ANYONE KNOW A WEBSITE THAT REVIEWS NURSERIES??????

[drosophila]

THANKS

Have you tried the OFSTED site?

Interesting idea. You don't mean ofsted reports, I take it?

I can see how such a site would be very helpful and I hope it exists. But it must risk opening a can of worms if you get reviewers talking about certain children or helpers as IME the individual personalities will go some way in influencing how you feel about a place.

I do mean the ofsted reports - all nurseries get one, and they can be quite detailed and informative. As they have to be shared with the parents it does mean that the nursery will have had to comment on them and explain what they're going to do.

No I mean more than Ofsted. I notice here that people (including myself) often ask if anyone know anything about X or Y nursery and usually you would be lucky to get a response. There are so many nurseries and what are the chances that another MNer has experience of the one you are interested in. It got me thinking about whether there are sites or publications where parents post reviews on their nursery experiences.

I think there is something like this for schools (the Good School Guide).

Have you tried your local netmums site? As with schools nurseries can change significantly with change of owner or manager.

Agree with tigermoth - if relying on parents views then you'd need more info. IME a lot of working parents had their choice of nursery limited by either location or opening hours (or both), and of course no-one who is a current user is likely to post a poor review.

Agree about change of management. There is a nursery near me that has not got a great Ofsted but I understand that there is a new manager who changed a lot of things and staff so I was wondering how I could find out what users think.

Do you really think a current user would not post a poor review?

Will try netmums.

Well lets say that I think a lot of us suffer from a significant amount of parental guilt over childcare, and I tend to find that nursery users are often in some state of denial - typically because if you work certain hours etc there are often few affordable alternatives. It is so difficult to find a really fabulous nursery ime, and if you do I would be surprised that it has spaces. I found one that was superb but had an 18 month waiting list unless you were a single parent.

Sorry that is a slightly depressing and unhelpful statement. I think that you may get more honest assessments from parents once their child has left, especially once they are in reception year as there can be comparisons with other nurseries. Certainly looking at the reception class at the dcs school you could tell that one nursery stood out head and shoulders above the rest in terms of preparing the children for school (and I'm thinking of all aspects of readiness here).

No idea of your family demographics but if you have an idea of the primary school that you'll be going to you may find that asking their opinion could be helpful?

Interesting. I sent DS to a nursery that I deffo had a couple of concerns about (cleanliness in the main) but he was happy there and would at times cry if he couldn't go so I turned a blind eye to it. It's a bit too far a way for DD and those issues that bugged me would still bug me e.g. they would not allow the kids to use soap to wash their hands (according to ds and another child). I also heard for another mum that they were told not to do no 2s at nursery. Despite this when your child is happy you are loathe to move him (especially as he had been unhappy in two different locations before).

DD is going to on the face of it a good nursery but I feel she is not happy there. It's a bit too regimented I think for her.

Certainly you need to factor in both the child as well as the setting. My second child din't settle as well into the same nursery as my first (though of course there were staff changes as well so it is not quite comparing like with like). However the nursery was very flexible with days (and I work flexibly) so it was fantastic to be able to get extra/changed days at short notice so I put up with my niggles.

What will you do about afterschool/holidays out of interest? Now mine are at school I am slightly envious of those parents who have built up good childminder relationships.

I know what you mean. DP works from home usually so he collects DS but there is an after school club if ever we need it.