Little Beans Balham Boutique Nursery

About this day nursery

Little Beans Balham Boutique Nursery, part of Lucky Beans Childcare, offers a unique and intimate childcare experience designed to be a "home-away-from-home" for children in Balham, London. This nursery is dedicated to providing bespoke, child-centred care with an emphasis on small numbers to foster a family-like environment.

Their innovative approach incorporates a holistic forest-school methodology, encouraging extensive outdoor learning and engagement with nature. This philosophy prioritises active, child-led discovery over traditional, static childcare settings.

The nursery caters to various age groups, from "Pinto Beans" (0 to 18/24 months) who receive personalised attention to foster a loved and nurtured feeling, to "Broad Beans" (24 to 36 months) who engage in stimulating activities like gardening and nature outings, promoting personal growth. Finally, "Runner Beans" (36 months and above) are prepared for primary school through challenging activities, including introductions to languages and maths, with a focus on individual interests, leadership, and friendship-making.

Beyond core nursery services, Lucky Beans Childcare also extends to "Brilliant Beans – 11+ Tutoring" for older children in preparation for school entrance exams.

Our ethos

The heart of our Lucky Beans ethos is bespoke, child-centred care that will give your child that "home-away-from-home" feeling. Unlike other nurseries, we keep our numbers small so that each setting feels truly like a family. We don't believe in stuffy or traditional childcare - our innovative and holistic forest-school approach involves plenty of opportunities for inspirational learning outdoors and in nature! We keep each nursery small in order to focus on your child's specific development. Our forest school ethos is at the heart of everything we do and we emphasise active child-led learning above the commonplace style of childminding where children may be stuck in a room for the entire day. We also feature many strengths-based activities like music, Spanish and tennis in preparation for primary school and beyond!

What it's like

Children receive a warm welcome on arrival and have strong relationships with their key person, feeling safe and secure. Staff know children extremely well, creating learning experiences linked to their interests and needs, which helps children to feel valued and listened to.

Pricing & funding

We offer funded childcare for 3 and 4-year-olds and those aged 2 under certain circumstances. We accept the Universal 15 hours and the Extended 30 hours funding. Funded hours can be used for 50 weeks of the year for 30 hours per week or for 38 weeks for up to 30 hours per week. Registration is for a minimum of 2 days a week and a maximum of 5 days a week.