Our daughter came to Victoria in December as a shy little girl who had barely interacted with people outside of us for most of her life due to the various lockdowns, and after a difficult intro process with another childminder that my daughter did not take to at all. It was the exact opposite with Victoria - it didn’t take long until she became comfortable with Victoria and I’d now describe my shy little girl as a social butterfly, waving at strangers in the street. At the start, due to the distress our daughter had been in at the previous childminder, Victoria asked us to provide some family photos and then she created a beautiful book that our daughter could look at if she was ever feeling anxious. We were astounded with the care and attention provided. We can’t thank Victoria enough for reversing the effects that the pandemic left.

There are few days when our daughter is not out in the fresh air, exploring parks, woodlands, and beaches, as well as water & sand play. Our daughter climbs tree trunks, builds sandcastles, splashes in streams and all sorts.

I’d describe Victoria’s approach as Montessori and her play space is filled with age appropriate toys - largely wooden - and including things to build confidence and body awareness such as a pickler triangle and a climbing arch. She incorporates Welsh and Makaton (children’s sign language), which was great as we did a small amount of makaton already so my daughter was able to communicate her needs with ease.

We receive regular updates and pictures which was hugely reassuring at the beginning to be able to see our daughter so happy and now it’s just wonderful to see what she gets up to. The activities are constantly rotated and varied so my daughter has no chance to get bored. Family members who have seen pictures of her daily activities have commented on what a great childminder we have and that if they lived in our area they would use her too.

Victoria provides healthy homely meals & snacks, and kindly caters to our daughters long list of allergies without it seeming to be of any inconvenience at all.

Victoria is warm, caring, hugely knowledgeable, and we are beyond thankful that we found her. She clearly loves the children in her care & her job, and puts her whole heart into it. We would recommend her to the moon and back, and then some.

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