Alison S

Amazing childminder!

Alison is an amazing childminder and I feel so lucky to have found her to look after our son. He started with Alison when he was about 1 1/2 years' old and we've been there for nearly a year now. He settled incredibly quickly, which was a huge relief to me as I hated the thought of dealing with an upset child at drop-off. Alison clearly knew how to make him feel safe, cared for and comfortable. He always goes in happily and comes bouncing out, saying 'I've had a lovely day with Alison'. They're always out and about, which I love and he loves going to Boppin' Tots, the church playgroup or the park. He also clearly loves spending time with the other children in Alison's care – both the younger ones and the older after-school children.
Alison is full of energy, clearly incredible with children and I feel she's really supported his social and emotional development, as well as his vocabulary – he always comes home singing a new song and talking about all the lovely things he's done that day.
I find it hard to express how grateful I am that we found Alison and consider us to be very fortunate. Anyone who is lucky enough to secure a place with her will have a great experience.

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by Mazza on 10/07/2023

Amazing Childminder!

We were so lucky to find Alison to look after our both my children. My son started with her at 10 months, my daughter at 11 months and they both thrived in Alison's lovely home for all their pre-school years. They absolutely loved their time with her. They are both now in primary school but still ask when they can go and visit Alison, as they miss her!

Alison provides a wonderful family environment (especially with lovely dog Molly!) which nurtured and prepared my children for their next steps in life. They got to socialise with lots of children at the music classes and toddler groups she takes them to, and I loved that there was so much outdoor activity each day either at a playground, park, or a walk in the woods.

Alison's menus were amazing, cooking healthy meals from scratch every day - especially as my son has a food allergy which Alison was so great in accommodating, and still providing varied and nutritious meals for him despite the allergy.

The kids have so much fun in her childcare setting, and also learnt all the skills they need to start school - not only learning colours/ numbers/ writing but also the basics like putting on shoes/ coats, using cutlery and being completely toilet trained! Her downstairs room is solely for the children, full of toys and books and my kids especially loved her dressing-up box! Every day they'd come home with some arts & crafts they'd made at Alison's.

As a full time working parent, it is so important to be able to leave your babies and go to work and not worry about them - in the knowledge they are loved and cared for. From day 1 with Alison I absolutely knew they were socialising, learning and above all safe & happy. Alison is so reliable and great at communication - I loved getting text messages and photos she sent of the children at their activities!

Alison is such a lovely person and puts so much thought, care and attention into the personal development of the children in her care. When my two were the babies of her group the older children were so caring and gentle with them, and as they became the eldest in the group they loved helping with the new baby recruits! It's really like a home from home.

I cannot recommend her enough - Alison's is an absolutely brilliant setting for your little ones!

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by MornaM on 22/09/2022

Response by Alison S on 22/09/2022:

What a wonderful review! Thank you so much! 😊

The best child care we met

My daughter stared her journey with Alison when she was 1Y8M. She loves Alison a lot! Her place is very clean, taught my daughter a lot about numbers, colours and shapes. She developed a lot of different skills with Alison. She enjoyed the time with Molly. We have to move from her as we have to relocate. Since we left, my daughter missed Alison so much. She always say: I want to go to Alison!

Our family really appreciate her support, especially to me. As a mother, I have to work and worry about my little one’s development. But she totally cover mother’s job.

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by Wenlu on 05/08/2022

Response by Alison S on 05/08/2022:

Thank you so much for the lovely review and I wish you all the best for the future!

Outstanding childcare experience

Alison is a wonderful childminder, who I would thoroughly recommend to any parents.

My wife and I were first time parents, and understandingly, we were really nervous when we had to look for childcare for our baby son, who was just 9 months at the time. The fact that this happened with lots of uncertainties around Covid going on at the same time didn't help at all.

However, we were really lucky when we found Alison's childminder service. The original communication, which was really quick and clear, helped to reassure us somewhat. Then our son started childcare, and the settling period wasn't too bad even though he had strong stranger anxiety before that, thanks to Alison's expertise on how to handle the situation.

The 10 months when our child was under Alison's care was great as well: He had lots of activities (nursery rhymes, playgroup, dancing group, visiting parks etc...), and he made lots of friends with many kids at the childminder. I believe the whole group feels like a family to my son, with a few older brothers and sisters who were always really gentle with him. Alison also kept a consistent communication channel with us, so we could follow most of the activities he had or any issues he encountered (thankfully there weren't many).

Oh, and our son loves Molly the dog as well!

Overall, we (and we believe our son as well) really enjoyed the experience at Alison's place. At 19 months now, we believe our son has learnt a lot of things, and now enjoys interacting with other people a lot more and starts talking a lot. Unfortunately, due to personal circumstances, we have to travel away for an extended amount of time, and we can't send our son to Alison's place anymore. Our whole family will miss Alison & her childcare, and we really hope that we can come back at some point.

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by HoangTC on 13/01/2022

Great childminder

Alison is an amazing person - reliable, friendly and great with kids. She has looked after my little boy for the past 4 months and he always had a great time with her. She does a lot of activities too - baby/toddler groups, picnic in the park etc. Unfortunately, we are leaving Bromley, so we need to look for a new childminder. I would sincerely recommend her, she is great!

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by Parent on 13/09/2014