Any DC go to a Bright Horizons nursery chain?

[coffeeforone]

Have they told you whether the nursery will open on 1st June? We haven't heard anything yet, but wondered if they have started to let some parents of other nurseries know?

Mine do but in Scotland so no help to you I'm afraid. Following with interest though as assume we'll do the same as you only a few weeks later!

We do and heard yesterday via email that they hope to open in early June subject to government go ahead. The email contained a link to this page on their site which explains how they intend to manage things etc

www.brighthorizons.co.uk/coronavirus/Covid-19-FAQs

That's helpful, thank you! Fingers crossed 🤞🏼

We do and have not heard anything yet. My sister's DD goes to a different Bright Horizons nursery and they have been told their nursery will not be one of the first to open. Apparently it will be phased.

I've had the same message as K8Higgy's sister a few days ago. WFH full time with a pre-schooler is taking its toll on me and I'm pretty devastated. They didn't even give a revised date and no communication since.

I got the same message and I'm devastated too!! Also WFH full time and was really hoping they would reopen. I'm still in touch with the nursery manager and she did say there will we a second phase of openings in July but unable to say whether it will include ours or not 🙁

Oh my goodness. Feel for you all! What’s the rationale for phasing their reopening and sone remaining closed (if any given)? Staffing? Assessment of demand? Ours have said early June (subject to government go ahead on 28th). I’m hoping they will come back early next week on what hours they can offer. May be less as they are reducing group sizes to 15 but I know families who can’t or won’t send kids back in June so may balance out. Where are you all located? We’re in north London.

July??!! Oh God. I was thinking mid-June would be bad enough!

I can't wait until July, or even later if it's not in that batch.

Oh and to answer the question, supposedly it was based on people saying they were in great need of it opening (I did say that when they sent round that questionnaire a while ago), mixed with how appropriate it is from a H&S perspective (don't see how our nursery is in any way not appropriate - completely separate rooms, outdoor space, etc) and availability of staff (most of ours are young and child-free so I thought there would probably be a reasonable amount).

I really don't know what I'll do. The emergency childcare site they sent has nannies (if any are actually available in my area) at £18.50 an hour and so I wouldn't be able to afford that for any decent amount of time, and our house is so small that I don't know how it could work anyway.

Yes, another one where the BH nursery is not opening with no idea when we’ll get out of this working from home full time with small children hell. There’s an interesting video about the reopening on their Facebook site.

I just moved my daughter for the same reason - not a Bright Horizons ones, but another chain. They couldn't tell me whether they would definitely be re-opening on 1 June. As a key worker, I had to move her to another one, so as she's settled I've now given the chain notice. There were too many ifs, buts and maybes for me to be able to plan effectively.

Thanks for all the replies! I know it's really difficult to plan ahead and see any light with not knowing when it will open. It's hell for us too at the moment with two nursery age DC and trying to work from home full time at the same time. I just wish they could give a date, obviously subject to gov guidelines.

Our DC go to one of the many BH nurseries that haven’t re-opened in early June.

They have handled the situation really badly. The communication has been dire. Why send an email and not give any indication of possible re-opening dates. Nothing to work towards. Why did they send yet another survey a few days ago? It’s so similar to the one we filled in weeks ago.

Not happy and it’s making me think twice about searching for childcare elsewhere.

It must be due to money.

Head Office have said an update email is coming out on Monday 8th June.

@Tobebythesea I agree, dire. Oh well, only another 4 days until another probably vague email! Every single other local nursery opened this week and it looks like we'll end up being at least a month behind! I really hope it's not longer!

Thanks for the updates. We have been lucky in that ours opened this week but it’s the only BH one in the local area - 3-5 others nearby haven’t reopened. That said I think there are kids from some of those other nurseries attending ours. Could that be an option for any of you? I know it’s not ideal. I keep hearing it’s been driven by demand. Not sure if that’s true or not. For example ours had reopened therefore you’d think demand is high yet there are only 10 kids back in my daughter’s preschool year. I think the usual roll is around 40-50 across two classes. I think there is probably a lot of people big sending back or not sending back just yet. We may all be in the minority of wanting childcare open yesterday! I think they’ve had quite a tough job reopening but agree the quality of communication has been poor and I say that as someone whose nursery has opened. I hope you get good news soon. I would be equally frustrated if I was in your position.

@Pl242 Thank you. Glad your nursery is back.

Yes, other BH nurseries nearby are open but I don’t want them to go there due to the likelihood of no friends attending, new environment and staff. The lockdown has already been too unsettling.

We’ll see next week. I don’t have a good feeling about it.

They have emailed. Anyone else received one? Re-opening second week of July.

Still no real idea in Scotland. Just that it will likely be in Phase 3 - whenever that will be; maybe end of July at the earliest. Meanwhile I'm back to work on Monday and DH will be taking 3 days unpaid leave to watch them. Don't think we can afford to not have childcare for any more than 2 months so getting a bit twitchy now...

We received one today too. Another 6 and a bit weeks for us (the week after you, @Tobebythesea, I think). Gutted doesn't cover it. I've cried this afternoon. I don't know how to keep going doing both full time like this. They didn't even say we'd get our usual hours back, just that we could request them then they'd let us know what they can do.

I received an email today 'confirming' our nursery won't be in the first phase of early June or early July... saying they will update again at the end of June. It's so awful not having certainty.

I've just received an email to say the end of July unfortunately I have to travel for my job and I've not been off so have had no choice but to move nurseries found one on Wednesday and my little one starts settling next week fingers crossed all goes well.

I work for BH and the way they have handled reopening and the allocation of spaces leaves a lot to be desired. As a parent myself, I am not impressed.

@Bluespace can you say more about how allocation is being handled? I haven't found out yet what hours they'll be offering me. I replied straight away to the questionnaire but I think the deadline wasn't until the end of this week or beginning of next. Obviously I very much hope to get my usual hours after this long wait but I know that might not be the case.

@Bluespace have you seen any improvement in hygiene? My son started going to a BH nursery in the end of November 2019 when he was 5.5 months old. Since then until the lockdown he had non-stop colds, runny nose, coughing, all before COVID-19 appeared. He has fully recovered from all these during the lockdown.
He is now back to another BH nursery as ours is not open yet and already picked up some infection from the nursery. I mean he is older now and summer is not colds season so I hoped he would not get ill from the first day in the nursery.