Leading Strings Preschool

Playdough beside felt-tip pens, books carried home and an outside area give Leading Strings Preschool a recognisable character: learning grows out of things children can handle, talk about and explore. This Palmers Green preschool takes children from two years old until school age, with an emphasis on play and children's own interests.

At its 4 April 2025 inspection, Ofsted judged the provision Good and found safeguarding effective. The strongest practical detail is the connection between everyday play and early language, writing and number work. There is also a clear caution about how consistently adult-led activities turn children's enthusiasm into learning.

Morning, afternoon and full-day sessions run during term time. For families fitting preschool around a school calendar, that provides genuinely different attendance options rather than a single daily pattern.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS brings together children's learning and development through play, including communication, physical skills, relationships, literacy and mathematics. Here, children can pursue an interest of their own as well as take part in activities organised by adults. A conversation, a drawing or a counting game can therefore serve more than one area of learning.

National Strategy Phase 1 Letters & Sounds adds a specific approach to early literacy: children listen to surrounding sounds, explore rhyme and alliteration, and enjoy spoken words. The emphasis is on listening and speaking as foundations for reading. Mark-making also reaches beyond a separate writing activity, with pens alongside playdough and opportunities to make marks in coloured sand.

Mathematics has similarly practical starting points. Children can use scales during home-corner play or explore measuring while baking cupcakes. Physical counting games connect numbers with the children taking part, giving an abstract idea something concrete to attach to.

In April 2025, children gathered coloured items for a rainbow activity and counted what they had collected, then made a record of it. During another activity, an imagined jungle journey prompted them to look for animals. These examples show the variety of ways play can invite children to describe, count and represent their ideas.

The April 2025 inspection also identified unclear learning aims in some planned activities and uneven organisation of group play, including role play and cycling outdoors, and asked for sharper planning to sustain children's participation. Enthusiasm alone was not the issue. The question was how well an activity helped different children take their learning further.

Outdoor and Community Life

In April 2025, children could move between the hall and garden, with opportunities for movement, dance and stretching. Exploring soil prompted conversations about insects. Time outdoors therefore contributed both physical activity and things to investigate and discuss.

Adult-led outdoor activities can include growing vegetables or caring for plants. Inside, threading and weaving sit alongside climbing and balancing in the physical programme. Yoga is another activity used when discussing exercise and health, rather than a separately described course.

The preschool belongs to the Enfield Early Years Development Childcare Partnership, connecting it with other local early-years settings and schools and providing teacher involvement and staff training opportunities. This is a professional link, not a named route into a particular school.

Relationships and Communication

A key worker takes particular responsibility for each child's needs and interests, discussing these with parents and using observations and assessments to plan what comes next. That gives families a consistent person to talk to about their child's experience.

Communication has several concrete forms. Tapestry is an online journal containing observations, assessments, photographs and videos. My Special Book collects children's work, photographs, keepsakes and their own words in a scrapbook built with their key worker. Parents can contribute information before observations and add photographs from home, so learning records can include what matters beyond preschool.

Home Reading club lets children select a book to share at home, with a comment book for families to record their response. Open weeks usually take place once each term, allowing parents to join their child's play, meet friends and discuss development with staff. These are useful opportunities to connect a written learning record with the child's activities and relationships.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

A nominated SENCO works within arrangements that involve parents and other professionals supporting a child. The preschool follows the SEND Code of Practice, 2014. This provides a named responsibility and a route for collaboration around individual needs, rather than a blanket promise about support.

Behaviour is addressed through praise and discussion: staff talk through what happened, how another person might have felt and what could have been done differently. In April 2025, older children included younger children in their play and waited for turns. Staff also gave children time to answer questions during conversations.

In April 2025, six childcare staff worked at the preschool. Snack-time activities included handwashing, discussions about germs and guidance on safely cutting fruit. These are dated examples of care and independence being taught together.

Two-year-old progress reports and reports for children moving into Reception are discussed with parents. End-of-year meetings provide another opportunity for feedback, supporting continuity as children approach their next stage.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is St. John's Church Hall, 1 Bourne Hill, Palmer Green, London N13 4DA. Opening hours are 9am to 3pm, Monday to Friday, during term time. The preschool operates for 38 weeks, following local-authority school terms, and closes for five INSET days during the school year.

A full-day booking runs from 9am to 3pm. Morning sessions run from 9am to midday, while afternoon sessions run from midday to 3pm. Lunch Club extends morning attendance from midday to 12.30pm and is charged separately. It provides a short addition to the morning pattern rather than requiring a full afternoon booking.

A registration form is required, and enquiries can be made through the contact form, by telephone or by email. Clothes should suit active play, with outer layers labelled; protective clothing is supplied for messy activities. Preschool sweatshirts and T-shirts are also offered for purchase.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes Terrific Twos, provision for three- and four-year-olds and 30 hours funding; the preschool also offers paying places. Its funding arrangements include 15 hours for two-year-olds and three- and four-year-olds, with delivery during term time. For bookings using the 15-hour entitlement, attendance beyond those funded hours is charged privately.

A termly consumables fee applies. Current prices come in the preschool's written quotation. Fees are collected in advance on a four- or five-week cycle, and missed attendance does not attract a refund or deduction, including absence through illness or family holidays; missed sessions cannot be exchanged or made up.

• Purposeful group activities. April 2025 highlighted the need for clearer learning intentions and better organisation of group play. On a visit, ask how an activity is adapted when children have different interests or levels of participation.
• The term-time calendar. Attendance follows 38 weeks of local school terms, with five INSET closures. Families needing holiday care will need to plan around that calendar.
• Lunch and funded costs. Lunch Club is charged separately and extends a morning booking, while consumables are charged each term. Ask what food arrangements apply to your chosen sessions and how your funded booking's charges are itemised.
• Absence and payment. Advance fees are not reduced for missed attendance, and sessions cannot be swapped or recovered. That matters when comparing booking patterns around family commitments.

Leading Strings suits families seeking morning sessions, afternoon sessions or a full preschool day within the school-term calendar. Its appeal lies in practical learning activities and concrete ways for parents to follow and contribute to their child's development: shared books, digital observations, scrapbooks and open weeks.

The balance is clear. Children's interests have room to shape the day, while the April 2025 priorities put adult planning and group participation under scrutiny. Families who value play-based learning and regular communication have useful reasons to consider it, alongside a specific question about how planned activities now work for different children.