Marmalade Bear - Wandsworth Common
The Marmalade Bear is situated close to Bellevue Road and Wandsworth Common Station in St Magdalene Church Hall. The Head Teacher is Miss Rita Lorincz, who has been teaching at the Marmalade Schools for 10 years and is a trained early years educator. The School is based in 2 large halls and is close to Trinity playing fields where we have shared use of the Finton House secret garden. There are five visiting teachers for specialist subjects. The Marmalade Bear was inspected by Ofsted in February 2025 and is now Outstanding in all areas.
Miss Rita was initially inspired to pursue a career in teaching by her wonderful sister who felt she had a natural ability with children. Rita has been working with children for over 15 years now, 10 of which have been at the Marmalade Schools. She is passionate about child development and is dedicated to helping every child reach their full potential. Miss Rita strives to ensure that each child’s individual needs are recognised, supported, and met in a nurturing and inclusive learning environment. She is excited to bring her experience, passion, and caring approach to Marmalade Bear, where she looks forward to helping every child thrive.
The Marmalade Bear staff are all well qualified, experienced, and passionate practitioners led by Miss Rita. Miss Rita and the team have developed creative learning strategies catering for different children’s learning styles and interests. During the day the children undertake purposeful activities to challenge and extend the children’s skills and abilities. This is all achieved in a warm and friendly environment where all children have a safe and stimulating place to learn. In addition, playing and learning in mixed age ranges allows the children to support each other building empowering relationships.
Parents are involved with many of the activities and events held at the school to foster a close working relationship with our parents. The use of Tapestry is an excellent way for the parents to be involved with the school and for the school to share information. The school is very well resourced with new equipment to ensure the best for all the children. The Marmalade Bear shares the ethos of being an inclusive school with many different religions, ethnicities, non-traditional families and abilities at the school. We celebrate many different religious festivals.
Parents are involved with many of the activities and events held at the school to foster a close working relationship with our parents. We encourage parent participation and hold events such as sponsored wheelies, sports day and parent stay and play. We also have an active PTA which helps create a friendly community around the nursery. Marmalade Bear children have access to specialist teachers in a range of additional activities such as Ballet, French, Activ Ts, Small Sports, Music with Pippa Poppets. The children also spend one morning a week on Wandsworth common engaging in Forest School activities.
