Outstanding Early Years provision in the heart of the community.


​We were inspected by Ofsted on 24th February 2025 and are pleased to announce we were awarded the highest grade of OUTSTANDING!

We worked really hard to achieve this, as we believe in giving exceptional educational care to our families in a life-course, cultural capital and person-centered approach. We have proudly maintained our high level OUTSTANDING grade since 2012, over three consecutive inspections spanning 13-years.​

Our Early Years Data Sets 2025/26

By monitoring child development using varying methods, we are able to track entry and exist points, areas of improvements, transition points, interventions and most importantly to understand progression within each key area of learning, so that all children can thrive.

Please feel free to download an Expression of Interest Form: 

burnside_pre-school_expression_of_interest_form.pdf
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​Learn a bit more about us:

Quality child care is Burnside Pre-School's sole purpose and passion. Our dedicated team of highly qualified staff are on hand to help all past, current and prospective parents. You are more than welcome to come and visit the setting to ask staff questions and see us in action.

We are the only Early Years provision in the whole Borough to have electively undertaken and successfully achieved the National Forest School Association accreditation!
​
Give us a call on 0161 643 5775 to speak directly to a member of staff.
Main room measurements: 45 square meters.
We offer flexible sessions to support our parents back into training, education or employment.
  • We are term time only.
  • We offer full day care.
  • We can offer top ups on the free 15 hours entitlement.
  • We can offer free 30 hours entitlement for working parents.
  • We can offer places for children on the 2 year old fund.
  • Our child care service runs from 9am-3pm​
  • Pathways of additional support and referrals - for child and family members.
  • We were the first organisation in Rochdale Borough to undertake training and become accredited to offer free Invest In Play parenting courses, which utilises the power of play to enrich relationships, navigate challenges within family dynamics and foster positive coping strategies within the home.
​Our setting follows the Early Years Educational Framework and we was the first Early Years setting in Rochdale Borough, to adopt 'In the Moment Planning'.
  • We see all our children as individuals.
  • We have well resourced activity rooms and are very much part of the local social fabric of our community centre.
  • All of our current staff are level 5 and level 6 practitioners.
  • We have large outdoor play areas, including a Forest School space coming late 2026!
  • We go on regular outings in the community, local town and day trips.
  • We are key members of the GM Early Years Nurture Network: more can be found on our System Change page: click here
  • We work in partnership with primary schools to make sure Transition is enjoyable and enriching for all the family. 
  • We attend meetings, forums and networks to stay relevant, informed and innovative.​ ​

Please see our term dates below:

burnside_pre-school_term_dates_2025-2026.pdf
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burnside_pre-school_term_dates_2026_2027.pdf
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​Should parent/carers have any concerns about securing an Early Years place within the local Middleton area, we encourage you to call the Local Authority Early Years Team on 01706 927 823 who are happy to help in this matter and offer lots of guidance to families.
The government eligibility check to access free Early Years education offers can be found here: https://beststartinlife.gov.uk/childcare-early-years-education/15-and-30-hours-support/additional-support/eligibility

*If you’re a non-UK citizen who cannot claim benefits and your immigration status says you have ‘no recourse to public funds’, you may still get free childcare for your 2-year-old. Please see check via the above link. 

Parent and Carer Partnership

"The input from our parents/carers is an important part of how we approach educational child development. We want to work with you to ensure that your child gets the very best chances in life. The ages from 2-4 are the most important developmental stages of a person's life - we want to make sure we do our best to get it right. We do this by working alongside you because a child is learning all the time. To support our community and in line with our Vision, we do our best to support parents/carers wanting to get back into work, vulnerable children under social services, children in no educational setting and those in low income households therefore, these are given priority and our upmost support."
​Kerry Edwards MSc Assoc. CIPD
Burnside Centre Manager 
Burnside Centre asks people who access our services to give consent to provide information and complete registration forms. This information is kept in the strictest confidence on our protected databases and is for H&S, funding requirements, organisational monitoring and evaluation purposes only. Demographic data is shared within the Rochdale Community Centre Consortium member organisations to record impact and enable us to understand our collective community offer under a strict data sharing agreement.

All information will be stored in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations.
We are registered with the ICO: https://ico.org.uk/
Our Date Protection Officer is Kerry Edwards who can be contacted at: [email protected] 
​Burnside Centre is a charity registered in England and Wales (Registration number 1145309)
Burnside Centre is a company limited by guarantee registered in England (Registration number 07536820)
Established 29th September 1969
UT VITAM ABUNDANTIUS HABEAMUS

Main Office & Core Staffing Hours

M-F: 8am - 4pm

Telephone

0161 643 5775