My Sunshine Day Nursery & Pre-School Mortlake

A balcony garden for preschool children and a ground-floor garden with a mud kitchen give My Sunshine Mortlake two different ways to take learning outdoors. Toddlers can move freely between their room and garden; older children have a workbench and reading area upstairs. Those are useful distinctions for families weighing how an urban nursery uses its space.

At its June 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good overall, with Outstanding behaviour and attitudes, and found effective safeguarding and good progress for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). That is a dated assessment, rather than a fresh judgement on today's practice. The improvement point concerned helping less-confident children contribute more fully during group activities.

The nursery accepts children from 3 months to 5 years and has 103 places in total. Its address is 35 Lower Richmond Road, Mortlake, London, SW14 7EZ. Full days, morning sessions and afternoon sessions serve different family routines, with separately charged earlier starts and later collections.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby Room welcomes children from 3 months, with ground-floor accommodation, a separate sleep room containing bunk cots, fresh bedding each day and access to a shaded garden. Baby-room staffing follows the statutory minimum of one adult to three babies. Separating sleep from the main play space gives rest its own setting rather than making it compete with ongoing activities. Bottle feeds and sleep follow the individual child's routine, while one-to-one time with a key carer takes place at different points during the day.

For children aged 18 to 36 months, the Toddler Room combines activity-based learning with daily garden use and walks, and provides individual mats or coracles for sleep. Its routine includes physical play, stories and opportunities to choose activities. Quiet time remains part of the day, with additional sleep accommodated when needed.

Pre-School combines developing literacy and phonics with opportunities for independence, and has direct access to Mortlake's Garden Balcony. Children take on helper tasks and keep individual books for writing, marks and pencil control. These give school preparation a practical shape: doing things for themselves and building familiarity with recording ideas, alongside play.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) supplies the shared foundation for learning, development and care: children's play and planned experiences cover the areas of learning, with observations helping staff decide what to introduce next. Here, individual interests inform activity planning, and key people track development rather than using one identical sequence for every child. Daily observations help staff plan learning experiences around children's development.

Across the group, weekly HARTBEEPS sessions add musical storytelling, songs, rhymes and puppet characters. Sporting Minis and Little Racquets also visit regularly to provide preschool exercise and PE. These additions sit alongside the EYFS provision; they are specific experiences rather than a replacement framework. The regular sports visits offer another way for older children to practise movement beyond their usual room activities.

In June 2022, babies explored melting ice with brushes, making marks and adding words to describe what they felt. Toddlers used dinosaur play to experiment with animal sounds, while older children discussed nursery events. These examples show how sensory exploration and conversation were linked at that time, rather than presenting language learning as a separate lesson.

Group activities deserve closer attention. In June 2022, books and rhymes attracted children's interest, but participation was uneven: staff needed to give quieter children more opportunities to contribute. For a child who watches before joining in, the distinction matters. Being present in a group does not necessarily mean getting a meaningful turn.

Outdoor and Community Life

Mortlake's younger children use a garden with slides, blackboards and a mud kitchen, enclosed by an acoustic fence. The preschool balcony offers a different arrangement, with space for reading and workbench activities. Outdoor play therefore changes with the child's stage, rather than relying on one shared activity area for everyone.

Outings to Mortlake Green extend the setting beyond its own gardens. The nursery also uses the River Thames Path during the year, especially in summer. These named local spaces add opportunities to explore beyond the building, while preserving a distinction between garden access and an organised outing.

Relationships and Communication

Settling is planned with parents around the child's routines and needs. Up to 6 sessions take place across 2 weeks, usually starting with an hour and building towards 3 hours. Sessions occur at different times, allowing a child to experience more than one part of nursery life before regular attendance begins. The gradual build-up gives families a defined process while retaining room for individual adjustment.

A key person becomes the family's main contact and plans around the child's needs and interests. The relationship can develop during settling, rather than being treated simply as an administrative allocation. When a baby moves to the Toddler Room, familiar staff initially accompany settling sessions; parents then have a transition meeting and information passes to the new key person. Moving rooms is a process, rather than a single change of door.

FAMLY, the group's communication app, carries daily information about activities, meals, sleep and toileting, together with the child's learning record. Parents can add comments about changes at home or in routines. For families managing different carers or changing sleep patterns, that two-way exchange connects the nursery day with home life.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the June 2022 inspection, Ofsted found that the SEND coordinator worked with families and outside agencies, with development plans supporting children's learning. The finding gives substance to the inclusion judgement: support involved identified plans and cooperation beyond the room, rather than reassurance alone.

School preparation includes discussions about children's new schools and experiences of settling there. Preschool key people also compile a learning scrapbook for families to take away, which may be useful to share with the receiving school. This is preparation and information sharing, with no claim of an admissions advantage.

Fresh food is cooked on site by the chefs, and babies' meals include fruit and vegetable purées. Meals and non-food consumables are included when families choose an all-inclusive package; for funded-hours-only attendance they are excluded from the core offer and can be added separately.

Sessions and Attendance

Full days run from 8am to 6pm, with a Morning Session from 8am to 1pm and an Afternoon Session from 1pm to 6pm. Earlier drop-off begins at 7.30am and later collection extends to 6.30pm, both attracting additional charges. The distinction between the booked session and the extended opening window matters when comparing arrangements with a working day.

The general attendance requirement is at least 2 days each week. The nursery operates for 51 weeks, closing for bank holidays and the Christmas-to-New-Year break. Fees are paid monthly in advance and calculated across the nursery year, so holidays and sickness do not reduce the bill. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the sessions and fees page sets out the payment structure.

Enquiries can be made through the online form, by emailing mortlake@mysunshine-daynursery.com or by calling 0203 583 7978. Submitting an application joins the waiting-list process and does not guarantee a place. That is a booking rule, rather than an indication of how many places are currently free.

Funding and Paid Extras

Mortlake offers the universal 15-hour entitlement for three- and four-year-olds, the supported two-year-old entitlement and the 30-hour Working Families entitlement from 9 months, subject to eligibility. Funded hours are stretched over 51 weeks rather than supplied as term-time-only attendance. The all-inclusive 15-hour arrangement requires at least 2 full days; its 30-hour counterpart requires at least 3.

Funded-only attendance is a separate option: additional paid hours do not have to be purchased to access the entitlement. The Mortlake agreement sets out attendance across Monday, Friday and Tuesday, with different combinations for the two entitlement levels. Families choose an attendance package, rather than mixing different package types across their booked days.

Food, consumables, enrichment activities and hours outside the entitlement are separate from the funded core. An all-inclusive package incorporates those elements; funded-only arrangements allow them to be excluded or added. This makes the package choice consequential for both the bill and the child's use of additional services.

Changing a funded-only attendance pattern requires a term's notice; private attendance changes require a month's notice. These terms deserve attention for families whose working arrangements may change, because altering attendance is a different decision from renewing funding eligibility.

• Quieter children in groups. The June 2022 improvement point concerned participation, especially among children still building confidence. During a visit, ask how staff give those children time and opportunities to contribute to books, rhymes and group discussion.
• Toddler staffing. The Toddler Room spans 18 to 36 months. Ask how staffing is arranged for children under two within that mixed-age room.
• Choosing the funding package. All-inclusive and funded-only attendance have different extras and booking arrangements. Ask for a written quotation separating funded hours, private hours, food, consumables and activities, together with the exact attendance pattern being offered.
• Joining terms and settling. Up to 6 settling sessions over 2 weeks provide a gradual start. Use the show-around to discuss your child's routines and obtain the registration-charge and deposit terms for the particular funded or private arrangement you intend to take.

My Sunshine Mortlake suits families seeking either full-day attendance or shorter morning and afternoon sessions, with garden access adapted to different stages and a structured settling process. The ground-floor mud kitchen, preschool balcony and outings to Mortlake Green give the offer tangible character. Key-person continuity and FAMLY communication add practical support for parents following the day from home.

The June 2022 Good judgement is useful context, but its participation concern remains a relevant question for families with quieter children. Funding also rewards careful reading: the stretched year, package choice and notice periods shape the arrangement as much as the headline entitlement. The strongest fit is a family whose routine works with those published patterns and who values a gradual start, outdoor experiences and individual activity planning.