All Saints Pre School

Dolls washed outdoors, children making vegetarian pizzas and a sports day shared with families give All Saints Pre School its character: practical learning with plenty of opportunities to practise independence. Based at All Saints House in Chigwell, it has capacity for 26 children. That is the whole setting's capacity, rather than a measure of any individual group.

At its June 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the pre-school Good and found safeguarding effective. Children attending then were aged two to four. The strongest practical threads were children's involvement in choosing activities, accessible play resources and regular communication with parents, alongside improvements needed in staff explanations and the learning offered to older children.

Opening hours are 9am to 3pm, Monday to Friday. This is a daytime offer, with the June 2025 session pattern discussed below.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) brings together children's language, physical development, relationships and early learning in subjects such as literacy and mathematics. Here, play is the starting point: children explore, experiment and make choices, rather than learning solely through adult instruction.

In June 2025, children's interest in babies prompted doll-based role play, including dressing dolls and taking them out in pushchairs. Washing the dolls outside extended that interest into learning about self-care and hygiene. The connection matters: an interest children already have becomes a route into another area of learning.

Water play offered another concrete example. Children poured with jugs and investigated containers filling up, while resources within their reach allowed them to choose what to use. These arrangements gave children opportunities to explore ideas through action and to make decisions about their play.

Stories, songs and rhymes also featured in June 2025. Animated reading held children's attention during group activities, while older children practised making marks and writing their names using blackboards. Letter tracing added another way to explore writing. These were useful starting points, although the learning for older children needed more consistent extension.

Healthy Cooking Activities add food preparation to the current offer. Children make sandwiches and vegetarian pizzas, with regular discussions about Healthy Living connecting what they prepare with choices about food. This gives them a practical task to take part in, alongside the conversation.

Outdoor and Community Life

In June 2025, children could move freely between indoor play and the outdoor area. Trikes, slides and sand pits provided different ways to move, climb and dig. Outdoor provision therefore supported active play as well as extending activities begun indoors, such as washing the dolls.

Sports day featured traditional races for children on a local field, with families taking part. Graduation ceremonies were also part of parent involvement at that time. These events gave families opportunities to participate beyond routine conversations about their own child's day.

In June 2025, staff relationships helped children part from parents and settle into activities. Children put away their belongings and marked their attendance themselves, making small responsibilities part of the routine. At snack time, serving food and clearing plates gave them further opportunities to do things independently.

Behaviour expectations were reinforced through adult examples and reminders about kindness, turn-taking and moving safely indoors. Visual emotion boards helped children consider feelings such as happiness and sadness. Together, these practices made expectations concrete, rather than relying only on verbal instructions.

Daily conversations, newsletters and parent evenings formed the communication pattern in June 2025. Termly reviews also invited parents to contribute to learning. For families, that offered several opportunities to exchange information, from immediate updates to a longer discussion about development.

The team included eight childcare staff in June 2025. Supervision and team meetings supported their development, with recent training covering autism awareness and communication. The current staff structure includes a SENDCO Coordinator role, giving additional-needs work an identified place within the team.

Food involves both home and pre-school: families supply packed lunches, while staff prepare snacks containing fruit and vegetables, use family recipes and rotate the snack menu weekly. Alternative snacks can be prepared on request for dietary requirements, and parents contribute to menu reviews held twice a year.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is All Saints House, Romford Road, Chigwell, IG7 4QD. Opening hours run from 9am to 3pm on weekdays. In June 2025, the pre-school operated during term time, with sessions running from 9am to 3pm; that dated pattern is useful context when considering how attendance fits around family commitments.

Enquiries can be made through the contact form, by telephone or by email. The pre-school's capacity is 26 children in total, while the age range observed in June 2025 was two to four.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered for eligible two-, three- and four-year-olds, including an offer of up to 30 hours a week for parents of three- and four-year-olds. Eligibility remains part of the offer, so the headline hours should not be read as an entitlement for every family.

Families provide lunch, and the pre-school supplies snacks. This division is useful for planning the daily food routine: a packed lunch remains part of preparation at home even though snacks are prepared at the setting.

• Older children's learning. At the June 2025 inspection, Ofsted called for consistently meaningful, developmentally appropriate interactions and activities, better checks on children's understanding and a curriculum that consistently meets older children's learning needs. These are important considerations for families seeking sustained challenge before school.
• The daytime timetable. Current opening hours are 9am to 3pm, Monday to Friday; the June 2025 attendance pattern was term-time sessions. Families needing care beyond that window will need to factor the opening hours into their arrangements.
• Funding and food arrangements. Funded childcare sits alongside parent-provided lunches and staff-prepared snacks. During a visit, how would funded hours fit your intended attendance, what additional charges or consumables would apply, and how would any dietary requirements be managed?

All Saints Pre School suits families seeking daytime pre-school care, practical play and opportunities for children to become more independent. Cooking, outdoor exploration and parent participation give the offer substance. The June 2025 findings also make the decision more specific: families of older children should weigh the activities against the need for more consistent challenge and clearer checks on understanding.