Faith & Love Nursery

Faith & Love Nursery pairs a Christian character with an explicit welcome to families of all faiths. This 37-place setting at The Apostolic Church in Burnt Oak, Edgware, accepts children from six months to four years and opens on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Its April 2026 Ofsted report card found safeguarding standards met and judged every evaluated area at the expected standard. Children were making appropriate progress, forming secure relationships and gaining communication, physical and self-care skills. The two next steps are meaningful: adults need to give children more opportunity to try tasks independently, and long group times need better adjustment for younger children.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the structure for learning through play across communication, physical development, literacy, mathematics, understanding the world, expressive arts and personal, social and emotional development. Faith & Love adds Christian principles and an emphasis on confident, independent leadership, while stating that children from all faiths and backgrounds are included.

A published day moves between indoor play, circle time, snacks, outdoor play, lunch, sleep and further indoor or outdoor activity. In April 2026, inspectors saw younger children use gardening tools to scoop soil and plant potatoes. They also recorded sensory play, play dough connected to familiar stories and older children recognising their names. These are practical experiences with a clear purpose: vocabulary, sequencing, physical control and early literacy grow through activity rather than worksheets.

Staff adjusted their language and questions to each child's development in April 2026. Role play helped children practise expressing needs and ideas, while name recognition and everyday self-care strengthened readiness for the next stage.

Settling is unusually concrete. The nursery publishes three consecutive, one-hour settling sessions at no charge, with a parent able to stay for the first ten minutes of the first session if needed. Inspectors found that staff knew children well, comforted younger children sensitively and followed home sleep and feeding routines. Babies received responsive support from a key person.

Inclusion is a solid part of the April 2026 picture. Staff used visual timetables, flashcards, quiet spaces and small-group sensory sessions, and worked with early-years advisers and speech and language services. This helped children with SEND and those learning English to communicate and participate. Parents were kept involved through daily discussions and online systems.

The private online journal gives that communication a defined rhythm, with photos, videos and observations posted every other week and space for parents to add material from home. This can make the link between home and nursery more useful than a simple end-of-day handover.

Safeguarding standards were met in the April 2026 report. At the same time, parents should take the improvement points seriously. Adults sometimes intervened too quickly, and some large-group periods did not sustain younger children's attention. Those findings matter because confidence grows when children are allowed time to attempt a task themselves.

Sessions and Attendance

Faith & Love is open from 7.30am to 6pm on Monday to Wednesday and closed on Thursday and Friday. Published options include a full day from 8am to 6pm; morning patterns from 8am to 1pm, 9am to noon and 9am to 2pm; and afternoon patterns from 1pm to 6pm, 1pm to 4pm, 2pm to 6pm and 3pm to 6pm. That is genuine choice within a three-day week, but not five-day provision.

The enrolment process includes an application, a registration stage, a parent contract and identity documentation for the child. Families using government-funded hours also provide the relevant declaration. Provider-specific costs and the way funded hours fit each session require a current quotation. The nursery lists separate charges for lunch, snacks and tea.

Getting There

The address is The Apostolic Church, Oakleigh Avenue, Edgware, HA8 5DT. The nursery website provides an enquiry form that also accepts tour requests.

• Three-day week. The nursery opens Monday to Wednesday only. Families needing Thursday or Friday care will require another arrangement.
• Independence and group times. The April 2026 next steps ask staff to let children attempt more tasks independently and shorten or adapt large-group periods for younger children. Ask what has changed in daily practice since then.
• Faith in practice. The setting welcomes all faiths but teaches in a Christian context. Ask how this shapes stories, celebrations and the daily routine if that distinction matters to your family.

Faith & Love Nursery has a distinct proposition: a small, three-day setting with a Christian ethos, broad session choice and current inspection evidence showing expected standards across all evaluated areas. Its settling plan, visual communication supports and purposeful planting and sensory work give families useful specifics. It best suits parents seeking Monday-to-Wednesday full days, shorter mornings or afternoon sessions, and who value faith-informed learning within an inclusive intake. The published improvement points on independence and younger children's group times should be part of any tour conversation.