The Colour Box Montessori Nursery

Weekly STEM activities, including volcano eruptions and colour experiments, a garden for exploring light and shadow, and an indoor green area with wooden logs give The Colour Box Montessori Nursery a recognisable character. Child-led learning has practical substance here: children investigate, make things and practise doing things for themselves. The setting occupies Earlsfield Baptist Church on Magdalen Road in London, SW18 3NZ, and welcomes children aged nine months to five years, with capacity for 41 children in total.

At its September 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and identified the curriculum as a strength, with ambitious experiences that engaged children and supported their readiness for their next stage of education. The important qualification was outdoors: garden experiences needed more deliberate planning to extend learning through play. That remains a useful point to explore alongside the current garden activities.

Current enrolment is for full-day attendance with a minimum of three days. This makes the booking commitment an important part of the choice, alongside the Montessori approach and the provision for babies.

Rooms and Ages

Under 2's includes the Baby Room for children from nine months to two years, where sensory experiences and activities suited to early development sit alongside attention to each baby's routines and comfort.

Over 2's serves children aged two to five, combining creative play, time outdoors and rest with experiences supporting language, physical development and relationships.

Those descriptions give the two age groups different emphases. For a baby, continuity with home routines matters; for an older child, the programme brings play, movement and developing independence together. The building is spacious and has outside space, so the environment is part of the offer as well as the activities themselves.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS gives the day its framework for learning through play, including language, relationships, movement, early reading and mathematics. Montessori works alongside it: children choose within clear boundaries, use an environment arranged around their development and practise greater independence. The combination is explained on the curriculum page. Montessori complements the EYFS with an approach centred on choice and independence.

Practical tasks make those ideas tangible. Pouring from a jug, handling scissors and making marks develop control, while stories and rhymes bring opportunities to listen, speak and connect sounds with letters. Mathematics grows out of play with counting, shapes and patterns. These are recognisable experiences for a young child, rather than learning confined to adult-led instruction.

Weekly STEM activities introduce science through volcano eruptions and experiments with colour. Baking banana bread, making salt-dough dinosaur fossils and building a model London city bring further opportunities to investigate materials and create. Visits to the Royal observatory also feature in the learning programme. These examples give families a clearer picture of the nursery's interests than the Montessori label alone.

Ballet lessons, Yoga and Sports add movement experiences, with opportunities to respond to music, explore bodily control and practise larger movements. Their educational role is concrete: children learn through physical activity as well as through stories, making and investigation. Additional charges may apply to enrichment activities, so the attendance package and its extras need to be considered together.

In September 2023, everyday learning included buying ingredients for spring rolls, using monster stories to explore emotions and recreating an underground railway. Children also painted small leaves with cotton buds and made marks in sand. These were practical examples of learning through familiar experiences, imagination and careful hand movements.

Outdoor and Community Life

The garden supports digging, studying plants and living creatures with magnifying glasses, and investigations involving shadows, light and reflections. Indoors, a green area contains wooden logs and a play-tent. Nature-related exploration therefore has a place in both environments, rather than depending entirely on going outside.

In September 2023, children used a large gym area for dancing, sport and obstacle activities. Garden use was less consistently planned to develop purposeful exploration. The distinction matters: having outdoor space and making the most of it are separate questions, and the improvement point concerned the latter.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has an appointed key person who keeps their records current and acts as the family's first contact for discussion. Families are notified if that person changes as their child moves through the setting. This gives parents a clear route for sharing concerns, routines and developments at home.

Settling begins with information about the child. The registration process gathers interests, previous childcare experience, fears and familiar words, alongside conversations and observations used to establish starting points. It also records whether a settling arrangement has been agreed. For babies, the emphasis on individual routines and comfort connects care at nursery with what is familiar at home.

Home Learning Packs provide activities for practising new skills with parents, while the weekly Newsletter includes planning information, photographs and ideas for continuing learning at home. Parent feedback forms offer another route for contributing to the nursery's practice. Communication therefore includes both updates about nursery life and practical ways for families to participate.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At its September 2023 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and assessed progress monitoring positively, including the use of children's starting points to support those with special educational needs or disabilities. Those are dated findings, rather than a blanket assurance about every child's experience now.

Current registration arrangements ask about existing support plans, the help a child will need and professionals already involved. Where bilingual support is needed, parents discuss an agreed approach with the key person. The nursery also involves parents in the two-year progress check. These mechanisms give families opportunities to explain their child's needs before support and care are planned.

The nursery's allergy procedure requires a risk assessment for known allergies or food intolerance, and its usual meal provision includes meat and vegetarian options. Food may instead come from home; additional charges may apply to nursery meals and snacks.

Parents supply nappy cream and suncream. Medication requires written permission, and children must stay home for at least 48 hours following sickness or diarrhoea. Those arrangements have practical consequences for what families provide and for organising care during illness.

Sessions and Attendance

The current enrolment form specifies full-day sessions and a minimum attendance of three days, with weekday choices from Monday to Friday. For Over 2's, opening hours are 8am to 6pm over 50 weeks of the year. Bank holidays are closed. Opening hours describe the operating window; the full-day booking rule describes the commitment families make.

Enquiries can be made through the contact form, by telephone on 02034888067 or by email at info@thecolourbox.org. An introductory call covers the family's requirements, intended start and attendance preferences. This is a structured enquiry process rather than a promise of a place.

Funding and Paid Extras

The nursery offers 15 or 30 hours of funded childcare for eligible children aged 18 months to four years. Additional private weeks or hours can also be purchased, subject to availability. Tax-Free Childcare and childcare vouchers are accepted. Funding covers the Montessori education provision; meals, snacks, additional Montessori materials and enrichment may attract extra charges.

Food can be brought from home, while nursery meals and snacks may be charged separately. Parents supply suncream and nappy cream. These categories should be considered separately from the funded education itself, because a funded entitlement does not describe the whole attendance package.

A non-refundable registration charge applies. The current enrolment form exempts siblings from its administration charge. A deposit is credited against the final month's invoice when the required two months' written notice is given; it is retained if the family decides against taking the place before the child starts. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

The current registration form requires two months' written notice of withdrawal, with the deposit used towards the notice period when notice is late. Fees remain payable for absence through illness or holidays. These terms matter when comparing the commitment with a family's work arrangements or a planned change of childcare.

• Full-day commitment. Current enrolment requires at least three days and full-day sessions. At a visit, discuss how that pattern and the proposed settling arrangement would work for your child, especially a baby joining from nine months.
• Outdoor learning. In September 2023, garden activities needed more purposeful planning. Ask to see how today's digging, nature observation and light experiments develop children's learning outdoors.
• Attendance and funding terms. The Over 2's programme operates over 50 weeks, while the terms document describes term-time attendance and the funding policy gives different delivery arrangements for different entitlements. These conflict, so establish the calendar, funded-hours pattern and applicable contract together before committing.
• Allergy arrangements. Known allergies and food intolerance require an individual risk assessment. Allergy-affected families should confirm current food handling and the agreed arrangements for meals brought from home.

The Colour Box suits families seeking Montessori learning with concrete creative and scientific activities, and those able to commit to full days on at least three days a week. The Baby Room's attention to routines and the older children's mix of play, movement and rest give the offer relevance across its age range.

Weekly STEM experiments, Home Learning Packs and the indoor green area provide useful reasons to consider it. The September 2023 outdoor-planning concern deserves attention, alongside the attendance calendar and funded-hours contract. The strongest fit is a family that values child-led learning and can make the full-day commitment work.