Little Places
Childminder in Elmbridge
Member since Jul 2020 Last Updated Dec 2024 Last Login 21 Dec 2024
My Summary
About Me
We live in a lovely spacious house in Walton-On-Thames offering 'home from home' care, with a large garden-which has a sectioned off baby safe play area and a larger astro turfed area for uses of bikes, scooters, cars etc. We are lucky to live near many parks, open fields, river, local shops, library, soft plays, toddler groups and Grovelands School. We have lots of space indoors to with a large living room, a dining room we use as an in house play room. We are have just renovated the building at the end of the garden for an additional play area which is a curiosity room using natural open ended resorces and coming soon its very own sensory room. We have a bouncy, strong willed girl born 2018 and a little boy born 2020. We are fun, kind and caring and love working with children. Matthew carried out his work experience in school in a nursery to which he wanted to make that his career path once leaving school. However, being a male did not work in his favour as he couldn’t actually find a nursery that would take him on. I also worked in some nursery’s leaving school but ended up in office work, quickly climbing the ladder leading to office manager. When I left my previous roll from my maternity leave I absolutely loved having time with my little one (with the help of Matthew as in his previous job role was shift work so had lots of days at home with us) and watching/assisting her grow along with my friend’s children of all ages. Found ourselves trying out every park/soft play etc as our toy box filled and our craft cupboard grew, we realised this is what we want to do. We both always work to our strengths and really enjoy it (as that’s what really matters!) I find working together is a massive bonus for us and the children. We get to help each other and the children get the best of both worlds learning in a family environment. We ensure all children will have a healthy balanced diet (all homemade)and have fun trying new things from all different cultures along the way. We work and teach all the children along the EYFS guide to help them learn and grow the best of their ability, working along side each individual child learning their strengths and weakness as what works for one may not work for all of them. We like to keep it old school offering daily diary's so you can see how our day has gone, nap times, nappies, what we have eaten through out the day and how much. We also will be supplying each child with a learning journey, this is where we log their tracking and next steps to work on i.e. can count 1-5 so the next few weeks we will concentrate on 1-10. We will include all WOW moments along with some arts and crafts and snaps of them enjoying their day. This will be personal to each child and something for you to keep once they move on to big school, I look forward to challenging ourselves and the children to strive and achieve anything we or they want to.
My Experience
We have two of our own lovely children both have previous nursery experience. We always are the first to be asked to look after family and friends children. We have experience with new born and up.
My Qualifications
We are both Ofsted Registered and Childminders in our own rights.
We are both qualified in safeguarding and FGM.
We have both completed 12 hours Pediatric First Aid Training.
We are both Food and Hygiene Level 2 Qualified.
We are both hold our own full DBS.
Members of Information Commissions Office.
Courses we have attended and gained our certificates-
Characteristics of effective learning and behaviours l.
Improving children's learning through play.
Prevent Covid-19
Promoting positive behaviours
Safeguarding refresher
We like doing courses to expand our knowledge whilst working with children and keeping up to date with effective teaching/learning.
My Availability
We are available Monday-Friday 7.45am to 5.45pm.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before School | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no |
| Morning | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no |
| Afternoon | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no |
| After School | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no |
| Evening | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no |
| Overnight | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no |
| Last Updated: 21/11/2024 | |||||||
My Fees
- Childminding from £8.25 per hour
Childminding £7.50 per hour
My Local Schools
This childminder has not yet informed us whether or not they provide any drop off or pick up services at local schools.
My Ofsted Inspections
The inspection grades below have been obtained from the Ofsted website based upon the registration number the childminder has provided to us. You should verify this information yourself prior to using the childminder.
My Documents
- Training Certificate (added 11/07/2020)
- Ofsted Certificate (added 10/07/2020)
Reviews
Below are the latest reviews for Little Places. Please note that reviews represent the subjective opinions of other Childcare.co.uk users and not of Childcare.co.uk. Parents must carry out their own checks and references on childcare providers to ensure that they are completely happy before enaging in the use of their services.
We could not speak more highly of Matt and Jade. We have been absolutely delighted to send our son to their setting. He started at 10 months as we wanted to ramp up slowly. This worked really well. We were so grateful for their kind and gentle support as we transitioned from having Burt at home full time to ramping back up to full time working. It was a really tough time (especially as mum) but Matt and Jade were so thoughtful they made the process so much easier.
Their setting is so homely with a few different spaces for the children to utilise throughout the day. Personally, I visited some nurseries when deciding on childcare and felt that the mood of the children was very flat in the afternoons. However, Matt and Jade are able to move the children into their different zones to keep things fresh.
Burt (and I) particularly love the playroom at the back of the garden. It is filled with so many fantastic toys for role play, including many real world objects. Burt (like many kids, I’m guessing) loves playing with “real life” toys - remote controls, keyboards. This room is perfect for him as it lets him explore his curious developing mind. We love receiving updates and photos throughout the day of Burt having fun and his beautiful arts and crafts creations. And one of the highlights of the week is MUSIC class every Thursday morning.
Jade and Matt have also been incredibly helpful with Burt’s routine as well as encouraging with Burt’s milestones. They have been super flexible around nap times, supporting the times we already had set with Burt and following our lead as we finished up his sleep training as he wasn’t yet fully nap trained. He’s now already walking really well at 13 months and they have got him using his own fork when eating. Speaking of eating, I’m sure he eats so much more when he is with them as he obviously loves their home cooking (which always smells delicious when we collect him in the afternoon).
Burt has cow’s milk protein allergy, but that hasn’t been an issue at all. They are well experienced at tackling this and work their meal plans around it. At the beginning, Burt couldn’t have soy either but they were really happy to accommodate with different bread etc to make sure soy flour wasn’t present in his food (it’s such a faff - I really hope your kids don’t have allergies - but if they do you can rest assured with Jade and Matt).
Burt also has torticollis - a tight neck muscle which gives him a head tilt. (If untreated it can lead to issues with facial displacement.) We’ve had to work with a physio to resolve and Jade and Matt have been super helpful on this too. They were so willing to learn about it and do what they could while he is in their care to help contribute towards resolving this issue for him.
The final - and for us the best - thing about their setting is the feeling of love and warmth that exudes from the door. We have loved that Burt receives care from a man and woman and because they are mum and dad to their own kids you cannot get closer to a truly home from home experience. Thank you Jade and Matt for your attentive and loving care of our little boy. We will all miss you.
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Setting
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Cleanliness
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Food
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Communication
by
Bianca
about
Little Places
on 28/04/2023
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This profile has been produced from information provided to us by the user. We have not verified or confirmed the accuracy of any of the information and members should undertake their own vigorous checks and references. Please ensure you read our Safety Advice and information on how to Check Childcare Provider Documents.
