Our new nursery, Brookfields is now open. Click here to find out more

Ofsted Outstanding

Celebrating our fourth Ofsted “Outstanding” rating at our Crescent Park Nursery! May 2023

Over 34 years of excellent childcare

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Our first Day Nursery opened in 1989 at 11 Crescent Park, Heaton Norris. Our second Nursery at Orrishmere Primary School, Worcester Road, Cheadle Hulme opened in 1999, and our third Nursery at Thorngrove Primary School, Woodstock Avenue, Cheadle Hulme, opened in February 2005.

We have always achieved very good outcomes for all Ofsted inspections to date. Ofsted reports can be found here and in the entrance hall of each nursery, and after school club.

Our nurseries were founded in the belief that young children fair best in a ‘home from home’ environment where they feel loved, safe and emotionally secure.

As well as focusing on comfort and emotional security, we have always believed that children deserve to live in a richly stimulating environment.

Children grow and develop at an incredible rate during their first few years of life. The brain, in particular, is growing in maturity. It is laying down vast numbers of new contacts between brain cells, forming the potential for many new pathways, through which, information can be passed and stored. In order to maintain these pathways they need to be used, therefore they need to be stimulated.

Just as the body requires food to grow, the brain, and therefore the young child requires stimulation, varied experiences and information, to reach their full potential.

We consider that it is our responsibility to ensure that all children attending our nurseries from babies upwards are therefore provided with love, affection and intellectual stimulation at all times.

We have called this our ‘Maximum Opportunity to Develop Full Potential’ policy and it is central to all childcare activities at Elm Cottage.
You can observe for yourself daily, the results of our working policies; walk around the nursery and witness the level of activity, the concentration, play and contentment of the children, and the friendliness between people.

We all welcome you to Elm Cottage and assure you of our total commitment to providing a truly happy, stimulating and rewarding experience for your child in these most vital early years.

A Home From Home

At Elm Cottage our aim has always been to provide every child with the best possible start in life and to support them to fulfil their potential

For the 34 years that Elm Cottage has been caring for children we have always believed that every member of our team should be trained in and kept up to date in paediatric first aid, this is something we have felt very strongly about and has been implemented since first opening in 1989.

We now work with Millie’s Trust regularly and are proud to also provide support for our parents/carers with evening paediatric first aid workshops across our nursery settings.

We are delighted that our Orrishmere nursery was one in ten childcare providers across England to become the first to achieve Millie’s Mark, the new quality mark for excellence in paediatric first aid for early years settings. Our other two nursery settings Crescent Park and Thorn Grove followed shortly after, meaning all three of our nurseries now proudly carry the Millie’s Mark.

Click here to see Millie’s Trust and Elm Cottage on Granada Reports.

Nutrition & Wellbeing

We aim to provide healthy and delicious food for your children. We limit the use of sugar, salt and refined white carbohydrates and include, milk, fish, lean meat, wholemeal bread and lots of different fruit and vegetables.

Learning & Development

We use The Early Years Foundation Stage Framework to ensure that our settings provide maximum opportunity for every child in our care to achieve the five Every Child Matters outcomes of Staying Safe, Enjoying and Achieving, Being Healthy, Making a Positive Contribution and Achieving Economic Well Being.

Staff Qualifications

Ofsted require 50 percent of staff to be trained to NVQ level 2. At Elm Cottage 98% of our staff are qualified to level 3 or above-2 % are presently training on the childcare apprenticeship scheme and a huge 25 % have degrees in Early Childhood Studies. This includes a qualified teacher with a  BEd (hons) and an  Early Years Teacher as part of the team. All staff are supported and guided by the area manager and experienced Nursery Teacher, Tina Kapp who has worked at Elm Cottage for 22 years.

Holiday Clubs

On offer to children 4/5 *- 11 years

(*4/5- Children must already attend school. Children are welcome from any school to attend both our holiday clubs)