Nurseries in Putney

[mmrmum]

Hi,

I am trying to find a nursery in Putney at a "reasonable" price. All I was able to find at the moment is no less than £1300pm. Am I missing something? Does anyone know a nursery for a little bit less than that?

Thanks!

[Beefinder]

Hi
We are moving to SW15 next week and very anxious and concerned about getting a good nursery for my daughter in November when she will be 9 months old. As others are saying, I am finding it difficult to get a nursery with average fees.

Does anybody know about Gwendolen House and Noddy's at Putney? TVFriend - Can you tell me more about your experience in Poppits please?

Also keen to know if there are any good ones in the area- I am very new to the area- any help will be highly appreciated.

Thanks

[susie80]

I recently moved to the putney area and was looking around nurseries. Gwendolen House and Noddy's were very nice but they have a year wait list or longer depending on the age of the child.

Puddle-ducks Nursery which has recently opened in March and currently has availability. I had a look round and I really liked it, the new manager was lovely as were the staff, they were very friendly. I have registered for my oldest to start in November. i highly reccomend a look aroudn Puddlew-ducks.

[taramaya]

roehamptonfamilyhub.com/open-day/

The Hub in Roehampton just opened and is fabulous, check this out. They have some space if you're quick. x

[jewels13]

Hi everyone,
That is really strange as I am sending my second child to puddle ducks and I couldn't be more happier seeing my dd's so happy there. The staff are amazing and the food too ;-)
Me and my husband believe Puddle ducks is a family orientated nursery where the parents are highly involved and all my friends are at puddle ducks...and frankly speaking we love it!!! I hope you find it useful xxx

[cierzo]

Can someone advise of the fees for putney nurseries?

[welcome100]

My son goes to Asquith in putney and I have been very impressed by nursery. The staff are lovely, my son and I love the baby room and he has come on so much since he joined he is now walking at 9months and is very sociable. The staff are really friendly and caring and it is a real pleasure picking up and dropping my baby off there. The baby room is a ideal space away from the older children with lots of toys, quiet area for cots and soft play area's. Also very impressive menu all prepared in house. I would really recommend it to everyone.

[jlhg]

it depends on the age of the child but the average for 5 days for under twos is aound £1700 but it can be as much as £2100 depending on where you go! Have just registered my 2 year old with Puddleducks, they really seem to have got their act together and its a lovely nursery now

[Boldchen]

Hello,
We may start our little one at Noddy's on Gwendolen Avenue, Putney. The fees are astronomical!! Are they really that good? Desperate for some feedback please!!
Thanks:)

[louloubeth]

Hi poopnscoop. I would be very interested in getting information on the nursery you are opening. Do you have a website or contact details?
Kind regards

[poopnscoop]

Hi loulou... I won't pop details on here, I think it goes against MN regs. Will message you.

[ILOVEUPEANUT]

I am posting on this old thread since I have not seen anything recent and Poppits Day Nursery and surely it deserves it. I removed my child since I felt that it was inadequate to mind children at all levels and ages. A few things in particular I have noted below, but mainly it was the not great vibe I had each time I went in there. They are the cheapest in Putney and I feel they using this fact to not make an effort….at all. Which is wrong. I chose this nursery because it was “affordable” and Putney prices are out of control. My daughter is able to speak this made me feel more comfortable too. I would never have sent my child any younger as I had doubts from day 1.

The staff is unprofessional and “unpresentable” (not sure what I can post because I haven’t read the T&C’s). I would mention qualities you would expect from staff at a nursery: to be clean, polite, gentle, patient, dressed appropriately, speak enough English to be able to communicate or speak to children, must like children, and would hold a crying child. I feel that the staff lacked these qualities with the exception of one, maybe 2. There is a strange man there always hanging about, who turns out to be the husband of one of employees/owner, I heard. I’m not sure if he is “staff” or perhaps there to meet ratio requirements, but he opens the door and has never greeted me in a year. In fact, I have never heard him speak at all!

In the last month I began “observing” after I saw higher turnover of children in my child’s group. The staff cleans the toilet and does all the “little jobs” while children are still there. I find this disturbing, especially if you are cleaning toilets in same clothes you will serve my child tea in a few minutes. I never found Poppits Day Nursery place clean at all, and I can understand why. At my observations I noticed that the staff didn’t all wash their hands! Some used the antibacterial pump and some did not clean them at all, even after having just come back from the garden.

On one occasion I saw a little boy crying. Poor thing must have been one year old. He cried the whole 30 minutes I was there. I wanted to see if someone would acknowledge him. He went up to 4 workers and each one of them was “annoyed” by him. He was given his blanket, which he chewed on vigorously, so was obviously teething and not feeling well that day. He was bright red in the face and would hold up his hands at each of these workers and no one acknowledged him. Obvious, to anyone with common sense or a child, he wanted to be held/comforted. One person took his hand and dragged him around while my child handed out lunch. He was still crying when I left.

Poppits Day Nursery is very disorganized and poorly structured, in my opinion. On the first day no one knew my child’s key worker or that my child was starting. No one greeted us or even introduced my child. I asked what my child ate/slept/ and each time they had to ask someone else, because the key worker “cleans at that time.” If I asked specific questions about my child NO ONE could answer them. Its like they rotate staff duties every 30 minutes. I was only given artwork/project when I asked for it and I only received on average 1 piece of work per week for a 15 hour week. I always found this odd too. In the entire time there never received feedback on my child and the parents evening, which I found out from someone in the toilet, was changed last minute so we didn’t know. I have such a lack of trust and I hope others will post their experience so that they can shape up or allow for a proper nursery in Putney. I have so many mums now telling me their bad experiences, but I guess they didn’t want to hurt my feelings. It is not good value for money if the children are not well looked after. I would suggest parents to drop-in at Poppits Day Nursery if your child attends. The only thing I’ve seen this bad in Putney was Asquith….which I have seen is being remodeled, but hopefully by new owners!!

[hastybear]

I notice this post turns up more than once so I am posting my reply to it where ever I find it.

I don't recognise the nursery that you are talking about. Dirty? No. Worn? Yes. Depending on what time of the day you turn up I can promise you that they can often be caught cleaning. Of course a lot of their equipment is worn. they are cheap and find it difficult to replace their equipment, so instead of carping why don't you do what a lot of parents do and donate?

Unpresentable? I'm not sure what you mean. They all wear nursery tops, don't wear inappropriate clothes, jewellery etc and have always been clean and neat when I have turned up. As for the rest, they have always been polite, patient, gentle etc with all my family.

Alright, I'll give you the 'strange man'. An introduction, a smile, a word would help here. He is the husband of the owner and helps out, often at the end of the day. You will be pleased to know he doesn't make up the numbers to make the legal ratio, but does wear a nursery top to differentiate him from a random person just hanging around. And I grant you that doesn't help a huge amount.

You make very specific allegations regarding cleanliness while cleaning toilets and returning from the garden. They don't have a toilet and use the Leisure Centre toilet not 10 metres from the Nursery door. They do do nappy changing however and I have never seen them not wash their hands in the very few occasions I have had to be near the restricted area (I have an eCRB and as stated earlier make sure that I put something back into the nursery that takes care of my precious ones) that you don't have access to, so how you'd know they don't do something when you can't see what they are doing is a mystery.

They don't wash their hands when returning from the garden. But then they don't hose the children down either who have been playing out their putting their grubby hands etc in their mouths all outside play time. By the time the little ones get back in the cross contamination has already occured and is more healthy for them than not letting htem get on with it in the first place. There is a huge mound of research on how outside dirty play at a young age helps build the immune system for later in life. I can't be bothered to list all the research papers but maybe this will suffice: www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/66838.php www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article1596735.ece They do wipe down surfaces and wash their hands prior to serving food on every occasion I have been there.

Disorganised and poorly organised. OFSTED would disagree as would the queue of parents lining up to talk to the OFSTED inspectors this time round. Shame that all these parents with negative experiences that you mentioned couldn't find the time to talk to them isn't it?

I am sorry to hear of your experiences regarding contact with your key worker. That really isn't good enough. It's not the same experience I have had, but their have been occasions when my key worker has been unavailable but someone has always been able to give me all the information that I need.

I am confused about the starting day of your child as they have a strict transition policy that would have required you to attend with your child and be introduced to your key worker. The "key worker cleans at that time" comment. I don't understand it. It's a small nursery, walk in the door and walk up to your key worker, look on the key worker notice that lists all the key workers and the children they look after if you don't know who it is, because if you had asked that's what they would have done.

Never received feedback on my child. Really!? Ok, now your pushing the limits of my credulity. The daily A4 feedback form that is handed to every parent who walks in the door when they come into the nursery and the fact that they talk through it with the parent who picks them up? Did you just never notice them? Who picks up your child anyway? Obviously not you.

Your weren't told about the parents evening, which changed.
You don't say how it was changed, but the last two parents evenings have been on fixed nights and locations. Even if they missed telling you in person about the parents evenings the giant great big notices around the nursery on both occasions were a bit of a give away. Considering you obviously don't seem to pay attention to what's going on in the nursery you certainly seem to have noticed a lot of negative? Are you sure you don't work for an opposition nursery?

The lack of art work unless you ask. The nursery sticks very closely to the EFYS as laid out by the Dfes and inspected on by OFSTED. I clearly expect to see progress and results based on that, and reported on in the A4 daily briefing sheet provided to me by the staff. Not fancy bits of art work produced as a panacea to my ego as some other, more expensive nurseries do.

Some things you report, I cannot answer, the little boy crying for example, their inability to be able to answer your question for example and I agree with you about the 'strange man'. But you paint a picture of a nursery that I don't recognise and I have highlighted what I can only call inaccuracies in your observations and also inaccuracies in your comments. Does someone else sometimes/usually pick up your child and never bother giving you the information? Its the only thing I can think of to explain them.

[wendy88]

Hi in response to your message, I have both of my children attending a nursery in Roehampton (Eastwood Day Nursery) it is only a short drive from Putney, and there prices are the most reasonable I could find for such high quality provision. They charge 243.00 per week, with two weeks holiday free a year and I also get a 20% discount for having two children attending there.
They offer some great services which I could not find anywhere else, these include things such as move and sing, development movement play and forest school. Also something which helped me when choosing this nursery was that most of their staff are very experience and qualified to a graduate level. Hope this helps! :)

[Leogia]

My son started at poppits when he was only 10 months old.
Now 2 and half years later we can safely say that this nursery has been the best choice.
The whole team are always smiley, friendly, helpful and show a general interest in our son development.
The nursery is well managed and my son is always happy, I would highly recommend this nursery.

[MumunderConstruction]

I totally agree with you. I went for a visit and they were so disorganised they didn't even know who I was when I arrived and there was no welcome let along friendly welcome. The smell hit me immediately a strong dirty nappy smell in the air, very stuffy and off putting. The staff were miserable and mostly looked to be sat around disinterested and not interacting with the children. Only one lady made an effort to even talk to me child but subsequently freaked him out by being way too in his face pulling faces (he was totally freaked out by it). The kids seemed to just be looking after themselves left to do whatever. The room looked messy and disorganised and I really didn't like the fact that it's also uses by some parents as a drop in while they use the gym. I think the fact that the kids go in and could end up with totally different children each day is unsettling, especially when after an hour their mum shows up to take them home and then they are left. The outside area is quite frankly a joke, it's not safe for the kids to have to walk across a car park and then around the back of the building. Poppits in my opinion are the cheapest for a reason you get what you pay for generally but I think it's even a rip off to charge the price they do charge for what they provide compared to other Putney nurserys. I could not get out of there fast enough!

[Mumy86]

I would like to totally disagree with the two comments. As a parent of a child who is currently in Poppits I have nothing but praise for the nursery.

My daughter has been at the nursery full time for eleven months now, in which time there has not been one day where management have not been on site.
The nursery has a lovely atmosphere, which you can sense when you first walk in and staff are always lovely and friendly.
A lovely child orientated place, my daughter is extremely happy at the nursery and I feel very confident leaving her there.