St Raphael's Catholic Primary School Nursery

Familiar songs, stories revisited and nursery children learning the sign of the cross give this provision a recognisable character: play-based early learning within a Catholic primary school. St Raphael's nursery belongs to the school on Hartfield Avenue in Northolt. Faith is part of the children's experience, rather than simply a description of the school's identity.

Morning and afternoon sessions give the nursery day its practical shape. For families, the choice of session matters: each occupies a different part of the working day.

Play combines children's own choices with activities directed by adults. The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) guides the curriculum, bringing together language, movement and emotional development with early literacy, maths, creativity and learning about the world. In parent terms, learning includes both the skills children use to communicate and participate, and the knowledge they begin to build through exploration.

Indoors and outdoors are both learning spaces. Continuous provision lets children return to activities and practise skills again, while adults use conversation to extend their language and thinking. Planning takes account of children's interests and needs. This gives exploration a place alongside adult guidance, rather than making the session entirely adult-directed.

Retrieval Practice is a named part of the approach. Here it means informal reminders woven into play: returning to familiar rhymes and stories, recalling vocabulary, and using a skill in another situation. The school aims to help learning stay in children's memory through these repeated encounters. Familiarity has a purpose.

Staff follow learning through observations, conversations with children and activities guided by adults. Those observations inform what comes next. Catholic practice also has a concrete nursery example: children learn to make the sign of the cross, connecting the school's faith with something they can take part in themselves.

Parents receive updates about learning and progress through meetings and regular communication, alongside ideas for supporting learning at home. That gives families a connection between what children are doing in nursery and what they might revisit together later.

The early years team supports children with special educational needs and disabilities, and children learning English as an additional language. Parents and external professionals are involved where appropriate, allowing individual needs to inform support. The school also directs families towards Ealing Local Offer services and speech and language advice.

Attending the nursery does not guarantee a Reception place. Families must make a separate Reception application through the normal admissions process and meet the relevant deadline. The school provides an eAdmissions application route, with nursery and Reception applications treated separately.

Reception admission. Choosing this nursery is a decision about the early years experience. Families should keep the later school application as a separate task, rather than treating nursery attendance as a secured place.

The morning session runs from 8:30 to 11:30; the afternoon runs from 12:00 to 15:05. Those are the nursery's session times, so use them when planning collection and other childcare.

For the 2026–2027 academic year, nursery finishes each term before the wider school: 17 December 2026, 24 March 2027 and 19 July 2027. Put the nursery dates in the family calendar to avoid assuming the school-wide end date applies.

General enquiries go to the school office on 020 8841 0848 or admin@st-raphaels.ealing.sch.uk. A car exemption zone operates from 8:15 to 9:15 and from 14:30 to 15:45. These periods overlap the morning start and afternoon collection, making travel arrangements a practical consideration.