Blossom Tree Montessori

Blossom Tree go over and above to support us as a family and the needs of my son. Communication is excellent and all of the staff are friendly and welcoming. The nursery itself is clean and inviting with so many amazing activities and opportunities for the children to explore their curiosity and imagination.

The Nursery provides a stimulating and nurturing environment for children to engage, explore and learn. The team is engaged in providing the best care and learning and the children are very happy! The children explore and learn through Montessori activities designed to encourage independence and learning through play.

Great experience, friendly staff and lovely atmosphere.. Children are happy and full of confidence

Blossom Tree Montessori is amazing. Their attention to detail and concern for children's welfare and education is second to none. The surrounding area and being on a farm just makes the setting beautiful. Visiting clearly shows how happy children are and the staff are lovely, kind and compassionate. I can see how they received an Ofted Outstanding!

When we first started our son at the nursery, we were welcomed with open arms, lots of smiles and everything seemed to be going really well. Our child was at the nursery for a year. There were some great staff who were very diligent, good at providing feedback on our child’s day and showed genuine enthusiasm.

After a couple months of starting at the nursery, the Manager left and there was a large staff turnover in a very short space of time. This is when the downward spiral began.

Here is a snapshot of what we encountered:

(i) failure to comply with medicine administration policies (neither parent was informed that medicine was going to be administered to the child) - when we raised this as a breach of policy and requested an internal investigation, senior management intentionally falsified information and asserted that policies were complied with despite us showing proper evidence of their wrongdoing (including their signed medical form on the day of the event and then a few months later claiming that they filled out the form incorrectly). After numerous correspondence exchanges and face-to-face meetings, the nursery admitted breach of policy and process as the evidence was compelling. Not only was there a lack of a proper internal investigation, there was no accountability from the people taking care of our child.

(ii) We noticed that our child, who is generally a really good eater, didn’t show much interest in the food and would eat very little throughout the day. We looked into this further and discovered that the nursery had a poor food preparation and hygiene rating. When we raised this at the Parents’ Forum, they claimed that it was down to kitchen layout. However, the FSA governmental report stated differently.

(iii) The nursery handed our child to its parent without the staff ever having met or seen that parent before. The staff did not have a photo to verify that this person was the parent. No security checks were undertaken. When we brought this to senior management’s attention, they brushed it off;

(iv) The nursery held a Parents’ Forum. When we received a copy of the minutes, we noticed that they failed to accurately record and share the discussions that took place, in particular, the topics that most parents had concerns over (i.e. the poor food hygiene (see point above)). This was highlighted to the nursery’s management team several times and they refused to correct the minutes. Thankfully, we took our own minutes of the meeting;

(v) Parking at the venue is extremely tight. Cars are parked very closely making it challenging to open the driver's door and getting the child out of the car;

(vi) we were informed by the directors that they do not get involved in managing the nursery so if you have a concern that needs to be discussed at the top end, be prepared to receive false promises and attend lots of meetings which end with no proper resolution due to incompetencies to deal with serious matters that concern your child. The nursery is reluctant to put serious matters in writing.

(viii) lots of inconsistent information between the staff and the app therefore you never really get an accurate diary of your child’s day - note: the app is the main focus of this business;

(ix) senior management imposed sudden charges on parents, i.e. late payments fees, which were not in the agreed contract.

We were also threatened by senior management to leave if we didn’t like how they operated and they knew we were only a couple of weeks away from expecting our second baby. We really wouldn’t want any other parent to experience what we did and the distress and disturbance it caused to our child’s mental health and education.

We feel parents have the right to know what goes on behind this nursery’s closed doors and have factual information to allow you to make an informed decision when considering a nursery for your child, irrespective of its Ofsted rating. Point to note, Ofsted does not consider breaches of policies, processes or management when awarding a rating.