Our son has been in Dionne’s care since January 2017 and to us, she is simply outstanding! We are delighted with Dionne and her team. If welfare and progression are the essence of excellent childcare, then Dionne provides excellent childcare. Dionne is always professional and accommodating (for example taking Shingai early in the morning to allow my wife to get to work) and, most importantly, caring.

We know that when we leave our son with Dionne that he’ll be safe and happy. From the first time we met Dionne (our son was 4 months old), she got down on the floor to his level to communicate with him - we knew then that she would give our son the care and attention he needs to grow and develop. From day one she has lived up to this promise. Our son settled in very quickly and Dionne communicated clearly with us, taking into account our requests for our son’s eating and sleeping habits.

When talking with other parents and hearing the difficulties they’ve had with their kids getting used to and enjoying their childcare setting, we feel very fortunate and are grateful to have a childminder who provides such a brilliant range of home cooked food and is able to get our son to sleep well and without any fight. She has been tenacious and conscientious in ensuring that he sleeps enough during the day. She is remarkably observant and every comment she makes about our son (his sensitivity, his love of the outdoors, his keenness to communicate) rings true with us, his parents. She knows and understands our son very well.

Since starting with Dionne our son’s progress has been, quite frankly, outstanding. His social skills have flourished and he has become a very friendly baby, likewise his language and ability to communicate and observe and comment on the world around him. He will now walk down the road, waving and saying hello to the passers-by, the dogs and even the plants. We know that our son has developed this confidence through the adventures to farms, playgroups and parks he has with Dionne (my wife has actually been in the park with our son and met other parents and childminders who know him through having met him with Dionne!). He has also come home on several occasions and impressed us with new skills –high fiving, cleaning his own face, riding his scoter…

It is not just Dionne’s experience and skills of observation that have encouraged our son, but also the sheer delight she takes in discovering his character and abilities. Life at Dionne’s is full of celebration and seems like a lot of fun. So much so that on one day when I went to pick him up he started crying and didn’t want to go home.

Dionne’s is a very happy place - she creates a fun, inviting and exciting environment for the children to explore, discover and learn through play. We know our son is in the best place and think Dionne is simply Outstanding!

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• Cleanliness
• Food
• Communication