Playdays Preschool, St James, Collier Row

A spacious garden and a hall arranged for children to choose their own play give this preschool its character. In April 2025, children explored flowers, grass and muddy ground outside, while indoors they moved between activities rather than staying with a single task. The appeal is practical: room to move, things to investigate and opportunities to play together.

Ofsted rated the preschool Good on 23 April 2025, judged safeguarding effective and identified a need for staff to stretch children's learning further through their conversations. That gives families a positive inspection position with a specific improvement point to weigh.

Playdays Preschool, St James, Collier Row accepts children aged 24 to 60 months and has 30 places in total. It operates during term time, with morning, afternoon and full-day attendance patterns.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage is the statutory framework for children's learning and care, bringing learning through play together with support for their development. Here, the April 2025 day combined activities chosen by children with group reading, drawing and pretend play. Those experiences gave children different ways to practise language, movement and working alongside others.

In April 2025, the large hall was arranged so children could move between learning activities and decide what to do. Resources had to be put away at the end of each day. The layout gave children space to choose their play during the session.

Drawing flowers gave children practice using their hands with precision. In the pretend home area, small groups shared resources and took turns. These were everyday experiences with clear purposes: developing coordination through drawing and practising cooperation through play.

During April 2025 group reading, children answered questions about the weather and the day of the week. Conversations also covered behaviour rules and consideration for others. Books and discussion therefore sat alongside play, giving children opportunities to listen, respond and talk about how they treated one another.

Outdoor and Community Life

In April 2025, the garden offered grass, flowers, large trees and muddy areas to explore. Children asked questions about the trees and talked about what they noticed. Exploring nature gave children things to talk about as well as textures to investigate.

There was space to run and change direction, and children worked together with large building bricks. Outdoor play involved both physical movement and negotiation: deciding how to build something together required children to exchange ideas and share the task.

Relationships and Communication

In April 2025, staff encouraged independence through small routines, including children putting away their own coats and bags. Relationships between children and staff supported confidence, while children showed consideration towards adults and one another. Care and learning were closely connected through these ordinary parts of the day.

Parents received development updates through conversations each day and a messaging app. Children also took home bags of educational activities. In April 2025, these arrangements gave families both information about preschool learning and something concrete to continue together at home.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At its April 2025 inspection, Ofsted found good support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), with individual learning plans, early involvement of other professionals, parents included in decisions and good progress from children's starting points. Additional funding was used for resources to support development, making the support more specific than a general promise of inclusion.

In April 2025, visual cards and signing helped children communicate their ideas. These offered alternatives to speech alone. Staff knew children's stages of development, but sometimes missed opportunities to take an exchange further and extend what a child could learn.

Sessions and Attendance

The preschool is based at St James Family Church, 173 Chase Cross Road, Collier Row, Romford, RM5 3YR. It opens Monday to Friday during term time and closes for school holidays, so families need an attendance plan that fits those breaks.

Morning sessions run from 8.30am to 11.30am. Afternoon sessions run from 11.35am to 2.35pm, while the full day runs from 8.30am to 2.35pm. These are separate booking patterns, giving families a choice between a shorter session and attendance across the preschool day.

The branch telephone number is 07739 595556.

Funding and Paid Extras

In April 2025, the setting accepted early education funding for eligible children. Eligibility remains a condition of that funding. For any paid childcare, obtain a current written quotation from the nursery.

• Extending learning. The April 2025 improvement point concerned missed chances to build on children's interests during conversations. On a visit, ask how staff now develop a child's idea into a more challenging activity or discussion.
• A hall used for preschool. In April 2025, the indoor activities were packed away daily. Consider how the session layout and freedom to choose activities would suit your child.
• Term-time planning. Morning, afternoon and full-day sessions sit within a term-time service. School-holiday closures matter when matching childcare to work commitments.
• Food and everyday supplies. When considering a morning session versus a full day, ask how food and non-food supplies are arranged and what the attendance quotation includes.

This preschool suits families seeking morning or afternoon sessions, as well as a full preschool day during term time. Its April 2025 strengths were tangible: a garden used for exploration, indoor play with room for choice, communication aids and individual support plans. The point to weigh is equally concrete: how consistently staff turn children's interests into further learning. That is the most useful lens for a visit.