Lime Tree Loughborough
Lime Tree Loughborough is a day nursery in Loughborough for children aged 0 to 4, with 85 registered places. Ofsted report card, 14 January 2026: Strong standard in 5 areas, Expected standard in 1 area; safeguarding standards met.
Lime Tree Day Nursery, Great Central Road, Loughborough, LE11 1RW
Key facts
- Type
- Day nursery (Full day care) (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
- Ages
- 0 to 4 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
- Registered places
- 85 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
- Registered
- 20 July 2023 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
Opening hours
Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 07:30 - 18:00
Source: Ofsted report, inspection on 14 January 2026
Who runs it
Lime Tree Loughborough is run by Lime Tree Loughborough Ltd (Ofsted register).
Latest inspection
- Inclusion: Strong standard
- Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard
- Achievement: Strong standard
- Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard
- Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard
- Leadership and governance: Strong standard
- Safeguarding standards met
Source: Ofsted, inspection on 14 January 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 thoroughly enjoy their time at nursery. Staff successfully build trusting and positive relationships with children and their parents or carers. This contributes to children attending regularly and receiving a consistent approach to their care and learning, which, in turn, helps children feel a sense of belonging and wellbeing. Children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) benefit from the supportive relationships with staff, which help them to achieve alongside their friends. This reduces some of the barriers, such as communication and language, and helps children with SEND be fully included as part of their group. The strategies in place for individual children are reviewed regularly to check they continue to have a positive impact on children's development and wellbeing.
Children are motivated and curious to take part in the activities, and they rise to the high expectations staff have for them. Children listen to staff as they introduce new ideas to them, such as the importance of caring for the environment. Staff's careful planning ensures that children have a wide range of opportunities to practise their skills. They use tongs to retrieve pieces of plastic from water, and they are fascinated by the animals in the tray, including starfish, and repeat their names back to staff. Some children connect their learning as they talk in detail about their own experience of seeing litter on the street and putting it in the bin.
Staff are sensitive towards children. When babies wake after a sleep, they have cuddles with staff until they are ready to move on. Babies quickly become engaged in looking at a book. They point at animals when staff say their names and copy staff when they make the animal noises. When the book is finished, children toddle over to choose another book for the member of staff to read with them.
What Ofsted found in each area
Inclusion: Strong standard
The consistent and positive culture of inclusion ensures that all children attending take an active and purposeful role at nursery. Leaders provide effective support for staff through training, mentoring and discussions to develop their knowledge and understanding of how to recognise and identify children who need additional support. Staff work effectively with parents and other agencies involved with children to ensure a consistent approach. Leaders have implemented regular get-togethers for parents whose children have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They also use social media to provide a community for parents where they can build supportive relationships with each other and the company SEND team. This additional support helps parents access information about strategies that may help at home. It is open to parents of children who attend any of the company's settings and continues if required when the children move on to school or other settings.
Staff are confident to monitor children's development. They use a smaller steps assessment document that helps them identify where children have gaps in their development. Staff plan specific strategies and activities for each child, such as additional one-to-one time with their key person, small-group activities, outdoor play and time in the sensory room. Regular checks are made on whether the strategies and any additional funding children receive are having a positive impact. This reflection contributes to changes being made if necessary to ensure that children make the best progress they can.
Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard
The curriculum at this nursery is ambitious for all children and understood by staff and leaders. Staff speak confidently about what they want children to learn, and overall, they successfully adapt their interactions as they play alongside them, which ensures that each child taking part has a meaningful experience that contributes to their learning. Staff take account of what children know already and plan activities to promote their communication and language. Staff introduce new words, such as 'shark' and 'octopus', that children repeat to identify models in the water tray. Staff incorporate mathematical language into activities with counting and comparing sizes as they play. Staff encourage babies to babble and be vocal, and older children are eager to share their knowledge. The positive engagement from staff promotes children's social and emotional skills. Children play well together. They cooperate with friends as they share pots of paint and pass paintbrushes to one another.
Occasionally, there are some inconsistencies in the quality of teaching. Newer and less-experienced staff do not always fully support children to follow their own ideas, such as when they want to play outside and during painting activities. Leaders recognise the strengths and areas for further improvement in teaching and interactions. They observe staff practice and provide targeted, ongoing mentoring and training to help staff develop their skills and to reflect on their interactions with children. This positive support ensures that all children continue to achieve and are well prepared for the next stage in their learning.
Achievement: Strong standard
Children are relaxed and happy at nursery. They respond to the encouragement from confident and experienced staff. This supports children to show sustained interest in the activities and be motivated to try new things. Children rapidly develop confidence, invite staff to join in with their play and are eager to stand up in front of their friends to sing a song. Babies build warm and trusting attachments. They are excited to join in with a music session, shaking instruments, dancing and listening to the words of familiar songs and rhymes.
All children become increasingly independent and develop skills that contribute to them being well prepared for starting school. Older babies begin to learn how to feed themselves using their fingers and a spoon, and they attempt to wipe clean their hands and faces. Toddlers are keen to try to put their coats and boots on ready to play outside, and pre-school children competently serve their own meals and drinks.
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard
Leaders and staff are continually respectful and caring towards the children. Staff are consistently clear and positive in their interactions, which helps children understand what is expected of them. This is further embedded through established routines, and children demonstrate that they understand what is coming next. This promotes consistently positive behaviour throughout the day. Staff make highly effective use of picture cards to help children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities know what they are doing now and next. Staff show children the cards at transition times so they know it is time to finish what they are doing and prepare for lunch or the next part of the day.
The genuinely caring and supportive culture in this nursery contributes to children building close attachments to staff and friendships with one another. Staff adapt their interactions for children of different ages and abilities, which supports sharing and taking turns, and children play together collaboratively. Leaders build effective partnerships with parents and carers that promote their understanding of the importance of getting children to nursery on time and to attend regularly.
Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard
Children benefit from the extremely caring and sensitive approach from the staff, and they demonstrate high levels of wellbeing at this nursery. Children are confident to freely explore the play materials, and they make choices about what they want to do. Children know the staff well and approach them for comfort and reassurance as they need it. Staff skilfully recognise when children need additional support. They use the garden and the sensory room to help children to regulate their emotions. Staff and leaders are highly supportive of children's parents and carers. They recognise the value of a consistent approach for children and how this contributes to children's care and learning needs being met.
Staff place a high priority on children's safety. Effective risk assessments and ongoing monitoring mean the nursery environment is safe and welcoming. Staff follow robust steps to ensure that children are safe when they are eating and when they sleep. Staff talk to children about the importance of taking care of themselves. They help children become independent in their self-care throughout their time at nursery, gradually building on their skills. Children demonstrate that they know the daily routine. Staff help children to use their cutlery effectively and talk to them about the foods they have for snack and lunch.
Leadership and governance: Strong standard
Leaders demonstrate a secure awareness of how the staff work with children in each of the group rooms. The time they spend observing staff significantly contributes to their detailed understanding of the strengths in staff practice and the areas that require further improvement. The ongoing support and training leaders have implemented have been successful in building staff's understanding of how to provide a high-quality curriculum and to accurately identify what individual children need to learn next. Minor inconsistencies in staff's teaching practice were observed, and leaders have identified clear plans to support newer and less-experienced staff to upskill their knowledge and practice through effective mentoring and coaching.
Staff feel valued by the leaders in their ongoing professional development, and they feel supported with their wellbeing. Leaders ensure that staff have professional learning opportunities for areas of specific interest to them, such as special educational needs and/or disabilities. Thorough induction procedures are in place for new staff. These ensure that they understand the policies and procedures and have observed aspects of the daily routine before they do these tasks independently, such as serving food to children, changing nappies and supervising children who are asleep. The robust monitoring and clear steps for new staff to work to contribute to the high expectations for professionalism being embedded throughout this nursery.
What the setting must and should do next
The provider should:
- Leaders should continue to embed the strategies to enhance staff's practice to ensure the curriculum is delivered through consistently high-quality teaching and interactions.
Ofsted's words, from the report on the inspection on 14 January 2026. Read the full report on the Ofsted website. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Inspection history
- 14 January 2026: Full inspection, report card: Strong standard in 5, Expected standard in 1
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
- Busy Bodies Childcare Ltd - Day nursery, Loughborough LE11 1SN, ages 1 to 4, 46 places, 0.2 milesOfsted report card, 30 July 2026: Strong standard in 1 area, Expected standard in 5 areas; safeguarding standards met
- Westwards Nursery - Day nursery, Loughborough LE11 2DT, ages 0 to 4, 42 places, 0.4 milesOfsted, 13 November 2024: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
- Loughborough Nursery - Pre-school, Loughborough LE11 2DY, ages 0 to 4, 93 places, 0.4 milesOfsted, 3 October 2024: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
- Trinity Early Learners - Pre-school, Loughborough LE11 2EH, ages 2 to 4, 26 places, 0.4 milesOfsted, 14 June 2023: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
- Parkside Nursery School - Day nursery, Loughborough LE11 2BN, ages 1 to 4, 35 places, 0.6 milesOfsted, 22 November 2022: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
Schools nearby
- Fairfield Prep School - Prep, 0.2 miles
- Cobden Primary School & Community Centre - Primary, 0.3 miles
- Loughborough Grammar School - All-through, 0.3 miles
- Loughborough High School - Senior, 0.3 miles
- ASPIRE: Lifeskills - Special, 0.4 miles