Little Explorers Nursery
GoodTakes funded hours★ 4.9 on GoogleBirth to 8+Long established
A day nursery in Manchester for babies from 9 months up to school age, open 07:30 to 18:00, 5 days a week. They take the funded hours. They do not publish prices, so ask. Rated Good by Ofsted in April 2022. Open since 2014, with 43 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
Funded hours
Funded Childcare may be available if your child aged between 9 months and 5. All 3 to 4-year-olds in England can get 570 hours of government funded early education or childcare per year. This is usually taken as 15 hours each week for 38 weeks of the year or as stretched which is 11 hours a week for the whole year. Funding is also available for 9 month olds if you meet certain criteria.
Worth knowing. If you are in receipt of funded hours then you will be charged a 'voluntary' consumable charge to cover costs that the government funding does not cover and we are entitled to charge you for. This includes meals, snacks and services such as trips and activities such as football & foreign language lessons. To take a funded place you will be asked to enter an agreement to pay the charge. If you 'opt out' you will need to bring, each day, wipes and snacks in line with our healthy eating policy plus.
What childcare usually costs in Salford
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Salford from the Department for Education's 2025 provider survey. No national data holds what an individual nursery charges, so ring and ask.
Places, hours and the day
Who they take, when they are open, and what a day there includes.
Where it is
M27 8BBWhat the inspector found
One grade is one visit. A run of them tells you whether it has been good for years or has only just got there.
Ofsted inspector, 20 April 2022 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Children are happy and enjoy the time they spend at the nursery. They benefit from kind and caring relationships with the staff. Children demonstrate confidence in the environment and explore the well-planned indoor and outdoor play areas.
Children behave well and understand the rules that they need to follow. Staff recognise the things that trigger children's behaviour and use distraction techniques effectively. As a result, children are engaged in play and cooperate with each other.
Staff provide high levels of support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and communicate well with other professionals. Consequently, they make good progress in their learning and development. Children successfully develop the skills they need for their future learning, including school, because staff know them well and teach them effectively. The staff have adapted well to adjustments in routines during the COVID-19 pandemic and are focusing on skills that children need to develop as result of the impact of the pandemic. For example, they give children lots of opportunities to use books, which helps to enhance their literacy skills.
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- help staff to consider the importance of understanding children's home lives, backgrounds and cultures, in order to help children to reflect on their differences and understand what makes them unique n support staff to develop their skills, in order to extend the opportunities where children can think critically for themselves.
- 20 April 2022Good
- 17 January 2017Good
Rated Good or Outstanding at 2 of the last 2 graded inspections.
Still missing for Little Explorers Nursery
- What it costs
- Meals
- Nappies
- Waiting list
No dataset holds any of this. Two parents telling us the same thing puts it on the page for whoever looks next.
What to ask them
Some of this is above, from the setting or from parents, and it can go out of date. The rest is in no dataset anywhere. Either way it is worth ten minutes on the phone.
- What does it cost, all in? What is on top: meals, nappies, late pick-up, and what happens if you are late.
- How do you apply my funded hours? Whether they stretch them over the year, and the minimum days you have to book.
- Do you have a place for a child of my age now? Baby rooms fill first and waiting lists are common.
- Who would my child's key person be? And how long have the staff been there. No dataset holds this and it matters more than anything above.
- Can I visit at a busy time? Mid-morning on a weekday tells you far more than an empty room after hours.
Day nurseries within a couple of miles
This one is first. Tick it and one or two others to see them side by side.