Our daughter has been with Annabel for eight months and it is everything that we were looking for in a setting. Upon meeting her, we were instantly impressed with her warm, nurturing manner and her knowledge on child development.

Annabel and her team provides an intimate setting which has meant that our daughter is comfortable with all the children and staff there, happily playing with any of them there. Montessori principles guide a lot of their practice. Independence is really encouraged and developed through giving small responsibilities to the children (my daughter now often initiates tidy up time before dinner all by herself!). Older and younger children while having their own spaces and activities are allowed to freely mix, play together and even join in to the other activities if they wish to - this is something that I think is really special as the older children learn through teaching and develop empathy and the younger children pick up on the skills modelled so much faster. There is a huge variety of activities every week, with themes that are shared in advance, and lots of singing - which is so brilliant for language acquisition.

Annabel also has organised lots of parent events which have been really wonderful as a experience to do together with the children but also as a way to get to know the others in the setting - these have ranged from weekend Easter egg hunts, garden planting at the setting, breakfast events, park meets and a sports day! Annabel is fantastic at communication and she actively gets parent input so that the children are as comfortable as can be.

Having been nervous about sending off our first child to childcare, it is safe to say that every day we talk about how happy and safe she is there, and how much she grows every day!

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• Communication