Woodlea House Day Nursery

Natasa Siljkovic

2 years ago

This is the best nursery that you will find! My son has been attending for 2 years, and recently my younger daughter enrolled! We have never had any problems. The staff and both owners are going above and beyond. They always do even more than we could possibly imagine. As parents, there is always something to worry about, but I am very happy and feel safe sending my kids to Woodlea. Having known them all for a while now, I know they will not drop in standards. I happily recommend them to anyone!

Laura

2 years ago

I am a first time mum so everything is so new to me but the transition from home to nursery was made incredibly easy as my daughter absolutely adores this nursery and all the staff, she has a great big smile on her face when she realises she is going there for the day! All the staff are exceptional, very caring and very highly skilled and my daughter has developed so much since attending. Louisa (owner of Woodlea) has gone above and beyond for me when I have needed her and I am incredibly grateful to have found such a wonderful setting for my daughter.

Em Smith

2 years ago

Before we chose Woodlea House we looked at a number of Nurseries in the area. What made Woodlea stand out was the attention to detail of the Nursery design, facilities, cleanliness and knowledge of the staff. As 1st time parents we worry about most things so it was so reassuring to speak to someone who understood our needs as new parents. Wouldn’t dream of going anywhere else and have even registered our next child due in 2025

Lady Whistledown

2 years ago

This is a revised edit of my review, why? Well one of the managers of this 'day' nursery made contact with myself telling me to do so, but also not telling me to do so, but to do so. So the revised review, I am not a disgruntled former employee, nor was I disgruntled ex parent. What I am though, is a mother with two children who lives locally and who knew both of the owners from a previous company we all worked at. When we knew Woodlea was opening post lockdown we thought great, local nursery, we know the owners, clean, fresh and was taking children for a minimum of 2 sessions per week, which were either part time sessions (mornings/afternoons), or full day 8-6pm sessions. We are fortunate with our current work shifts that we did not need full time childcare and loved how we could send our little girl for an 8-1 session, 2 days a week. We had always said we were going to increase her sessions accordingly and when baby number two arrived we knew it would be beneficial for us all. There had been no conversations to us about stopping part time sessions during 2023, but (and this is where the owner says its factually incorrect), shortly after the government made the change for 2024 about more funding hours we all got a message on the blossom app about if you're wanting more hours following the announcement to let them know and they will plan accordingly as and when they knew more. I responded saying we'd be interested in more hours, but I wasn't expecting a response anytime soon, as I knew they could be inundated with messages. However, not long after this we were told they were and in their words "haemorrhaging money because they didn't have enough children to members of staff on less popular sessions", and therefore would be looking to have only full time children. Ultimately telling us to go, there were no alternatives offered, no can you take on an extra part time session, just full time or leave by end of 2023. We felt this was handled appallingly and when talking to other parents who also picked up their children at 1pm they were not aware at that time of this change. Frustratingly it meant we had to leave and find alternative childcare. Since leaving one previous parent told me they were offered by Woodlea due to circumstances that they could go part time from full time, it feels like they wanted to get rid of the people who didn't attend enough and didn't pay them enough per month compared to others on the book - this is personal opinion and not factual but when you know others are being offered this, one has a sour taste. Leaving day....and staff didn't react to us going no real goodbyes and one member of staff who was leaving themselves were told not to mention about us leaving? We had to ask for one of the owners to come out as we were going to say our goodbyes as we had purchased some handcrafted paper flowers for them as a thank you gift. Looking back the goodbye was very frustrating as we weren't leaving on bad terms and it felt like we had to force them to come and say goodbye. Now as I said in my original review, this nursery was a lovely local nursery, which being brand new was clean, fresh (no smells) and inviting, staff appeared to be friendly and appeared to be knowledgeable. They offered good food cooked in house and they did regular (albeit quick because of popularity) parents evening sessions (with a little treat for waiting outside until it was your turn) - which we thought was a nice touch. They kept us up to date on the blossom app with regular golden moments and scheduled activities which was also nice. Now this review is of our experience and how we felt, we are not being forced into leaving this review, nor have I changed my review, I have simply added in more information about the lead up to us leaving. Thankfully we managed to find alternative childcare at another day nursery (which allows part time sessions) and both our children in fact go four times a week now and appear to love the place as much as we assumed our eldest loved going to Woodlea. I wish you prosperity.

Katy Donovan

4 years ago

Amazing nursery! Beautifully designed, fantastic home-cooked food and lovely staff. They give you daily updates of everything your child is doing/eating, plus photos of special moments. Couldn’t ask for a better nursery for our son to go to.