Cherish Day Nursery

Two outdoor areas, a first-floor baby space and a progression through Apple, Banana and Strawberry give Cherish Day Nursery a clear shape. The setting occupies its own building within The Grove Centre Church complex in Sydenham, with capacity for 30 children from 6 months to 5 years. Age-based rooms organise the progression towards school preparation.

At its 7 February 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated Cherish Good and found safeguarding effective. That judgement comes with practical qualifications: teaching needed to stretch children more consistently, conversations needed greater attention, and staff deployment needed improvement. These are useful points to examine alongside the physical provision.

Full-time and part-time attendance are considered through the admissions process.

Rooms and Ages

Apple (Baby), for children from 6 months to 2 years, combines early movement, communication and confidence-building with a sand and water tray, messy play area, home corner and reading garden. Banana (Toddler), for ages 2 to 3 years, uses construction toys and role play to encourage working together, alongside a reading corner and resources for early literacy and number work. Strawberry (Pre-School), for ages 3 to 5 years, places greater emphasis on adult-led activities involving early writing, reading, mathematics and ICT, while retaining play.

The building separates the youngest children from the older groups. Babies use the first floor; toddlers and preschool children occupy the ground floor, with access to the gardens. The baby area is designated for 10 children, a useful scale for parents weighing the youngest provision, rather than a claim about how many children attend on a particular day.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS sets the common standards for early education and care: here, its areas of learning translate into language, movement, relationships, creative activity and early number work. It provides the baseline rather than an extra programme. Activities combine children’s choices with adult direction, giving room for exploration as well as planned learning.

In February 2024, children explored number and size through a pretend shop and used play dough for simple arithmetic. Construction interests also shaped a forest school session, in which sticks became building materials. Construction brought children’s interests into outdoor learning.

The same February 2024 observations showed the limits of the teaching. Adults sometimes missed opportunities to move children’s thinking forward. With babies, their positioning did not always help children imitate gestures and speech; with older children, questions did not consistently extend understanding. The practical question is how adults extend learning during everyday play.

Outdoor and Community Life

The gardens offer more than space to run. Bikes and trikes support movement, while large puzzles, balls and playhouses create different ways to play. Vegetable patches, flower beds and mini-beasts bring seasonal change and living things into children’s experiences. The grassed area and all-weather surface also give the outdoor provision different textures and uses.

In February 2024, children used sand timers to negotiate turns on garden bikes. Stories in other languages and songs from children’s home languages brought family experiences into nursery life, and cultural days included celebrations, traditional clothing and food. These examples show how sharing and awareness of others can be explored through familiar play and family connections.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person who adapts care and learning to individual needs and works with parents on development at home as well as at nursery. The key person can also help families access specialist support.

For babies, staff work with families to keep home routines as closely as possible. Apple’s timetable is approximate and flexible, with periods for sleep or quiet activity as well as meals, stories and outdoor play. In Banana, toilet training is approached jointly with parents, including children’s growing responsibility for hygiene.

Daily updates, weekly newsletters and parent evenings provide different opportunities to understand a child’s experience. Parents can access development assessments to discuss learning and support needs.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the February 2024 inspection, Ofsted found good support for children with SEND through individual learning plans and links with outside professionals, alongside good progress for children with SEND and those learning English as an additional language. These findings concern that visit; the key-person arrangement provides the current mechanism for discussing individual care and involving more specialist help.

The behaviour policy distinguishes a child from an unwanted action, encourages peaceful ways to manage disagreements and recognises that sharing is not always an appropriate expectation. Children can help shape age-appropriate rules, while parents are involved when difficulties need a consistent response between home and nursery. This gives families a practical basis for discussing biting, frustration or conflict.

Safeguarding arrangements include designated co-ordinators, with a designated person on duty throughout opening hours. The policy also provides for induction training, confidential recording and referrals to relevant agencies. These are arrangements rather than a new judgement about effectiveness.

Kitchen staff prepare meals from menus developed with a Paediatric Dietitian on a 3-week cycle. The nursery’s policy is to accommodate allergies, intolerances and religious or cultural diets, with dish ingredients and an allergy guide available to families.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is The Grove Centre Church, 2 Jews Walk, Sydenham, London SE26 6PL. Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks of the year; bank holidays and Christmas are closure periods. These hours describe the opening window.

Admissions consider full-time and part-time places. A request for full-time attendance may receive preference, depending on parents’ work commitments, occupancy and room availability. Families complete a contract and registration form before their child starts, supplying care information including collection arrangements, dietary requirements, allergies and emergency contacts. The manager handles registration enquiries.

Priority begins with looked-after children, followed by children known to the local authority to have SEND whose needs the nursery can best meet, and vulnerable children with specified support or protection plans. Siblings come next, then children whose parents live locally.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered, with the fee structure covering 15 Hours Government Funding for ages 2 to 5 years and 30 hours Government Funding for ages 9 months to 5 years. Funded bookings can be made a term ahead, with allocation on a first-come basis. The termly intake begins in the term following a child’s second or third birthday. Eligibility and the agreed attendance arrangement remain relevant to each family.

Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation. Fees remain due when an allocated attendance day coincides with a bank holiday and during a child’s absence, including illness or holidays. This affects the cost of the attendance pattern a family agrees, even when the child does not attend every allocated day.

Getting There

Parking within the complex can be used for collecting children and bringing them to nursery.

Development records follow children through their time at Cherish, and information about learning is shared with their school when they move on. This provides continuity between nursery experience and the next setting, rather than an admissions advantage.

• Teaching during everyday play. February 2024 improvement points covered challenge, language interactions and staff deployment. On a visit, ask how these have changed, including how adults position themselves with babies and extend older children’s thinking.
• The first-floor baby area. The youngest provision is designated for 10 babies and sits above the older groups. A visit is the opportunity to discuss how a baby’s home routine, sleep and outdoor time work within that layout.
• Attendance and the complete quotation. Full-time requests may receive preference under specified conditions, and fees continue during allocated bank holidays and absences.
• Individual dietary needs. Menus are dietitian-developed and the nursery offers ingredient information. Allergy-affected families should confirm current preparation and serving arrangements for their child.

Cherish suits families considering either full-time or part-time attendance who value age-based rooms, substantial outdoor provision and regular communication about development. Apple’s attention to home routines and the gardens’ mix of active play and growing spaces give parents concrete reasons to consider it.

The balance rests on the teaching as well as the facilities. The Good judgement in February 2024 sits alongside specific shortcomings in challenge, language support and staff organisation.