Soar Childcare
Childminder in East Herts
Usually responds within 12 hours
Female Member since Jan 2013 Last Updated Nov 2024 Last Login 21 Nov 2024
My Summary
Outstanding Ofsted Registered Childminders Making Learning Fun.
About Me
I am an outstanding Ofsted registered childminder in Bishops Stortford. I was born in America and lived and taught there until I met my husband. I am a qualified teacher with a master's degree in education. I have taught in Hertfordshire primary schools for five years and in American primary schools for three years. When I began to have children of my own, I wanted them to enjoy everyday and have as many positive experiences as possible. I have two gorgeous girls. They are both now enjoying their time in secondary school. I gave up teaching to be with my children, but found that I missed the buzz of the classroom. I love children and wanted to continue working with them. Childminding allows me to be at home with my girls, teach and nurture children, and have a career.
I live near Summercroft school and have a very large play area and a large, child friendly garden as well as a smaller room called the snug if children want to rest or for us to snuggle up and read stories together. It is a fantastic space so please come for a visit to see it for yourself. I plan based on the children's interests and work closely with parents to meet the children's needs. I also have two cats named Eclipse and Tobi.
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 expect vacancies in late July 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.
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.
Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | |
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Before School | no | no | no | no | no | no | no |
Morning | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no |
Afternoon | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no |
After School | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no |
Evening | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no |
Overnight | no | no | no | no | no | no | no |
Last Updated: 13/11/2024 |
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.
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 childcare provider has provided to us. You should verify this information yourself prior to using the childcare provider.
My Documents
- DBS Check (added 18/09/2020)
- Ofsted Certificate (added 17/09/2020)
- Inspection Report: Marion's Ofsted Inspection Report (added 12/04/2019)
Reviews
Below are the latest reviews for Soar Childcare. 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.
As any mum would do, I want my baby to have the best child care there is. Hence, I have tried nurseries and met up with quite a few childminders. I stopped my search when I met Marion and Graeme, because I found the best of the best. They were both primary school teachers before becoming childminders, and therefore they are both very knowledgeable. I love the way they encourage children to develop the right value, to be more independent, compassionate, outspoken, creative and friendly. As the result, all the children I have met at theirs are extremely well behaved, pleasant, have great personalities, caring, polite, lovely and confident.
They truly compassionate about what they are doing, they absolutely love and care about the children in their care. When I first start to leave my baby with Marion for a few hours, I was so nervous. Marion texted me the whole time to keep me posted on how my baby is doing, even sent me photos as well! I then receive a very detailed diary of my baby’s day together with even more photos and detailed observations. Even though I was not there, I could share almost everything my baby’s doing! This has definitely put my mind at ease. I feel that Marion and Graeme have gone extra mile to make both my baby and myself feel cared and loved.
Marion and Graeme are extremely great at communicating with us. They provide us with detailed activity plans each week and monthly newsletter to keep us posted on the things they are doing. I feel extremely confident that my child is stimulate both physically and mentally during her time there. Also, it is so unique to have both male and female carers, which in my opinion is a truly balanced setting. My baby has developed a special bond with both of them in a very short time. Another added benefit is that since there are two of them, my baby has a lot more children to play with, which is no doubt great for her social skills.
They have a beautiful home to care for the children, a few dedicated rooms full of toys, fun games. They are always tidy, organised, comfy and homey. There is also a lovely big garden full of child friendly features. The diet they provide is very healthy with great varieties.
We have registered our younger daughter with Marion, and we can't wait for her to have tones of fun from this Sept too!
by Parent about Soar Childcare on 29/04/2018
Response by Soar Childcare on 29/04/2018:
Ahhh, Thanks. We love having Maisie. We are so glad she loves it here. She is so much fun and we can't wait for Millie to join us too. Thanks for the amazing review.
Our daughter has been coming to Marion for a year now and has enjoyed herself very much, her confidence has grown and she loves the different activities provided each week.
She has always felt safe and secure, she does have a few wobbly moments but Marion is there to help her settle and calm her down. As a working parent, it is really important, I know my child is happy and I am more than happy to leave my daughter in the care of Marion as I know she is very well looked after.
Communication is great, I know exactly what she has done all day, with lists and descriptions of what she ate, what she has done, played with or made and pictiures to show me at the end of the day. The setting is brilliant and always clean and my daughter loves eating lots while there.
Would recommend to anyone !!
by Parent about Soar Childcare on 22/01/2017
Response by Soar Childcare on 05/02/2017:
Thanks Dani. We love having your little one here. we are so glad she is so happy here!
Marion and Greame are everything you could ever want and even more. They are incredible. If you want your child/ren to be developed and nurtured and not just 'looked after' then these are the people to trust. Every week there are plans with various activities and we receive details of everything they have done with pictures etc. I love that they are a team and that my boys are looked after by both a female and male and our children have flourished by being with them. They have been given an ofsted rating of excellent for a reason and it is well deserved. The thought and detail that goes into each days activities really blows me away: with lots of creative, outdoor and messy play whatever the weather. I would not hesitate to recommend them.
by Parent about Soar Childcare on 25/04/2016
Response by Soar Childcare on 05/02/2017:
Thanks so much for the lovely review. We love having the boys. If you could freeze time so they didn't grow up that would be helpful.
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