Mary McCartney has been caring for our 3 year old son Ben since September 2019 and until we moved (Sept 2020) she looked after our now 6-month-old daughter Lily as well.  
 
We strongly recommend her as a childminder and we are very sorry we have moved as the children miss her a great deal – we were very lucky to have found her.
 
Mary has a wonderful manner with children, and has developed a really strong and positive relationship with both of ours.  She has managed to balance the professional side of following all the government and EYFS guidelines with actually providing a personalised and real relationship, which is tricky.  As a secondary teacher myself, I know how difficult this can be!  She is always coming up with fantasticly creative and varied activities for Ben while also ensuring that Lily is included, which is a rare skill.
 
Mary regularly reflects on the type of activities she comes up with, so that things don’t get stale, and that Ben in particular, gets stretched and challenged to do things beyond his current skill set and so never really gets a chance to get bored!  I love hearing him describe what the new skill of the day was when I collect him.
 
Mary has many years of experience looking after young children and this is evident as soon as you meet her.  Her treasure trove of educational toys and games in the playroom that she has built up over the years is like an Aladdin’s cave. It’s the perfect combination.
 
Pre-corona, a typical day involved a trip to one of the local drop-ins, Libraries and playgroups, or on warmer days, the park or playground. They had such a lovely busy schedule. She has really clear and consistent rules about how to manage a group of children going out and about and this has fed through so taking my two out and about is significantly easier.  
 
We really appreciate the level of communication from Mary as to how the children are doing – we are always kept in the loop with regular text messages, photos and reports on how Ben and Lily have been that day/week.
 
Mary is also incredibly flexible and accommodating around drop off and pick up times; she was so helpful in dealing with the strange timings of maternity appointments, and was even willing to have the kids on the weekend just before we moved so I could clear some boxes.
 
Overall we are extremely happy with the level of care our children received with Mary and I would happily recommend her to anyone looking for a childminder in the local area.

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