Thoughts on N Family Club nurseries?

[ai38]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone here has had their kids at N Family Club nurseries? If so, how has your experience been—and would you recommend them?
I’m especially curious about the kinds of activities they offer. Are you (and your little ones) happy with what’s provided?

I visited our local branch today and, while I was really impressed by the cleanliness, room aesthetics, and amenities, I left feeling a bit unsure about the activities side of things. During the tour, we visited around 6–7 rooms, but there didn’t seem to be any structured activities happening. Most of the children appeared to be doing their own thing without much guidance or engagement.

The atelier (their dedicated art/creative studio) was completely empty, and the staff member showing us around mentioned that it’s also used as a dining space for one of the toddler rooms—which felt a bit disappointing. They also had a large garden, which looked fantastic, but again, it wasn’t being used at the time.
Our tour was at 3 p.m., so I’m not sure if this was just an off time or if that’s generally how they run things.

Would love to hear others’ thoughts or experiences—thanks in advance!

My little one joined at 9 months and we have generally been really happy. 3pm is tea time so this may have impacted what you saw. There’s always at least one activity set up for the children each day, and they go in the garden at least once a day regardless of the weather (so I am told). They are always arranging activities for special events & themed weeks for parents and the children. The food choices are great. The culture of the nursery is impressive, all staff know my child’s name including any front of house staff, I always get a welcome and goodbye at reception, free coffee and croissants in the morning & the welcome gift is lovely too. I couldn’t be happier tbh. Which N Club are you looking at?

Wrong thread!! I’ll ask mumsnet to remove sorry

We originally were excited about starting this nursery. However, after settling week completed. The was a sudden change in communication, and our little one’s reaction when we picked them up. We found the nursery will sale you perfect packaging to get you in. But the moment you are in, things start to go down hill slowly. It begun with us noticing unfamiliar faces in the our little one’s room. No introduction, no explanation. When we raised it. The manager explained it must’ve been staff from other rooms covering. But as time went on we realised it was agency staff. Which explained why the app wasn’t being updated and we had to ask upon collection if our little one’s had napped, how they ate etc. We also found it so strange that there was never a clear handover of the day. It felt like the pretty images they sent of the activities the kids would do. Was all just a set up to convince us that our little one’s was doing something productive in the day. We found that the level 3 educator didn’t know basic things for the age she was in charge of. Which was very alarming. There was also a very off feeling about the place. We couldn’t put our finger on it. Whether it was the fact that a lot of parents there were snobbish or half of the staff wouldn’t greet you or that the educators had favourites. I could list so many things but after so many chances. We decide to leave. As the environment felt toxic. Though our little one had started to seem happy we did realise the staff didn’t seem happy and we had no idea on the progress of our little one and everytime we asked it would be brushed off. I personally would never recommend a chain nursery to anyone. No matter how aesthetically pleasing it may look or how clean and modern their buildings are.

We just left a SE London branch of N Family because of very high staff rotation and the use of agency staff. It made settling very hard for our child and there was almost no consistency of care. We initially loved N family for its incredible facilities but I’ve learnt kids don’t really care about that! We were at N for 5 months and our child used the atelier once. They sell you a wonderful package but we found the reality a let down.

The one in Camberwell has a very bad rep locally for high staff churn and poor parent comms. I’d avoid, personally.

Disagree with all of the above, my local nfamily nursery is incredible

Im a childminder and get loads of enquiries from parents who have their little ones at N. Children need lots of attention from familiar caregivers and plenty of time outside. From what I’ve been told by unhappy parents the staff turnover is huge and it’s like a fancy prison.

I don’t know these nurseries, but the most important thing for young kids is how caring and knowledgable the staff are. You need to be confident they will be kept safe and be well cared for.

I think gut instinct is very powerful and I would trust yours. I turned down a nursery based on how little I saw children being interacted with in a visit. My thinking was if that’s how little they do when they are being watched, what do they do when no one is watching? Not long after the nursery was visited by Ofsted and required to improve.

@nicgeorgie20 Sorry to hear you’ve experienced similar to us. Have you managed to find alternative yet? This experience has made it even more difficult for us to trust another nursery.

I’m a primary teacher and recently did a day’s work in one as a favour as they otherwise didn’t have enough qualified people there to open that day. There were a lot of agency staff, some of whom didn’t seem to have prior experience with young children. Some of the resources were extremely tired (puzzles with missing pieces) but somehow the most shocking thing to me all day was the terrible book collection - there wasn’t one in the whole box in the toddler room that didn’t have at least one page missing, and the choice of books was poor quality. Such an easy thing to get right, just so depressing to me that an early love of books and stories wasn’t being fostered.
I will say that the baby room there was seemed well run and the food was decent, but generally I left feeling surprised that n family aren’t better for the high price point.

I worked at one. The staff turnover is huge, and honestly I can see why.

They look fancy and all, but I've worked at other nurseries and can almost guarantee your child will have a better experience at a smaller local "mom n pop" type place, or a local childminder.

Also to add - it will also be a lot cheaper!!!

Daughter worked at 2. They were hugely different.

Her main one hugh staff turnover poor communication from the office, a lot of agency staff (one had come regularly for 2 years) on dds last day they deliberately moved her out of the room she had been in so she could not say bye to the children. (There was staff cover to not do this - it was resolved in the end)

The other one (2 in our town) she covered for 3 weeks
No agency staff they request support from other mursery if needed
Engaged office manager that knew the children by name

Dd did regularly talk about activities they were doing for the children and going out with them.

@Komododragonchocolatecoin Glad to hear that we aren’t the only ones who noticed this. Would you recommend any nurseries based in Islington that don’t have high turnover of staff and actually nurture the children and provide great communication pls ?

I'm not in Islington...N Family are everywhere. It's hard finding a nursery but I wish you luck.