Bright Horizons ("The Sainsburys Car Park Nursery")

[Moos]

Hi

My 3 yo son will be starting at this nursery part-time soon, and I wondered whether any family room posters send their kids there, and have any good tips on settling in, or how things work there? We are transitioning from a nanny-share to nursery, so it's quite a change in childcare arrangements. I know he's going to miss his nanny very much and together with some other changes in the family I think the next few months will be a bit challenging for him.

Even better if any Bright Horizons parents would be willing to meet for a playdate, that would be marvellous. I'd love for him to have the chance to meet some of his future playmates in advance so that there will be some familiar faces when he starts. He is a sociable and sweet-natured little boy, so hopefully would be a nice friend to have.

[busymum]

I have 2 children at Bright Horizons, they both love it, the staff are great and we are very happy they go there. My toddler took a while to settle in when she first started, it was a difficult age (2 years old) and I was expecting a baby etc etc. there was a lot of crying when we left her. She wasn't properly settled for about 3 months.

I don't get a lot of time for posting or reading the ED forum (working Mum) but what days will your son be attending Bright Horizons?, mine are only there 2 days per week.

Please feel free to send me a PM

[hkirsop]

my son is there too (2.5yrs) and he loves it. he settled in quite quickly but he had been at a nursery before - anyway the staff are lovely and really friendly, and when he did have days when he was a little nervous they were great with him. i am actually off on maternity leave again now so around quite a bit with my little boy (he does 2 days at nursery) so would be v happy to meet up with you before your little boy starts - we are actually newish to the area so would be nice to meet another mum anyway! if you'd like to meet up send me a PM!

[lorraineliyanage]

We're at Bright Horizons too, would be nice to meet some of the mums and children for a playdate, particularly as my daughter is going up to the main room at the end of Summer.

[Moos]

Thanks so much for all the friendly messages and PMs - much appreciated. It's really good to hear your feedback.

Will follow up with everyone by PM or email in the next week or so. Hope to meet you all soon over the swings!

[kateamin]

hkirsop - you say you're new to the area and have got a place at this nursery? Just interested because we're also just moving to ND and keen on Bright Horizons, but they told me they have a waiting list of 200! Guess this is a typical Dulwich thing, but wonder (and hope) that they're exaggerating slightly. Any advice?

Also, have a lovely (usually) and very sociable 2.5 year old daughter who will want to make friends in the area so would love to meet up, pls loop me in!

Thanks

[mummynegin]

I'd be interested to hear any updates on what parents think of this nursery. My son (19 months old) had his settling in week there this week. He's been at Bright Horizons Spitalfields (opposite my work) since he was 5 1/2 months old, which he absolutely loves. We've transferred him to Dulwich Nursery though as I've just started maternity leave and we live locally.

His first day settling in was an awful experience. I was there with him for 2 hours and 8 of the 9 children in the baby room cried the whole time I was there. It was a very unhappy atmosphere. The room leader and acting centre manager were both away that day and the complete chaos was probably due to a lack of leadership.

The regional manager was at the nursery on Thursday and I found it very reassuring speaking to her. The baby room leader was also back and she seems very good. The children in the baby room were much happier on Thursday and today, but I still have reservations given the awful experience earlier in the week.

My son has been very tearful and clearly sad and it took me several hours after getting home today to cheer him up. This is extremely unusual as he is a very happy, smiley and sociable boy and he makes friends with everyone and anyone normally. Obviously I knew that settling into a new nursery would not be easy, but I feel so disappointed in Dulwich Nursery and I'm tempted to just keep him at home with me.

I'm particularly interested to hear about people's experiences with the baby room. The main room seems fine to me, but the baby room really comes nowhere near my expectations. I'm not sure if I'm being too picky, but the baby room at Spitalfields Nursery was really fantastic. For one thing it was at least 3 times the size of the Dulwich Nursery baby room with a large range of toys suitable for the full age range of the babies and toddlers and always several activities going on at the same time. Obviously being a much larger nursery and having many more staff allowed Spitalfields Nursery to have so much going on to give the babies/toddlers a choice of activities and Dulwich Nursery can't compete with that. I was however expecting more activities to go on in the baby room than I've seen evidence of this week and better toys. Most of the toys seem geared towards the younger babies and are frankly boring for my son. His bedroom at home is bigger than the baby room at Dulwich Nursery and he has much better toys at home, so I'm wondering if I'm wasting my money by sending him to Dulwich Nursery when I don't need it for child care. Because he loved Spitalfields Nursery so much and learnt a huge amount there, we thought he'd enjoy continuing to go to nursery... Sorry about the rant, but I'd really appreciate people's thoughts.

[Moos]

Can't comment on the baby room, but my son is settling in well in the main room, after a few weeks of reluctance. He still prefers not to go than to go, but I think that's because he hasn't made any good friends yet.

There does seem to be high staff turnover there which is a concern, but we are lucky that our son's key worker seems to be excellent.

[busymum]

Hi, there have been a lot of changes in staff at dulwich nursery recently, but I'm sure it will settle down once they've appointed a new Manager. my youngest settled in very well in the babyroom, due in part to the fact that she had been collecting my eldest child with me twice a week since she was a newborn. She knew all the staff and it must have felt very familiar to her when I went back to work. However, the last 3/4 weeks she has cried on a few occassions when we have dropped them off. I'm sure this is all down to the staff changes. I feel confident things will settle down though.

I just wanted to add that I totally under estimated the amount of stress my eldest child was going through when I was heavily pregnant and in those 1st few months with a new baby in the family (she was 22 weeks when new baby arrived). I had just started her at dulwich nursery when I was 37 weeks pregnant, like you had just started maternity leave, thinking she would settle in really easily, she was always very confident and outgoing. But she hated it, cried when we left her etc too much change I guess. Although the staff assured us she was happy most of the time once we'd gone. It took 3/4 months before she really started wanting to go, but now she has made friends and nursery days are a treat day.

I hope it works out for your little one in the babyroom. I really do like Dulwich nursery and would recommend it. they do take the babies into the main room and garden alot, there is lots of singing and dancing and story telling. The activities are right for the age of the toddlers on that particular day (on our days most seems to be about 16/17 months) and you get a full report at the end of the day. My little one has learned so much in 5 months. I like to fact that the babyroom is small with limited capacity, it is homely. I hope I have put your mind at rest and you keep him at nursery, it will be such hard work looking after a new born and toddler 7 days a week, I really relied on my 2 nursery days to have a rest and spend some 121 time with the baby.

I hope he will be OK soon

all the best