For more information on fun and free activities for families with children under 5 years old, please contact Bright Start and the Islington Family Information Service here.
Paradise Park Children’s Centre is a haven for families with children under five. We aim to be a welcoming and warm space so that local families can find a place to spend time with their children, get information about services and play.
Our nursery provides great early education and operates an open door policy from the building to the garden, ensuring that children can play outside whenever they want whether it rains or shines, allowing them to feel freedom and make choices from the earliest opportunity. We offer forest school sessions and free play, we have fires, a massive sandpit and loads of water play. All the food is cooked from scratch on site thereby ensuring that children get access to all the elements they need to build healthy bodies and minds. For more information, visit our Paradise Park Children’s Centre nursery page.
History
Paradise Park Children’s Centre was built by Islington Play Association and Islington Council in 2005. The money was partly raised through IPA’s neighbourhood nursery in Arundel Square, which then transferred into the current Paradise Park site in December 2005. Some of our staff have been there from the very beginning and have been part of developing the amazing free play nursery with us.
Originally the building housed IPA’s nursery and the Hillmarton Sure Start offices and then the two were amalgamated under IPA as one children’s centre in 2006/7. Since then we have built the centre into a one stop shop for local families, encompassing health services like midwives and health visitors, family support, ESOL classes, healthy eating sessions and much more.
Paradise Park was the first ever under-fives setting to be awarded Quality in Play.