Karen W's Reviews

Fantastic Childminder

Karen has spent the summer looking after my almost 2 year old and she has been fantastic. My son settled very quickly and that is greatly down to Karen's caring a loving environment. Harvey always looked happy doing different activities both at Karen's home and was often out at new parks which he loved exploring. My son always came home worn out but so happy so I know the he had lots of fun. I would recommend Karen to anyone and will definitely book my children in without hesitation. Thank you Karen.

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• Setting
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• Communication

by Caroline about Karen W on 13/08/2023

Fantastic setting

Karen was a wonderful childminder to our son Myles from August 2015, when Myles was 10 months old, until July 2017. Right from the start Karen has made us feel safe and reassured by inviting us to visit her setting and showing us the wide range of toys and educational material she works with. Karen has a warm and welcoming home with rooms and sections specifically dedicated to certain activities, as well as a large and well looked after outside area with plenty of exciting equipment for children of all ages.
Karen is admirably well organised and takes children to various groups on an almost daily basis, which I think was a great opportunity for Myles to socialise with diverse groups of children of different ages and participate in a very wide range of activities that stimulate all senses (such as singing & dancing groups, crafting groups, messy play groups etc.). At the same, more individual playing and learning at Karen’s house was equally provided, where Myles could bond more closely with the other children in Karen’s care. Furthermore, Karen sometimes joins up with other childminders to organise bigger events such as a sports day or a picnic in the park, which is great fun for the children. As a result of these varied social and educational opportunities Myles grew up a very confident little boy who is always eager to explore the world.
One of the many things I appreciated about Karen’s setting was that she took interest in Myles’s development as an individual and worked closely with us to provide tailored support for Myles. For example, she supported Myles in his bilingualism and we regularly talked about strategies to ensure that his language development didn’t fall behind, including a possible referral to a language specialist at a later stage. Karen also supported us in recording Myles’s food intake in detail so that we could discuss his eating habits with our health visitor.
Karen kept a personal folder and a scrap book for Myles where she recorded his individual progress and creative efforts, which we were very happy to see. She also provided us with a daily record of Myles’s activities, food intake, toileting progress and general well-being, as well as often sending us pictures of Myles during the day which never failed to bring a smile to our faces as we could see that our child was happy and well looked after. On top of this, she has regularly taken time to discuss Myles’s progress according to the EYFS framework in great detail, which has been very reassuring. On the other hand, Karen is also very approachable and was always available for an informal chat whenever we had any questions or concerns so that we could ensure we were all on the same page when it came to raising Myles.
Karen is very well qualified and experienced, and attends regular training courses to further advance herself in the field, which left us reassured that Myles was receiving professional and competent childcare. We could tell that he really loved Karen’s setting since he was always happy to come to Karen’s house in the morning and had a broad smile on his face when he saw her. It was great to know that he had a caring person looking after him that he could bond with.
We really appreciated Karen’s flexibility and hard work in everything that she did for Myles and we can very warmly recommend her setting to anyone in need of a friendly and reliable childminder.

• Overall
• Setting
• Cleanliness
• Food
• Communication

by Julia about Karen W on 18/03/2018