Bilingual French / English nurseries and playgroups Post Reply

[Belgiancharlotte]

Hello!
I am looking for a nursery for my daughter. She will be 9 months old when I return to work and I am keen for her to be in a French speaking environment to continue what I will have started at home. Would you have any recommendations?
I am also after French speaking play groups in the area, let me know if you know of any good ones!
Thanks!

[evainlondon]

My daughter has been going to Les Petits Heaven (near Lavender Hill) for 6 months and I've nothing but good things to say about the staff. They have been dedicated, kind and loving and have taught her so much (she was in the toddler group), even though she only attended 2/3 days a week. Management can be a bit erratic but the people taking care of the children are wonderful.

For me hearing my daughter sing the French nursery rhymes she learnt at nursery, rather than British ones, has been worth the travel (the nursery is quite far from home for us).
Any questions PM me.
Eva

[Belgiancharlotte]

Thank you for this! I have just sent them an email!

[NoorulainS]

Hi! I suggest Royal Beach Nursery. Its on Al Sagi Street, Jumeirah 3, see if its close to where you are. They offer French, English and Arabic. They also prepare children for admission in French schools. Plus your daughter will have a good time there. They take children between 3 months to 4 years of age. Your 9 month old daughter will hopefully have a good time there. Here's the website if you want more information http://rbnursery.com/ it has their number and everything in it.
Hope this helped.
Good luck!

[Belgiancharlotte]

Thank you for getting in touch! I should have been more precise, I am looking for a nursery in south west London (Wandsworth, clapham, earlsfield) or Victoria or Chiswick/ hammer smith . Thanks!

[evainlondon]

I forgot to mention Little Linguists nursery which opened a few months ago - perhaps also worth having a look, the website looks good:
http://www.littlelinguistsnursery.co.uk/

[london_maman]

My daughter has been going to Les Petits Heaven (near Lavender Hill) for 6 months and I've nothing but good things to say about the staff. They have been dedicated, kind and loving and have taught her so much (she was in the toddler group), even though she only attended 2/3 days a week. Management can be a bit erratic but the people taking care of the children are wonderful.

For me hearing my daughter sing the French nursery rhymes she learnt at nursery, rather than British ones, has been worth the travel (the nursery is quite far from home for us).
Any questions PM me.
Eva

Hi evainlondon and belgiancharlotte, I was also considering Les petits heaven but actually found out that they rent their premises from the Jehovah's witness church next door and that has completely put me off. I know they are looking at moving but still... Also because they give the hall back to them for weekends, they have to tidy up the place every friday and when I visited the place was actually EMPTY! Barely any toys for the kids to play with and it was 10.30am!! I would like to know your thoughts because despite what I mentionned I think the staff was by far the best I met and I visited LOADS of nurseries. Thanks!

[Belgiancharlotte]

Hi, I actually went to visit and was not too impressed. I found it all rather chaotic... They didn't even expect us... And the premises were rather basic. The people we met were nice though but we didn't see many children, it was a Friday too (!). We have not found a French speaking nursery that was in a practical location so we have gone for a lovely local one instead.

[evainlondon]

Hi there, mixed feedback for me, 3 months after my daughter left to go to a nursery school. When I went back to say hi, no one opened the door for ages, and even once we managed to get in, the manager left us waiting for 20 minutes until I decided to just go in. About half the staff from 3 months before seemed to have left - although not the wonderful lady in charge of the toddler group. The manager was quite unapologetic about leaving us waiting.

To top it all, yet another new "account manager" has recently contacted me claiming I owe them hundreds if pounds of unpaid invoices, apparently due to mistakes in invoicing on their side?! Haven't looked into this in full detail yet but you get the general picture - lovely staff and the Montessori side is well implemented as far as I can see, but very poor communication and management.

Best of luck, hope this helps!

[london_maman]

Thank you both so much for your honest replies. I agree, Micheline, the lady in charge of the toddler room is amazing and I was really impressed with her. I had a good feeling about the staff but still have my reservations about the whole place, probably because of the management you're right. Seeing the place empty today and the staff removing all the toys from the baby room really put me off. I am desperate for my son to attend a french nursery but I think I will just have to register him in a nursery where I feel 100% confident to leave him.