Amberley Nursery & Forest School's Reviews

We would not recommend this nursery

Our experience with this nursery was deeply concerning and distressing. The following is a factual summary.

After we raised concerns about this nursery’s behaviour regarding our daughter’s care in several areas, the responses we received appeared increasingly dismissive and vexatious.

Matters ultimately became serious enough for us to seek legal advice and to involve the Information Commissioner’s Office and Ofsted.

The nursery changed ownership during the process. We approached the new owners hoping to resolve the outstanding issues, but unfortunately found further unwillingness to meaningfully engage with matters which we considered to be extremely serious.

It therefore became necessary for us to bring court proceedings against the nursery for a number of serious issues. Those proceedings were ultimately decided in our favour by the court and we obtained a county court judgement in default against the nursery.

The entire experience has caused considerable distress to our family and had a lasting impact on our wellbeing, requiring around a year of legal action and liaison with several statutory bodies in order to resolve.

Upon removing our daughter from Amberley, the immediate contrast since she started at a childminder and then subsequently at a new nursery was extremely notable, on both her and us.

Based on our experience, we would very strongly not recommend Amberley nursery to any other parents and we continue to have very significant concerns about its behaviour and culture.

• Overall

by Alex on 02/09/2026

Response by Amberley on 04/09/2026:

Thank you for sharing your feedback. We take all parental concerns very seriously, and we are sorry to hear that your family experienced distress during that period.
We would like to clarify that our current ownership took over the nursery a few months after your daughter had already left the setting. Because these past events and your ongoing communication regarding financial matters related entirely to the operating period of the previous ownership, we advised at the time that the previous owners were the appropriate party to resolve these matters with you directly.
Regarding the legal proceedings, we want to clarify that neither the previous nor the current owners ever received the initial court paperwork due to a breakdown in communication during the business transfer. While this resulted in a temporary default county court judgement, the previous ownership immediately settled and resolved the matter. This was an administrative outcome rather than a ruling on the actual merits or evidence of the case. Furthermore, all statutory bodies involved thoroughly investigated the claims at the time and closed their inquiries with no further regulatory action required for our setting. Under the previous ownership, the management team successfully completed the standard, regulated records transfer to your daughter's new childminder, as required.
Regarding your financial request, this was handled and reviewed under the previous ownership. Because the childcare services were invoiced as per our standard sickness and absence policy and were partly funded by government provisions rather than personal fees, the previous ownership determined that a refund could not be issued for missed sessions. As current owners, we have no involvement or authority over these historical financial decisions.
We are very glad to hear your daughter is doing well in her current setting. Amberley Nursery remains completely committed to supporting our hard-working team and maintaining a safe, high-quality, and transparent environment for all the families in our care