Help! Advice and experience of nurseries in North London (Stroud Green/ Crouch End or nearby)

[n4mum]

Hi
I am starting to look at nurseries for my LO to start in the autumn when she will be 11 months... Hopefully 3-4 days a week (although still have to negotiate returning to work part-time...!)
Can anyone help with advice / experience of nurseries in Stroud Green/Finsbury Park and surrounds. Happy to go up to Crouch End or Highbury for the right place. It's all rather daunting!
Thanks

Hello

It's quite a daunting task isn't it!

My DS is at the YMCA Nursery in Stroud Green (just off Stapleton Hall Road) but I looked at a load of places (and some childminders) when we were looking last summer. I found the council website a useful way of finding them.

From what I can remember, the Asquith nurseries (Crouch Hill and Finsbury Park) were fine but super expensive for 4 days. I really didn't want to go back to work to then have the vast majority of my salary going on childcare...I also found the Asquith ones a bit "school-y" in atmosphere...hard to explain but of the two I preferred Crouch Hill. We looked at some others too, like Orange day nursery up in Turnpike Lane (lovely but also expensive, too far from home and had a massive waiting list) and Noah's Ark in Ally Pally and some in Crouch End I can't remember now .

Anyway, we love the Stroud Green nursery - he's now 13 months and thriving.

Pros:

• it's tiny. 12 kids max although part-time places mean that some days are much quieter than others, which suits us perfectly as it means Mon-Wed DS has quite a few other buddies around and then on Fri he has just 2 or 3 others, so a much calmer day.
• we provide our own food/snacks, which suits us from a BLW perspective - I was really put off nurseries that spoon fed mush to all the babies in the baby room.
• the staff are lovely and seem to really enjoy the kids. Crucially, the kids also seem to enjoy it (from what I could see during our 2 week induction and during drop-offs/pick ups, plus from watching our own child).
• staff are very receptive to things like BLW and real nappies (which we also use).
• we like that DS is interacting with children of all ages. It seems much more natural than having rooms of 12-16 babies/toddlers etc. They do separate the space somewhat though so there is plenty of soft play, sensory stuff for the younger crawlers or cruising babies.
• it's significantly cheaper than other nurseries - £42 a day, and they also do term time hours only if you're lucky enough to be a teacher.

Cons

• it's only open 8am-5.45pm which doesn't suit everyone. My DH does the drop off, as I'm at my desk by 8am, and I have to be really strict about leaving work at 5pm to get there on time (but it's part of why it's so cheap I guess).
• having one room with a mix of ages/abilities doesn't suit every child or family - while it works for us it may be something you hate.

Am rushing, as am at work, but want to be a bit balanced. But we are really happy with our choice and our son is doing brilliantly at nursery.

Good luck with your search!

Thanks so much for this. I am a bit worried about the hours at the YMCA nursery as it would be a bit tight for me to manage... Sounds like it's worth a visit though, and I can keep thinking. It's so hard to know how to weigh up distance/location vs the nursery itself.