Established in 1994, New Park Nursery & Montessori School is our first nursery and where our journey began. The nursery has two beautiful spaces: a dedicated room for our youngest children, and a beautifully equipped Montessori preschool classroom opening directly onto its own garden.

Children progress through a series of specially designed materials that help them advance academically in areas such as literacy and numeracy as well as helping them to develop their independence, concentration and social skills. We firmly believe the Montessori Method provides all the appropriate challenges children need to prepare them for primary school and later life.

The Infant Community classroom is a bright and cheerful spacious room at the front of the building and is arranged to be welcoming in shape, size, decoration and resources.

There is ample space for creative activities including drawing, craft, painting, sand and water play and other wonderfully messy activities! Other areas include a home corner for role play supporting language and social development, a book corner, a quiet area for babies to sleep, bottle feed and enjoy heuristic play, a Montessori practical life area, a problem solving area for children to explore science and early numeracy, a place for construction and a large ramp and stair for whole body physical development.

Our philosophy encourages our educators to interact with babies and children at their level and to promote children’s independence, so all play, activities and eating take place at specially designed low tables and chairs, or on floor mats.

When they are ready to work with more advanced Montessori materials, children move on Montessori preschool classroom based in the suite of interconnection rooms at the rear of the building. This wonderful learning space offers a rich, broad curriculum incorporating Practical Life, Sensorial, Maths, Language, Culture, Science, Geography, Botany and Art. Children enjoy direct free-flow access to their own garden throughout the day and all year round; the children also use this area to grow their own seeds and bulbs.

The children’s bathroom is fitted with four WCs and wash basins, all at low level for young children’s use. We also have nappy changing facilities. Children are encouraged to observe high standards of personal hygiene by washing their hands before and after meals, after using the toilet or potties and by cleaning their teeth during the day.

In the kitchen our chef prepares all the babies’ and children’s meals from scratch on-site every day.

The spacious gardens to the front and rear provide a tranquil environment for a variety of bird and animal life which enriches our children’s knowledge and understanding of their world. Nearby are Highbury Fields, Clissold Park and the New River Walk – perfect outdoor locations for escorted excursions.

New Park Nursery & Montessori School has been rated “Outstanding” since 2011. Please click here to read our Ofsted reports.

New Park Nursery & Montessori School is an accredited Montessori school, and we hold accreditation with both MEAB (2014) and MEUK (2015 & 2022).

New Park is proud to be the first private nursery in the UK to become an accredited London Living Wage employer.

Our Highbury nursery has been awarded five stars for food safety in all its recent local authority environmental health inspections. This gives parents reassurance about the hygiene standards in our kitchen including handling of food, how food is stored and prepared, the cleanliness of our facilities and how food safety is managed.

We have also been awarded “Millie's Mark”. In order to achieve the Millie’s Mark certification, 100% of staff working directly with the children must be qualified in Paediatric First Aid and we continue to make sure that all our staff receive this important training.

Healthy Early Years London (HEYL) recognises that a nursery is providing a significant level of support for the health, wellbeing and education of children including social and emotional health and wellbeing; speech, language and communication; healthy eating; oral health; breastfeeding and starting solid food; physical activity; independence in self-care and hygiene; immunisation and infection control and sustainability. We are proud to have be one of only 16 nurseries in Islington to have been awarded Silver level for this award.

Please click here to view our current Fee Structure.

Childcare Vouchers:

Whilst the scheme was closed to new entrants from 2018, Newpark accepts most major Childcare Vouchers for those parents still eligible for this tax benefit.

Tax Free Childcare:

The Government’s “Tax Free Childcare” scheme enables eligble parents to access up to £2,000 of funding per child per year towards their childcare costs. For further details please visit gov.uk. Please note use of this scheme is subject to our terms and conditions.

Free funding for 2, 3 and 4 year olds:

Children aged 3 and 4 years old qualify for universal government funding and 2, 3 and 4 year olds of eligible working parents may also qualify for additional government funding. Please contact us for further details.

Full v Part-Time:

Our fee structure discounts our tenures downwards from our Ad-hoc hourly rate.

Therefore, our most fully discounted tenure is our full- time tenure. Per hour, this is dramatically cheaper.

Second Child Discount:

We offer a 10% reduction on the fees for second siblings taking a place at Newpark if both children attend full time.

All the aforementioned is subject to terms and conditions and availability.