Marmalade Hedgehog - Fulham
The Marmalade Hedgehog is located in the Church Hall at St Etheldreda's in Cloncurry Street in Fulham. The school was previously known as the Bishop's Park Montessori Nursery School and has operated from St Etheldreda's for many years. The large hall is a wonderful nursery space and benefits from its own dedicated outside space situated next to the hall. Miss Francesca Monti is the Head Teacher at The Marmalade Hedgehog and has been a teacher in Fulham for 11 years, previously at Sinclair House. The staff work with the children both collectively and individually to ensure, the work is set for each child independently allowing your child to work at their own pace.
Miss Francesca leads Marmalade Hedgehog in Fulham. Mother of two teenagers, a Golden Retriever and two black and white kittens and auntie to a toddler and a baby, Francesca considers the Marmalade Hedgehog Nursery - the team, the children, and their carers – an extension of her family. Francesca is passionate about supporting children to discover the joy of learning and exploration and instilling the key foundation skills to prepare them for their future education. She is also dedicated to guiding parents through her knowledge and experience of the local schools. With a degree in Politics and Philosophy at UCL and a Masters in Media and Communication at LSE. Francesca started her career as a marketer in the digital world before realising that education was her true passion. After obtaining a Montessori Diploma in Early Years and Childhood Pedagogy, and raising her two children to school year age, Francesca joined Sinclair House School, a local Montessori and Prep School, where she taught a range of age groups from Reception to Year 4 for eleven years whilst also holding the role of SENCO and Pastoral Deputy Head. Francesca joined the Marmalade Schools in January 2022 and led the transformation of Bishop’s Park Nursery into Marmalade Hedgehog. Francesca believes in a combined pedagogy where the Montessori philosophy and methods find common grounds with a play based curriculum to create a language and imagination rich environment
The Marmalade Hedgehog has small class sizes to allow time for individual attention, and therefore children learn rapidly as Ofsted recently pointed out at the other Marmalade nurseries. The Marmalade Hedgehog ensures excellent communication with parents, and teachers are available everyday to talk if needed. 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 Hedgehog shares the ethos of being an inclusive school with many different religions, ethnicities, 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 Hedgehog children have access to specialist teachers in a range of additional activities such as Ballet, Spanish, Tarka, Small Sports, Music with Pippa Poppets. The children also spend one morning a week in Fulham Palace gardens led by our trained forest School Leader.
