Kids

NFamily Club at Second Home may just be London's best nursery yet

By Jen Barton Packer on 9/7/2019

NFamily Club is on a mission to transform early years education for the better - make that best. Check out their latest nursery inside coworking space, Second Home London Fields.

NFamily Club's stunning outdoor space at Second Home London Fields

Once you have a child, you quickly realise the minefield that negotiating your child's care really is. From overly expensive to utterly unimpressive, parents often feel that finding a suitable nursery option for their precious little one is a struggle.

We'd like to introduce you to the nursery that's determined to change the reputation of nurseries for good: NFamily Club, which has just opened its second London location at coworking space Second Home London Fields. How appropriate that the nursery looking to redefine the nursery experience has teamed up with the coworking space determined to transform office life for the better.

Coworking spaces with childcare provision are becoming more common in London and elsewhere in the UK - essential considering how many parents need a flexible working space, or just an occasional one. In fact, incorporating families into the cooler aspects of London life, like going out to brunch at Market Hall Fulham, for example, is something companies are realising there's a real market for: see The Kids' Table, which is transforming the family brunch experience with pop-up crafts corners to entertain the kids while parents taste the bliss of avo on toast without a crayon mushed into it.

NFamily Club at Second Home

NFamily Club's ethos synergises well with Second Home London Fields' nature-infused workspace: founded by Rohan Silva and Sam Aldenton, Second Home's philosophy is all about creating a workplace that brings together a diverse community of engaged minds (you'll find NGOs and film producers side by side), and everything about the space is designed to inspire creativity and support entrepreneurship.

Members enjoy perks like morning yoga sessions, inspiring BeBetter sessions on how to grow a business from the founders of Deliveroo and Farfetch, and expert tips on how to be more sustainable in your day-to-day life. Plus, it's a nature-lover's dream, with hanging gardens, live moss, Portuguese cork soundproofing, natural light flooding the space through large windows and vertically, through circular voids, and a range of different desk options and membership levels to suit an individual or team's needs.

Now parents themselves, Silva and Aldenton recognise the importance of catering to working parents: enter NFamily Club and the site's new nursery, open from 7am-7pm, 51 weeks of the year - they're only closed the week of Christmas. The nursery's intake is roughly comprised of a 50/50 mix between Second Homers and locals in the neighbourhood.

The nursery has its own entrance, and is all about engaging the child's sense of wonder and appetite for play: next to stairs for adults to descend, there's a slide for kids to use to get down, one of the many "architecturally inspiring" attributes that both Second Home and NFamily Club are known for. Equipped with a self-serve breakfast bar for parents dropping their kids, book nooks, an indoor play castle and a crafts room for mini Picassos, as well as an incredible outdoor rooftop, which includes a race track with toy cars, a tented den feature and water and muddy play stations, for parents of toddlers, it's a dream come true. You can dip in and out to see your child between meetings, read them a book before starting on your report and sneak in a morning yoga session before client calls. Fees start from £90/day for an under-3; £80 per day for a 3+.

NFamily Club is opening a West Hampstead nursery in autumn

NFamily Club's spaces have that endlessly inspiring Scandi feel that plays on our idea of built space and negative space and appeals to both adults and kids alike. The team consults with nutritionists to create balanced food menus and integrates the outdoors in whatever way works for the space they have: the new West Hampstead nursery, opening in autumn, has outdoor water play features and a sand pit, while the Brixton site, coming early 2020, boasts a massive outdoor garden with tube slide, vegetable patch, mini football pitch and adventure playground.

Brixton residents will also get an NFamily Club near them, due to open in early 2020

The nursery group also hosts family-friendly activities outside of nursery hours, like drop-in fitness sessions for the family, or face-painting and games on the rooftop of Second Home London Fields. Parents will also like the learning system in place: NFamily Club follows the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum, but emphasises the importance of outdoor play, with a Forest School scheme that sees kids 3+ bug-hunting and tree-climbing several days a week. French and Spanish is also on the menu, as is music throughout the day.