Busy Bees at Stratford East Village

Sending a child to childcare can be a daunting experience, but the entire team made both her initial settling-in period and her recent transition from the baby room to the toddler room incredibly smooth. The communication from management ahead of transitions is thoughtful and thorough, helping us as parents feel prepared and reassured about what to expect. What has truly stood out to us, however, is the immense care and passion with which the staff speak about the children. Both the baby and toddler room teams have incredibly friendly, welcoming, and attentive. Drop-offs can occasionally be difficult, but the staff always step in with exactly the right support-whether that means offering extra cuddles, helping her settle at breakfast, or letting her spend a few comfort moments with familiar faces. This has given us total confidence leaving her, even when she's upset. Our daughter is thriving in their care and we could not be happier.

Thank you for making my sons time enjoyable

The long opening hours, combined with the welcoming, warm staff, means we're comfortable leaving our daughter from 8:30 am to after 6 pm, allowing both me and my husband to do a full day's work. We tried picking our daughter up earlier, and she told us it was too soon: she was having a great time!

The staff within the room are warm, experienced lovely people who have made our child feel very welcome and happy. They are very accommodating to work together for children to reach individual milestones and have been of tremendous help for our child to learn to walk, use cutlery, socialise gently and share with other children, go up/ down stairs and slides (they have one in the baby room).

Our daughter has been attending Little Bear's in East Village for three months in the baby room. We could not be happier with the nursery. From the amazing, hard-working staff to the variety of fresh meals offered, we couldn't ask for a better place to send our child. Our daughter has settled in very quickly and now cannot wait to go to nursery every morning.

Two months on and we have no regrets in choosing Little Bear's and although my child can't speak yet I'm pretty sure she feels the same.

My son was at Little Bears in East Village from the age of around 10 months to just under 4 years of age. He has always been happy there and I have felt that he was in safe and caring hands. He made some lovely friends there and enjoyed the large outdoor play area. There were some changes in management and changes in staff which was unsettling for a while, but over recent months things have stabilised and I feel there is a caring, competent and empathic team in place.

We receive daily feedback about her progress and activities, which provides us with peace of mind and keeps us connected to her journey. It's clear that the team at Little Bear's is dedicated to creating a positive and supportive environment for every child.

We recommend!

Since attending Little Bears my son has really come a long way, he is confident & intelligent making progress each week with colours, numbers & shapes. He enjoys spending time with the members of the staff reading books & singing songs.

Our son has attended Little Bears for the last year. He was 1 year when he joined and has just celebrated his 2nd birthday. I was incredibly nervous to leave him when going back to work, but the team at Little Bears soon put me at ease. Over the next few months it was clear my son, the other children, and the staff had developed a close bond. And it wasn’t long until he would excitedly toddle into the Baloo Room every morning. He has developed so much during his time at Little Bear. We are now moving out of the area and very sad to be leaving Little Bears. It’s been a pleasure.

Our son has been attending Little Bears in Stratford for the last six months and is in the toddler room. The staff in the room are very attentive and loving, making sure that he feels safe, settled and looked after. There is a great array of different activities, including a coach who comes in once a week to play athletics with the children, which I think he really enjoys. Overall, we have been happy with this nursery.

We feel so lucky that they had this great start to their life at Little Bears

Our daughter started at this nursery in the baby room and moved all the way through to preschool. It was a safe and nurturing environment and we never felt we needed to worry. I am thankful we managed to find this nursery and that our kid has spent the first few years of her life growing and learning here. There is a really good range of activities with large outdoor space and lots of outdoor equipment. She loved the football coach activities and the music and movement classes and watching the baby chicks hatch. Management was very good at addressing any issues. We were really sad to leave as our daughter was so settled and enjoyed it so much (only left because we moved out of the area).

My son has been attending Little Bear’s Nursery in East Village for over 9 months now. He absolutely loves it, the nursery has a lovely, warm and inviting culture, which was something really important to us when choosing a nursery. The settling-in was quick and the staff made it feel stress-free! Whilst at work my partner and I were able to have peace of mind, knowing that he was in good hands. My son has now moved to the toddler's room and again, they all made him feel so loved! Daily feedback is great, every day there is a new activity or experience planned and he seems to be really thriving from the variety. Little Bears really cares about the children’s learning and development and ensures parents are involved too! The admin team are very efficient and kind. Our regular catch-ups with his key worker are informative and reassuring, and the general communications from the team at Little Bears are also exemplary. We feel so lucky to have been able to secure a place there.

My daughter attends this nursery and I cannot tell you how incredible it is. I honestly could not have picked a better nursery. I have noticed that she has developed so much since attending the nursery and they always take such good care of her. They have plenty of space indoors and outdoors to develop and the staff are so attentive. They do a range of activities such as playing with sand, paint, outdoors etc. But my daughter is always handed over cleaner than I would have imagined considering the activities they get up to. I love all the updates throughout the day and always look forward to seeing the new photos they have taken of my daughter. The staff at the nursery are incredible. I remember the first day I dropped her off I cried and she cried and then I left her there. But when she stopped crying the manager actually rang me to let me know, and it was so reassuring. And really reinforced why I love this nursery. Thank you so much for everything you guys do. My daughter adores you.

I'm so, so happy with Little Bear's Nursery in East Village, they checked off all my requirements when I was nursery hunting last year. Honestly when I was looking for nurseries, I was expecting to compromise on at least 1-2 of these things, but I didn't have to:

4. Organised and responsive to emails (lots of nurseries I found took ages to respond)

Plus they even matched my secondary requirements of having kids from diverse races and cultures, accommodating vegan options for my baby and also providing a good mix of activities (music, art, sports etc).

I love this nursery and so does my baby.

The communication from head office is not the best, overly formal, unfriendly and often in a totally illegible font. Find that you need to go in and speak to staff and not rely on getting an answer via email which can be frustrating.

Both kids are really enjoying their daily life at Little Bear's. So many fun activities such as painting, sticking, glueing, dancing, singing, and let's not forget the awesome garden where they love to play in the sandpit.

We really love Little Bears. There was a good settling-in process for our son when he started attending at thirteen months, involving us and building up the time he spent there. He's been attending for six months now and really enjoys it, there is a lot of variety of activities and the outdoor space there is great. There is an app which keeps us up to date with his food, naps and nappies. We've been really impressed with all the carers in the Baloo room and our son clearly has a strong connection with his key workers who he waves and smiles at when he arrives. They are focused on his development and teach him new skills as well as care for and play with him. We always get a good rundown on his day when we pick him up, in addition to the app info. The management team are easy to get hold of and very responsive as well. Great nursery.