Bright Horizons Heron Quays Day Nursery and Preschool

Since my son has joined Heron Quays Nursery, I have been so pleased with his development. He has always been bright and confident but this has grown even more. The learning such as emerging, writing, number and creativity has really helped and he is doing really well in these areas. Staff are very attentive and caring, and I feel confident and at ease when I have to leave him.

Nursery has been well organised during the covid period with very clear guidelines and good communication to parents. My daughter is very happy in the nursery and that it is the most important for me. It would be great if they can set up an app with the information instead of the paper they give us every day (what activities they do, what do they eat, photos of the day...) It will be nice to see that information digitally but otherwise, I am very happy with management.

The staff is very approachable and the management is professional. In our experience, we could see excellent care for children. Our kid loves going there. Without any doubt, this nursery and its staff are contributing positively to the growth of our child.

I could not have chosen a nicer nursery for my son. We have been at this nursery for 3 years and my son is so happy and surprises me often with all the things he learns. Staff is so friendly and attentive, the nursery rooms are big and bright, and the ability to address issues during an unprecedented year and manage them is admirable.

Our son started attending this nursery in September and settled really well despite ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Staff is extremely welcoming and informative. He is very happy to go to the nursery every day. It's lovely to see him happily going in and building strong relationships with his friends and practitioners. There is a great range of activities going on in the nursery. We receive weekly update on what activities our son was participating in and home learning so we can work together on his next steps which are very helpful. Our son is learning so much every day. He has improved so much since he first started.

Highly recommend and can’t thank them enough!

Poor management at the nursery as well as at a senior level has led to this good-rated nursery finding itself with three inadequate ratings in a row. We’ve seen four managers in two years so a trend of managers that senior leaders have chosen to lead the nursery. With respect to staff, there is a range of quality depending on the room; the excellent ones tend to leave, the weaker less qualified ones, remain. The nursery doesn’t comprehensively respond to emails. The last manager’s blasé, unprofessional and careless attitude was enough to for us decide to withdraw our child from the nursery. We’ve since learned from extremely unhappy and upset parents, that this very manager was promoted to a field manager within the company. The nursery recently decided that they were closing temporarily leaving 100+ kids allocated to local nurseries with parents being given two weeks notice, some of whom are on holiday. Do not put yourself through the wasted time, energy and money, stay away.

My son has no doubt, every time he goes to nursery, he is happy because he knows he will enjoy the most of it even though only two days a week. However, the only thing missing from this nursery is no nature or playing outside (very small area). Other than that, all is acceptable.

Heron Quays, Bright Horizons is a good one. The staff are very friendly and caring. My girl learnt a lot during her stay there. She developed to be a more happy and confident girl in this experience.

My son started in this nursery since he was 11 months. I am very happy that he is settled with his teacher. As I only take him 2-3 times per week he has full trust with his carer. Now he is 19 months and he would run to his teacher in the morning which gives me comfort that he has been treated very well at school.

I want to see the nursery grow better and more classes of music and yoga would be very good fun for the kids.

> The current temp manager is personable and approachable and seems to want to fix issues - however, waiting to see how he executes

My son really enjoys going to Heron Quays. He runs in to hug the staff every morning.

I like the teachers here. Children are also friendly. I am satisfied with the environment.

Staff seem to take the time to know each child. Would like a little more information on some aspects e.g sleeping, feeding.

My daughter loves going to nursery, she attends 4 days a week in baby room 2. She had a smooth transition from baby room 1 with no dramas thanks to the happy, joyful staff at Bright Horizons Heron Quays. Every day I am impressed with the level of professionalism of the staff, the happy energetic attitude they possess and the quality of care my daughter receives. I highly recommend this nursery.

My son has so many options for playing and learning. They have soft play, an outdoor play area and gardening for the kids.

My daughter started nursery in May 2017. We were initially very happy with both the staff and facilities. Lately, however, we feel that the new management is making changes which adversely affect the care of my child. When joining, we specifically requested a classroom based on staff and equipment. Since the new "sharing of rooms" I have noticed that there are unknown staff members in the rooms who are not as attentive to my child as her normal carers. When my child was unwell, her key person was on annual leave and the person who was looking after the children took off most of her clothes to the extent that her hands, feet and face had turned blue. All she could say when we collected her was "I think she is cold". I have never had an issue with the regular staff in the room but if management thinks that having unknown staff in with young children is good, they are mistaken. The trust a parent has in the nursery is no longer being valued. Also, I fail to understand how making offices for a new/deputy manager who is never seen is in a child's best interest.

There seems to have been a positive change in the overall management of the nursery over the recent months, with increased communication, awareness, structure and better use of room space. Time and effort has also gone into improving the nurseries appearance which is nice to see.

The experience for our son has been positive. He's moved into the toddler class and despite initial resistance to change, he now enjoys himself and is fond of the classroom staff.

At first, I felt feedback about his experience was too limited but I have noticed a marked improvement recent weeks. As a parent, this is so important as our son only gives us a limited insight. We've noticed his cognitive development has improved around older peers.

During the year of 2017 I see quite a few familiar staff gone over time. It would be good to keep staff turnover to a minimal as it can be depressing for a child if his/her key person is leaving.

Also sometimes my child's clothes/milk bottle get mixed up with another child's. I appreciate staff can be busy during changing/milk times but still hope they would do this systematically to minimise errors.

In general, when I pick up my child she does look happy and I can tell staff are engaging her at play times since she is showing new knowledge/skills at home. So keep up the good work!