I am writing to provide a reference for Mandy, our current childminder for our two children under her care. Our first born has been with Mandy since he was 8 months old, and he is now 2 and a half. Our 2nd has been with her since she was 6 months old, and she will be turning 1 fairly soon. They both will very likely remain with Mandy until they start school as we are very happy with this arrangement and her standard of care of them.

I chose Mandy as our childminder because I felt it was an excellent home from home setting, and the children engage with her so well. So well in fact, that my first born will happily close the front door when I drop him off in the morning, without a goodbye! My 2nd has settled in so well since going to hers also.
She will take them out to playgroups, parks or play sessions locally, which I really appreciate because this is what I do when I have them, so they have a continued routine with them especially at their pre-school age. The home from home setting is very lively and interesting, and Mandy will organise activities for them to do, so little works of art often come home on special occasions like Halloween, Christmas, Mother’s / Father’s day etc. She also keeps an educational record of her development which I think is incredibly impressive and gives a great comprehensive overview of what stage they are at. She also has a home-home book for us to write in if there is anything we need to let her know about or vice versa as sometimes the pick up / drop offs are hurried due to the number of other children she cares for. Many times she is able to allow time for me to come and just have a chat and a catch up, and meet the other parents of the other children she minds.

She has become a part of the family, and has been able to pick up a little bit of sign language which has been really useful as both myself and my husband use sign language with our children because of our deafness.

I hope you find her as pleasant and as caring for your children as I do.

• Overall
• Setting
• Cleanliness
• Food
• Communication