Helen looked after our daughter Rachel for about a year and a half and we feel very lucky to have found such a wonderful childminder. She provides an incredibly nurturing, stimulating environment and goes above and beyond to make sure the children have a fantastic time!

Rachel was born just before the pandemic began and so had limited opportunities to socialise with other children or adults in her first year of life. At 11 months old, she was typically quite anxious and withdrawn around anyone except us, so we weren’t sure how she would adjust to starting childcare. However, Helen helped her (and us!) to feel at ease immediately. She let Rachel set the pace and decide what she was comfortable with. From then on she just kept growing in confidence and absolutely loved her time with Helen.

Helen provides a range of lovely activities every day, including lots of time spent exploring outdoors in local parks/woodland. She knows each child very well and has a real skill for identifying what will interest them and help them develop further. She often went out of her way to find toys/books and plan activities specifically tailored to Rachel's interests.

We also loved the way Helen helped Rachel with her social and emotional development. She always models and facilitates kind and respectful behaviour and encourages the children to discuss their feelings. She also regularly meets up with other children and childminders, which provided additional opportunities for Rachel to socialise with a larger group.

Helen’s communication with us has always been fantastic and we loved receiving daily photos and updates via WhatsApp, as well as daily summaries in her journal. She let us know about Rachel’s small achievements each day and always seemed just as excited about and invested in Rachel’s development as us! She also communicated very effectively with us when managing any changes or difficulties, working closely with us to provide consistency with things like sleep routines.

We could not be happier with the care our daughter received and cannot thank Helen enough for the positive impact she has had on our whole family.

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