Montessori by Busy Bees Green Gables Shadwell

Extremely warm and friendly nursery, my daughter loved her time and the teachers at Green Gables. Great garden space, good food options, good feedback from staff on progress and excellent website tool to show notable updates.

Both our children have attended this nursery (since 2017) and we have had a brilliant experience with the staff and setting. The team are kind, patient, very warm yet professional and create a really fun and supportive environment for our children. There's an amazing big garden which is such a nice surprise for central London.

They have seasonal parties and other fun events. It’s a very special place.

I am very satisfied overall with my child’s nursery. It’s been two years that we have chosen this Montessori nursery and school. The staff is lovely, qualified and caring. Their standards are high for hygiene, the food menu has got variety and a great selection for balanced meals. Their response and communication to any adverse event is on spot which provides reassurance it’s a safe place for my child whilst I’m working.

Cons: very high churn - there is no stable primary contact person for the child; (driving the rating on staff below) nursery management appears sometimes chaotic (took them a year or so before they got my contact details correctly in their system, communication of who is primary care person typically with delay; we know of good staff who left because of issues with Management); they take +4 weeks off (2 summer, 2 winter), so you effectively pay 12 months but only get 11 months of service. Not sure anymore though, how many staff are trained/certified given the high churn.

We are really happy with Green Gables. Our daughter only attends part-time but has always been made to feel involved and welcome and has been very happy in all rooms. The staff are kind and patient and we trust them completely.

I enrolled my son at this nursery as I had many friends give me positive feedback about how amazing the nursery was. My child started in April of this year and I withdrew my child in May due to many reasons. Please don't make the same mistake I did as what used to be amazing isn't any more in my humble opinion. After one month I still hadn't met my child's allocated key person and I even had to provide my child's own photo for his coat peg and still, this was not displayed. No welcome pack as requested, I completed no paperwork on my son, nobody even asked me any questions, and my child has additional needs, English is a second language and he found it very difficult to communicate yet not one person at the time sat down with me to discuss these as promised. Not even the basic steps completed. Lots of recent staff changes, friends who still attend due to commitment have said there is a lack of communication, lack of leadership.

There has been a rapid decline in recent months, lack of communication totally my child's keyworker has not been on site for one month with no communication of where she is and who has taken over, surely you would think this would have been addressed by the management. Emails are not responded to for weeks sometimes and general organisation of the setting is not good. Recently had some cases of threadworm in the nursery but when checking no wonder as there is no soap for the children to wash hands with, this was raised with the manager on site but still not addressed. The children's toilets are not of a clean standard. Would like to say this decline is of very recently, I have had my other child in the nursery for over 3 years and was a good experience up until a few months back. Lots of changes in management recently so hence maybe the cause of this.

Since joining the nursery my daughter has developed in so many ways. She is more confident and balanced and looks forward to going into nursery every day. The new manager has always supported in all the enquires I made and I am very happy with all the support that I have received, considering my daughter is a fussy eater. I was late on a few occasions and staff and the manager was really supportive and they stayed behind, reassuring my daughter that I will be arriving soon.

Thank you Green Gables for looking after our daughter in your care.

Employee turnover is very high, making it difficult to provide good quality of care and learning to the children, as continuity of measuring/observing child progress and so being able to put new learning challenges is simply missing. Children also have to continuously get used to new carers which impacts how comfortable they feel at the nursery. Also, processes should be improved to inform about children activities and progress in a more transparent and organised way and on a regular basis. Day to day operations and administration should be improved as overall it appears to be chaotic. Additionally, once the nursery has been taken over by Busy Bees the food, unfortunately, deteriorated as the quantity of fruit and vegetables on the menu was significantly lowered.

My daughter is in the baby room. I am very happy with the room set up. The staff are very friendly and the kids do very creative activities!

We have been with Green Gables since our son was 12 months old and now we have both children continuing 2 years on. The staff are warm and friendly and we have full confidence they are safe and having a great day. The rear garden is an incredible space throughout the year and they love all the activities they are involved in. The team there makes every opportunity to tailor to my son's needs (ie fussy eater) and both have progressed and developed significantly since joining. Would definitely recommend.

It's a very happy and nurturing place.

Our daughter has been attending Green Gables from the age of 1 after being recommended by a friend whose daughter came here. In comparison with other nurseries, the children are calmer and quieter (in a very nice way). Some other nurseries we visited felt like a madhouse where kids were bouncing off the walls... our daughter loves it here and having such a large outdoor garden in central London is fantastic for their development. The care she has been receiving has been excellent and we have really noticed her developments at home over the past 6 months. The only thing to keep in mind is the 4 weeks holiday (2 at Christmas and 2 at summer) but it does give you a few weeks of quality time with the little one.

The outdoor space is second to none.

Wonderful experience with settling into the baby room. Warm staff, good facilities and a great garden.