The Children's House vs. St Andrew's Montessori vs. Beckett House? Islington nursery schools

[CruCru]

Does anyone have any experience of these? We have enrolled DS in all three but am not sure which we would choose. It is a little way off before we have to decide. I'd be interested to hear your experiences. Thanks!

[ponyprincess]

I don't have any personal experiences but friends are really pleased with Children's House.

[BranchingOut]

No experience of Beckett House or St Andrew's, but I have toured Children's House. My thoughts were:

Positives - high levels of qualification amongst staff, eg qualified teacher status.

Total lack of outside space is an issue and space seemed pretty 'busy', however they do often take the children out via coach.

Be aware of the arrangements around attendance eg. have to attend for 2 hours in the afternoon for the first term (maybe two?), then the morning for two terms, then the 9 - 3 day. A bit difficult to manage if you are using this as childcare while you work!

General expectation that your child is potty trained, which is not in accordance with the statutory framwork for this age group EYFS. When pushed on this, the HT said that they could attend for the first term in a pull-up (term after they are 2.5), but would be expected to be potty trained thereafter.

[mumN1]

Hi. My daughter went to St Andrew's. Its a really lovely nursery. Great staff, nice feel about it and it has outside space which was a massive plus for us. They open up the nursery to parents first thing on Friday mornings so you can see what your child's been up too. My daughter loved her time there, made a lot of great friends and still speaks enthusiastically about it even though she left a while ago. Wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. They were also very helpful with advice about schools and now she's at a great school which i'm not sure she'd have got a place at if she hadn't gone to St Andrew's.
Friends have also had children atThe Children's House and again don't have bad word to say about it. Often parents are swayed by The Children's House because of the Upper School which takes children till 7 which is a great option to have but i wanted to get the school thing sorted at reception where there's more choice and i didn't want to put the her through assessments etc aged 7 which are far more demanding than those for reception entry. Hope that helps. I don't know Beckett House.

[Lenan1]

Hi MumN1. Which primary school did your daughter go to after St Andrew's? Have you also considered the nursery at the Gower school? Thanks.

[CruCru]

Hi all

I know this is an old thread but I realised that I never came back to say which one we chose.

We ended up going with Beckett House and have been really happy with it. They have the flexibility to let you choose your morning / afternoon combination, which suited us a lot. I love the atmosphere there - my children have thrived.

My son will leave at the end of this term to start school but my daughter will stay on for the next two years until it is time for her to start school.

[pentonvilleparent]

I just wanted to say thanks for coming back to update this thread with your decision. We are looking at the same places. Really useful, thanks.

[CruCru]

Ah, I'm so glad pentonvilleparent.

[CruCru]

Beckett House has just had an Ofsted inspection - they were awarded "Outstanding" in all four areas (I understand that this is really hard to get). It makes for a happy read.

reports.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/CARE/131668

[pentonvilleparent]

I just saw that today! Great news.

[pentonvilleparent]

Just to follow up: our son has now started at BH and we couldn't be happier. It's a fantastic, warm, welcoming environment. He still has the odd wobbly moment when we drop him off but he loves going and talks about the people there even on the weekends.

[CruCru]

I’m so pleased!