Soar Childcare

My Summary

Outstanding Ofsted Registered Childminders Making Learning Fun.

My Experience

I have taught in primary schools for 7 years and have been childminding for 12 years. I have received an outstanding rating at all of my Ofsted inspections. I am also in the process of raising my own two girls. I have run gifted and talented workshops in America and have experience with special needs. I have a masters degree in Education as well as a degree in musical theatre.
I keep up to date with training and base our training needs on the needs of the children in our setting at the time. Recently, I did training on speech and language progression, maths in Early Years, fine motor skills, English as an additional language and others. I continuously strive to improve our service and stay update with the latest research and strategies to help young children achieve through play.

I work with my husband Graeme who is also a trained primary school teacher with lots of experience. We both love what we do and put great effort into making sure the children in our care h e a fun, safe and exciting place to play and learn. Graeme is also our resident cook and grew up in a catering household so we provide nutritious and great tasting meals for the children while they are here. They join in with some of the cooking too.


What some of our parents have said about our service:
"We feel Marion and Graeme provide a fantastic environment that is both highly nurturing and stimulating for our little girl. They provide a unique environment that is both homely but with all the developmental benefits that a nursery could offer. They always provide developmentally appropriate activities for the children to explore both indoors and outdoors that are sensory, playful and usually with a theme, guided by the children. They always provides lovely meals and snacks for the children and we have observed significant improvement our little girls' eating since she has been there.
We feel that our children flourished in the time spent with both Marion and Graeme."
-Hannah and Seb

Marion and Graeme have always helped celebrate the diversity of the setting and it is great to hear our daughter talk about how "we are all different" in her general monologues at home. Marion and Graeme are kind enough to ask us whether there are specific areas of learning we would like to focus on for our child and has really helped in the development of her "road sense." We also really admire Their inequity and imagination with the setting and their ability to turn a large box into a pirate ship for the children. We believe that their setting is the best that our kids can get at this stage in their development.
-Liyung and Chris

Our kids have been with Marion and Graeme for three and half years now and it feels like home from home for us all now. The level of care and attention exceeds our expectations and is of an exceptionally high standard. The children are respected and encouraged to express their views and share their experiences. We have seen their confidence grow in the time they have been with Marion and Graeme and we can honestly say that she has helped to mould them into the wonderful people they are.
The setting is comfortable, bright, clean and energising. Both our children are always fascinated to see how the room has been setup when topic change and enjoy taking part in shaping changes to the room. They are eager to get involved and explore as soon as they arrive...We feel incredibly lucky to find something that fits in with our lives and yet is the best environment for our children.
- Tanvi and Jonathan

If you would like more information, please get in touch or check out our website

My Qualifications

I have my Qualified Teacher Status in the UK and America. I also have a masters degree in special education and an undergraduate degree in theatre. I have my childminding qualification as well as paediatric first aid, safeguarding and food hygiene. We regularly attend training to keep up to date as well. Some of the courses I have taken include outside learning, sensory learning, funky fingers training for fine motor skills and many more. I have recently done training through Coram Hempsalls and provide mentoring to other childminders to improve their practice.
I was rated Outstanding by Ofsted in January 2009, August 2015 and March 2019.

Graeme has his Qualified Teacher Status and does regular CPD including Baby’s Brains, Phonics in the Early Years, Food Hygiene, Paediatric First Aide and much more. He obtained an outstanding rating in his 2019 Ofsted inspection.

My Availability

We take children from 22 months old. Please contact us for immediate vacancies. Unfortunately we do not do school runs at this time. We have a Monday-Tuesday vacancy currently for a 2 year old and expect further vacancies in late July/early August 2025 as many of our little ones are heading off to school.

We are open Monday-Thursday 7:30-5:30. We do not do less than 8 hours a day and try to have at least two days a week as it helps children settle.

We are happy to work with children who are nursery age but may not be quite ready for a school setting. You can use your funded government hours at our setting and with our teaching degrees we can tailor the curriculum to their needs.

We accept government funding but consumable charges may apply.

Please contact us to enquire about current or future vacancies.

My Fees

• Childminding from £7.00 per hour

Early years Children:
Please contact us for our most current prices.

I accept government funding for 2,3,4 year olds but meals and consumables are not included in the funding price. Please contact me for more details.

I accept childcare vouchers and tax free childcare.