Babyroom on Webbs Road? Locked

[torts]

I am unashamed to sign up to Nappy Valley to praise Baby Room.

I would far rather my daughter got a little cold for a few minutes than got caught up in a fire.

Baby Room is a nursery with a lovely homely atmosphere and caring staff and I am so pleased to have found it.

[Smiler]

I too have been so incensed by Claire S' comments that I've signed up to praise Babyroom on Webbs road and the manager Tracy in particular.

My son has been going there since he was 5 and a half months and he truely loves it. ALL the staff are caring and professional. My son's development has been fantastic since he started and that is down to the staff and the time they spend with him.

I would have been very upset if staff had stopped to put socks and shoes on children in case of a potential fire and am pleased they prioritised their safety. My son too was there that day and may well have been outside in his nappy but I can reassure Claire S who seems so concerned that he is fine and it would take more than that for him to catch a cold.

I woud recommend Babyroom at Webbs road to anyone and suggest people looking for a nursery try and talk to parents who have their children there rather than judging by appearances.

[Firefly]

I just can't believe we live in a society that's first reaction is to secretly take photos as evidence rather than going to offer help. It's very sad indeed

[balhammummy5]

As a VERY happy Babyroom parent (though admittedly the one in Balham, not Webbs Road) I wanted to add my support to Babyroom (they have some 'floating' staff who move around the nurseries, including a wonderful manager who keeps an eye on all the nurseries, so I feel able to make comments that will be relevant to Webbs Rd).

I am extremely pleased to hear that Babyroom's priority in a fire alarm is to get the babies out asap, and not mess about putting on shoes and clothes. I'd rather have a cold and grouchy baby than one who had died of smoke inhalation / fire. I also think babies are slightly tougher than one of the previous posters suggests - a few minutes of cold is unlikely to do any long term harm.

My daughter has been with Babyroom since she was 11 months old and after 2/3 weeks tearful settling in, has loved it. The staff are wonderful, very caring and fun and take a real interest in our daughter and her development - telling us funny things she's been up to during the day. There are regular parents' mornings and the nursery managers are very open to feedback.

A number of people seem to have been critical on the basis of a 'visit' to see if they might send their child to Babyroom. I find this quite interesting as, during my daughter's settling in period I met a local mum who had just been round the Balham nursery and decided not to send her son there. It turned out that the basis for her 'bad feeling' about the nursery was her concern about a little girl who had not stopped crying during the whole of her visit - my daughter!!! Well, as a mum, I totally understand how that could put you off (I had a similar experience when I looked around Eveline's - which I know is a nursery lots of people love), but I now know that settling in is hard, and there are lots of tears, then suddenly, after a couple of weeks, your baby loves it, smiles and waves 'bye' in the morning and doesn't want to stop playing when you come to get them in the evening.

I hope this helps any prospective parents take a more objective look at Babyroom. It's such a difficult decision finding a nursery, and you never really know whether it's the right decision until about a month in, once they've settled and you've started to build relationships with the staff. For us Babyroom was DEFINITELY the right decision and we and our daughter love it. So much in fact that despite no longer living in Balham our daughter is still at nursery there and we're putting up with the 'commute' to get her there and back.

[Oneofeach]

I went to view the Babyroom twice, once each for both of my children and found it to be disappointing and the staff un-inspiring. That aspect of it may well have changed as it was a few years ago, however I find it horribly off-putting that so many of the staff can be found outside at the top of Bramfield Road smoking.

[sparkletiger]

Wow give Claire S a break. You may have a different experience of the place but the original poster asked for people's views. If I wanted info about a nursery I would welcome all observations. Sounds like the nursery needs to review its food safety procedures. And tho I agree they should get the children out as a priority in a fire I do find it disturbing to hear a baby was just in a nappy in the middle of winter. Couldn't a member of staff have put a cardie or something round them. Anyway there seems like quite a mix of views on this nursery and only visiting yourself will make your decision. I visited it but 3 years ago not long after it opened I think and wasn't impressed. Lacked warmth and was too cramped. A friend had her daughter there til last summer and there seemed to be various issues that were not great.

Hope the original poster finds something to suit.

[kiwimummy]

i agree with sparkletiger, give claire s a break. she shared her observations. the owners responded to explain the circumstances. if someone had concerns about this situation, i'd want them to raise them, and i think the owners did a good job of explaining what happened.

for the OP - we sent our child to another babyroom site. the blue room for babies was excellent, and pink room was fine.

however by the time our child was in yellow room, the space felt cramped and chaotic. we also encountered some disinterested /unhappy staff although the staff in charge of the rooms were generally impressive and good at what they do. there seemed to be little or no forward planning of activities - when i asked what would be done on a certain day one week, i was told it was only planned on the morning by the staff in the room.

all of the above wasn't too serious for us as our child was pretty happy at baby room and liked the staff a lot.

however, the second time an accident was mishandled after the fact, we lost confidence in the systems operated by the business and left earlier than we planned. it was a bit sad but we realised we were worrying during the day about our child and that was not sustainable.

[cosmopolitanmum]

I dont know anything about Babyroom, but I agree give Claire S a break! At least she was brave enough to voice her opinions when the topic came up. Its not as if she complained to OFSTED or anything. Our children are our most precious assets and if my children were at Babyroom I would be grateful to anyone who raised concerns (even if they were unfounded) as I'd rather know, than not know.

[emanu_ela]

We aslo had a bad experience at babyroom but the one in Lavander hill. Our son after 9 months wasn't very happy to go there and now every time we walk by the nursery he starts crying and he is worried we will take him there.
Not happy with the stuff, lovely people but they seemed not to be so engaged with the kids, they were not very smily.

[claire_s]

i find it so funny that all these people "staff at baby room"have signed up just to reply to my comments. If you are not a memebr on nappy vally then how would you know about the post???

At the end of the day your children are not my problem bring them up as you wish. My children go to a fab nursery so i have nothing to worry about.

Criminal Offence to take a photo of a child??? what kind of uneducated person are you to make such a silly comment. Only small mined people like you would say something so ridiculous !!

As i have said before do as you wish but remember i told you first.

[Firefly]

In answer to those people who asked why Claire S was getting such a hard time I think it's the personal insults she writes and manner in which she posts.

Claire you still haven't answered whether you think that taking photographs as opposed to asking whether they needed any help was the right thing to do?

Just for the record I have been a long term poster on nappy valley and have only recently changed my user name after losing my password. I also have absolutely nothing to do with baby rooms.

[EmmaVictoriaID]

Two of my NCT friends have visited in the last couple of weeks, both sites, and neither will be choosing it. Their feedback was the baby room seemed flat, in the sense of atmosphere. The staff, whilst doing everything they should on paper lacked a certain warmth and attentiveness (one baby stuck in bumbo for the tour) Also one was kept waiting for 5 mins outside the baby room ( the room for babies not nursery itself) when she arrived for her app, whilst a member of staff entered the room first. She said she felt that was odd, and wondered why she couldn't just go in straight away.

Anyway that's recent feedback so thought I would share. As for Claire S, you are ranting love and it's lessened the impact of what are quite legitimate points.

[sarahroberts]

Thank you all for your continued posts, we read with interest and consider seriously all feedback given here. The following comments might be useful:

1. In terms of planning, since the current curriculum came into effect in 2007 activities planning in all UK nurseries needs to be “child led”. This means that Ofsted ask us not to plan activities in advance but rather after we have observed the child in their latest session so that we can respond to provide activities that are linked to their latest interests. The implementation of this wish of Ofsted’s is understood by nurseries but to prove it’s implementation often the answer given is that planning is not done in advance (so that the child’s preferences can be taken into account). Many nurseries including Baby Room, however continue to do a lot of structured planning including a monthly theme and of major activities during a week such as dance or cookery classes. The idea is that a child can then opt out of the activity if they do not want to do it but be offered something else instead tailored to their interests on that day. The curriculum is due to change in September 2012.

2. Ofsted require all accidents in a nursery environment to be recorded and this means that most nurseries record every bump, scrape or tumble. Baby Room do this for each accidents and monitor on a monthly basis the incidence of different types of accident and the room that they occur in. This information is then reviewed by Head Office. Our current understanding is that Ofsted require accident forms to be retained until a child is age 21 and we do this also. Any accident defined by our Policies and Procedures to be of any greater significance is investigated separately and the file retained also. We have e-mailed the mum who reported a poor experience and asked if she might provide details so that we can look into this for her.

3. We operate a “truth, trust and teamwork” environment at Baby Room as we believe that such behaviours serve to best protect our children. It would not be the case that a parent viewing would be asked to wait for any other reason other than that staff were busy doing something else and would not escort a mum into a room until they have the time to talk with them. We love showing parents around our nurseries, however at that point we are still looking after the babies and that takes priority.

4. We all appreciate how difficult it can be to make the right decision for your child and one parent may think that an environment is so organised by the adults that it is tantamount to regimented and another may think that an environment is not at all organised and just looks chaotic. Baby Room appreciates that “one size does not fit all” and so we seek to present our service in a truthful light. Viewings are conducted by the staff that will actually look after your child not someone with a marketing background from Head Office and we reassure the staff that they should always behave as normal during viewings not jump around especially if it is not that time of day. Be reassured that from 8 to 6.30 in our nurseries there is a huge amount going on and that includes quieter times and really active times.

As an initiative within our 2011 – 2012 Business Plan called “Improving Quality” we have been contacting many mums in the weeks after their viewing to ask for feedback. I am pleased to say that we will be widening this to all viewings effective immediately. We have around 20 viewings per week across our nurseries so please bear with us at the start of this initiative and call us if you have any further questions as we may be able to explain the answers to many of your niggling questions.

Finally, thank you to all the parents who turned up on Saturday at our nurseries for our bi-annual Parents Day. Please see post in the area here in NVN under “What’s On”. It was a great day with Baby Room staff spending time with over 100 sets of parents to discuss their child’s learning and development. All staff then got together in the at Balham to do futher work on EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) and we finished off with a group work training session.

Sarah Roberts BA (Hons)
Operations Manager
Baby Room Nurseries Ltd
www.babyroom.co.uk
E-mail me at sarah@babyroom.co.uk or tel: 020 8673 5110