Ofsted inspected our nursery school at the Hadley Wood Association (HWA) centre for the first time on 24 June 2026. The setting was graded Strong standard in all six evaluation areas.
Tag: Cockfosters Nursery School
Executive Summary
In 2025, Alphablocks Research Lab continued its mission to advance the science of child development and mental health.
This year, the lab focused on how early environments influence learning and mental health throughout development, from childhood to adolescence. Using large-scale data from population cohorts, longitudinal surveys, and neuroimaging scans, our work examined how social safety, parenting, inequality, cognition, and digital environments influence children’s development.
Below we summarise this year’s research by theme.
2025 in Review
- Celebrating 10 Years!
- New site in Hadley Wood – now in its 2nd year.
- Twice Rated “Outstanding” by Ofsted (2018, 2024).
- BBC-Pearson Early Years Team of the Year (2025).
- New Projects by Alphablocks Research Lab.
Categories
Ofsted: Outstanding in all areas
Alphablocks Nursery School was inspected by Ofsted in the Summer Term of 2024. Our school is pleased to announce the results of this latest inspection by Ofsted, which can be read in full here:
Books form a central part of our educational approach at Alphablocks Nursery School. They are used to support us in planning the learning experiences offered in the classroom. This half term we have chosen Traditional Fairy Tales as our central theme.
There are a few aspects of child development that teachers, parents and carers often talk about when it comes to nursery-age children. These include aspects of development such as the physical, social, and emotional growth of a child, early literacy and numeracy abilities, or self-regulation skills. However, an area of development that has been relatively overlooked is that of social cognition. It includes a complex set of skills that are crucial for development and have long-lasting impact, well beyond childhood. In this post, we briefly discuss the basic dimensions of social cognition in early childhood, and summarise some recent findings that have come out of our work at Alphablocks Research Lab in collaboration with leading academics.