St. Philips Pre-School

A warm, nurturing atmosphere defined St. Philips Pre-School at its January 2022 Ofsted inspection. Ofsted judged the sessional setting Good, with Good judgements across education, behaviour, personal development and leadership. Children settled easily, trusted the adults around them and experienced a close-knit environment.

The Early Years Foundation Stage shapes English registered early-years provision across communication and language, physical development and personal growth; here, the inspection evidence shows what that meant in practice. The strongest published picture is of purposeful group learning. Children began with a whole-group welcome, sang to friends and returned to songs in smaller groups. Communication sat at the centre: circle time, conversation and small-group work helped children build vocabulary, while children learning English as an additional language made good progress.

Practical skills mattered too. Children worked on early writing, recognised their names, used scissors and spoke in groups. Puzzles offered different difficulty levels, mark-making materials were varied, and children could ask for more writing resources. Physical development ranged from two-year-olds learning to climb stairs to older children balancing and negotiating space.

Safeguarding arrangements were found effective in January 2022. Staff understood reporting procedures, refreshed their knowledge through training, and used recruitment and risk assessment arrangements to support safety. The six qualified early-years staff knew children's starting points and interests, identified needs early and worked with speech and language therapists and other professionals where required.

Parents told inspectors they valued daily verbal feedback, weekly messages, phone calls and monthly learning plans. The inspection also highlighted healthy-food discussion in the home corner, cooperative play and good manners.

The setting is registered at St Phillips Church Hall, Gravel Hill, Finchley, London N3 3RJ, with 30 registered places. Its authoritative provider type is sessional day care. Current ages, session choices, hours, attendance expectations and funded-entitlement arrangements require confirmation through the pre-school; current nursery-specific prices belong in its written quotation.

• Adult interaction: Ofsted's January 2022 improvement point was to strengthen questioning and conversation so interactions extend children's knowledge further. Ask how coaching and observation now support this.
• The practical offer: The current age range, days, session times, minimum attendance pattern and term dates are essential points for one pre-application enquiry.
• Costs and daily provision: A single written quotation should clarify funding, meals, snacks and non-food consumables.

St. Philips Pre-School's published strength is its nurturing, communication-rich sessional environment. The 2022 inspection found secure relationships, thoughtful early-skills work and effective safeguarding, balanced by a clear need to sharpen some adult questioning. It is best suited to families seeking sessional pre-school care who value songs, small-group communication and practical independence; the current choice of attendance patterns needs direct confirmation.