Hiya,
Well, I did like it - the staff seemed really friendly and seemed to care about the children and to interact well with them. There are lots of rooms there, so the children are broken up into age-appropriate groups rather than being lumped in together (seemed to be: 6mths-12/16mths - non-mobile, mobile 12/16mths-2 years, 2.5-3, 3+ and 4+). The lady showing us round spoke in French to 1 little girl - just how are you type stuff, but seemed to show a concern for her beyond the basic! The food & hygiene seemed good (children were all having sanitiser gel before snack time while we were there) - chef seemed nice, kitchen seemed clean and menu seemed good.
My concerns were:
The babies (6 mths - 2 years) had been playing in very glittery water and their faces were smothered in glitter, which I worried wouldn't be good if it got in their eyes/mouth... I think most of them had had it wiped off before they had their naps, but a slightly older (18 mths?) was lying down, being encouraged to sleep with it all over her still. - I've posted this concern on the 'nurseries board' and everyone seemed to think that it was fine and to be expected, so i'm less worried about it now!
The 3 year olds were in a circle being read a story before their snack and they were all silent, playing with shoes etc, whilst woman reading the story wasn't showing them pictures or anything, literally just reading it - and not very excitingly either. Other staff did seem to be interacting with the children far better though.
In the room for 12mths -2 years there was a wire rack for books on the wall, there was nothing in it, but some books had been dropped down the back of it. We were seeing the room on Monday morning, when no children were there, so it must have been like that at least over the weekend and it seemed like the staff could have taken a bit more care about presentation of the room/area to encourage the children to look at the books.
Early years good practice is that learning should be self-initiated, but none of the rooms seemed to have activities/resources freely available for the children to choose from - the adults just put out a few bits and pieces. (Ok, as a reception teacher this is a bit of a bugbear, so I'm probably more aware that this is desirable) and the planning that was displayed seemed a bit lacking - sand and water, duplo, glitter etc - I didn't see any learning intentions or what they wanted the children to explore or get out of the activities (again as a teacher maybe I'm being too picky).
Hope that helps a bit! How old is your LO? (I'm due 24/9, but need to try to reserve a place for when I go back to work in Aug 09 and they seem to go quickly). Have you looked at any nurseries yet? My research suggests that Bowes Park is the best in the immediate area - the only 'better' ones are in New Southgate, which is a bit of a trek! I don't know anyone locally, so please do reply as it'd be nice to start to get to know some local people!