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Little Angels St Thomas

Little Angels St Thomas is a pre-school in Warrington for children aged 2 to 4, with 20 registered places. Ofsted report card, 11 May 2026: Expected standard in 6 areas; safeguarding standards met.

St. Thomas C Of E Junior & Infant School, Church Street, Golborne, Warrington, WA3 3TH

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
20 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
Registered
12 December 2023 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)

Opening hours

Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 09:00 - 15:00

Source: Ofsted report, inspection on 11 May 2026

Who runs it

Little Angels St Thomas is run by Little Angels (NorthWest) Limited (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 11 May 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 show they feel happy and safe at the setting. They build secure relationships with adults and their peers. Consequently, they are relaxed and comfortable and show positive levels of enjoyment and emotional wellbeing. Children understand the routine and boundaries of the setting extremely well. They demonstrate well-developed play skills as they explore, take turns and persevere with activities for extended periods. Children benefit from a varied curriculum that supports their learning and development across all areas of learning. They have fun exploring the story 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' and hear lots of new vocabulary, including mathematical language such as 'over' and 'under' as they act out the story and participate in an obstacle course. Children also learn about different animals and how penguins and polar bears live in cold and snowy habitats. They discuss how polar bears have fur to keep their bodies warm and how penguins swim in the sea. Children enjoy dancing to a 'good morning' song and enthusiastically dance and sing the words, showing that this is a popular and well embedded part of the children's day.

Children's development and progress is carefully monitored during their time at the setting. Staff complete baseline assessments to identify their starting points and any areas they may need additional support with. Staff also carry out language and communication assessments to plan targeted support for children that need to boost their speech and language development. Staff work in close partnership with parents and other professionals to ensure that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive timely and effective additional support and funding. Consequently, all children make significant progress in relation to their starting points and are suitably ready for their next stage of learning and move on to school.

What Ofsted found in each area

Inclusion: Expected standard

Leaders and staff create an inclusive environment. They work with parents to understand individual children's interests, home routines and stages of development. They swiftly identify when children may need additional support with their learning and make adaptations to their teaching and environment to ensure that they meet each child's different needs. Leaders and staff build positive relationships with other professionals to ensure that the correct support and funding is in place to reduce barriers to children's learning. They use funding effectively to buy resources and healthy foods to support children's health and development. Staff implement recommendations and strategies from the local authority inclusion team. For instance, they use real objects, such as a nappy to help children to understand what is going to happen next.

Leaders and staff generally support children to learn about different cultures and backgrounds. For instance, they decorate a giant Chinese dragon when teaching children about Chinese New Year and participate in hand painting when learning about Eid. Despite these strengths, staff do not fully explore all ways of supporting children and parents that speak English as an additional language and gain an in-depth understanding of their culture.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Leaders and staff offer an engaging curriculum that captures children's interests well. For instance, children have fun participating in an 'environmental sounds' activity, where they listen and identify different sounds in the garden such as birds, trains and cars. This helps to develop their attention and listening skills in an effective way. Children also explore different mathematical concepts, such as 'full' and 'empty' when experimenting with water and bubbles. This also supports their imagination and creativity as they pretend to make different drinks and potions. Children also join in with eagerness when dancing and playing structured ball games. This fosters their physical skills and coordination skills. Furthermore, children also delight in exploring play dough, role play and different construction resources and generally receive helpful support to hear new language and vocabulary. Despite the staff members' warm and encouraging interactions with children, they do not always extend children's thinking skills and new knowledge to the very highest level.

Leaders and staff monitor and assess children's ongoing development and progress. They gain helpful information about children's interests or recent experiences to help them plan new activities to support them to develop new knowledge and skills. Parents highlight their children's progress and enjoyment at the setting as some of the biggest strengths.

Achievement: Expected standard

Children evidently make effective progress in relation to their starting points. They are very well supported to develop independence skills. For instance, they put on their coats to go outdoors, wash their hands before eating and unpack their own lunch boxes independently. They also show confidence in pouring their own drinks and serving different fruits at snack time. Furthermore, children show well-developed social skills as they take turns, listen to each other and play cooperatively together for extended periods.

Children show positive attitudes towards learning and are motivated to join in and try new things. This is evident when they enjoy drawing in sand. This nurtures their fine motor skills and interest in early writing in a fun way. Children also show enthusiasm and high engagement when playing in the mud kitchen. They discuss their intentions and ideas with their peers and enjoy making mud pies. In addition, children develop their imagination as they pretend they are going on holiday and discuss what they need to pack in their suitcase. They also use lots of mathematical language as they explore play dough and discuss different sizes, lengths and shapes. Overall, children are suitably well prepared for their next stage of learning and eventual move to school.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Leaders and staff are positive role models for children. They encourage them to join in and try new things and acknowledge their efforts and new achievements. Overall, staff have high expectations for children's behaviour and support them to understand the boundaries of the setting in a positive way. They encourage children to tidy up and treat the resources with care. Staff use a range of objects to help children understand different transitions throughout the day. For instance, staff show children a plate to indicate it is time to eat lunch. Children are well mannered and polite. They listen well throughout the day and understand the expectations of the setting. They also show kindness and consideration and help each other. Furthermore, children show well-developed concentration and perseverance skills when imaginatively playing in the mud kitchen and engaging in potion making with bubbles.

Children frequently explore stories and resources that help them develop an understanding of different feelings and emotions, such as 'The Colour Monster'. Staff regularly support children to articulate how they feel. This supports children's emotional wellbeing, confidence and personal development. Leaders and staff place a sharp focus on the importance of regular attendance. Parents highlight the positive support they receive from staff to ensure that children attend regularly.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard

Children are well settled at the pre-school and have formed close bonds with the staff that know them very well. They frequently smile, laugh and invite staff to join in with their play. It is evident they feel secure. Children are very independent and lead their own play well. They enjoy making choices and spending equal amounts of time indoors and outdoors. Outdoors, they play a variety of ball games and engage in balancing on obstacles, crates and planks. This helps to build their stamina, balance and coordination. Staff generally work closely with parents to promote healthy lifestyles. For instance, they provide a recommended packed lunch list that encourages foods with high levels of nutritional value. They also engage in oral health projects with children and parents to help them to understand the risk of too many sweet drinks and how to ensure that children's oral health is best promoted.

Staff follow their policies and procedures in a diligent way. They are attentive and responsive to different children's needs. They quickly notice when children are unwell and provide tailored care and support until they are collected from the setting. They also provide quieter children with encouragement to join in and express their needs and feelings.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

Leaders and staff engage in ongoing evaluation and reflective practice and have an accurate view of the strengths and areas for focus at the setting. Staff benefit from a thorough induction and complete mandatory training, such as safeguarding and first aid, when they join. This helps them understand the setting's policies and procedures and their roles and responsibilities. They also have frequent supervision meetings where they can discuss their practice and personal effectiveness. Furthermore, they participate in termly staff meetings where they focus on planning the curriculum and identify what their different groups of children need. Despite these strengths, staff do not engage in a breadth of professional development opportunities that focus on further developing their teaching skills. This means that children's learning and development is not always fully developed and extended to the very highest level.

Leaders and staff build effective partnerships with parents. When sharing feedback, parents express high levels of appreciation for the staff. They state that their children love coming and are making positive progress. They also express that staff 'go over and above' when supporting their children to move forward in their development. Leaders and staff have high integrity in relation to supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children that may face other barriers to their learning. They establish close working relationships with other professionals and use funding effectively to support positive outcomes for children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

  • Leaders should continue to support staff to access further professional development opportunities to help to develop their teaching skills to an even higher level.
  • Leaders and staff should continue to build on ways to further support children that speak English as an additional language to make the best possible progress in their learning.

Ofsted's words, from the report on the inspection on 11 May 2026. Read the full report on the Ofsted website. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Inspection history

  • 11 May 2026: Full inspection, report card: Expected standard in 6

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

  • Little Angels Day Nursery - Day nursery, Warrington WA3 3DG, ages 0 to 3, 25 places, 0.3 miles
    Ofsted, 5 July 2023: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
  • Little Angels Preschool - Day nursery, Warrington WA3 3DG, ages 2 to 11, 62 places, 0.3 miles
    Ofsted, 13 April 2022: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
  • Barton Day Nurseries Golborne - Day nursery, Warrington WA3 3EY, ages 0 to 4, 52 places, 0.4 miles
    Ofsted, 16 August 2023: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
  • Little Angels Day Nursery - Day nursery, Golborne WA3 3NN, ages 0 to 4, 52 places, 0.4 miles
    Ofsted, 24 May 2023: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
  • Woodland Adventure Nursery - Day nursery, Warrington WA3 3QA, ages 1 to 4, 94 places, 0.6 miles
    Ofsted, 26 June 2024: Good overall; safeguarding is effective

Schools nearby

Little Angels St Thomas on the Ofsted website