We are the only 2 teacher-led maintained nursery schools in Walthamstow.
Our experienced staff carefully structure the education and care we provide each individual child so that it looks and feels like free play. We nurture and cherish children’s instinctive love of learning while teaching them the knowledge and skills they need to be lifelong learners. We offer:
Low Hall Nursery School was founded by Margaret Mcmillan in 1929, Church Hill Nursery School opened in 1971, and in 2014 the 2 schools formed a federation which we call the Forest Alliance of Nursery Schools, or FANS, to celebrate how close we are to the glories of Epping Forest.
There are 385 maintained nursery schools in England.
‘Maintained’ means that we are state-funded schools - just like primary or secondary schools. By law we have a qualified headteacher (BA Ed, QTS NPQH), qualified teachers (BA Ed QTS), and one of these teachers must be an experienced, qualified SENDco to support children with special educational needs.
Also by law we have a governing body which oversees everything we do, and are inspected under the Ofsted School inspection framework. You can see our plans for further development and improvement (our SDP), and how we measure ourselves against the current Ofsted framework (our SEF) here.
We are different from a primary school nursery in that our entire structure specialises in early education. Children leave us when they are developmentally ready to go up to ‘big school’, in the year in which they turn 5. They build confidence by being the oldest children in school.
We are different from a private nursery in that our business is education, not profit.
We don’t just get children school ready, we get them ready for life-long learning by ensuring they have the best early education through high-quality staff interactions based on what children love: play! You can see what we teach, how we teach it and why we teach this way here.
Our specialist teachers and highly-qualified early years educators are experts in early play experiences. Many of them have worked with us for over 20 years.
Our 2 schools have one Governing Body and one leadership team, which helps us share knowledge and maintain best practice as well as stimulating ideas and driving improvement.
Our Executive Headteacher is Helen Currie, who qualified as a teacher in 1999 and taught mainly in early years and also in key stage 1 before becoming the Executive Headteacher here in 2017.
Our Assistant Headteacher is Lindsay Read. She has been a teacher for 19 years, including 5 years in Key Stage 1. Her leadership roles include KS1 lead and lead teacher in a primary school and 8 years as a governor in 3 different schools.
Our SENDCo at Church Hill is Pat English, who has more than 36 years’ teaching experience in Early Years, more than 21 of which have been as SENDCo. Pat works closely with our SENDCo at Low Hall, Nalinee Sabaroche, who has been working in Early Years for 23 years, 16 as a teacher, 6 of them as a primary school Reception teacher.
Ofsted tells us we are 'Outstanding' and 'Good'. Read our reports here (Church Hill) and here (Low Hall). Parents tell us we are 'a magical place' and that 'The staff are very warm, nurturing and creative' and 'really take time to form relationships with the children and families', 'During the pandemic they were absolutely amazing and uploaded recording of the teachers doing phonics and reading stories which made a huge difference for us to have these resources to rely on.'
We are a fully inclusive organisation, welcoming everyone from all faiths and none, from all cultures, and with the widest range of needs.
We ensure the very best for every child, regardless of their starting point, tailoring learning to each child’s specific needs.
All children in our schools have a key person who plans for their learning, takes care of them and is the link between nursery and home. We work in partnership with you to ensure that your child will make fantastic progress, become independent, make friends and love to come to nursery every day.
We always want to hear what parents have to say so that we can improve, and so that we know what we are doing well.
We want to improve the education of all Waltham Forest children, not just those who come to our schools, so we work hard to share our practice with other settings in the borough by providing support and training through the Waltham Forest Early Years training programme and through our partnership work with the WF teaching school hub.
Helen Currie (Executive Headteacher)
Tue 27th Jun
School closed 5th and 7th July
Tue 27th Jun
School closed 5th and 7th July
Thu 22nd Jun
ideas for summer fun, health and happiness
Thu 22nd Jun
Ideas for summer fun, health and happiness
Church Hill Nursery School
Thu 22nd Jun|22/06/23
Church Hill Nursery School
Fri 9th Sep|09/09/22
Church Hill Nursery School
Thu 8th Sep|08/09/22
Church Hill Nursery School
Tue 19th Jul|19/07/22
Church Hill Nursery School
Tue 7th Jun|07/06/22
9 September 2022
The Forest Alliance of Nursery Schools is sad to hear of the death of HRH Queen Elizabeth II. She was an amazing role model to the nation and her family. Her children and grandchildren and all who feel sad today are in our thoughts. A few parents have asked about if the nurseries will be closed for a day of mourning. We, like all schools, will follow the national protocol when they are announced to the public.
24 June 2022
Hugely proud of our wonderful team of teachers and early years educators and children for this wonderful report published today. It will be on the Ofsted website in 8 working days so here's a snippet to wet your appetite!
2 March 2022
Helen's office is unusually (*cough) messy today as she creates bags of play sets for our families involved in our We Play project. What's inside I wonder...
27 May 2021
Rest in peace Eric Carle. Wonderful author to generations of inspired children x
5 May 2020
Some afternoon fun
31 March 2020
I sense that my children may be a little tired of the lock in situation. It's a house monster.
23 January 2020
Such lovely work at Church Hill many thanks to @maudmilton and her wonderful team
9 January 2020
Some really fascinating transient art inspired by Reggio and Land Art today at #newhamEY conference. Can you guess which sculptures are entitled Surround and which are called Line?
11 November 2019
Even more @maudmilton beauties to be seen at Church Hill Nursery School. Thanks @wfculture19 #thanksmaud #mosaics #mosaicschool
5 November 2019
Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make our fabulous mosaics, especially @maudmilton and her amazing team who taught us all so much! Look out for more to come later next week #mosaics #mosaicschool #maudmilton #saveournurseryschools
21 December 2021
Outdoor colour mixing! #colourmixing #engagedlearners #linkedlearning #eyfsmatters #play
21 December 2021
We made our own paint recipe cards by counting scoops required to make the perfect new colours! #scientist #colourmixing #earlymaths #engagedlearners
21 December 2021
Enjoying exploring colour mixing with powder paint. #paint #colourexplorers #walthamstow #mns #earlyeducation
23 June 2021
We love making stories with #talestoolkit. After creating our own story some children decided to make their own character puppets to use in their own stories! #earlyyears #earlyliteracy #storytelling #puppet #e17 #walthamstow #chitchatpitterpat
23 June 2021
We've also been making our own music. We tested the instruments and then used shape stickers to plan the sequence we would play them in and how many times we would play them. After we had finished our friends could use our music plan to play our tunes- wow! #earlymaths #music #composers #eyfs #mns #chitchatpitterpat #e17 #walthamstow #learningthroughplay
23 June 2021
A lot of concentration was needed when playing with the instant coffee. Different resources were used to scoop and fill. The nursery smelled like #costa #chitchatpitterpat #stjameslocal #stjamespark #markhouse #e17 #walthamstow #maintainednurseryschool #mns #eyfs #learningthroughplay
23 June 2021
Reveal the shape... We used different paper shapes and sprinkled flour over the top. When we removed the paper we could see the shape revealed in the flour! #shapes #learningthtroughplay #flour #buckettime #e17 #walthamstow #chitchatpitterpat
23 June 2021
We've been very quiet on here recently which in Nursery life means we've been really busy in nursery . We have been practicing our all important scissor skills in lots of different ways including using them to cut spaghetti! We enjoyed making different lengths and comparing them. #eyfs #scissors #earlylearning #skills #walthamstow #e17 #markhouse #stjamespark #stjameslocal #chitchatpitterpat
13 May 2021
Eid Mubarak to all our families and everyone celebrating today! #e17 #eid #walthamstow #celebration
27 March 2021
At Low Hall Nursery School we ensure that everything we do has play at the heart of it! This video bought a smile to our faces... Enjoy https://youtu.be/5tjRPWPhIfA #eyfsteacher #e17 #walthamstow #playrules #childdevelopment #childrenfirst #learningthroughplay #highqualityplay
Church Hill Low Hall
14th Jun
Low Hall Nursery School stay and play at Visiting Day | TICKETLAB https://t.co/opyE8DX3j2
Church Hill Low Hall
7th Jun
Time to thank my partner, â¦@CarolineVollansâ© This honour is just as much about the people around me. Caroline’s support, incisive intelligence and love are at the heart of everything I do. With love to Caroline and thanks from the deepest place in my heart. https://t.co/FW3eGmluVp
Church Hill Low Hall
7th Jun
Time to thank my partner, â¦@CarolineVollansâ© This honour is just as much about the people around me. Caroline’s support, incisive intelligence and love are at the heart of everything I do. With love to Caroline and thanks from the deepest place in my heart. https://t.co/FW3eGmluVp
Church Hill Low Hall
7th Jun
@juliangrenier informed us that the honour bestowed on him is a CBE. Huge congratulations Julian. https://t.co/E1sf4fRF9o
Church Hill Low Hall
21st Sep
My eldest son (year 7) just asked if he could watch The Goop Lab on @netflix He was disappointed to find it was not about making slime. Maybe next series Gwyneth Paltrow?
Church Hill Low Hall
14th Jul
Today, all our students and staff held a minutes applause in support of @BukayoSaka87 @Sanchooo10 and @MarcusRashford to drown out the racial hatred and derogatory treatment they have faced since representing their country at Euro 2020 https://t.co/UQNi1UFxTw
Church Hill Low Hall
26th May
Join the Speech, Language and Communication Early Years Summit for free! Online between the 31st May and 6th June, it features 30 expert speakers from the field of Speech, Language, and Communication for a week of online talks. https://t.co/BfL1TsS4Vk @BEYNetworks #earlyyears https://t.co/9RgOyJKPCE
Church Hill Low Hall
26th May
Can anyone in #earlyyears help with this? #menopause ⬇ï¸â¬‡ï¸â¬‡ï¸ https://t.co/O0Wg5EZzCm
Church Hill Low Hall
11th May
If #MitchellsvsTheMachines doesn’t win best picture Oscar next year I’m moving to Mars.
Church Hill Low Hall
11th May
Thought we all agreed to #protectTheNhs not torture it? https://t.co/XqxsIRMSkZ
Church Hill Low Hall
2nd May
Cats love the valerian in our organic Night Time tea, have you noticed this with your moggy? #NationalCatDay https://t.co/TfkCeL9WIB
Church Hill Low Hall
27th Apr
Count binface nailing it again with his mayoral manifesto. Significantly more credible than Shaun Bailey’s https://t.co/56kqoSWqCM
Church Hill Low Hall
27th Apr
After @GavinWilliamson sneaked out a change to the Pupil Premium calculation, I got busy, Foi requesting data & working out the impact on schools & councils After a reply from Oldham, I can now show Greater Manchester schools will lose £10 million in PP funding this year https://t.co/SPjpFg9Ml6
Church Hill Low Hall
27th Apr
Congratulations to @RIBA’s recent commissioned practices @SpacePopular and @nimtim_arch, plus shortlisted practice for our Becontree Centenary commission RESOLVE, on featuring amongst 109 emerging British practices in New Architects 4 by @ArchFoundation https://t.co/HYUtA3Nckc
Church Hill Low Hall
16th Apr
I pray each day that every human being, indeed every sentient being, should be happy. So, if you come across individuals facing problems, help them. Share their problems and try to bring them peace of mind. Wherever you live, try to create a happy community.
Church Hill Low Hall
26th Mar
@walthamstowNS Thanks Helen - shame he didn't draw me eating a doughnut!
Church Hill Low Hall
26th Mar
Do you know any 4-year-olds? Do you think they should be formally tested in English and maths when they first start school? Watch some 4 year olds in action and sign our petition: https://t.co/EWrjx2pqnt https://t.co/k1adPKxVRl
Church Hill Low Hall
25th Mar
My 5yo nephew drew this picture of me. The accuracy of the eyelashes has had me chuckling all morning. And I have no idea when I’ve ever worn such a bright and flowery headscarf. I love that I can see how he interprets things through his drawings. P.s. he calls me khala-moni https://t.co/fkpAaTdpI5
Church Hill Low Hall
25th Mar
Maintained Nursery Schools urgently need the 6 year long funding consultation to come to an end with a full funding solution to save them now for future generations. There is no better way to support children at this crucial point.#SaveOurNurseries #FundEarlyYears @TulipSiddiq https://t.co/oavGPXn2NF