Highbury Community Nursery
GoodTakes funded hours★ 4.4 on GoogleBirth to 8+Open for decades
A day nursery in London for babies from 6 months up to school age, open 08:00 to 18:00, 7 days a week. They take the funded hours. They do not publish prices, so ask. Rated Good by Ofsted in July 2025. Open since 1994, with 60 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
Funded hours
30 hour funded places for children aged from 9mths with eligibility; universal 15 hours for 3-4 year olds; additional 15 hours for eligible 3 and 4 year olds; 2 year old free 15 hours per week.
Worth knowing. Funded hours are offered term time only; all year round care is chargeable outside of the funded hours; 30 hours offered over 3 full days Mon-Weds or Weds-Fri, any additional days would be chargeable.
What childcare usually costs in Islington
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Islington from the Department for Education's 2025 provider survey. No national data holds what an individual nursery charges, so ring and ask.
Places, hours and the day
Who they take, when they are open, and what a day there includes.
Where it is
N5 1TLWhat the inspector found
One grade is one visit. A run of them tells you whether it has been good for years or has only just got there.
Ofsted inspector, 30 July 2025 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Children arrive happily and engage quickly in a wide variety of imaginative, stimulating activities. Leaders are keen to promote secure attachments between staff and children and to build on children's sense of belonging. Staff carry out home visits and encourage children to bring in a bag containing familiar items, to help them to settle happily. They build affectionate bonds with children. Staff help children to feel secure and confident in the nursery by getting to know them and by valuing each child highly. They greet children warmly and make timely interventions in their play to support their learning.
Staff have high expectations of children's learning and behaviour and children act in positive ways. Leaders provide a creative, child-led and comprehensive curriculum that helps children to prepare well for school. All children make good progress. Staff keep track of children's development and ensure that additional support is given to any child who needs it. Staff understand how to seek support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
Children enjoy experiencing the changing texture of cornflour when mixed with water and skilfully make wheel prints on paper with paint. Younger children take part in lively song and rhyme sessions, where they move in different ways and learn new words. They listen attentively to staff during a reading of the 'Dear Zoo'
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- consider ways to manage meal times more effectively to enable younger children to settle more readily and enhance their personal and social development.
- 30 July 2025Good Safeguarding: Yes
- 4 December 2019Good
- 24 February 2014Outstanding
Rated Good or Outstanding at 3 of the last 3 graded inspections.
Still missing for Highbury Community Nursery
- What it costs
- Meals
- Nappies
No dataset holds any of this. Two parents telling us the same thing puts it on the page for whoever looks next.
What to ask them
Some of this is above, from the setting or from parents, and it can go out of date. The rest is in no dataset anywhere. Either way it is worth ten minutes on the phone.
- What does it cost, all in? What is on top: meals, nappies, late pick-up, and what happens if you are late.
- How do you apply my funded hours? Whether they stretch them over the year, and the minimum days you have to book.
- Do you have a place for a child of my age now? Baby rooms fill first and waiting lists are common.
- Who would my child's key person be? And how long have the staff been there. No dataset holds this and it matters more than anything above.
- Can I visit at a busy time? Mid-morning on a weekday tells you far more than an empty room after hours.
Day nurseries within a couple of miles
This one is first. Tick it and one or two others to see them side by side.