North Stars Nursery

Term-time sessions, a spacious garden and a play-led curriculum give North Stars Nursery a clear local identity at 73 North Way in Kingsbury. It is a sessional day-care nursery in Brent, and the nursery describes itself as operating since March 2000.

The March 2024 Ofsted inspection judged overall effectiveness, education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management Good. Safeguarding arrangements were effective. The report described children settling quickly, staying absorbed in activities and using the garden for outdoor kitchen play, including making mud buns.

Learning has a practical edge. Boxes, glue and scissors supported jewellery-box junk modelling at the inspection, while train tracks prompted staff to extend children’s problem-solving language. The current offer also names weekly Outdoor Yoga and Birth to 5 Matters guidance alongside the EYFS.

Learning and Named Experiences

The Early Years Foundation Stage, or EYFS, sets the learning, development and care standards for children from birth to five. For a child, that means development is built through play, routines and relationships rather than formal lessons. North Stars Nursery plans activities around children’s interests and uses regular observation to follow their development.

Birth to 5 Matters guidance sits alongside the EYFS here. It is non-statutory support designed by the early-years sector to enrich and guide practice, rather than a replacement for the framework. In March 2024, the curriculum was sequenced around children’s interests: junk modelling strengthened creativity and hand control, and staff used train-track play to encourage questions about making structures stronger or bigger.

Mathematics was woven into everyday activity at that visit. Children measured the growth of plants with tapes and used comparative language such as bigger and smaller. That gives early number ideas a physical purpose instead of separating them from play.

Outdoor and Community Life

The garden was a substantial part of the March 2024 picture. Children had fresh air, an outdoor kitchen and a calm-down corner where staff gave them space to reflect before talking through what had happened. It joined physical play to emotional regulation in a concrete way.

Outdoor Yoga is a current weekly Friday session built around breathing, relaxation and poses, indoors and outdoors. The nursery also records a butterfly-life-cycle activity using The Very Hungry Caterpillar with live caterpillars. Both turn a named experience into something children can see, move through and discuss.

Relationships are organised through a designated key person for each child, with care and learning tailored to individual needs. The nursery also describes regular conversations with parents and ideas for extending development at home. In March 2024, book bags and parent workshops brought reading and practical learning into that partnership.

In March 2024, staff read children’s emotional cues and used a quieter room for smaller, focused play when a child felt overwhelmed. Children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, made good progress at that visit. The nursery’s current inclusion statement includes children with SEND, while the dated finding gives the stronger picture of progress.

Independence was supported through routines such as coats, name tags and self-serving fruit. The March 2024 improvement point was more consistent support for self-care, especially toileting. In March 2024, safeguarding arrangements were effective and the culture put children’s interests first.

North Stars Nursery is at 73 North Way, Kingsbury, London, NW9 0RA. It is term-time only. The published attendance choices are morning sessions, afternoon sessions and full days, giving families both shorter patterns and a longer nursery day.

Sessions and Attendance

Morning and afternoon sessions sit alongside full days, all within a term-time offer. That gives a family a choice between shorter recurring patterns and a longer nursery day.

Funding and Paid Extras

The nursery publishes funded childcare routes for working families with children from nine months to three years, for children aged three to four, and for eligible two-year-olds receiving additional support. Funding is relevant to a child’s circumstances and attendance pattern, so it does not itself guarantee a place or a particular weekly schedule.

For funded children, the childcare-charges information sets out a voluntary consumables contribution and the option for parents to provide their own snacks and consumable items. It lists all-day snacks, fruit, vegetables, cheese, yoghurt, breadsticks, wipes and cooking resources. Current nursery-specific prices are supplied in the provider’s written quotation; its childcare charges information explains the published funding and consumables structure.

Attendance times. The published full-day window and the general weekday opening window differ. Families arranging work or collection should settle the exact timing for their chosen morning, afternoon or full-day pattern.

Upper age. The nursery’s public pages use two different upper ages, four and five. This matters most for a family planning a preschool year or a later start, so confirm the applicable age range for the intended session.

Independence and toileting. The March 2024 improvement point concerned staff support for children’s self-care, especially toileting. Families for whom this stage is immediate should ask how the routine is now handled for their child.

Funding and consumables. Funded childcare is part of the offer, with a voluntary consumables contribution and an option to send snacks and consumables from home. Discuss the current arrangement for funded hours before choosing an attendance pattern.

North Stars Nursery gives families a Good March 2024 judgement, effective safeguarding at that visit and a child-led account of learning that is easy to picture. Junk modelling, plant measuring, Outdoor Yoga and the butterfly-life-cycle activity give the offer more character than generic early-years language alone.

It will suit families looking for morning or afternoon sessions as well as those wanting a full day during term time. The designated key-person structure, strong March 2024 parent partnership and practical support for children’s emotional regulation add useful weight.