Queens Pre-School, The Old Stables

Ice experiments, real cooking tools and visits across generations give Queens Pre-School, The Old Stables a practical, outward-looking character. This Buckhurst Hill setting puts everyday experience to work: investigating materials, preparing food and getting to know people beyond the nursery. The strongest examples come from April 2025, when children researched snakes, explored melting and took part in community life.

At its 11 April 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the pre-school Outstanding and found safeguarding effective. That judgement gives families a clear quality reference, with concrete observations behind it rather than a grade alone.

The nursery has 48 places in total and accepts children aged 24 to 60 months. Its address is 191 Princes Road, Buckhurst Hill, IG9 5DJ. Opening hours run from 7.30am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for learning, development and care, meaning that play and everyday experiences support children's learning alongside their practical and personal development. In April 2025, that took a tangible form here: children investigated ice, explored changes in materials and used conversation to work through their ideas.

At the April 2025 inspection, Ofsted found that staff extended children's thinking through purposeful play and delivered an ambitious curriculum shaped around what children needed to learn next. One example involved researching snake markings online in the reading corner. Adults joined children's enquiries and used questions to take them further. For a parent, the useful distinction is between simply providing an activity and helping a child understand what they are discovering.

Other April 2025 activities brought scientific ideas within reach. Children chipped ice with hammers and discussed melting, while outdoor experiments explored how combining materials could produce a volcano eruption. These were opportunities to handle materials, notice changes and talk about cause and effect. Learning had something concrete to attach to.

Practical challenge also featured in April 2025. Children cut vegetables with knives under supervision, encountered outdoor bonfires and worked with hammers and pins. This gives families a clear sense of the approach: children were allowed to tackle real tasks with adult supervision, rather than having every difficult step completed for them.

Outdoor and Community Life

Beyond the nursery, April 2025 routines included weekly care-home visits, library outings and trips to a community allotment where children grew vegetables and herbs. The care-home visits brought contact with another generation; growing food connected children's experiences to the ingredients they used. These activities gave conversation a purpose beyond the nursery's indoor spaces.

The branch's activities include Baking Session at Queens Court Care Home, an example of cooking linked to a named community destination. It adds a recognisable local connection to the broader account of intergenerational visits. Children could encounter community life through doing something together, rather than only talking about it.

Relationships and Communication

In April 2025, staff sought children's opinions and responded to them during the day. Children formed friendships, shared experiences from home and discussed differences in their backgrounds. For families, those examples show how children's own lives entered the nursery day, including the things they knew and wanted to share.

Star of the Day awards recognised children's achievements in April 2025, alongside praise from adults. Passion Leaders gave staff a way to bring their personal interests into activities. These are two useful details about the setting's culture: recognition for children's efforts, and room for practitioners to contribute ideas from their own interests.

Parent participation was also practical in April 2025. Workshops, sessions drawing on parents' professions and experiences, and feedback surveys gave families different ways to contribute. Communication was therefore more than receiving an update: parents could share knowledge with children and influence the nursery's work through feedback.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Everyday independence featured throughout April 2025 routines. Children prepared their breakfast, served themselves at lunch and managed aspects of their own personal care, with adults allowing time for those tasks. That matters for school preparation because practising ordinary responsibilities is part of becoming comfortable doing things for oneself.

Cooking also connected practical skills with family traditions in April 2025. Children helped prepare soups associated with Jewish festivals, counted ingredients, chopped vegetables and tried unfamiliar foods. The activity brought food, number and cultural understanding into the same experience, with a task children could participate in directly.

Sessions and Attendance

Queens Pre-School, The Old Stables operates at 191 Princes Road, Buckhurst Hill, IG9 5DJ. It opens at 7.30am and closes at 6.30pm on weekdays, giving families a substantial opening window around work commitments. These are opening hours, so the attendance arrangement needs to fit the family's actual routine.

Enquiries can be made by telephone on 0208 505 2333 or by email to qp@children-first.info. This is the contact route for The Old Stables branch.

Funding and Paid Extras

In April 2025, the nursery provided funded early education for eligible children. Eligibility remains a condition, so that inspection-time provision should not be read as a promise of entitlement for every family. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

• Real tools and supervised challenge. April 2025 activities included knives, hammers and outdoor bonfires. On a visit, ask how staff introduce these experiences and adapt participation to a child's confidence and understanding.
• Community contact. Weekly care-home visits formed part of the April 2025 routine, alongside library and allotment outings. Ask how these experiences fit into the days your child would attend.
• Attendance and the written quotation. The opening window is 7.30am to 6.30pm on weekdays. Before choosing, request the proposed session arrangement and a written breakdown separating funded hours, private hours, food and non-food consumables.

Queens Pre-School, The Old Stables suits families seeking practical preschool learning, community experiences and growing independence for their child. Its April 2025 examples are persuasive: children investigated materials, helped prepare food and spent time with people beyond the setting. The Outstanding judgement adds weight to those observations.

The clearest attraction is the connection between learning and useful activity. Families comfortable with supervised challenge and an outward-looking nursery day have good reasons to consider it; the attendance arrangement and written quotation are the practical decisions to settle alongside that educational fit.