Fledglings at The Palace Day Nursery

Palace gardens, ducks and a wooded garden give Fledglings at The Palace Day Nursery a character that reaches well beyond its playrooms. Within the grounds of Fulham Palace, beside Bishops Park, outdoor exploration extends to picnics and visits to the surrounding gardens, including for the youngest children. This is a setting for families who want nature to be part of ordinary nursery life.

Children are accepted from six months to five years. At its November 2021 inspection, Ofsted judged the nursery Good, found safeguarding effective and assessed support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities positively. That is a dated judgement, rather than an assessment of today's practice.

Wrens and Robins provide environments for babies and toddlers, while preschool activities include early writing, construction and science. Attendance can be full-time or part-time, with term-time and year-round arrangements. The strongest thread running through the offer is exploration: children have space to investigate materials, follow their interests and learn outdoors.

Rooms and Ages

Wrens, the baby room, combines movement and exploration areas with a quieter place for rest and books, using resources such as nesting cups, soft blocks and push-and-pull toys to support physical discovery and handling objects. These are different ways into learning for children who are still discovering what their bodies and hands can do.

Robins, the toddler room, brings together climbing structures and riding toys, puzzles and stacking resources, pretend kitchen equipment, puppets and musical instruments, giving active play, language and imagination their own materials. For toddlers, that means opportunities to move between physical exploration and quieter activities rather than relying on one kind of play.

Preschool learning emphasises independence alongside designing, imaginative play, mathematics and early writing, so preparation for school includes investigating ideas as well as developing practical skills. The room's emphasis is on children becoming more capable participants in their own day. It is a progression in what children are encouraged to attempt, rather than simply a longer list of activities.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the framework for learning and care: children develop through play, exploration, communication and increasingly independent activity. Alongside this shared foundation, the Reggio Emilia Approach places emphasis here on creativity, collaboration and exploration led by children; Forest School principles add outdoor experiences, managed risk and investigation of the natural world.

The practical detail matters more than the labels. Children can develop their own games, notice seasonal changes and test ideas through everyday problems. Open-ended resources allow different answers, while activities chosen by children can continue when their interest holds. The curriculum overview sets out this emphasis on curiosity, persistence and trying ideas in practice.

Cooking, stories, jigsaws, water play and music sit within a structured but adaptable routine. Staff use observations and children's interests to shape subsequent activities, and work with their key children during the day. Small-group experiences sit alongside independent investigation and play supported by an adult. This gives the timetable a clear purpose while allowing an absorbing activity to continue.

In November 2021, children investigated weight with balance scales, discussing how to change the position of the two sides. At the November 2021 inspection, Ofsted identified inconsistent adult interaction during play and asked for more effective planning to develop children's communication and language. Some practitioners extended vocabulary actively, but others missed opportunities by watching rather than joining the conversation.

Outdoor and Community Life

The garden includes a wooded area and mud kitchens, with den building, leaf pictures and imaginative play among the outdoor activities. Ducks and rabbits also form part of learning about animal care. These are concrete reasons for the outdoor emphasis: children can build, handle natural materials and take part in caring tasks, rather than simply have a break outside.

Bishops Park, the River Thames and Fulham Palace extend the places used for outdoor experiences. Visits to the palace gardens and picnics give even babies opportunities beyond the playrooms. No fixed outing frequency is implied by that offer.

In November 2021, garden play included balancing on beams, moving leaves in toy trucks and aiming balls through hoops. Children also explored autumn leaves and helped care for ducks. Those examples show how movement and attention to the natural world were combined at that time.

Relationships and Communication

A key person works with each family on a child's learning journey, collecting information about interests, needs and achievements. Parents and the key person then decide together how to support the next stage of development. This makes communication useful for planning, rather than limiting it to an account of which activities took place.

Settling is planned around the individual child, with time to become familiar with the surroundings, the wider team and the key person. That personal connection is the organising principle of care. For babies, a daily log covers sleep, feeding, toileting and learning, allowing parents to follow routines as well as developmental experiences.

In November 2021, families received spoken updates and information through an app about the day's activities. Staff knew children closely and used encouragement when children helped one another or managed everyday tasks. This historical picture complements the current key-person arrangements, but should be read with its date attached.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

In November 2021, staff worked with other professionals and used their recommended strategies for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Current staff training includes special educational needs, paediatric first aid and safeguarding. References and Disclosure and Barring Service checks form part of recruitment arrangements. These describe the mechanisms in place; the safeguarding judgement belongs to the dated inspection above.

Independence has practical expression. In November 2021, children helped prepare tables, collected coats and attempted to put on outdoor clothing with adult encouragement. Babies practised moving over a ramp and around furniture. Such experiences gave children opportunities to attempt manageable tasks and practise movement within ordinary routines.

A chef prepares food in the nursery kitchen, with seasonal menus rotating over four weeks and meals spanning breakfast, a two-course lunch and tea, alongside fruit snacks, milk and water. Special diets such as vegetarian and dairy-free are catered for, while staff work with parents on weaning and babies' feeding preferences.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Bishops Avenue, Fulham, London SW6 6EA. Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Flexible full-time and part-time packages sit alongside term-time and year-round attendance, so the offer serves different working and family routines. These opening hours describe the operating day; they are separate from the package a family books.

Bank holidays and Christmas are closure periods. Families can contact the nursery on 020 7101 2035 or through FledglingsFulham@cbcservices.org.uk, and a callback route is also offered. For those organising care around work, the distinction between an attendance package and the opening window is central to comparing arrangements.

Getting There

Putney Bridge Station is the named Tube connection, and the nursery sits within Fulham Palace grounds beside Bishops Park. That palace-and-park setting is both a location detail and part of the children's outdoor experiences.

Funding and Paid Extras

Nursery education grant funding is accepted for eligible children, and childcare vouchers are accepted too. Eligibility remains a condition of grant-funded childcare. Families comparing paid attendance should use the nursery's current written quotation, with the booked pattern and any additional charges considered together.

• Language during play. The November 2021 improvement point concerned inconsistent adult interaction. On a visit, ask how practitioners now extend conversation during activities chosen by children.
• A nature-led day. The wooded garden, animal care and outings are substantial parts of the offer. Discuss how outdoor experiences work for your child's age and comfort with active exploration.
• Babies' routines. Individual settling and daily care logs provide a useful starting point. Ask how your baby's sleep and feeding routines will be incorporated into Wrens.
• The attendance quotation. Full-time, part-time and term-time arrangements create different comparisons. Request one written breakdown covering your chosen pattern, funded hours where eligible, meals and non-food consumables.

Fledglings suits families seeking either full-time or part-time attendance, including those choosing term-time care and those needing a year-round arrangement. Its clearest appeal is the combination of palace surroundings, a wooded garden and learning that encourages children to investigate and create.

The key-person system and individual settling arrangements give that active day a personal structure. The November 2021 Good judgement is useful context, but the language-interaction improvement point deserves attention alongside it. For parents drawn to outdoor childhood experiences, the named places and practical activities give this nursery a clear identity.