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Little Explorers: Blackbrook

Little Explorers: Blackbrook is a day nursery in St. Helens for children aged 1 to 3, with 60 registered places. Ofsted report card, 25 September 2026: Expected standard in 6 areas; safeguarding standards met.

St. Pauls Church, 75 Chain Lane, St. Helens, WA11 9QF

Key facts

Type
Day nursery (Full day care) (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
Ages
1 to 3 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
Registered places
60 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
Registered
17 December 2025 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)

Opening hours

Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 07:30 - 18:00

Source: Ofsted report, inspection on 25 September 2026

Who runs it

Little Explorers: Blackbrook is run by Little Explorers Nurseries Ltd (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 25 September 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 are warmly greeted by the welcoming staff and happily enter the setting, showing they feel safe and secure. They settle quickly into play and staff provide reassurance through established routines and trusting relationships. Babies enjoy exploring projections of moons and stars and staff sing songs, such as 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'. They also enjoy investigating treasure baskets and explore a range of different objects and textures, helping them to learn through their senses. Older children have fun engaging with a space themed sensory tray and staff model new words, such as 'shiny' and 'glittery', as they play. They also show positive interest and enjoyment as they explore dinosaurs and discuss their long tails and sharp claws. Staff interact calmly with children and offer encouragement and guidance throughout the day. Overall, they model language well through meaningful interactions that builds on what children already know. Children make positive progress from their starting points and display keen attitudes towards learning.

Children benefit from calm routines and gentle reminders from staff. This is evident when they help to tidy up and show confidence in handwashing and managing their personal care skills. Staff frequently role model kind and considerate behaviour. As a result, children play well alongside their peers and turn take with the resources effectively. Children are very well supported to establish consistent patterns of attendance at the setting to help them benefit from continuity in their care and learning. Furthermore, children benefit from a variety of different experiences in the local community. For instance, they enjoy regular visits to the local park and going on shopping trips. They also like visiting a local farm and consolidating their learning about different animal families and what animals eat. This builds their awareness of the local community and different places of interest.

What Ofsted found in each area

Inclusion: Expected standard

Leaders and staff have established a nurturing and inclusive culture, where children's individual needs are swiftly identified through observations, regular assessment and close partnership with parents and carers. Leaders and staff recognise when children may face barriers to learning and/or wellbeing and make purposeful adaptations to routines and resources to promote participation and independence. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are generally well supported through targeted strategies and consistent adult guidance. Staff use sign language to support children's understanding and language skills. They also use 'objects of reference' visual aids to help them to understand about changes in the routine.

Leaders and staff work effectively with external professionals and signpost families to additional services when required. Staff work collaboratively, implementing other professionals' recommendations and suggestions to help children to move forward with their learning. They use additional funding well to help to close gaps in children's learning and to enrich children's experiences. This is evident when they organised a trip to the local farm to help children to experience animals and nature first hand. Parents state that they feel very well supported, when navigating referral and assessment processes for their children. They express that staff invest a great deal of time to ensure their children receive the right type of additional support.

Curriculum and teaching: Expected standard

Leaders design a generally well-sequenced curriculum and staff adopt an approach that focuses on child-led learning, while taking account of children's interests and developmental needs. Staff have a comprehensive understanding of each child and the knowledge and skills they need to develop next. They adapt their interactions as they join children in play, supporting children to make secure progress. Staff generally promote children's communication and language skills well. They ask open ended questions and narrate children's play to model and extend vocabulary. However, at times, the way in which staff plan some activities does not fully extend and stretch children's imagination and learning to the highest level.

Staff promote children's mathematical understanding through play and everyday interactions. This is evident when they encourage children to count how many vegetables they can see growing outdoors in a vegetable patch and when counting different fruits on a shopping trip. They also encourage them to make connections and comparisons during play and introduce mathematical concepts, such as more, less, full and empty. Children generally learn about differences and diversity through resources, some cultural activities and stories. However, leaders recognise this is an area that they would like to enhance and build on further to ensure children experience a broader range of opportunities to learn about other's lives different to their own.

Achievement: Expected standard

Children progress well from their individual starting points, including those children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who may face additional barriers to their learning and wellbeing. Children build a range of essential skills that shape them to be confident, capable and ready for their eventual move to school. They show increasing confidence in expressing their needs and show positive levels of independence as they make choices about their play, help to tidy up and manage their personal needs.

Children also enjoy cutting out stars with scissors. This supports their hand-eye coordination and their attention and concentration skills. In addition, they like drawing with chalks, naming different colours and shapes. They also display great enthusiasm when making marks to create a shopping list for a shopping trip. This helps to foster their pre-writing skills in an indirect way. Children also enjoy building with blocks and discussing the function on a crane. As they play, they use lots of mathematical language, such as higher and longest. Children evidently form meaningful bonds with staff. This enables them to build their self-esteem and join in with a variety of experiences that they enjoy.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Expected standard

Leaders and staff plan their routines to promote children's feelings of emotional security. Staff offer clear and simple explanations to help children to understand the expectations and boundaries at the setting. They also provide cuddles, reassurance and encouragement as children play. Furthermore, they use timers and give children gentle reminders, when they need to move to a new routine or part of the day. This helps children to feel content, relaxed and gain awareness of what will happen next. Staff frequently implement strategies to promote kindness and consideration. Overall, they name different emotions as they arise and acknowledge when a child has made lots of effort or shown kindness to a peer. As a result, children feel motivated to join in, form new relationships and play alongside each other.

Younger children enjoy listening to stories and singing songs and display positive listening skills for their age. Older children enjoy engaging in imaginative play and share and turn take well with sensitive support from staff as they play shopkeepers. Leaders and staff work closely with parents and carers to promote frequent attendance. They also offer parents and carers advice and guidance about different behaviour management strategies to help children experience continuity at nursery and home.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Expected standard

Leaders create a welcoming environment, where children form secure attachments with the caring staff and develop a sense of belonging. Children are encouraged to develop their skills of independence as they get ready for outings and make choices at mealtimes and during play. Staff generally support children to lead healthy lifestyles. They work in close partnership with parents and carers to promote healthy packed lunches. They also teach children about fruits and vegetables, when exploring a vegetable patch. Children enjoy picking and making comparisons and discussing radishes, carrots and tomatoes and the nutritional value of different foods. Furthermore, children go on frequent visits to local parks and engage in dancing sessions to stay active and develop their physical skills. On local outings, staff teach children about the importance of road safety to help them begin to develop awareness of their own personal safety. In addition, children learn about establishing effective teeth brushing habits through songs and discussions about oral health.

Children engage in experiences that teach them about compassion and generosity. For instance, they participate in charity walks and help to create hampers with toiletries and bedding to support local charities. This helps children to learn about kindness and differing needs in the local community.

Leadership and governance: Expected standard

Leaders have a clear understanding of the setting's strengths and areas of further focus. They generally deploy staff well and have clear oversight of the setting. They have already made positive strides in creating a welcoming and inclusive environment and identify where further enhancements need to be made to ensure an even broader and more ambitious curriculum for children. Staff engage in collaborative working with colleagues from their neighbouring settings, which supports their ongoing development. They also engage in a range of training such as safeguarding, safer-sleep practices and allergy awareness. Despite this positive commitment to training, leaders do not prioritise a broad range of learning and development training for staff. As a result, at times some activities, although enjoyable, do not extend children's learning to the very highest level.

Staff express positive levels of wellbeing at work. They state they feel well supported in their roles and value the team they work with. Parents and carers communicate high levels of satisfaction with the setting. They express that their children love coming, they value how small and nurturing it is and find staff very approachable and supportive. They also appreciate the close partnership working with other professionals and how leaders and staff prioritise their children's individual needs.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

  • Leaders should support staff to engage in further professional development opportunities to strengthen their knowledge and skills further.
  • Leaders should continue to support staff with the planning of activities and the depth of the curriculum to extend children's learning to an even higher level.
  • Leaders and staff should build on opportunities and experiences for children to learn about diversity and about other's lives different to their own.

Ofsted's words, from the report on the inspection on 25 September 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

  • Early Learners Nursery (Parr) Ltd - Day nursery, St. Helens WA9 1QU, ages 0 to 4, 71 places, 0.8 miles
    Ofsted, 11 December 2024: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
  • Portico at Moss Bank - Day nursery, St Helens WA11 7PQ, ages 0 to 4, 66 places, 1.0 miles
    Ofsted, 7 October 2022: Outstanding overall; safeguarding is effective
  • Little Einsteins Nursery - Day nursery, St Helens WA10 1ET, ages 0 to 4, 86 places, 1.0 miles
    Ofsted report card, 23 February 2026: Strong standard in 2 areas, Expected standard in 4 areas; safeguarding standards met
  • Little Harvards - Day nursery, St Helens WA9 2JE, ages 1 to 4, 54 places, 1.2 miles
    Ofsted, 25 July 2023: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
  • St Mark's Pre-School - Day nursery, St. Helens WA10 2TZ, ages 2 to 4, 30 places, 1.4 miles
    Ofsted, 7 October 2021: Outstanding overall; safeguarding is effective

Schools nearby

Little Explorers: Blackbrook on the Ofsted website