St Michael's Nursery

St Michael's Nursery

Unique reference number (URN): EY436727 Address: All Souls Church Hall, Station Road, LONDON, NW10 4UJ Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises Registered with Ofsted: 30/09/2011 Registers: EYR Registered person: St Michaels Nursery Limited

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, children are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect settings for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The setting has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not met: The setting has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Leaders and staff swiftly assess children's additional needs. They take action to help reduce any barriers to children's learning. Staff liaise with parents and carers of children who speak English as an additional language to assess how well their home languages are developing. This helps provide an accurate assessment of children's communication and language needs. Staff establish individual plans that meet children's emerging and changing needs. The team uses an approach that ensures that targets for children's development are implemented, regularly reviewed and adapted. This ensures that children continue to make progress, in line with the team's high expectations.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Staff can access training to specialised support when needed. For example, staff have recently attended training to deliver an intervention for children who may be struggling in speech and language. This helps children to catch in their development. The team works in partnership with parents, providing regular updates about their child's progress and sharing ideas for home learning. Staff work well with external professionals and seek advice when needed to ensure that children are receiving appropriate support. Leaders use additional funding to support children's learning and development. For example, they offer flexible patterns of attendance and purchase additional resources, so children can fully participate in daily routines and play experiences.

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Achievement Needs attention

Children do not consistently experience an appropriate level of support within the learning environment to extend their learning, deepen their understanding and sustain their curiosity. At times, activities, particularly story sessions, are not well planned or delivered effectively. As a result, some children disengage, which begins to impact on their behaviour and reduces the overall effectiveness of learning. In contrast, children with special educational needs and/or disabilities do have opportunities within the nursery play environment to make progress in line with their individual abilities. Appropriate activities ensure that these children can engage well and experience some progress in their learning.

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Achievement Needs attention

Children begin to develop important social skills. They learn to play alongside others, take turns and negotiate as they play together. However, some children do not consistently build on what they already know and can do. At times, they have fewer opportunities to practise skills independently or extend their learning further. As a result, not all children make the progress they are capable of and some are not fully prepared for their next stage of learning.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Needs attention

Staff support children to understand some rules and routines, such as lining up to wash their hands and face after lunch. However, these are not consistently managed well enough to promote children's wellbeing or maximise learning. At times, children experience unnecessary delays. For example, they wait for extended periods during lunchtime due to ineffective organisation of the routine. Similarly, after lunch, children who are waiting to go home are often left sitting for considerable lengths of time without purposeful activity or engagement from staff. During these periods, staff supervise children less effectively and children's engagement declines. These delays reduce valuable learning time.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Needs attention

Leaders establish positive expectations for children's behaviour. Many children develop warm and trusting relationships with staff, seeking them out for comfort and reassurance. Staff support children to learn to share and take turns. Many children collaborate successfully during their play. However, not all staff apply their expectations consistently. At times, some staff raise their voices excessively rather than using more effective strategies to support children's behaviour. This inconsistency reduces the overall effectiveness of behaviour management and can impact on children's emotional wellbeing.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Needs attention

Through supportive discussions, staff help parents and carers to understand how regular attendance impacts on their children. They explain arriving on time helps children to settle quickly and engage in activities and the daily routines of the nursery.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Needs attention

The nursery typically provides nutritious and well-balanced meals and snacks, supporting children's understanding of healthy eating. Staff take appropriate steps to consider children's allergies and intolerances. This helps to keep children safe. Children are involved in some self-care routines, such as washing their hands before mealtimes. However, staff do not implement hygiene practices consistently. For example, after lunch, staff do not consistently support children to develop independence in handwashing, often completing this for them. Similarly, initiatives to promote good oral health are not embedded consistently in practice. This limits children's understanding of the importance of hygiene routines. Nevertheless, key care routines, including appropriate supervision when children are eating and sleeping, are implemented effectively. This supports children's safety and emotional wellbeing.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Needs attention

Staff obtain information, such as about children's dietary requirements, health needs and home routines, through the settling-in procedures. This helps to ensure that children's individual needs are met. Children enjoy a safe, secure and welcoming space. They typically enjoy their day through a range of activities, including daily access to the outdoors.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

The teaching and implementation of the curriculum demonstrates some inconsistencies across the areas of learning. Some staff demonstrate a limited knowledge of learning intentions and how these directly support children's learning and development. Therefore, children's learning is happening more by chance. Staff do not purposefully use their assessments of children to plan for and build upon what children already know and can do. The physical environment within the nursery is not organised effectively. An overabundance of resources, varying in quality, leads to visual clutter. This limits children's ability to independently identify and access purposeful play opportunities. As a result, children do not receive consistent support to make meaningful choices in their learning.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Staff plan some structured activities, such as circle time, which are interactive and engaging. Many children participate enthusiastically, particularly during singing and action rhymes. However, the organisation of large-group teaching is not consistently inclusive. Younger or quieter children can find these sessions overwhelming, which limits their engagement. Consequently, learning during these times is less effective for these children compared to their more confident or older peers.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Leaders recognise that there are areas of the provision that require improvement. While some of these had been identified prior to the inspection, others had not. Leaders have started to reflect on these weaknesses and have taken initial steps to address them. This includes recruiting additional staff to strengthen practice, particularly in relation to the delivery of the curriculum. Action plans have been developed and are in the early stages of implementation. However, there has not yet been sufficient time for these to be fully embedded or to demonstrate a sustained impact on practice. Staff benefit from regular supervision meetings with their managers. They access a range of training opportunities to support their professional development.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Leaders promote a supportive working environment where staff feel valued. Their workload is monitored carefully through regular supervision meetings. Staff benefit from access to some training opportunities to support children's individual needs. Leaders also engage effectively with parents and carers and other professionals. They build positive relationships that help children to settle well and ensure that appropriate support is in place for those children who may face barriers to learning. Parents are highly complimentary about the care their children receive and the leadership of the setting.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Leaders have developed a curriculum that sets out what they want children to learn. However, this is not consistently reflected in children's daily experiences. For example, some activities lack a clear learning purpose. Staff do not plan how activities should support children's development, and they do not hold children's attention. As a result, children engage only briefly before losing interest and moving on to find something else to do.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Children experience a warm and welcoming environment, where they feel included, valued and well cared for. Staff form positive relationships with children. They respond thoughtfully to children's needs, helping them to feel safe and confident. Children settle quickly into routines because staff know them well and offer reassurance when needed. The youngest babies benefit from nurturing care. Staff use everyday routines, such as feeding, nappy changing and rest times, to strengthen attachments.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Children's safety and welfare are given a high priority. Leaders prioritise children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, those known (or previously known) to children's social care and those who face barriers to learning and/or wellbeing. Leaders acknowledge the importance of children, especially these children, attending regularly. They have robust procedures to promote children's attendance. For example, staff support parents and carers in a range of ways when barriers have been identified, such as children with feeding difficulties or flexible sessions to support them. Parents describe the nursery as supportive. They say they feel listened to and involved. This strengthens families' sense of belonging.

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Next steps

To meet the requirements of the Early years foundation stage the provider must take the following actions by the assigned date:

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Action Completion Date

improve and embed an ambitious education programme that consistently engages and clearly supports what individual children need to learn next to build on what they know and can do 17/07/2026

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Action Completion Date

improve the quality of teaching and staff interactions so that all children receive high-quality learning experiences 17/07/2026

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Action Completion Date

improve the physical environment to ensure that it is well organised and accessible, so that children can independently identify what is available and make meaningful choices in their learning 17/07/2026

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Action Completion Date

implement consistency in staff's approaches to behaviour management to ensure that these are managed respectfully and appropriately and help children understand the consequences of their actions on others 17/07/2026

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Address:

All Souls Church Hall Station Road LONDON NW10 4UJ

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Address:

Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises

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Address:

Registered person: St Michaels Nursery Limited

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Address:

Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 07:30 - 18:00

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Action Completion Date

strengthen hygiene practices to help children understand the importance of positive hygiene. 17/07/2026

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke with leaders, staff, parents and carers and children during the inspection.

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About this inspection

We carried out this inspection under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the quality and standards of provision that is registered on the Early Years Register. The registered person must ensure that this provision complies with the statutory framework for children's learning, development and care, known as the early years foundation stage.

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About this inspection

We carried out this inspection as a result of a risk assessment, following information we received about the provider. The provider will be able to give parents further information about this. Local authority: Brent

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Facts and figures used on inspection

This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other settings can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The setting reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The setting is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The setting needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care. services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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