare hours in England
All 3 and 4 year olds in England can get 15 hours of free childcare a week, for 38 weeks of the year.
Working parents of children aged 9 months to 4 years old can get 30 hours of free childcare a week for 38 weeks of the year (Free Childcare for Working Parents), if they meet the earnings rules. You confirm your details every 3 months.
Some 2 year olds can get 15 hours a week when the family gets certain kinds of extra support.
The hours are used at a registered provider that offers them, so ask each nursery how it offers the funded hours.
Source: GOV.UK: Free Childcare for Working Parents, check if you're eligible · GOV.UK: Free childcare and education for 2 to 4 year olds (checked 31 October 2026)
Other nurseries nearby
- Sunny Smiles Day Nursery - Day nursery, Oldham OL8 3QF, ages 0 to 4, 75 places, under 0.1 milesOfsted, 30 July 2024: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
- Redbrick Academy Oldham - Day nursery, Oldham OL8 4QQ, 0.4 miles
- Hope Methodist Church Playgroup - Day nursery, Failsworth M35 9AN, ages 2 to 3, 24 places, 0.6 milesOfsted, 8 November 2022: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
- Limehurst Little Learners - Pre-school, Oldham OL8 3PF, ages 2 to 4, 24 places, 0.6 milesOfsted, 10 May 2024: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
- Yew Tree Pre-School - Day nursery, Oldham OL9 8LD, ages 2 to 4, 29 places, 0.7 milesOfsted, 23 September 2025: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
Schools nearby
- St Margaret's CofE Junior Infant and Nursery School - Primary, 0.2 miles
- Hollinwood Academy - Special, 0.3 miles
- New Bridge School - Special, 0.4 miles
- Oasis Academy Limeside - Primary, 0.4 miles
- Oasis Academy Oldham - Secondary, 0.5 miles