hi maybe we have just been lucky but we too were scared by tales of year-long waiting lists and having to sign up the second you conceive etc etc but as it turned out we put our daughter down for Kings Nursery last August for 3 days a week and she had a place confirmed within a month. Then we had to change nurseries (due to my husbands job) and applied to Bojangles on Upland Road in January and had a place confirmed for 3 days a week by March for our daughter to start last month. as for the nurseries themselves: Kings has 3 nurseries in 3 locations, the two that are on the Maudseley side of the road I really didn't like - one didn't even have windows, but the one actually on the Kings side of the road was v nice. We felt our daughter was well loved and happy there and was a great first step for socialising her. However, since moving to Bojangles I have to say that Bojangles is about 100 times better - activities are far more structured (in 6 months at Kings my daughter bought home 2 paintings, she has brought home 4 in her first 3 weeks at Bojangles), she has just had Sports Day, the layout, space and cleanliness of the place is really good - creative corner, music corner, reading corner, home corner etc and more emphasis on learning generally - we are really impressed with it. Their most recent Ofsted report is available online and while it's good, I don't think it does the place justice. anyway, i'm rambling now but your best bet is to call all the places convenient to you, go and see them, get your name down and see what happens, i think you might be surprised by the options you get. good luck.
