Catherine House Day Nursery Schools

I have 2 children at this nursery. One is going to school soon, the other is under 2. They have both been there since they were about 11 months and they both love it. Obviously, the most important thing to measure a nursery on is whether the children are happy and on that basis I would give it 5 stars.
However, I share many of Sarah’s frustrations with regard to communication, and I feel that it is very much run as a business (which of course it is, but they have such a long waiting list that I don’t think they REALLY care what parents think — there’s a hint of an ‘if you don’t like it, leave — there’ll be 10 people who’ll want your place’ attitude). The manager actually has very little power — every query, complaint, question, suggestion etc has to be referred to head office and it can take months to get a reply (if you get one at all). I asked once about email communication and was told that they don’t have the ability to do it directly from the nursery, it would all have to come from head office. The real reason, I think, is that every last bit of written communication has to be sanctioned by The Powers That Be. There is also, as Sarah implied, a total refusal ever to accept blame for anything that happens, or to admit that they might have got something wrong or handled something badly — there is always a stock answer to hand to fob parents off. The spin doctors work hard!
There have been periods where they have struggled with staff turnover but actually, the last year to 18 months has been a very stable time with very few members of staff leaving. Most of the current staff are great. The 2^nd and 3^rd in command are absolutely brilliant — cheerful, polite, enthusiastic and genuinely fond of the children.
The garden is now even better, with a lovely new covered sandpit and covered seating area for outdoor story-​reading etc.
My children both eat better at nursery than at home and eat things that they won’t touch at home, so I am very happy that they at least get a balanced diet at nursery!

I really struggled with what rating to give this. My son has attended this nursery for three years nearly, and loves it. That’s what the stars are for. The rest of it drives me to distraction. The communication with the parents is appalling in the extreme. You are expected to be a combination of psychic and ultimately flexible, so that when they screw up and give you less than a day’s notice for some form to be filled in, or for your child to attend a nativity play (which are two examples that come to mind) you jump to it and fall in line with them. Never mind that we pay VAST amounts of money for our children to attend this place. They don’t even have parents’ email addresses which would surely increase their ability to communicate, and are seriously behind the times when it comes to technology. Communication consists of one termly newsletter, put together on an ancient version of word with dodgy clipart. All else is done by random grabbing of parents as they arrive or leave, really not the best way to pass on important information.
The garden is nice and has had money spent on it recently, in the form of a new climbing frame. My son seems to enjoy the food, which is vegetarian, though as far as I can see the menus haven’t been changed in three years. The staff turnover is high and the levels of English spoken as a first language (or even as a coherent language) among those staff is pretty low.
Having said all this, my son loves to go here. He whoops with joy on a nursery day. So I wouldn’t take him out of the nursery, and neither would I NOT reccommend the place to a prospective parent. But you do have to be aware that this is a place where the staff need cajoling and constant questioning to find out what’s going on. Some staff also have serious ‘it’s not my fault, blame someone else’ attitudes.