Melrose House Nursery School

An enclosed garden, daily individual teaching and two age-based rooms give Melrose House Nursery School a clear identity: play and preparation for school share the day. This Fulham nursery occupies the ground floor of a private home at 55 Finlay Street, London, SW6 6HF. It has 27 places in total and welcomes children aged two to four.

At its May 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, found safeguarding effective and judged that children, including those with special educational needs and disabilities, made good progress. That is a dated assessment, rather than a verdict on today's practice. The current learning offer includes language work through shared books, stories about emotions and practical environmental projects.

Morning and afternoon sessions run during term time, with an earlier start and a lunchtime extension also offered. The combination gives families several ways to organise attendance, while keeping the nursery's day within a school-term calendar.

Rooms and Ages

Caterpillars accommodates two- to three-year-olds, while Butterflies is for children aged three to four. Both sit within the nursery's ground-floor setting, which has an enclosed garden. The age split gives parents a clear picture of where their child starts and the next group they will join.

Group play accounts for most learning, alongside individual teaching each day. That balance is central to the offer: children learn with others, but also have time working directly with an adult. For the older group, the attendance expectation is five mornings, giving this stage a regular weekly pattern rather than an occasional-session model.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the educational foundation, covering children's language, relationships, movement, early literacy, mathematics, creativity and understanding of the world. In parent terms, learning includes talking, playing, making and becoming more independent, alongside early reading and number work. It is the framework all providers must follow; the named programmes below are additions to it.

Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) Preschool is for children in the year before formal education, usually aged three to four. It adds oral-language teaching through shared books and guided play, with extra targeted help for children who need it. Staff deliver the programme within nursery sessions. This gives language development a practical route through conversation and play, rather than treating it solely as a separate lesson.

Think Equal Programme uses stories to explore emotions and social skills, including empathy, kindness and resilience. Its teaching is woven through sessions. For children learning to play alongside others, the stories provide material for talking about feelings and how their actions affect somebody else.

Early reading follows the Letters and Sounds Phonics programme, taking in Phase 1, Phase 2 and the start of Phase 3. Guidance for families distinguishes saying letter sounds from naming letters, and explains blending for reading and segmenting for spelling. That makes the link between nursery learning and practice at home concrete.

In May 2022, mathematical ideas were introduced during planned activities and spontaneous play, with opportunities to count. Threading and early drawing also gave children practice in coordinating their hands and eyes. These examples show the everyday activities behind early learning, rather than a timetable built only around formal teaching.

Outdoor and Community Life

The sustainability plan makes use of the garden and Fulham Palace, with planned minibeast searches, composting and growing projects. Garden blackberries are intended for baking, while runner beans provide something children can measure as they grow. These are tangible ways to connect food, number work and care for the environment.

Other planned activities include identifying birds with the Little book of bird song and making temporary pictures or patterns from natural materials. The plan also includes watching the life cycle of the Painted Lady butterfly. The emphasis is on things children can observe, collect and change themselves.

In May 2022, garden play included a small hill, ride-on toys, digging for worms and experiments with water and sand. Outings took children to museums and local parks, and visitors shared their expertise. These are inspection-era examples, separate from the current environmental plans.

Relationships and Communication

A member of staff is assigned responsibility for each child's learning and progress. Parents have opportunities for informal classroom conversations, alongside two scheduled parent meetings each year. That gives communication both an everyday route and a more deliberate opportunity to discuss development.

In May 2022, staff monitored children's learning to identify gaps and adjusted their support accordingly. Leaders had also increased communication following parental feedback, helping nursery and home work more consistently together. The useful detail is the response to feedback: communication was treated as something that could be changed, rather than simply an established routine.

In May 2022, teachers visited children at the nursery to help with the move to their next setting, and children practised managing their own personal care. This is transition work, with familiarisation and independence doing practical jobs before the move.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The staff structure includes a SENDCo role, designated safeguarding responsibilities and first aiders. These establish who handles particular responsibilities; the safeguarding judgement belongs to the dated inspection assessment above. The nursery also follows LBHF’s Ordinarily Available Provision Guide, which explains what families can expect from an early years setting.

Support for families includes resources accompanying the two-year-old review. The nursery can help parents with the Ages and Stages Questionnaire used before the health visitor review, while home-learning suggestions cover talking, turn-taking, movement and managing emotions. This connects development discussions with activities parents can use beyond nursery sessions.

Prepared fruit is offered at snack time, and an optional two-course hot lunch is charged separately. Families supply nappies and baby wipes, so these need to be included in the child's daily bag.

Sessions and Attendance

Melrose House opens on weekdays from 8.30am to 3.15pm during term time. Morning sessions run from 9.15am to 12.15pm; afternoon sessions run from 12.15pm to 3.15pm. Both patterns are offered each weekday. Extended mornings start at 8.30am, and Munch Club provides a lunchtime extension from 12.15pm to 1.30pm.

The charging structure offers morning bookings from two to five sessions and afternoon bookings from one to five. The older group's five-morning expectation is a separate attendance consideration. Early starts can be booked for a term or on an ad hoc basis, which gives families a different arrangement from their regular morning or afternoon booking.

Autumn 2026 includes a two-week half-term break, from 19 to 30 October, and ends on 11 December. These closures matter for families arranging work around nursery attendance: term-time provision needs a separate holiday plan.

Getting There

The address is 55 Finlay Street, London, SW6 6HF, at the Bishop's Park end of the street. Admissions and fee enquiries go to fulham@melrose-house.com or 020 7736 9296.

Funding and Paid Extras

The nursery accepts 15 and 30 hour funding for eligible two-, three- and four-year-olds, within its term-time operation. Universal Funding and Extended Funding are identified separately, alongside two-year-old funding. Eligibility still determines which entitlement applies to a family.

Funded hours themselves are free, with an additional services package covering specialist individual English and maths teaching, reports and small-group activities. Kinderama, Teddy Tennis, Rhyme Time, Little Kickers and Yoga are named within that package. These activities are charged through the additional services package. Hot lunch is a separate optional charge, and parents provide nappies and wipes, including for funded attendance.

Fees are charged by term and fall due at its start. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the fees page sets out the charging structure.

A registration charge joins a child to the waiting list, and a successful application normally requires a deposit. Neither charge applies when the application is for a fully funded space. The deposit is returned in the child's final term, but is retained if a confirmed child does not start. Once attendance begins, leaving requires written notice of one term or payment for that term instead.

• Group learning and disagreements. In May 2022, distractions sometimes interrupted shared activities, and adults occasionally stepped into play disputes before children had time to work out solutions. Ask how group sessions are organised now and how staff help children resolve disagreements themselves.
• Term-time attendance. Butterflies has a five-morning expectation, and the autumn calendar includes a two-week half-term closure. Discuss the intended weekly pattern during a tour and plan holiday cover around the term dates.
• Funded care and additions. Funded hours are free; the additional services package and optional hot lunch are charged separately. Parents supply nappies and baby wipes. Request a written quotation that separates the chosen sessions, funded hours and services package.
• Settling into Caterpillars. The younger room starts at age two, with an assigned adult overseeing each child's learning. During a tour, ask how settling visits and the first separations are arranged for your child; term-time tours are offered on weekday mornings except Wednesdays.

Melrose House suits families seeking term-time morning or afternoon sessions, with an early start or Munch Club extension where needed. Daily individual teaching, language enrichment and story-based emotional learning give the educational offer substance, while the enclosed garden and environmental plans provide practical experiences beyond early reading and maths.

The May 2022 Good judgement is useful context, with clear improvement points around shared activities and children's handling of disagreements. For families whose calendar fits the term-time model and older-room attendance expectation, this is a nursery with a clearly defined balance of group play, individual work and preparation for school.