St Elizabeth's Nursery

A garden where children grow vegetables, weekly music in a school music room and P.E. on an astroturf field give St Elizabeth's Nursery a recognisable character. This independent nursery shares the Richmond campus of St Elizabeth’s Catholic Primary School, drawing on the school's facilities while keeping a separate nursery identity. The connection adds useful spaces to the children's day. It does not confer a school admissions advantage.

Children aged three to five attend, with capacity for 23. Ofsted rated the nursery Good at its March 2022 inspection. That is a dated judgement: the strengths and improvement points from that visit belong alongside the current activities and practical arrangements when weighing up the setting.

Attendance is term-time, with morning, afternoon and full-day sessions, plus wraparound arrangements. The appeal is a preschool setting with access to school facilities, outdoor learning and regular activities beyond the main nursery room.

Rooms and Ages

The building is arranged on a single level, with a large main room, a quiet room and a cloakroom and reception area. There are toilets sized for children and an accessible toilet. Children can move between the indoor space and the outdoor play area through a free-flow arrangement, so learning need not remain confined to a table or one room.

These spaces serve the nursery's three-to-five age range. The quiet room provides a different setting from the main activity space; the outdoor area gives another place for play. Access to the school's hall, music room and astroturf field extends the physical setting beyond the nursery building itself.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage Framework guides learning through play, conversation and activities that develop children's skills. It is the shared early-years foundation, rather than an extra programme unique to this nursery. Here, children's interests help shape the curriculum, and sessions combine activities initiated by children with those organised by adults. That balance gives children opportunities to pursue an idea as well as encounter something new.

A structured routine runs through the day, even as topics change. Familiar sequences help children know what comes next, while new topics make room for their questions. For a child adjusting to nursery life, predictability and fresh material can sit together: the routine stays recognisable while the content changes.

Music Time introduces active music-making through songs, movement and rhythm during a weekly session in the school's music room. Weekly P.E. on the Astroturf uses planned movement challenges and drills, adding a more directed physical activity to outdoor play. Spanish Lessons also take place weekly, giving children an encounter with another language. Visits to the school library add access to books in another learning space, although those visits should not be read as a weekly commitment.

In March 2022, painting, dough and sand featured in children's play, while outdoor activity included running, jumping and climbing. Numbers, shapes and counting were woven into activities rather than kept apart from the rest of the day. These examples show how creative, physical and mathematical experiences could overlap within ordinary play at that time.

Outdoor and Community Life

The garden is a working part of nursery life. Children help tend plants and flowers, and grow vegetables that they also cook. This links care for living things with a practical activity: children can participate in growing food and then using it, rather than encountering gardening only as a topic.

Richmond Park provides access to an environment for observing changes across the seasons. The school also allocates two weekly slots in its junior playground. Together with the nursery's own outdoor area and astroturf sessions, these are several different settings for outdoor activity, each with a different purpose. The park connection is about observing the natural world; the playground and P.E. sessions provide further space for movement.

Relationships and Communication

A Learning Journal records information about each child and is shared with parents each term, then handed over for the child to keep when their nursery year finishes. A Nursery Newsletter arrives at least weekly, covering recent learning, songs, stories or poems and the plan for the next topics. The two serve different purposes: the journal follows the individual child, while the newsletter gives families material for conversation and activities at home.

Parents are encouraged to share their family's experiences and background. This creates a practical opening for home life to contribute to nursery learning, rather than communication running only from staff to parents. The weekly plan also makes it easier to connect a child's nursery interests with discussion outside the setting.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At its March 2022 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and described successful work with other professionals to support children and families, including those dealing with delayed speech or separation anxiety. Those are inspection-time findings, not a prediction of an individual child's experience. They do give families specific aspects of support to explore when considering the nursery.

Current arrangements include a trained First Aider and a trained Safeguarding Officer on site, and staff undertake ongoing professional development.

In March 2022, children sought comfort and reassurance from staff, took responsibility for toileting appropriate to their age and washed their hands before handling food. The day also included exercise and time outdoors. These observations describe practical care at that visit, including emotional reassurance, personal independence and everyday hygiene.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery operates on weekdays during school terms. Morning sessions run from 9am to noon, afternoon sessions from noon to 3pm, and the Full Time option from 9am to 3pm. Families can discuss the number of sessions when applying, rather than being directed into one attendance pattern.

Morning wraparound runs from 8am to 9am within the nursery. Afternoon wraparound is provided by NS Sport from 3pm to 6pm. The distinction matters: the later provision has a different provider, so it should be considered as a separate part of the childcare arrangement rather than an extension delivered by the nursery team.

An agreed timetable requires half a term's notice to reduce or change sessions. That is a meaningful planning condition for families whose work or childcare needs may change during a term. Visits can be arranged by contacting the nursery, and enquiries can be made through its contact form or telephone.

Getting There

The nursery is at St. Elizabeths RC School, Grove Road, Richmond, TW10 6HN; its contact address uses Lower Grove Road. It shares the primary school's campus, with access to some school facilities, but nursery attendance is not an admissions criterion for St Elizabeth’s Catholic Primary School and does not guarantee a Reception place.

Funding and Paid Extras

The nursery offers the Government Early Education Entitlement, including 15 universal hours through five sessions each week from the start of the school term after a child's third birthday, and 30 hours free childcare for eligible families. Attendance is term-time. The extended entitlement follows a first-come, first-served allocation rule; eligibility should not be read as a guarantee of a place.

An Early Education Entitlement Form is required before a child starts. Private top-up sessions are charged; eligible families may instead receive extended funding under the nursery's allocation rule. Invoices are issued after the grant forms have been accepted. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the funding and fees information explains the charge structure.

There is a non-refundable administration charge. A deposit is credited against the final term's invoice, or returned if nothing is owed, but is not refundable when a family accepts a place in writing and then does not take it. Those conditions deserve attention before accepting a place, especially where another childcare arrangement is still being considered.

• Thinking and early writing. In March 2022, staff did not consistently extend children's problem-solving through questions, and support for emerging writing needed development. During a visit, ask how adults now help children work through a difficulty and build on attempts to write.
• A school campus, separate admissions. The school hall, music room and outdoor facilities broaden nursery life, but attendance does not count as an admissions criterion for the primary school. Choose the nursery for its own provision rather than an expected Reception advantage.
• Term-time sessions and separate afternoon care. Half-days and full days serve different schedules, while NS Sport delivers the afternoon wraparound. Consider both the school-holiday gap and the change of provider when planning a working day.
• The complete funded-place quotation. Private top-up sessions, an administration charge and a conditional deposit form part of the charging structure. Ask for a written quotation for your chosen timetable before accepting a place.

St Elizabeth's suits families seeking either morning or afternoon preschool sessions, as well as those wanting a full nursery day during term time. Its strongest current attractions are concrete: children tend a garden, make music weekly, encounter Spanish and use school spaces for physical activity and books. The individual Learning Journal and weekly newsletter give parents two useful ways to follow nursery life.

The March 2022 Good judgement sits alongside specific development points around problem-solving and early writing. Term-time operation and separately delivered afternoon wraparound also need to fit the family timetable. For parents who value these activities and attendance choices, this is a nursery to assess on its own merits, with the school-campus setting adding facilities rather than an admissions promise.