All three of my children (now aged 10, 7 and 4) attended Orchard House from the age of just under a year until each of them started primary school and I cannot recommend it highly enough as a setting. It is an incredibly warm and nurturing environment, with staff - led by Donna, who is the most incredible, kind and child-focussed person - who genuinely care about the children, make the effort to get to know them as individuals, let them know that they are special, and shower them with love and affection.
Each of my children started out in the baby room which was and still is run by Hannah, who is simply wonderful. The amount of effort all of the staff made to get to know each of my children’s routines, their likes and their dislikes was enormously reassuring (especially as a first time parent, when I was extremely trepidatious about leaving my child to return to work) - as was the hugely detailed amount of information I received each day about how much they’d eaten, slept and been cuddled. In particular we loved the fact that they would come home from the baby room smelling of Hannah’s perfume because she’d been cuddling them so much!
Each of them was very well-prepared for their move upstairs to the big children’s floor, which is managed by the fabulous Sarah. The Orchard House approach of being hugely kind, child-centric and fun continues upstairs - every day we receive updates about the activities they’ve enjoyed. Recent highlights include releasing butterflies, making dinosaur fossils, creating models of their family and using water guns filled with paint to redecorate the garden fence! The eldest children also regularly head out on trips - to local parks, the library and even an impromptu walking tour to our house when our son realised he thought he could navigate home (and the staff let him try!). While the focus is firmly on fun, play and creativity, all of my children were highly numerate and literate and - most importantly - socially very confident by the time they set out for primary school (a lot of time, effort and thought is put into this transition for the children) and whilst they missed Orchard House were all more than ready for school when it came.
There are too many highlights to mention from our decade as an Orchard House family, but we are especially grateful for the love, support and sense of normality the Orchard House team gave our youngest two children during the various lockdowns. They went to huge lengths to stay open whenever they could - allowing the children to socialise, celebrate Easter and Christmas and even have birthday parties within the setting. I’m convinced that our children emerged emotionally unscathed in huge part because of Donna and the team’s commitment and dedication to them during this time in particular.
We’ve recently celebrated our third and final Orchard House graduation. I cannot imagine us and the children having been happier in any other setting. We both work full time and are grateful beyond words that we never had any doubt that when at nursery our children were all happy, stimulated, nurtured and loved. It never felt like a transactional relationship - rather that we were lucky to have a group of amazing women to help raise our children whilst we had to be at work. They all have our eternal thanks and admiration.