N Family Club - West Hampstead Nursery

Not a good place for people to work. Manager doesn’t even have basic respect for workers there I don’t recommend anyone working here

Our baby is well looked after and cared for at this nursery. The staff are very pro-active and professional and the facilities are stunningly well designed. We can tell a lot of thought and care has gone into every aspect of how the nursery works and looks after children. We would highly recommend N to anyone looking for childcare in West Hampstead.

We absolutely love this nursery!Our daughter started at N at the age of 1 year and 2 months, having previously attended a different nursery prior to our home move. The settling in process exceeded our expectations by far, with the key person visiting us before the start to meet our little one and learn about her routine, personality and development.The team were just as excellent during the covid pandemic, providing us with lots of support and very good communication in the chaotic early days of lockdown. We feel they’ve also gone the extra mile to re-open the nursery in as safe way as possible.The staff are just fantastic, warm and welcoming, taking a keen interest in our daughter’s development and approach early years education in an innovative and thoughtful way.Last but not least, the facilities in the nursery are lovely, with a treat of a garden for an urban location!

We absolutely recommend N Family Club to anyone looking for childcare in London. We were very lucky to have them opening a nursery in West Hampstead in a moment when we were struggling to find suitable childcare options for our daughter in the region. I wish I had similar options for my daughter's education in the future, it will be hard to say good bye in a couple of years!

Our 10months old is very happy at this nursery! The staff are fantastic: everyone is super friendly, positive, and professional and are very helpful and patient in responding to our (many!) questions. Our son beams when he sees his key person, who is absolutely amazing with him. The activities they do with the children are fun, creative, and educational and I am personally very jealous of the food menu! Thanks so much for taking such great care of our little one and I could not recommend N nursery enough.

At the nursery for the last six months. Really disappointed with management, extremely high turnover, high agency staff rates, low morale amongst permanent staff who are overstretched. The educators that have not resigned yet do care for our children and are excellent but a matter of time before they leave. Poorly managed nursery and definitely care is not outstanding due to low staffing levels. Manager of the nursery clearly does not care to improve current status. Good with words but never put into action. Obviously the focus is on money and not education.

Some great people working here but unfortunately the company is run with one objective in mind (you can guess what !) although rated outstanding a few years back it’s not the same anymore and its getting worse by the day . Several escalations to regional head office but no answers . Also probably the most expensive nursery of the area due to the nice premises and location but management is failing miserably with multiple good staff continuously leaving and forcing our children to spend time with stranger’s . I wish I knew this info before we joined as it’s really hard to find suitable alternatives . Do not bring your children here .

Terrible experience, would not recommend. We ended up giving notice after a couple of months. You’re paying well above average prices (20-40pct above better nurseries in the area) for far BELOW average quality. Don’t be fooled by the modern facilities / fancy entrance. Bad management, way above average staff turnover, corporate structure that cares more about profits than quality, lack of internal communication (have to repeat instructions 5 or more times if they even get heard at all, they fail to communicate to us if there are issues in the day such as today our son didn’t nap at all). In room staff are good but with the above average turnover and bad management they are overwhelmed and under pressure, often getting pulled into other rooms to cover, while temp workers filling in are under-qualified. I’ve raised these and MANY other concerns I won’t go into to local and regional management and felt like it was like talking to a corporate wall that genuinely doesn’t care, probably because they know they have a long waitlist. They will blame their problems on external factors like childcare and cost of living crisis but - while I realize these are issues in the sector - I have current experience with two other nurseries in the area which are run substantially better with limited turnover. At the end of the day, I’ve seen enough issues to know this is a management and corporate culture problem which will not get resolved easily, if at all. When valid concerns are raised management respond with defensiveness, fake promises and/or corporate buzz words but things just keep deteriorating. As one example (and there are many), this week our room of about 9 babies was staffed by 1 permanent member of staff and two temp agency workers. The agency workers literally stand there staring off into space so we are paying a premium for essentially a 1 to 9 ratio. Children didn’t nap including our son, were left on their own to roam most of the day, and probably endured chaos that was apparent to many parents at pick-up. The response from management: this is out of our control. Sorry but that is not an acceptable response. For the premium price we are paying they should have qualified backup staff on site with some rooms above ratios as per most nurseries. I know many other parents have also raised similar underlying concerns in a recent parent meeting. Even the process of giving notice has come with almost non existent communication from N. I had to email, call, message more than 5x to confirm they got our notice communication. We’ve asked to reduce our two month notice period given the issues we’ve had and their long waitlist and they literally just ignore the question. With so many red flags, this is not a place I trust with my precious child. If in doubt, check local mums groups for feedback and don’t make the same mistake we did signing up for this ‘unextaordinary’ nursery. It has been a big headache, waste of time, money, and energy, and most importantly a chaotic experience for our baby. Luckily we got a place at a nearby nursery that is 30pct less expensive and has been significantly higher quality with the settling in, daily communication, and staff loyalty/longevity. During the N notice period my son has been doing two days at the new nursery and three at N per week. The experience between the two is like night and day. I’m getting to the point that I don’t feel comfortable sending my son in, even for another day.

Our one year old daughter loves going to this nursery and we couldn't be happier with it. The facilities are amazing, with lots of high quality and educational toys and lovely outdoors space. The staff is wonderful, always helpful and very caring. We feel very lucky that the N Club in WH opened just in time when we were looking for the nursery.