Nursery recommendations - Islington (N1)

[MunroMagic]

I'm wondering if anyone has recent experience of the nurseries in Angel (N1)?

I like the look of Hopes & Dreams but it would be a bit too far out of my way on the commute to work. We're thinking about either The Grove on Shepperton Road or Rosemary Works. My DD will be 13mo when she starts.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

My DD is at Rosemary Works and we're very happy with it. She is 17 months now and started at the nursery when she was 11 months. Hopes & Dreams was a little out of the way for us so we looked at The Grove and Rosemary Works. Overall we felt that RW was the better match for us. We thought it was lighter and brighter than The Grove and were impressed that a lot of the staff have been there for a long time and there is a lovely family atmosphere there. We had no real complaints about The Grove though - I'm sure that is fine too! If you have any specific questions about RW, let me know and I'd be happy to answer them if I can!

Thanks Ali - that's really helpful. My only real concern about RW was that the rooms for the older children (3 plus I think) were a bit dark and not very spacious. The facilities for the younger children (including the sensory room) seemed great.

There are a couple of things you could help with - Is your DD's keyworker fairly constant? Are they pretty good at reporting back at the end of the week / day?

My DD's keyworker is fairly constant, and there is a secondary keyworker when the primary keyworker is away for any reason. I used to get given a sheet on a daily basis to inform me of my DD's feeds, sleeps etc, but now that she's moved up a class, I don't get this any more. I usually now just have a discussion when I pick her up about how her day has been and the staff are always happy to provide this information. There is also a folder they keep in which they make notes of key developmental stages/put in artwork and photos etc.

I'm not sure about the classes for the older kids, but RW are undergoing major renovation works at the moment which will improve the layout, as I understand it. I'd contact them for more details though.

I hope this helps!

The Gower school - friends kids go here and say its fab.
www.thegowerschool.co.uk/

Regarding rosemary work, they had severe financial problems last year, hence they no longer take children for year 3, my friends daughter had nowhere to go from september and has only found a year 3 place available at half term

Thanks - this is all very helpful. I think I'll make an appointment to go and visit Rosemary Works again. I did look at Gower nursery (and really liked it) but it's just a bit out of my way for the commute to work.

I don't know if you're still undecided but just wanted to say I have 2 kids at Rosemary Works and they couldn't be happier. I can only suggest you do what it sounds like you're already doing - go see them all and make up your own mind based on what feels like the best fit for you and your family. I believe they are all good nurseries, just very different in approach.

I did the rounds when my daughter started nursery last year. We settled on the Grove and she loves it. They're really friendly, do loads of great activities and have lots of rooms so they're not all lumped in together which is the case in many nurseries I visited.
My second choice would have been Gower School but its location isn't convenient. I was disappointed with Hopes and Dreams - it seems to be hyped up a lot but ultimately its all down to personal preference!

My DC is at Rosemary Works School, and is loving it (especially phonics...wtf??).

The school is slightly different to the Nursery though, and had issues with falling numbers last year as sausagedogs said, but the school assured us that they have never had financial problems...it's just that the rumour mill starts grinding when there is change...put it this way, we haven't seen any negative impact on what we get for our money! things look bright for the future though, and I have never heard anyone who is at the school say anything negative about it.

Go and have a look at the nursery - it's lovely, the staff are great, and the three year old children are based with ours in the school, so they have loads of space inside plus playgrounds and a pond!

My 3 year-old dd does mornings at St Mary's Pre-School on Upper Street. Very low key, small number of children, nice ladies, next door to St Mary's Church. Ideal location and inside the facility is spacious and bright. Something of a hidden gem as not many people seem to know about it.

How early do you need to get your child's name on a nursery wait list? I am interested in having my child begin attending when they are 6 months and I have to unfortunately return to work. I'm from the States and know my friends there have to get going early!

We've used Hopes and Dreams for babysitting since our son was young and have also had drop in days at the nursery. The nursery has a huge wait list, and our son now goes to Newpark Nursery and Montessori between City Road and Goswell Road. They're the fourth of family run nurseries and just earned a complete outstanding from Ofsted, as the other nurseries also have. Couldn't recommend it highly enough, and it's just about 5-10 minutes from Hopes and Dreams-great if you live in Angel and work in the City. Plus they're open til 7 for 50 weeks of the year.