Baby Room Nursery - Clapham Old Town Post Reply

[natalia508]

Hi
Does anyone have any experience with this nursery?
We're looking for a nursery for our two year old son close to Clapham Common Tube, from June.
The Anglospanish nursery seems to be highly rated but they are full. The other option is Baby Room but we weren't convinced when we looked around...I don't know why exactly, I can't put my finger on it, we just didn't get a strong positive feeling about it.
Please, if you can help, that would be great as we are really struggling to make a decision.
The other option option is nanny share.....
Thanks very much.

[kiwimummy]

Hi will pm you, we have used this nursery.

[supermummy]

We did a few settling in sessions there but in the end I wasn't happy enough and opted for nanny share. I found it very small, a bit dingey and I didn't feel that the staff has bothered to ask enough questions about my daughter to fill me with confidence. It's such a personal thing, I would always go with your gut instinct on childcare. If you have niggles now, how will you feel when your son is being left there?

[Camille]

Yes we also looked at The Baby Room Nursery in Clapham Old Town (and many others) and like you just didn't feel comfortable about it. We ended up at the Italian Day Nursery in Kennington for a period which was fantastic (no we aren't Italian!).
However there ours proved too restrictive for us so we have gone down the live out nanny route.
Good luck.

[natalia508]

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond.
That's very helpful.
Will look into nanny share also.

[WBT3]

My son is now 2.5 and has been at the Baby Room in the Old Town since he was 7 months old (4 days a week). I have to say we couldn't have been happier with his childcare. The staff are caring, kind and really get to know the children and my son genuinely gets excited about going in there to see them and his friends.

There is a great balance between organised play, arts/crafts, reading, singing/dancing and free play... but most importantly my son gets the care and kindness that I think are crucial to a child's happiness and development. He is confident, plays well with other children (generally..!) and I think a lot of that is due to how well he has been cared for at Baby Room in the Old Town.

[Mum2Monkey]

I've been using Babyroom in Balham and couldn't be happier. Caring staff (no use of ageny which means more consisteny), outside people coming in for music, dance, cooking , lovely food and the day swap aspect is really useful.

[Lovelondonmom]

Hi,
My son attended babyroom old town for 2.5 years. He and I loved every minute of it. I cried the day he finished, and we still miss it so much. The care and attention he got from his first day at 17 months was fantastic. As he transitioned from room to room, each of the staff came to know him and everything about him very quickly. I always received a full and detailed written report of his day, which I did not receive at his previous nursery and most of my friends using other nurseries do not receive.
Most of little boys and girls he started with stayed with him right through preschool at babyroom. Although the preschool room is small, the teaching and pastoral care provided there is brilliant. My son was learning new things every day and coming home so confident and proud of himself. We had to leave the nursery due to relocating and we cannot find another nursery / preschool that we feel even comes close.
I hope this helps,

[EJG]

My daughter, who is now three and a bit, has been at Baby Room in Clapham Old Town since she was 9 months for 4 days a week and I couldn't recommend it more highly. The staff are absolutely fantastic, as lovelondonmom said, they really get to know each child and what is unique about them. The numbers in each room are small which means that every child gets a lot of care, attention and most importantly encouragement. Every effort is made to let parents know how their child is developing and what they have done well that day. Particularly telling is that, within reason, children are moved up the rooms as they progress not when they hit a certain age, my daughter was slow to walk so they were happy to keep her in the baby room a bit longer but she was very keen to move up to the preschool room before her third birthday and this too was accommodated and, despite being youngest for a while, has absolutely flourished. She comes home singing new songs and telling me things she has learnt everyday. We are having to relocate soon and the hardest thing about the move will be leaving Baby Rooms; my daughter is so incredibly happy there, has made some wonderful friends and has been loved by some amazing staff that I'm not sure any nursery will meet the high standards we are used to.

[LLB15]

I also currently have a child who has been at Babyroom Clapham Old Town since he was 6 months, after looking around for so long and not finding the right vibe i was close to giving up and not going back to work. Then a friend recommended that i have a look around the Clapham Old Town Branch of the Babyrooms. Immediately just from the Manager (Georgina) showing me around the rooms i knew for 100% that this branch was the nursery for me. I agree that the rooms may look small, but the size of the rooms is not a problem for the amount of love my child recieves from all staff. Ever since my childs first day, i have felt so comfortable leaving my child in the care of those girls. I even have a few of them babysit for me on a regular basis! They are so kind, warm, trustworthy, caring, loving and you can tell that they have a genuine love for their jobs. I think you should reconsider and give it another try. (Just my opinion!) All my future children that need to attend nursery will be going to Clapham Old Town! x

[kiwimummy]

Really? We hated it by the end, and left early. Overcrowded with staff who kept complaining to us about the place.

I have posted before about the issues we had at the nursery, but we had billing problems, felt the space was very small for the number of children even though I am sure they will point out within the guidelines and had an issue with an injury not being reported to us. My experience is a little old and things may have changed but we were very very unhappy by the time we left.

[natalia508]

Thanks kiwimum. I'm sorry to hear about the problems you had, that must have been upsetting.
I have my suspicions about the 'authenticity' of some of the positive reviews above...
In any case I have decided to go with Elm Park Nursery, which I had a very positive feeling about (although the admin so far has been a bit unreliable...I think that seems to be a common trait of nurseries!).
Thanks again for your help.

[Mum2Monkey]

Um ..... you ask for opinions on a nursery, we spend our precious time replying to you and then you question our authenticity! Thanks!

[natalia508]

Hi mum2monkey,
I'm sorry, I wasn't referring to yours, and I DO really appreciate your time and help. But I have my reasons regarding the others.. I've got myself into hot water now!
Thank you again and sorry for my generalising comments..

[LLB15]

You asked for opinions and got them, its not very nice to question the authenticity of the comments that you basically asked for. You obviously dont want to know what the nursery has become. To solve this you should go and have a look and make judgements for yourself. Not battle with the people that are trying to help. Good luck with your search.