The Marmalade Duck

A weekly morning in Holland Park gives The Marmalade Duck an outdoor anchor beyond its church-hall home. Children spend that morning with a trained Forest School leader, while specialist activities include French and Ballet. Back at St Barnabas Church Hall, a spacious, light hall and a dedicated outdoor area behind the church provide two different settings for play.

At its March 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Outstanding across all assessed areas and found safeguarding effective. The detail behind that judgement matters: children explored storytelling, practised new vocabulary through games and learnt to consider other people's feelings. This was an ambitious early-years experience with practical activities alongside language and social development.

The nursery has capacity for 40 children in total; children attending in March 2025 were aged 2 to 4. It operates during term time, with opening hours of 8am to 4pm on weekdays.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the framework for children's learning, development and care. In everyday terms, this brings language, physical activity, relationships and early learning together rather than treating nursery as a sequence of formal lessons. At The Marmalade Duck, activities are adapted for individual children, and practitioners work both with groups and with children separately. The practical benefit is room for a child to tackle an activity at their own pace.

In March 2025, weekly clubs brought together ballet, sport, gardening and cooking. These gave children different ways to explore their interests: movement sat alongside growing things and preparing food. Language work was equally practical. Younger children used coloured scarves in a game about body parts, hearing new words and then using them themselves. The activity turned vocabulary into something children could act out.

Storytelling had a tangible form in March 2025. Children used story stones to invent characters and plots, then preserved their ideas through drawings and words. Frequent songs, poems and books supplied more material for their own stories. Recordings of favourite songs and books were accessible to parents online, allowing familiar nursery material to be shared at home.

Specialist-led French and Ballet add further activities to the current offer. Their value here is the opportunity to work with specialist teachers, rather than a claim about language fluency or performance. The breadth of experiences is clear; the March 2025 examples show how staff connected activities with children's developing interests.

Outdoor and Community Life

Holland Park is part of the weekly routine, with one morning led by a trained Forest School leader. This is a recurring outdoor session rather than an occasional excursion. The nursery's own outdoor space also gives children somewhere to play beyond the main hall, so outdoor experiences have both a local destination and a base at nursery.

In March 2025, environmental learning included a visit to a local charity shop to explore recycling. Children also made bird feeders and bug houses for the garden. These were concrete ways to connect care for the wider world with something a young child could do themselves.

Family traditions supplied another route into learning in March 2025. Parents and carers contributed food, objects and stories when children explored Hanukkah and Lunar New Year. Children also recalled greetings in different languages. These experiences gave discussions about families and cultures a personal connection rather than leaving them as abstract topics.

Relationships and Communication

Practitioners are available for daily conversations with parents. Tapestry, the online platform used to exchange information about children's learning, adds another channel between home and nursery. Together, daily conversations and Tapestry give parents two ways to exchange information with the nursery.

In March 2025, home visits before children started helped staff understand family life and begin relationships in familiar surroundings. Support for parents extended to communication, behaviour and toilet training. These are practical concerns that can affect both nursery participation and life at home, making the connection between the two especially useful.

Parents also take part in nursery activities, and an active PTA creates opportunities for families to get involved. The annual calendar includes Grandparents' Day in October, an Open Ballet Lesson in February and Sports Day in June. These give families different ways to share children's experiences, from watching an activity to participating in a wider nursery event.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

In March 2025, the welcome table helped children identify how they were feeling, giving practitioners a starting point for conversations when a child needed help settling or managing an emotion. The bee code taught consideration through being helpful, kind and thoughtful. Both arrangements translated expectations into things young children could recognise and practise.

Exploration of different family structures, cultures and languages also formed part of daily life in March 2025. Children had opportunities to discuss similarities and differences through their own experiences. That matters for belonging: a child's family could contribute to what the group learnt, rather than simply being background information held by staff.

The Marmalade Duck operates at St Barnabas Church Hall, 23 Addison Road, London W14 8LH, near Holland Park. Opening hours are 8am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, during term time. That term-time rhythm is a central consideration for families planning care across the year.

Registration enquiries can be submitted through the nursery's interest form, and the branch email is marmaladeduck@gmail.com. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

In March 2025, the nursery offered government-funded childcare for children aged two, three and four. That is a dated participation position rather than a promise of an entitlement or a particular funded booking arrangement for an individual family.

• Term-time planning. The nursery operates during term time, with weekday opening hours ending at 4pm. At a visit, discuss the attendance pattern you need and how it fits your family's working day and holiday arrangements.
• Funded attendance and extras. Government-funded childcare was part of the offer in March 2025. Ask how your child's entitlement would fit the proposed booking, including the treatment of meals and non-food consumables in the written quotation.
• Outdoor participation. A weekly morning in Holland Park is a substantial part of nursery life. Use the visit to discuss what your child will need for that session and how participation is adapted to their needs.

The Marmalade Duck suits families looking for a term-time nursery with regular outdoor learning, specialist activities and close everyday contact with practitioners. The weekly Holland Park morning and the combination of an airy hall with dedicated outdoor space give it a clear identity.

The March 2025 picture adds substance: storytelling, practical vocabulary games and emotional support were woven into children's experiences. The practical fit depends on the term-time calendar and the 4pm finish. For families whose routines match those boundaries, there is much to engage both children and parents.