St Mary's Preschool and Playscheme

A pretend shop, individual coat hooks and daily key-person updates give St Mary's Preschool and Playscheme its character: play with a practical purpose, alongside close contact with home. Based at St Mary's Church on Upper Street in Islington, it caters for children aged two to four and has 27 places in total. This is preschool provision rather than baby care.

At its September 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the setting Good and found safeguarding effective. The practical strengths are easy to understand: children have indoor and outdoor activities, parents receive daily updates, and the Blossoms assessment app lets families follow progress and contribute to planning.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage connects learning, development and care: here, children practise communication, social skills and independence through play and everyday routines. Weekly activity plans are displayed on the preschool noticeboard, giving parents a concrete view of what their child is doing. Activities include individual exploration and group play, with some adapted for different ages and abilities.

The pretend shop brings several kinds of learning together. Children allocate roles, organise goods, create labels and handle make-believe transactions. There is a reason to talk, negotiate and sort things, rather than simply repeat an adult's instructions. Choosing activities and putting toys away also give children responsibilities within the room.

In September 2025, stories and songs gave children opportunities to join conversations, while dough play introduced words for different sizes. A paired ball-catching activity encouraged children to work together and discuss how to catch successfully. These are small, concrete examples of learning through interaction, with adults taking part in the play.

Outdoor and Community Life

Running, climbing and games form part of the preschool programme, supporting balance and coordination. Indoor and outdoor activity are both part of the day, so learning is not confined to a table or a group session.

In September 2025, children exercised daily in the garden, explored how much water different containers held, and used a large climbing frame with steps and a slide. Water play gave an everyday route into understanding capacity; climbing offered a physical challenge. Those examples show how the outdoor space served both movement and exploration at that time.

A key person is each family's individual contact, responsible for discussing concerns and sharing information about the child's day. That gives parents a clear relationship to build, rather than relying solely on whoever happens to be free. Blossoms adds another channel: families can follow assessments and take part in planning, while daily key-person updates cover the child's immediate experience.

In September 2025, settling included home visits and a gradual introduction to preschool. Staff also used observations and assessments to plan children's next steps, and encouraged parents to continue learning at home. The combination connected what adults knew about a child across both settings.

Independence is an explicit part of the current programme. Each child has a coat hook, opportunities to help and responsibility for tidying before changing activities. However, in September 2025, adults sometimes completed manageable tasks for children and missed signs that some were losing interest during organised activities. The improvement priorities were to involve children more consistently in group learning and give them more responsibility for routine tasks. For families, the key distinction is between offering a task and allowing a child time to attempt it.

Sessions and Attendance

The preschool opens during term time, Monday to Friday, from 9am to 4pm. Its address is St Mary's Church, Upper Street, London, N1 2TX. Preschool enquiries go to childrensbookings@stmaryislington.org or 020 7704 1895, with contact hours also running from 9am to 4pm on weekdays.

Getting There

Angel Station serves the Northern Line; Highbury & Islington Station has Victoria, Overground and National Rail services. Buses 4, 19, 30 and 43 stop on Upper Street outside the site.

Parking is restricted to permit holders, and a charge applies to vehicles parked without a valid permit. Blue badges do not serve as parking permits on this site, so families travelling by car need to factor that restriction into their routine.

Funding and Paid Extras

In September 2025, the preschool received funding for free early education for children aged two, three and four. That establishes its participation at that date, rather than an individual child's entitlement.

• Children staying involved. In September 2025, staff sometimes missed children losing concentration in planned activities. On a visit, ask how practitioners adapt a group activity when a child disengages.
• Doing things for themselves. Adults occasionally took over tasks children could attempt in September 2025. Ask how routines now give children time to manage their own belongings and help with everyday jobs.
• Term-time planning and costs. The preschool's opening schedule follows term time. Before joining, ask which booking pattern and funded arrangement would fit your family, and request a written quotation covering additional hours, food and consumables.

St Mary's suits families seeking term-time preschool for children aged two to four, with play-based learning and regular communication with a key person. The pretend shop, everyday responsibilities and Blossoms app make the educational and parent-partnership approach tangible. Its September 2025 improvement priorities remain useful visit questions: how adults keep every child involved, and how much children are allowed to do for themselves.