Angel Nursery & Pre-School

African snails, a friendship bench and a garden music station give Angel’s February 2022 nursery life a recognisable character: children investigated living things, sought comfort from adults and made music with reused kitchen equipment. These are useful details for parents who want learning to grow from everyday play rather than a succession of formal activities.

At its February 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated Angel Outstanding, judged safeguarding effective and found that children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), made excellent progress. That is a dated assessment. Its strongest practical examples concern conversation, independent choices and adults adapting communication to children’s needs.

Angel Nursery & Pre-School welcomes children aged two to five and has 30 places in total. Its address is St. Gabriel’s School, Churchill Gardens, London, SW1V 3AG. Term-time attendance includes full days, mornings and afternoons.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children’s learning, development and care. For parents, that means education and everyday care belong together, with play providing opportunities to practise communication, explore ideas and develop independence; following the framework is a requirement across early years provision.

In February 2022, staff organised learning around children’s interests, research projects and their developing abilities. In the role-play area, children discussed and predicted what would happen while preparing pretend food and milk for dolls. Slime-making also prompted children to exchange ideas. The value lies in the conversation as much as the finished activity: children had reasons to explain, predict and listen.

Books offered another route into participation that February. Younger children became absorbed in adults’ storytelling, while older children sometimes took the lead in reading sessions. Questions connected stories with children’s feelings and encouraged them to anticipate what might happen next. This gave confident speakers a chance to lead and younger children a way into shared discussion.

Outdoor and Community Life

In February 2022, the garden combined movement with making and growing. Children dug, climbed on inverted crates and played games together. Herb planting introduced caring for living things, while the music station made from reused kitchen equipment connected creative play with using resources again.

The nursery’s African snails drew children into observing and caring for animals that February. Children also counted in one another’s home languages and encountered songs and stories in languages beyond their own. These were concrete ways to explore both the natural world and the different backgrounds within their nursery group.

Relationships and Communication

In February 2022, children turned to staff for reassurance and used the friendship bench as a place for comfort. Familiar routines helped them practise doing things independently. For a parent, the important combination is an adult to return to alongside opportunities for a child to try something for themselves.

Communication support that February took several forms. Staff left time for children to speak and paired repeated words with Makaton signs, using signs alongside speech. Objects and pictures gave children who were not speaking another means of communicating. Those examples show how participation could extend beyond children already comfortable with spoken language.

Families were involved in learning in February 2022 through conversations about progress and activities to continue at home. Food bags were one example of that connection between nursery learning and family life. Adults’ knowledge of children and parents helped make those exchanges relevant to the individual child rather than simply a general update.

Sessions and Attendance

Angel opens during term time, Monday to Friday, from 9am until 4pm, and closes for school holidays. The full-day session runs from 9am to 4pm; morning attendance is 9am to noon, and afternoons run from 1pm to 4pm. The break between the shorter sessions matters when planning collection and afternoon attendance.

Full-day plans require at least two consecutive days, with either Monday or Friday included. The term-time booking options also include five mornings or five afternoons. These are different commitments: a short daily session and a full-day pattern organise a family’s week in different ways, even though both sit within the same opening window.

Funding and Paid Extras

Both private childcare and funded hours are offered. Funding options include the Two Year Old Offer, Universal funded hours, Working Parent funded hours and Extended Entitlement funded hours. Eligibility determines which applies; the nursery’s accepted ages remain two to five, even where a funding scheme begins at a younger age.

Angel’s booking plan is term-time only. The funding terms describe 15-hour and 30-hour schemes, with government funding covering 38 weeks. A valid eligibility code is required for Working Parent funding, and families receiving government or local authority funding must submit a signed parental declaration before the term begins. These administrative conditions matter alongside choosing a session pattern.

Breakfast, lunch, tea and snacks are included in the stated fees, including the funded-hours fees. Private place offers require a deposit and a non-refundable registration charge. An optional Green LEYF contribution supports sustainability programmes across the group.

For a private place cancelled at least six weeks before its agreed start, the deposit is returned; cancellation closer to that date forfeits it. At the end of attendance, the deposit is credited to the fees account for the final calculation. Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation, with the chosen attendance and funding arrangement set out together.

• Term-time cover. Angel closes for school holidays and finishes at 4pm. Families need a care arrangement that fits those boundaries as well as their chosen full-day or shorter-session pattern.
• A daily session or consecutive days. Morning and afternoon plans cover five sessions, while full-day plans require consecutive days including Monday or Friday. At a visit, discuss how settling would work within the pattern you intend to book.

Angel suits families seeking term-time full days or a daily morning or afternoon session for children aged two to five. The February 2022 examples give substance to its inspection judgement: signs and pictures supported communication, books invited children to lead, and the garden linked movement with growing and making.

The decision is also practical. A 4pm finish, school-holiday closures and the minimum full-day booking pattern need to fit family life. For parents whose timetable aligns, Angel offers several clear ways to attend, supported by a strong dated assessment of its education and care.