Life at Ark Start

Kate & Justin: “We’ve both absolutely loved Ark Start Oval”

29 January 2026

One of our families at our East Croydon nursery recently shared their experience with Ark Start. Here’s their story.

We’ve both absolutely loved Ark Start Oval. I think like a lot of parents, putting your child into nursery is quite frightening at first, especially as we were moving our son from a family member who is a childminder. But Ark Start obviously really care deeply about the children and everything’s in place to reassure you as a parent. 

We liked the fact that the nursery was new and purpose built. It didn’t feel like a private business or a house that had been converted. Being connected to the primary school, it felt more like a route into school. 

Our son attends four days a week for the whole day (8am-5pm) which works well for us because of our working patterns. The flexibility in Oval’s funding and hours made it more affordable than the other options. And for Kate, it’s given her the chance to go back to work and resume her career. She loves being a mum, but she wanted to go back to work. Going back to work has given her a fuller, richer life and given us that balance. 

Our son has really flourished in the routine and the structure at Oval. He’s got a lot out of forming friendships, learning to negotiate and understanding that sometimes you can’t have all the toys! He trusts the staff. If he’s ever upset, he can go to them for comfort. He’s thriving – not just in his learning and development, but with his social skills as well. 

The communication from the nursery is so good. If anything important happens, it’s on the app straight away which is great. You always know what’s happening. And every day when we pick him up, if there’s been any issues, they always talk to us about that. For us, there’s a comfort from the nursery’s reliability throughout. It’s not just high standards from day one, which then slip off. It’s consistent throughout. 

The staff have been pretty much the same since day one.  There’s not been much turnover. The key staff that were there when we joined those years ago are still there and that consistency is nice. The staff have genuinely lived up the congruency of what was presented from day one – in fact, they’ve gone above and beyond that. We’d be more than happy to recommend it. And we did to our next door neighbour whose child is also there! 

The outdoor space is great as well. Being urban, in Croydon, you value that outdoor sort of space and our son very much enjoys that. He likes the independent play. 

As he’s moved into the preschool, he’s had the opportunity to do more intricate puzzles and activities that weren’t necessarily available to the younger classes. 

The staff all know him really well. When he goes early in the morning and there are less children there, we get photos of him having built big train tracks. They know he loves the trains, but that’s more difficult to get out when all the other kids are there. So, they’d often do that with him in the morning. 

Being ready for school was one of the main priorities for us. He’s definitely gained all those skills at Ark Start Oval and more. He goes to the toilet on his own, he washes his hands, and he talks about sitting down on the mat for story time – so we know those routines are in place. It really does feel like we’ve struck gold. If we did it all again, we wouldn’t change a thing.