N Family Club
Nursery roll-out

N Family Club are a challenger brand looking to rethink the standard for early-years education, and seeking ways to add value to the standard nursery school model.

N approached Kennedy Woods to help them translate their educational philosophy and operational requirements into a set of design standards for their spaces.

Bright children's playroom with white walls, a moon-shaped wall decoration, hanging bird mobile, bookshelves filled with colorful books, a small tent, and a seating area with cushions. Large windows let in natural light.
Modern interior space with white walls, ceiling, and furniture, featuring multiple plants, pendant lights, and large windows letting in natural light.
Bright, spacious children's classroom with high arched ceiling and large window, decorated with artwork and play areas, including a small table with chairs, wooden shelves with toys, and cozy reading nook with pillows.

User research, such as immersion days engaging with children in the school, meetings with parents, and interviews with teachers, operational staff and experts, laid the foundations for a Design Blueprint™ based on user insight.

Learnings informed both small details and guiding principles, for example, the requirement of spaces to be flexibly reprogrammed for different activities.

Children playing on a rooftop play area with a green track, water play area, and vertical garden walls, under a partly cloudy sky.
Kitchen nook with a window, teal tiled countertop, a small wooden chair, and shelves with a vintage radio and yellow-brimmed mug. The window has grid panes and white trim, and the kitchen has minimalist white cabinetry.
A woman and a young girl sitting on a dark blue cushioned surface inside a cozy nook, with a tiger plush toy, an open coloring book, and a dinosaur figurine in front of them. They are reaching for a book on the upper shelf filled with children's books, including titles like "Your Body" and "Vincent Van Gogh." The nook is under a sloped ceiling with a skylight, and the scene suggests a reading or storytime activity.
A modern classroom with wooden furniture, small chairs, and educational toys. Features a blue and natural wood cubby storage unit on the wall and open shelves with small toys and figures on top.

A challenge of any roll-out is ensuring a consistent user-experience when working with the constraints of a variety of different building types. 

For each site, we seek ways to celebrate their unique character, and find opportunities to add value by expanding the site capacity through extensions and reconfiguration. To date we’ve found imaginative ways to convert Churches, Galleries, Community Halls, Town-houses, and Commercial units into inspiring learning environments, and next year we’ll be testing out the design principles on our first new build school. 

Blueprint drawing of a building combining modern and traditional architectural styles.
A digital blueprint of a modern two-story house with a tree on the left side, exterior details, and windows outlined in blue on a black background.
Outline of a church with stairs leading up to the entrance, a tower on the right, and a cross on top of the main structure.
Blue blueprint-style illustration of a two-story house with a chimney, windows, and a front porch, with a tree in the background.
A digital wireframe model or schematic of a modern building with a facade resembling interconnected molecular structures or a neural network, shown in blue on a black background.
Outline of a Gothic-style church or cathedral with stained glass windows, set against a black background, with notable pointed arches and architectural details.

Separately to the architecture and interior design work, we developed a range of bespoke children’s furniture and fitted joinery and pieces specifically for the brand. These formed part of the strategy for a quick roll-out, and provided further differentiation from the competition.

The range was conceived as a family of units that each relate to an area of the Early Years curriculum, and allowed continuous provision of different activities to children, for self-directed play.

Interior of a children's playroom or classroom with a small stage area, natural wood furniture, toys, and educational decorations. Curtains frame the scene, and a projector is mounted on the ceiling.
Minimalist kitchen scene with a black soap dispenser and black faucet on a white sink, pink tiled backsplash, a white clock on the wall, and a wooden partition with plush elephant toys on top.
A modern interior with a teal accent wall, a white wall, and a wooden shelving unit with compartments.
Arrangement of kitchen and bathroom fixtures and storage cabinets in an exploded view, with brick wall backgrounds.
Dark background with a faint heart shape outline and a partial curved black line in the upper left part of the heart.

Voted best nursery group in UK by Nursery World

A blank, white image with no visible objects or text.

Ofsted outstanding in every category for every site assessed

A simple black line graph with four ascending bars on a dark background.

Thirty schools built and continuing to scale

Let’s work together

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