New Cross & Deptford Families First

Family support extends beyond nursery care at New Cross & Deptford Families First. Alongside its nursery rooms, Families First Support offers individual help with family life, while Saturday Socials bring children and their relatives together for outings and activities. That wider role gives this setting a clear identity: early education sits alongside practical support for parents.

At its March 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and judged safeguarding effective. The setting has capacity for 40 children aged one to five, at St James Family Learning Centre in New Cross. Its current provision includes the Sunshine baby room.

Funded childcare covers 15 and 30 hour places, subject to eligibility. Nursery attendance is term-time, so the calendar matters as much as the daily opening window for families planning care around work.

Rooms and Ages

The Sunshine baby room extends the nursery's provision to babies. For a parent choosing younger-child care, the baby room is the most significant practical addition. Its settling arrangements and daily routine deserve attention during a visit.

The whole-setting age range is one to five. The funded offer also refers to children from nine months, making the starting-age question especially relevant for families considering the Sunshine baby room.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care. In everyday terms, this brings learning into play, communication, physical activity and growing independence, rather than treating education as a separate block of the day.

In March 2024, mathematical learning included spotting shapes nearby, learning their names and counting play materials. Songs brought number practice into group activities. These examples show how familiar objects and repeated routines can give children opportunities to use mathematical language.

Stories also became starting points for pretend play. Children acted out ideas from books. Targeted group language sessions provided extra support for children who needed it. The combination gave children different ways to participate: listening, speaking and playing through a story.

Creative experiences included mixing play dough and investigating ingredients through touch, alongside drawing with chalk and painting. Making the material was part of the activity. Children could explore a process as well as produce a picture or model.

Outdoor and Community Life

Outdoor equipment supported several kinds of movement in March 2024. Children climbed frames, practised balancing on planks and aimed balls towards nets. Those are concrete opportunities to practise coordination, rather than outdoor time consisting only of free movement around a space.

Gardening and recycling added another layer. Planting flowers introduced how living things grow; collecting recyclable materials gave children a practical connection to caring for their surroundings. Learning about difference included black inventors and celebrations such as Diwali and Hanukkah.

Beyond the nursery day, Saturday Socials run monthly for children aged zero to seven with parents, carers and grandparents. Families help choose destinations and plan the outings together. These are family activities, so their value lies partly in adults and children sharing the experience.

Relationships and Communication

In March 2024, staff used children's interests to help them settle, linking familiar interests with activities. This gave children a way into play while relationships with practitioners developed. Calm responses and consistent group expectations also shaped behaviour, with sharing and taking turns practised through ordinary activities.

Parents could attend workshops covering behaviour management and use a communication, language and literacy project offering activities for home. Updates on children's development were shared flexibly. This made the relationship with home about practical participation as well as receiving information.

Families First Support offers a separate route for discussing wellbeing or changes a family wants to make. Short-term individual support can include meetings at home or in a community or children's centre, and help connecting newcomers with local services. Parents choose the change they want support with.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the March 2024 inspection, Ofsted found that support for children with special educational needs included individual learning plans developed with other professionals and regular reviews of progress. That is a concrete support mechanism, rather than a general promise of inclusion.

The current team includes a SENCO and designated safeguarding lead roles. Staff also speak Vietnamese, Spanish, Mandarin and Akan, which may be useful for families who use those languages at home; it does not establish that a particular language is spoken in every room.

In March 2024, children prepared fruit snacks and cleared their used cups and crockery, giving everyday care routines an element of independence. Staff supplied snacks and drinking water, and stored packed lunches appropriately.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery operates during term time and closes for school holidays. Opening hours are 8.45am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. For working families, both the daily finish and the holiday calendar need to fit the wider care arrangement.

Enquiries can be made by email or telephone. The contact form accepts a mobile number for a return call, with an email reply otherwise.

Getting There

The address is St James Family Learning Centre, 11-15 St James, New Cross, London SE14 6AD. Transport connections include New Cross and New Cross Gate stations, with bus routes including 21, 53, 171, 172, 436 and 453.

Funding and Paid Extras

The nursery offers 15 and 30 hour funded places for eligible children aged nine months to four years. Its funding support includes helping families understand qualification for an entitlement, alongside help finding nursery, preschool and primary school places.

The nursery describes St James C of E Primary School as a partner. Attendance does not guarantee a school place: families still apply through the local authority admissions process. Practical help with finding a school and an admissions advantage are separate matters.

• Sunshine baby room. The whole-setting age range starts at one, while the funded offer mentions nine months. During a visit, establish the accepted starting age and discuss the baby's settling and sleep routine.
• Term-time attendance. School-holiday closure is part of the nursery calendar. Ask which booking patterns fit the opening window and how funded hours, meals and non-food consumables are handled within the proposed arrangement.
• Oral hygiene. In March 2024, a dentist had made an initial visit, but children's learning about dental care needed further development. Ask how this now forms part of the day.

New Cross & Deptford Families First suits families seeking term-time nursery care alongside opportunities for wider family support. Saturday Socials and Families First Support give parents reasons to engage beyond the nursery timetable, while the March 2024 examples show learning rooted in stories, practical tasks and outdoor play.

The calendar is a decisive consideration. Families whose care needs fit term time have a setting with a clear community role; parents considering the baby room should give its starting-age and care arrangements close attention.