Little Angels Day Nursery & Pre-School Highbury

A former fire station gives Little Angels Highbury its character: open-plan play spaces, a covered garden used throughout the year and a quiet cot room make this Blackstock Road setting more than a collection of nursery classrooms. Outdoor play has a practical advantage here. The cover gives children somewhere to move and explore across the seasons, while babies have a calmer space for sleep.

At its January 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Outstanding overall and praised the carefully sequenced curriculum and children's preparation for their next stage of education. The educational substance matters more than the label: stories, conversation, physical exploration and activities built around children's interests all featured in the day.

The current age range is three to 60 months. Standard days, shorter School Day patterns and additional morning and afternoon sessions give families different ways to organise attendance, although the nursery's regular timetable and additional-session offer need to be distinguished.

Rooms and Ages

Highbury has a Baby Room, Green Room, Quiet Room and Preschool Room. Open-plan main rooms give children space for shared play, while a preschool classroom provides a separate setting for older children's activities. The converted fire station accommodates several kinds of nursery space rather than relying on a single room for every part of the day.

A dedicated cot room gives babies a quieter place for sleep alongside the play provision. That separation matters for families weighing how rest fits into an active nursery day: the building makes room for both. The covered garden adds another setting for play throughout the year, extending the spaces children can use beyond the main rooms.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care: in everyday terms, play and interaction support their growing communication, physical abilities and understanding. Highbury adds specialist French, music, sport and drama sessions to that foundation. These group-wide extras, repeated in Highbury's own offer, give children experiences beyond the resources and activities led by their usual practitioners.

Babies have group-wide music classes called Mabel's Monsters Music and Stephano the Frog Prince. The useful detail is that these are music sessions for babies; the names alone do not establish a particular teaching method. For children over two, the additional experiences include library visits and visits from theatre companies, musicians and animal or reptile teams. Bringing visitors into the nursery adds encounters that do not depend on taking every child out of the building.

In January 2024, children used painting and play dough as opportunities to count, shared songs with adults and explored stories through drama, puppets and props. Children also brought books to adults themselves, making storytelling something they initiated as well as something staff organised. That combination gives children several ways to participate: listening, speaking, making and acting.

Outdoor and Community Life

The covered garden is a substantial part of Highbury's offer, not simply an outdoor area reserved for dry weather. Together with the open-plan rooms, it gives children different settings for play within the same building and grounds. For a family choosing an urban nursery, dependable access to outdoor space is a meaningful practical consideration.

In January 2024, outdoor activity included running, climbing and larger physical play. Children also explored life in London and shared learning about festivals including Diwali and Eid. These experiences connected physical activity and conversation with the world beyond the nursery, while giving families' different backgrounds a place in children's learning.

Relationships and Communication

In January 2024, staff gathered detailed information from parents before children started, including worries about beginning nursery, and used it to support settling. Babies showed familiarity with adults beyond their key person, while staff helped them practise emerging movement skills. For parents, the important combination was personal knowledge of the child and relationships across the staff caring for them.

Communication also extended beyond a conversation at the end of the day. In January 2024, families received photographs and information about learning, and could borrow resources dealing with dental hygiene, healthy eating and toilet training. These were practical materials for changes happening at home as well as at nursery, helping parents connect the two parts of a child's day.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the January 2024 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and identified effective SEND support, with staff and special educational needs coordinators using their knowledge of individual children to select suitable strategies. That is a dated judgement about practice, rather than a general promise that every child's needs will be met in the same way.

There was also a development point beneath the positive findings. In January 2024, staff training was still developing the consistency with which adults used interactions to extend children's communication and language, including for children learning English as an additional language. Families whose main concern is speech or language should make that part of their discussion about their child's day.

The on-site chef cooks meals daily in the nursery's professional kitchen, and standard fees include food and drink, including fruit snacks and cow or oat milk. Specialist or prescribed infant formula comes from parents; ordinary infant formula, nappies and wipes form part of the standard provision.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 217 Blackstock Road, Highbury, London N5 2LL. Bookings include full days under the Standard Day timetable, shorter School Days and additional morning and afternoon sessions. Standard Day choices are 8am–5.30pm, 8.30am–6pm and 8.45am–6.15pm; School Days for children aged three to five run from 9am–3pm or 10am–4pm. Alternative daily attendance times are arranged monthly, which makes the agreed timetable important for families whose working hours vary.

The additional-session booking options are the Morning Session, from 8.30am to 1pm, and the Afternoon Session, from 1pm to 6pm. Extended days can combine an 8am start with collection at 6.15pm. Extensions to alternative daily arrangements are booked monthly, with a full week's notice before the month begins for changes; one-off extensions require 24 hours' notice and depend on availability. These are booking conditions, rather than an assurance that a particular session can be secured.

Fees are calculated across 49 weeks and paid monthly in advance by standing order. Days cannot be swapped, and holidays or sickness do not reduce fees. That makes the usual weekly pattern a financial decision as well as a childcare arrangement.

Funding and Paid Extras

Eligible children can use funded childcare through the 15- and 30-hour arrangements. Partly funded fees include voluntary charges for consumables and services, with an opt-out route: meals and non-food consumables are therefore separately chargeable extras within the funded arrangement, even though they are incorporated into the quoted partly funded price. Additional private care is also offered.

Standard fees include food, drink and stationery, art and craft materials. Nappies, wipes and ordinary infant formula are provided as standard; parents supply specialist or prescribed infant formula. Specialist lessons and the stated visits are included too. Families should compare the whole arrangement rather than treating funded hours, private hours and extras as a single category.

A non-refundable registration charge applies after acceptance of a standard or partly funded place, while fully funded places are exempt. Deposits are refundable subject to the stated conditions: the usual deposit depends on written notice of two calendar months when leaving, and an additional deposit for funded or partly funded places is returned after the first term's attendance. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the Highbury fees page explains the charge structure.

• Regular days and additional sessions. Highbury offers several Standard Day timings, School Days and additional morning or afternoon sessions. At a visit, establish how the pattern you want fits the regular booking arrangement, rather than assuming the additional-session menu works as a standing weekly place.
• Funding and daily supplies. Partly funded prices contain voluntary consumables and service charges, while specialist formula comes from home. Discuss the opt-out arrangements and your child's dietary needs together so the quotation reflects the care you intend to use.
• Speech and language. In January 2024, extending language through staff interactions remained a training priority. Ask how practitioners now build conversation into your child's room and how any individual communication needs would shape that work.
• Commitment to a weekly pattern. Booked days cannot be swapped, absence does not reduce fees and leaving requires the stated notice. Weigh those terms against irregular work schedules before accepting a place.

Highbury suits families choosing full days under its Standard Day timetable or shorter School Days, with additional mornings and afternoons also offered. The covered garden, separate cot space and specialist activities give families concrete reasons to consider it. Its January 2024 Outstanding judgement gives the offer a substantial inspection foundation.

The strongest combination is physical space and educational variety: outdoor play has weather protection, babies have their own sleep provision, and older children encounter music, drama, French and visits alongside everyday learning. The decision is also contractual. A family needs the session pattern, funding extras and notice terms to fit its circumstances as convincingly as the nursery experience does.