My 2 1/2 year-old son has been with Carol since he was 10 months old and absolutely loves going there. Carol is so kind and caring and creates a real home-from-home in her house.

When we first went to meet Carol in her home we were impressed with her 'Outstanding' Ofsted rating, her excellent and thorough record keeping and her obvious dedication to what she does, but her excellence goes beyond this. Carol observes what every child enjoys to do and finds interesting and tailors her activities to encourage and extend this. She turns her whole living area into the most wonderful children's play and learning area. She has the most amazing range of toys, games, puzzles, books and other resources, which she rotates and brings out as appropriate, to suit the age and stage of development of the children in her care at the time. She also collaborates with other local childminders, sharing resources to further increase the range of stimuli on offer.

Carol frequently takes the children out and about, to parks, arboretums, play centres, music groups and more. She is constantly looking for new ways to engage the children and have fun with them, while helping them to learn about the world around them.

Carol is excellent at encouraging the children to interact well with each other, to share and be fair (which we all know small children don't always like to do!!!). She has superb, calm, assertive behaviour management which is applied consistently and fairly and I always have the utmost confidence that my son is being taught excellent behaviour and manners when he is with Carol.

The other point of note is Carol's food. Unlike some childminders, Carol provides food for all the children, whichever meals we need. Her food is fabulous - so varied and always healthy (and she has won an award for this). She keeps a diary of everything he eats, and whenever he sleeps, so I know he is always rested and is maintaining a healthy lifestyle when there.

Carol is very good at her own professional development. She regularly attends meetings, conferences and trade shows with other childminders in an effort to maintain and improve her knowledge of best practice.

Carol's communication with parents is superb. She always wants to know what developments there are at home so that she can work on them at her's, and she always lets you know what happens in the day. She is very easy to talk to and will give advice and opinions if you ask for them.

Considering how hard it is to leave your children in childcare, it is wonderful to know that they are thoroughly enjoying themselves and are being looked after to the highest standards, which I always know with Carol. She is very sensitive to all the children, to their individual needs, and to their characters, and I cannot recommend her highly enough. Were I ever to move, I might just have to take her with me!!!