Mayfield Nursery

A separate sleep room for babies, weekly preschool art lessons and French, German and Spanish give Mayfield Nursery a clear character: play is the starting point, with purposeful additions as children grow. Its approach gives children a say in their activities and in the rules they share. That makes the daily experience more interesting than a simple timetable of adult-led tasks.

Mayfield accepts children from three months to five years and has capacity for 66 children. At its January 2024 inspection, Ofsted judged the nursery Good and safeguarding effective, with warm relationships, confident older children and engaging learning experiences, while identifying toddler independence as the area needing improvement. The distinction matters: preschool children were doing more for themselves than toddlers during everyday routines.

Attendance centres on full days, with a separately charged early drop-off option. The minimum booking is three sessions each week, including Friday. This is a nursery for families able to make a regular commitment rather than those seeking occasional half days.

Rooms and Ages

Baby Room combines space for crawling and walking with a messy area for sensory exploration, a separate sleep room with individual cots, and access to a garden shared with Middle Room; its learning emphasises movement, communication and relationships. Sand, water and other materials give babies opportunities to investigate texture and practise handling things. Storage for expressed milk or formula also supports the practical business of keeping home routines going.

Middle Room forms the stage between babies and preschool. The shared garden lets babies become familiar with its children and practitioners before moving rooms.

Pre-school welcomes children aged three to five, emphasising literacy, numbers and independence. Separate messy and quiet rooms keep water and sand play apart from stories and language learning.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for children's learning and care: here, play, conversation, making things and physical activity support development across its areas of learning. Mayfield adds a child-centred approach in which practitioners listen to children's ideas and involve them in agreeing behavioural rules. Those rules are revisited so newcomers can contribute too. Children have choices, alongside shared expectations about how to treat others.

Cooking Classes introduce measuring and weighing through preparing food, with discussion of hazards before a recipe begins. Smelling ingredients and comparing textures bring language and sensory exploration into the same activity. French, German and Spanish begin with familiar subjects such as greetings, colours and numbers. These are additions to the everyday curriculum, rather than substitutes for it.

Art Lessons take place weekly for preschool children, using materials including watercolours, pencils and oil pastels. Work goes into a display book and a gallery area, giving families something concrete to discuss beyond the finished picture. P.E and Yoga add planned movement sessions alongside children's ordinary physical play.

In Pre-school, jolly phonics connects sounds and actions in early literacy work. Show and Tell asks children to speak to their friends about an object linked to a letter, while Virtue of the week uses stories and discussion to explore qualities such as kindness or patience. Children's ideas are displayed for parents, bringing those conversations beyond the room.

Outdoor and Community Life

The garden is used several times during the day, and babies share their outdoor space with Middle Room. That makes outdoor play part of the routine rather than a single scheduled break. The nursery also offers exploratory outings to the library and Tooting fire station, with other trips including Deen City Farm. These give children subjects to talk about that extend beyond their usual rooms.

In January 2024, climbing equipment supported balance practice, while babies explored a ball pool and freed animals from ice using tools. A firefighter parent had also brought colleagues and a fire engine to visit.

Relationships and Communication

Each child's room-based key person works with parents and the room leader on routines and development. Sharing babies' sleep and feeding routines helps connect nursery care with home life.

ParentZone shares learning observations, photographs and updates on meals, sleep and nappy changes. Parents can comment with examples from home, helping practitioners understand the child across both settings.

Parents' evenings take place annually. Extra-day requests through ParentZone need office approval and an accompanying email because app notifications sometimes fail.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Breathing exercises begin group activities, and circle times include discussion of things children appreciate. In Pre-school, children practise serving food, pouring drinks and clearing away under supervision. Helper of the day gives a child responsibility for distributing cutlery and plates. Small jobs make independence part of ordinary nursery life.

In January 2024, toddlers had fewer opportunities to manage routines themselves; waiting for adults to serve snacks left some unsettled. Everyday independence needed attention alongside the activities.

Each room has a leader, and staff receive paediatric first-aid training. Meals are cooked in the nursery's own kitchen, with menus rotating over four weeks and changing seasonally; food is adapted for weaning and medical, cultural or religious dietary needs. For children with specific needs, care depends on the details of the individual arrangement rather than a broad promise of suitability.

Sessions and Attendance

Standard opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Full-day attendance is the booking model, and an additional early drop-off session runs from 7.30am to 8am for a separate charge. Half-day bookings are not offered. The minimum is three weekly sessions, one of which must be Friday, so families need to consider the whole weekly pattern rather than just their busiest working day.

The nursery operates across the year, closing for bank holidays and a week between Christmas and New Year. Billing is averaged into monthly payments using 51 weeks, with invoices payable in advance. Bank holidays and INSET days are charged, and missed attendance through illness or holidays does not attract a refund. Those terms affect the cost of keeping a regular booking even when a child is away.

Families can enquire by form or telephone. Tours are normally held at 10am, and families can join a waiting list with a desired starting date.

Getting There

The Glenburnie Road address is Village, 61 Glenburnie Road, Tooting, London SW17 7DJ, on the Springfield University Hospital site. Address details need particular attention here because another contact address is also in use; the specific conflict is set out below.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered, subject to the relevant criteria: 15 hours from nine months, 15 hours for eligible two-year-olds, and 15 universal hours for three- and four-year-olds, with some families qualifying for 30. Eligibility and the nursery's attendance requirements are separate questions; the funded entitlement should not be read as a promise of any particular booking pattern.

Fees include meals and snacks. Families supply nappies, wipes, relevant creams or teething gel, sunscreen and spare clothes; reusable nappies are supported. Early drop-off is charged separately. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

• Two contact addresses. Contact addresses conflict: Glenburnie Road, SW17 7DJ, and Chapel Square, 11B Springfield Drive, SW17 0YF. Confirm which premises your child would attend before arranging a visit or accepting a booking.
• The youngest children. The overall age range begins at three months, while Baby Room's description welcomes babies from six months and its heading gives a different range. Ask which room and settling arrangement would apply to your baby's age.
• Toddler independence. In January 2024, waiting to be served at snack time unsettled some toddlers. During a visit, ask how children now participate in these routines and what practical changes have been made.
• Funded attendance. The offer includes funded hours, alongside a minimum three-session booking that includes Friday. Ask how those hours fit your proposed days and which meal or consumable terms apply specifically to funded attendance.

Mayfield suits families seeking regular full days, with early drop-off sessions as an additional option, and who can include Friday in their weekly arrangement. Its strongest practical details are the separate baby sleep space, quieter preschool rooms, substantial parent communication and named additions such as cooking, languages and weekly art.

The January 2024 Good judgement gives a positive inspection position, with a specific caution about toddler routines. Families should weigh that detail alongside the attendance commitment. The address and youngest-age questions also deserve resolution before a booking becomes a firm family plan.