Crystal Palace Day Nursery

Crystal Palace Day Nursery
Unique reference number (URN): 2845883
Address: 49 Maberley Road, London, SE19 2JE
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registered with Ofsted: 07/07/2025
Registers: EYR
Registered person: Dicky Birds Pre School Nurseries Limited
Inspection report: 11 September 2026
Exceptional
Strong standard
Expected standard
Needs attention
Urgent improvement
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.
How we evaluate safeguarding
When we inspect settings for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:
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.

Strong standard
Expected standard
Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard
Leaders create policies and procedures that are understood by all staff and that promote the
wellbeing of babies. For example, they have clear policies for sleep arrangements for
babies. Staff carefully consider what different babies need to settle to help them to have
enough rest to be ready for their day of learning and fun.
Staff are consistently responsive to the needs of babies. They skilfully comfort and distract
babies when they experience distress. Babies develop healthy attachments to staff and feel
listened to and cared for. All babies feel happy and relaxed as they play with staff and other
babies. These positive experiences support babies' emotional wellbeing and help them
develop resilience for the future.
Staff are highly effective in how they plan babies' routines whilst considering any gaps in
their wellbeing. For example, they carefully track the feeding habits of babies, encouraging
them to try a vast selection of flavours and textures. Staff diligently identify babies with
allergies and intolerances and support parents to access expert advice to consistently
support their long term physical health and wellbeing.
Achievement Expected standard
Babies develop the physical skills they need as they learn to crawl, pull themselves up and
walk. Babies who have barriers to their development benefit from carefully planned activities
that consider their needs. They have the time they need to practise skills that make them
increasingly independent. All babies achieve well as they work through their milestones.
Babies generally learn to use sounds and words to express themselves as they respond to
the facial expressions of staff. Babies enjoy exploring and working things out, for example,
they develop hand eye coordination as they experiment with ball play. Babies become
increasingly independent when feeding themselves, for example, when grasping finger
foods, holding a spoon and bringing food towards their mouth. Through repeated
opportunities to practise these movements during play, babies strengthen the coordination
and control needed for everyday self-care skills.
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Expected standard
Leaders promote an inclusive approach to adapting routines to meet the individual needs of
babies. They create a culture of back-and-forth communication with families to enable staff
to create consistency between the home and the nursery. They promote regular attendance
and this helps babies to develop the secure attachments they need to feel safe.

Staff work closely with parents to consider the bedtime routine of babies and create an
environment at the nursery, which where appropriate, mirrors home routines. This helps
babies to settle well as they transition into the nursery. Staff understand that building positive
relationships is essential to their work. They spend time helping babies to develop healthy
attachments that enable them to feel safe and emotionally secure.
Staff create an environment where typically babies enjoy learning because they give them
praise and encouragement as they work towards their milestones. All staff know the babies
well and they each have positive and warm relationships with them. They create a culture of
play, having fun and enjoying learning. This helps babies develop positive attitudes to
learning as they explore their environment.
Curriculum and teaching Expected standard
Leaders design a curriculum that focuses appropriately on the development of babies. For
example, they support babies to develop key attachments with staff. As a result, babies gain
the fundamental emotional and social skills they need for their development. Staff monitor
the progress of babies as they work towards milestones. They understand that babies
develop at different rates and identify barriers to learning and development. Leaders and
staff plan a flexible curriculum that considers individual babies' interests and create
appropriate targets to help them to achieve.
Staff typically teach the curriculum well. For example, babies develop creative skills as they
hear and respond to music. Staff read to babies in a way that promotes their understanding
of language. They carefully adapt their teaching to help children who speak English as an
additional language to join in and learn.
Generally, staff communicate with babies in a way that promotes their learning. However,
there is not a consistently sharp focus on speech development. For example, strategies for
helping children to hear, understand and process words are not fully embedded across the
nursery. This limits the opportunity for babies to develop language skills at all times of the
day.
Inclusion Expected standard
Leaders consider the needs of babies before starting at the nursery. They work
collaboratively with parents to identify any concerns around wellbeing and to consider how
best to support children. This includes children who speak English as an additional
language. Staff generally support these children to hear words in their home language and
to consider how best to approach teaching them key vocabulary. As a result, these children
make steady progress as they gain an understanding of language to help them to make
sense of the world.
Leaders create processes for identifying any gaps in learning for individual children. They
typically encourage staff to seek professional guidance for children with gaps in their
learning. As a result, staff typically seek advice from experts to support individual children.
Overall, staff understand how to approach external professionals to seek expect advice for
babies with gaps in their development and learning. However, leaders do not consistently
use this guidance to help staff to strengthen their practice. As a result, Staff are not able to

fully embed strategies from experts to guide their future practice and support children to
thrive in all aspects of their learning.
Leadership and governance Expected standard
Leaders create a culture where staff feel valued. They promote opportunities for staff to
regularly share good practice, knowledge and ideas. Leaders typically identify opportunities
for training that helps strengthen practice and ensure staff have the skills and confidence
they need to promote the learning of the babies at the nursery. Leaders consider the
wellbeing and workload of staff as they select responsibilities and plan routines. For
example, they make sure that staff have regular breaks and rest. As a result, staff enjoy
working at the nursery and carry out their roles effectively.
Leaders reflect regularly on practice and work collaboratively with staff to ensure policies
and procedures are followed with children's best interests at heart. Leaders use feedback
from parents and staff to identify areas for development and ensure their actions typically
lead to meaningful improvements. Leaders and staff engage effectively with parents about
children's development. They also gather information from families that helps strengthen the
learning and care staff give to babies. This back and forth collaboration with families gives
staff a broad picture of the experience of babies with which to inform their practice.
What it's like to be a child at this setting
Babies enjoy exploring the nursery where they are greeted by warm staff who give them the
attention they need to thrive. They have nurturing and reassuring relationships with staff who
get to know their individual personalities and understand what makes them unique. Babies
are distracted skilfully by staff when they feel sad and need reassurance. This helps them to
feel settled and happy. Babies who speak English as an additional language hear words in
their own language as they play. This helps them to develop a sense of belonging in the
homely surroundings of the nursery.
Babies learn a wide variety of key skills that support their development. For example, they
learn key physical skills that enable them to hold utensils, use tools and complete self-care
tasks. This helps them to reach learning milestones. They build a solid foundation of their
development across the curriculum. Babies feel motivated to try hard as they reach their
goals in all areas of learning. They enjoy a wide variety of sensory activities that enable
them to enjoy new experiences and build confidence. This helps babies to secure a solid
foundation of skills to prepare them for future success. Babies benefit from the oversight of

Inspector:
Kate Daurge
About this setting
Unique reference number (URN): 2845883
Address:
49 Maberley Road
London
SE19 2JE
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registration date: 07/07/2025
Registered person: Dicky Birds Pre School Nurseries Limited
Register(s): EYR
leaders in supporting their wellbeing and development. For example, leaders carefully
consider how they promote attendance and anticipate any barriers to punctuality. This helps
all babies to develop a consistent routine and positive attitudes towards attending the
nursery in preparation for their future learning. This includes babies with barriers to learning
and wellbeing who are able to receive the right support to receive the care and education
they need for the next stage of their education.
Next steps
Leaders should further develop how they strategically implement advice from
professionals to make a sustained difference to the learning of all children.
Leaders should further develop how interactions are embedded across the nursery to help
all babies to excel in their understanding and language development.
About this inspection
The inspector spoke with leaders, parents, children and staff during the 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.

Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 07:30 - 18:30
Local authority: Bromley
Facts and figures used on inspection
This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.
This data is from 11 September 2026
Children numbers
Age range of children at the time of inspection
0 to 1
Total number of places
24
Our grades explained
Exceptional
Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other settings can learn from it.
Strong standard
The setting reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of
them.
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.
Needs attention
The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary
improvements.
Urgent improvement

The setting needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of
education and/or care.
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) inspects
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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