York Gardens Nursery

A large garden, purpose-built premises and care for children aged two to five give York Gardens Nursery a clear preschool character. Based at York Gardens Children Centre on Lavender Road, it has capacity for 24 children. That is the whole nursery’s capacity, rather than a promise about the size of an individual play group.

At its March 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and found safeguarding effective. The judgement comes with two practical improvement points: giving children more opportunity to work through disagreements and making staff hygiene more consistent. Both matter in the everyday business of caring for young children.

Term-time attendance can take the form of a full day, a morning or an afternoon. The garden and the settling arrangements are stronger reasons to consider it than the timetable alone: outdoor play has a substantial physical space, while children begin with their parent and key person together.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the common framework for children’s learning and care: here, learning combines play chosen by children with activities guided by adults, indoors and outside. It is the foundation expected of early-years settings. The Play People’s group-wide approach adds planning around children’s interests, with individual learning journeys bringing together their abilities, development and enthusiasms.

Monthly themes give activities a changing subject, with dinosaurs, the seaside and mini beasts among the examples. Recognition of letters, numbers, shapes and colours is woven into those themes. Children can also cook, make music and explore materials such as clay, paint and water. These are different ways into learning, rather than a day organised solely around adult instruction.

Free play gives children time to choose how they use the equipment. The group-wide learning approach combines these choices with planned adult involvement, so a child’s interest can inform what happens next. Parents also contribute to the progress check for two-year-olds, connecting what staff observe at nursery with what families know at home.

Outdoor and Community Life

York Gardens’ large garden is a substantial part of the premises. In March 2023, children used a slide and ride-on equipment for physical play, while a large easel gave them room to experiment with chalk. The practical distinction is useful: movement and early mark-making had concrete resources, rather than being confined to group activities.

Nature walks and visits to a nearby park form part of the group-wide nursery day. Within the nursery, the March 2023 daily routine included outdoor and indoor play, songs, puzzles and counting. A visual timetable helped children understand what would happen next. That gives a picture of how activity and routine worked together at that time, especially for children still learning to follow a shared day.

Relationships and Communication

Settling starts with two stay-and-play sessions attended by the child and parent alongside their key person. Independent attendance is planned afterwards. This gives families a defined starting point while leaving the next step responsive to the child, rather than treating separation as an immediate requirement.

The Play People’s group-wide key-person arrangements give each child a consistent adult link, with parents able to discuss the day through everyday conversations and meetings. Learning journeys record interests as well as development, helping those conversations move beyond whether a child has had a pleasant day. The progress check for two-year-olds covers communication, physical development, and personal, social and emotional development.

In March 2023, children received encouragement from staff and mixed-age play provided opportunities to practise sharing. Some practitioners had undertaken sign-language training to extend communication support. These are dated examples of staff practice, rather than a statement about today’s team composition.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the March 2023 inspection, Ofsted found that staff identified learning gaps promptly, worked with occupational therapists on activities for children with additional needs, and supported good progress among children with SEND and those learning English as an additional language. The useful detail is the connection between assessment and action: a concern about development led to support, including work informed by an outside professional.

Current group-wide support arrangements include a SENCO role, assessment with parents, and plans and records shared with families. This describes how support is organised; an individual child’s arrangements still need to fit their own needs.

The March 2023 improvement points were specific. Adults sometimes stepped into disputes too quickly, reducing children’s opportunities to practise managing emotions themselves, and handwashing after wiping noses was inconsistent. These concerns sit alongside the positive judgement and deserve attention when considering everyday care.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is York Gardens Children Centre, Lavender Road, London, SW11 2UG. Opening hours are 9am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, across 38 weeks, with three terms following the Wandsworth school calendar; bank holidays are excluded. This is a term-time arrangement, so it needs to fit the family’s holiday childcare plans.

Full-day care is offered, alongside morning sessions from 9am to noon and afternoon sessions from 1pm to 4pm. Morning and afternoon bookings can be extended. The full-day offer and shorter sessions give families genuinely different attendance choices.

Enquiries can be made by contact form, email at info@theplaypeople.co.uk or telephone on 020 7223 3392. For daily attendance, families are asked to report an absence before 9.30am. Following vomiting or diarrhoea, children must remain at home until they have been symptom-free for 48 hours.

Funding and Paid Extras

Early education funding is accepted from the term following a child’s second birthday, with both 15 and 30 hour funding accepted and no additional fees charged for that funded offer. Funding is delivered within the term-time calendar. Additional sessions can be booked for attendance beyond 15 hours a week; current private prices come in the nursery’s written quotation. The funding and sessions page explains these arrangements.

Parents supply a packed lunch, including during funded attendance, while snacks and drinks are provided in sessions; staff can warm lunch when required. The group-wide Children’s Food Trust Eat Better, Start Better Campaign guides its approach to nutritious food and drink.

For children still using nappies, parents provide both nappies and wipes for the day, including on funded hours. Families also send spare clothing, a drinks bottle and weather-appropriate items such as wellingtons or a sun hat. These are practical responsibilities to build into the nursery routine.

• The term-time calendar. Care runs for 38 weeks and excludes bank holidays. Families needing childcare through school holidays will need a separate arrangement for those periods.
• Settling before separation. Two shared stay-and-play sessions come before independent attendance. At a visit, discuss how the key person decides the next step for a child who needs longer to settle.
• Everyday practice. The March 2023 concerns involved conflict support and hygiene. Ask how staff now help children resolve disagreements and maintain handwashing routines.
• Food from home. Lunch, nappies and wipes are family responsibilities. For a child with an allergy, use the visit to discuss packed-lunch handling and current snack arrangements.

York Gardens suits families seeking term-time preschool care with a choice between full-day attendance and shorter morning or afternoon sessions. Its large garden and parent-accompanied settling provide concrete reasons to consider it, while the key-person approach gives family communication a defined structure.

The March 2023 Good judgement supports consideration, with the conflict-resolution and hygiene findings adding necessary balance. The strongest fit is for families whose calendar matches the nursery’s terms and who value play-led learning alongside the practical involvement of bringing lunch and supporting the settling process.