Feedback on nurseries

[Liro]

Hi, does anyone have recent experience they'd be willing to share with the baby rooms at Bright Horizons Dulwich (the one near Sainsburys), Mother Goose Upland road or Gumboots? Sorry as I know nurseries are a frequent topic here but I couldn't find much that recent on these. We're currently on the waiting list of all three having visited them and it would be great to get any feedback, positive or negative... We're not holding out much hope on Gumboots as I know the waiting list is meant to be at least 18 months long, but I figure someone must get lucky with the baby room at some point - given the list was closed for months and you have to be under two to go into the baby room! Many thanks.

[Sonners]

We are very happy with Gumboots. The staff are lovely, the activities varied and the outdoor space was the best of the nurseries we visited. The admin staff are also really good which judging by some threads is unusual!! The waiting list is long though. I assume that most of the baby room places must go to siblings and depending on availability in the toddler room the children can stay in the baby room past 2. My daughter was moved up at 2 and 4 months.

Depending where you commute from/to Upland Road can be quite far from public transport to drop off at 8 and be in work by 9 if you have timing constraints. I live a few doors down from Mother Goose and think I could struggle with the location. One of my friends is often a bit frazzled getting there for 6pm pick up! But she is very happy with the care her son gets there.

[esme]

My youngest is at Bright Horizons (baby room) and loves it, changed manager last Dec and she is great. Staff are lovely, loads of activities, good food (the chef has worked there for 20 odd years!) and outside space, albeit near the road it has lots of tree cover.

I have heard all good things about Mother Goose on Upland Rd and in fact I had my son's name down there too as nr eldest's school.

I have not known anyone with a baby at Gumboots but mixed reviews from parents with 2+ yr old children who went there - basic stuff not done, like if socks wet from playing out when wet they weren't changed and therefore endless colds and so on, not great outside supervision on play equipment.

You will always find moans and groans, my advice is go off gut instinct!

Good luck x

[Liro]

Thanks both very much for your replies, that's really helpful! I think we are going to have to rule MG out for the reason you say Sonners - it's a bit of a trek from ED station. We'd be ok with 8am drop off but getting back there by 6pm would be a real struggle now the trains are a bit less frequent from london bridge. When we originally looked round and went on the waiting list there was some scope to pick up 6-6.30 (although they preferred it to be 6pm) but I've just found out they are moving to a hard 6pm pick up which probably rules it out for us. I did like BH as well when I looked round but was a bit puzzled as to why it doesn't seem as popular as other places, despite it being near station/better opening hours etc and rated Ofsted good. So good to hear your feedback Esme! I've spoken to the new manager a few times and she does seem really helpful (and generally answers the phone/calls you back which isn't the case with some nurseries...) so fingers crossed we can get a place there or we get lucky with Gumboots. Thanks again x

[Kathryn]

Hi

My son has been at Gumboots since he was 6 months old and he loves it. He is now 3 he runs in and hugs the staff. It's his last week this week and I can honestly say he and I are both going to miss it very much. If anyone was to ask me I would recommend it if you can get a place. Happy to talk further if you or anybody wants to about it.

[barry thompson]

Hi

I spoke to gumboots nursery today as I really would like my daughter to go there but they have 12/18 months waiting list unfortunately :(

[Sonners]

Barry I would personally say get on the waiting list as you might decide in 12/18 months that it is a good time to switch whatever childcare you end up doing now. My daughter only started at Gumboots when she was 20 months as we had a nanny initially. Moving her a year or so after I'd gone back to work when she was 2/2.5 would have also been a good fit in retrospect.

Liro, in answer to your puzzlement about BH, I think it has not been popular in recent years due to frequently changing managers. When I was looking at nurseries (early 2013) it had been through 2 changes in quick succession and then had a further change before I went back to work. It sounds as though from Esme things are much better now and if they are getting back to you that is a good sign! There are definitely lots of plusses to BH.

[Liro]

I thought I'd follow up on this thread in case it is useful for anyone else out there, as I know I trawled the forum when I was looking for nursery place. We ended up going for Mother Goose on Upland Road and we are really pleased with our decision.

I went back to have a look at Bright Horizons and Mother Goose Upland as they both offered us places, it turned out that I'd been misinformed about MG opening hours and in fact they are open 7.30am - 6.30pm, although they ask that if you are using the half hours at either end of the day that you don't use both (i.e. they don't really want children being left for the full 7.30-6.30, although I am not sure this is strictly enforced). Of the two, I preferred the set up at MG as the baby room only takes six babies and they have their own space upstairs, in particular at lunchtime they have their own darkened quiet room where they sleep. In comparison at BH they take more babies (I think they said 15 when I looked) and the area where they slept was open plan next to where the toddlers play, so I was a bit worried about how she would sleep. The staff at both seemed very nice but we thought she'd settle better at MG plus it was slightly more convenient for us location wise. We've been really pleased with our decision, the staff are all so lovely and once we got past the initial first couple of weeks settling in, our daughter seems really happy there. She sleeps well, eats well and is always smiling and waving as soon as we approach the door in the morning!

I still haven't heard a peep out of Gumboots - from July 2014 when I first called them until March 2015 they told me the waiting list was completely closed to new applications. We went on the waiting list at the first open day they held when the list reopened (that was in March 2015), so it's now been a full 12 months with no updates. I followed up with them last August/September time when I heard from other nurseries and was promised I would get an update on the wait list shortly, but I've never received anything. We're really happy with MG so it doesn't really matter as we wouldn't move her now anyway, but I do think it's pretty poor of Gumboots to take people's money (in the form of a wait list registration fee) and then never get back to them.

[ElliotW]

Hi,

We're looking for nursery options/feedback for our baby in October when she'll be 6 months.

This thread is a couple of years old so any new opinions or suggestions of places welcome! (by the look of posts on here about crazy waiting lists we realise we may have left it rather late unfortunately!)

[motorbird83]

Our daughter has been at Gumboots 2 days a week for 6 months and started at around 11 months old. My mother at first and now a nanny does the other 3 days. Its a long wait for a full time place but if you are returning to work part-time it may be feasible to get a place if you are flexible on dates.

The nursery is very focused on serving the community and has a friendly accessible management style and a very inclusive and warm environment. Its rated Ofsted outstanding and my daughter has developed very close relationships with her key worker and another staff member in the baby room. She runs in on the two days a week she attends and is very happy and excited though the settling in did take some time as she was only there 2 days a week which makes getting used to things slower.

They do a great range of age appropriate activities which the parents are sent pictures of as par of the weekly newsletter and includes lots of art, playing with textures / unusual materials and messy play. The management also send a weekly menu to parents in advance and its really varied and adventurous with lots of vegetables.

There were two main things that really sold it to me though:

1. The nursery has amazing outdoor space-- each age group has its own separate play area and the kids get to grow their own vegetables, pick them and eat them

2. They have a no phones policy. I visited three places where the staff were on their phones ignoring the babies while we toured and its horrible to see. Forcing staff not to use phones creates so much more care and focus which children under two particularly need to thrive.

Good luck with your search!