The Old Station Nursery Tressillian Road

Practical independence and communication give this Brockley nursery its clearest character. At the August 2024 inspection, babies were learning basic sign language, toddlers were serving their own meals and older children were cutting herbs after mastering scissors. Ofsted rated the provision Good, including education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management.

The setting at 71 Tressillian Road cares for children from babyhood to preschool age. Children were motivated to explore through play, and the inspector found a calm atmosphere with secure relationships. Safeguarding arrangements were effective at that visit.

Rooms and Ages

Baby, toddler and pre-school rooms each had a clear role in August 2024. Babies explored paint and water with sustained curiosity, sought familiar adults for reassurance and practised feeding and handwashing independently. Toddlers concentrated on stories and managed parts of the mealtime routine for themselves.

In the pre-school room, children re-enacted Goldilocks and the Three Bears and explained the sequence of events. This joined imaginative play with memory, language and storytelling. The inspector also saw three-year-olds use scissors and knives to cut herbs after first mastering the necessary skills, giving independence a careful, progressive shape.

Learning and Named Experiences

The Early Years Foundation Stage supplies the statutory areas of learning, which means staff plan play and experiences across communication, physical, personal, social, emotional and early academic development rather than teaching a school timetable. Here, the revised curriculum included cooking and planting activities to build practical life skills and an understanding of healthy eating and healthy bodies.

Communication ran through everyday conversations, songs and stories. Basic sign language for babies helped the youngest children express their needs, while children who spoke other languages could hear and use their home language. These details matter because communication was approached through several routes, not speech alone.

Outdoor and Community Life

Children had regular access to the garden for vigorous physical activity. Mud-kitchen play and ice painting added sensory and fine-motor work, including filling, pouring and using different paintbrushes. Planting and cooking then connected the outdoor environment to food and health.

Secure relationships were a real strength in August 2024. Children separated from parents with ease, and babies remained calm, turning to familiar practitioners when they needed reassurance. Staff responded attentively. Staff also worked closely with parents to identify individual needs, including extra learning support.

Information sharing had improved since the previous inspection. Parents were being told what their children were learning, what came next and how the key-person arrangement worked. Regular room observations and supervision helped managers identify staff strengths and development needs.

There was still work to do. Some practitioners were not sufficiently clear about intended learning, and some planned activities were not delivered as effectively as leaders expected. Older children also needed more consistent help to regulate emotions and resolve minor disagreements before these disrupted play. Those two points explain why this was a Good judgement rather than a flawless one.

The nursery is at 71 Tressillian Road, Brockley, London SE4 1YA, and the current provider record covers ages from three months to five years. At the inspection date, the nursery received funded early education for children aged two, three and four. Current terms should set out how funded hours, meals and consumables apply to each attendance pattern.

• Teaching consistency. The August 2024 improvement point called for stronger oversight so every practitioner understood the intended learning and delivered activities effectively. Progress against targeted staff-development plans is the key point to examine.
• Self-regulation in pre-school. Minor disagreements sometimes disrupted older children's play. Current practice should show how practitioners teach children to recognise feelings, negotiate and return to learning.
• Attendance and charges. Families need the current session menu and written terms to compare attendance patterns, funded hours, meals and consumables.

The strongest case for The Old Station Nursery Tressillian Road is specific and child-centred: babies communicated through signs, toddlers practised self-care, preschool children developed stories through role play, and garden activity fed into cooking and planting. The Good judgement and effective safeguarding provide meaningful external assurance.

The trade-off is consistency. Leaders had improved the curriculum and parent communication, but Ofsted still wanted tighter oversight of teaching and better support for older children's self-regulation. This setting best suits families who value practical independence, language-rich play and frequent garden experiences, and who are prepared to examine how those two improvement points have progressed before choosing an attendance pattern.