Highlands Village Pre-School

Play that follows a child's curiosity, with adults ready to extend it, gives Highlands Village Pre-School its character. Its base is Highlands Village Hall in Winchmore Hill. At its 25 November 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated it Outstanding, finding that carefully judged adult involvement and ambitious learning helped children develop their communication and make rapid progress.

The detail behind that judgement is more useful than the label alone. In November 2024, children built their own obstacle courses, investigated worms and used an emotion board to express their feelings. These were opportunities to think, talk and work things out, rather than simply complete an adult's task. The children attending at that time were aged two to four.

Attendance is term-time, with morning, afternoon and full-day options, plus a breakfast club. The practical attraction is a choice of shorter sessions or a longer preschool day; the boundary is a timetable that follows term dates rather than year-round childcare.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the framework for learning through play, covering language, movement, relationships and the beginnings of literacy, mathematics and creative expression. Here, adults plan both activities they introduce and opportunities that develop from children's own interests. Indoor and outdoor experiences both contribute to that learning. The framework is the shared foundation for early years provision; the way staff respond to a child's immediate interest gives the day its particular shape.

Planning happens as children play. Staff observe what attracts their attention, respond with a new idea or prompt, and adjust the next step rather than waiting for a later planning cycle. Weekly records capture achievements against the learning framework. For parents, that connects the everyday activity with an account of what their child is learning, rather than treating play and assessment as separate subjects.

School preparation includes recognising a child's own name, making marks, exploring letters and developing number awareness. Shapes, colours and size also feature. These skills are approached through enjoyable activities, with independence and the confidence to try again among the intended outcomes. A child choosing how to tackle something is part of the learning, not a distraction from it.

Diddi Dance runs weekly, Sport School twice weekly and Wild Fangs monthly within the activity package. These add scheduled sessions alongside the everyday curriculum, with the package arrangements affecting how families access them. Cooking and the Oral health club sit alongside a book bag with library access and a paper learning journal. The combination gives families material to take home as well as activities during attendance.

Outdoor and Community Life

In November 2024, outdoor play involved children moving tyres, timber and cardboard boxes together to construct imaginary vehicles and a pirate ship. The materials mattered because children could change what they became. Building together also created reasons to negotiate, explain an idea and solve a practical problem. Staff introduced learning into the play while leaving room for children's inventions.

Community experiences had a similarly practical purpose that month. Children visited a supermarket to choose snack foods and practised crossing roads safely along the way. Parents contributed stories and cultural traditions, while bilingual materials supported activities. These examples connected learning with familiar family experiences and the neighbourhood beyond the preschool.

The events programme includes HALLOWEEN, XMAS PARTY and EASTER EGG HUNT, with GRADUATION TEA PARTY FOR LEAVERS marking the move onwards. Weekly themed activities also form part of the event arrangements. A TRIP TO HERTFORDSHIRE ZOO carries a separate charge in the relevant term, and graduation bears are charged separately too. Families therefore need to distinguish the regular day from celebrations and outings when considering the overall package.

Relationships and Communication

TAPESTRY is the online learning journal: an email alerts parents when staff add an observation. A key person also creates a paper journal once a child has settled, recording achievements and information about the child. At the end of attendance, the digital journal is transferred to a memory stick and the paper version goes home. That gives parents both updates during the preschool years and a record to keep afterwards.

In November 2024, staff used books sent home to help families talk through unfamiliar experiences and emotional changes. Children also mixed with others across the preschool at different points in the day, building relationships beyond a single familiar adult. The emotion board gave them a concrete way to indicate how they felt. For a child still developing the words for an emotion, having another way to express it matters.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the November 2024 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and described prompt, successful support for emerging needs, including tailored speech and language work developed by the special educational needs coordinator with parents and other professionals. The current staffing structure includes safeguarding responsibilities and a SENCO role. These identify where responsibilities sit, rather than promising the same support plan for every child.

Staff training covers child safeguarding, first aid, food hygiene and health and safety; pre-employment arrangements include DBS and health checks. Learning support also includes flashcards to help children express needs and build basic English. These are concrete mechanisms parents can understand, alongside the individual learning records.

Parents supply packed lunches, while the preschool provides snacks; its healthy-eating policy excludes nut products from lunch boxes and asks families to disclose allergies so other parents can be informed. Perishable lunches are refrigerated, and warm food should come in a thermos. The food arrangements place a clear preparation task with families rather than providing a cooked lunch service.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Highlands Village Hall, 5 Florey Square, Winchmore Hill, London N21 1UJ. Telephone enquiries go to 0208 360 4540. Attendance runs Monday to Friday during term time, across 38 weeks of the year, excluding bank holidays. The usual opening window is 8.30am to 3.30pm, with breakfast club from 8am to 8.30am.

Morning Session 1a runs from 8.30am to 11.30am; afternoon Session 2a runs from 12.30pm to 3.30pm. A longer morning, Session 1b, finishes at 12.30pm and includes the lunch hour. The full-day session runs from 8.30am to 3.30pm. Separately, lunch club occupies 11.30am to 12.30pm, which makes the midday period an important distinction between the shorter sessions and longer attendance.

A funded daytime session runs from 8.30am to 2.30pm, with paid extensions to 3pm or 3.30pm. Funded morning and afternoon sessions are also offered. Families using funding sign a contract and, when another setting is involved, agree the sessions at each so the funded hours do not overlap.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes the universal entitlement for three- and four-year-olds, eligible two-year-old funding and working-parent funding of up to 30 hours, subject to circumstances. Delivery is term-time. References to younger children in the funding scheme describe the entitlement's scope; they should not be read as the preschool's accepted age range.

Private session prices include the All Inclusive Package. For funded attendance, that package is charged separately, with an explicit option to decline it and supply the required items instead. Snacks are included within the private package; packed lunches come from home. Package consumables, including wipes and sun cream, are included in private session prices and charged separately for funded attendance, with an option to supply them instead. Separately, parents provide nappies and nappy creams for both private and funded sessions. Funded families choosing the package also pay separately for its snacks.

The fees and funding arrangements also separate activity sessions, learning enhancements and event charges. Current prices come in the preschool's written quotation. Payments are normally made ahead of each half term, with weekly payment accepted where advance payment presents difficulty; fees remain payable for illness and family holidays. Staff training days are also charged as ordinary attendance days, so the calendar affects cost as well as childcare cover.

• Term-time cover. Attendance spans 38 weeks and finishes at 3.30pm, even with a full-day booking. At a visit, discuss how the morning, afternoon or longer day would fit your family's routine and term dates.
• Funding package choices. Funded hours and the separately charged All Inclusive Package are different purchases. Ask for a written breakdown showing the opt-out arrangements, activity access and event charges for your chosen sessions.
• Lunches and allergies. Families prepare packed lunches under the preschool's healthy-eating and allergen policy. Confirm current allergy practice, including how other families are informed about foods to avoid.
• Age and settling. The children attending in November 2024 were two to four. Ask which starting ages are currently accepted and how a new child's settling period and key-person relationship are organised.

Highlands Village Pre-School suits families seeking either morning or afternoon sessions, or a full preschool day, within a term-time routine. Responsive play, records shared through TAPESTRY and scheduled activity sessions give it a clear educational shape. The November 2024 Outstanding judgement supports that picture, with concrete examples of communication, independent thinking and imaginative construction.

The choice also carries practical responsibilities: packed lunches, holiday cover and a careful distinction between funded hours and package charges. For families comfortable with those arrangements, the appeal is a preschool day built around children's ideas, with shorter attendance patterns alongside the longer option.