Dreamcatcher Childcare

We had been searching for a nursery for our daughter when we moved to the local area. After visiting a handful of options we were thrilled to find Dreamcatchers. It immediately stood out compared to the others - the owner is hands on and has a real passion for early years childcare. We have been delighted by the fantastic staff from the baby room right through to the preschool. They have built the most caring and supportive environment for those crucial early years. The culture within this nursery shines. We have had two children at Dreamcatchers and they have both thoroughly enjoyed their time at Dreamcatchers. We are extremely grateful to Dreamcatchers and highly recommend them as a nursery.

Amazing nursery, if you are in the Berkshire / Surrey border area then I wouldn’t look anywhere else. Highly supportive and professional staff really helped our children to blossom and thrive in their early years.

I have agonised over if I should do this or not, but I feel traumatised and let down with my experience with them. My Daughter started Dreamcatcher from when she was 16 months old and went all the way through to Pre- School with them. Although I found them a bit old fashioned in areas such as sleep and potty training, which did result in an UTI due to aggressive potty-training practices for a two-year-old being expected to wipe her own bottom, I did on a whole have no real issues with them.
The issues started last November in 2021 when my son started with them. He started in early November and on the first Monday of December was asked not to return just 2 days after his first birthday as they said he would not settle. I was given no warning and was already back at work when this happened. I was left with no childcare options and left feeling there was something desperately wrong with my child.
I have since rationalised this that it was not my fault in fact, they failed in their contract and duty of care. They would force my son to sit away from the other children at meal times as he had a dairy intolerance isolating him from the other children, they would shut the babies due for a sleep in the same room regardless of any nap schedule and expect 6 babies in one room to fall asleep together and self sooth. There was very little outside time for the baby room and he was used to being able to roam around. They were not happy and said he was clingy and angry when strange he wanted to get to know only one key worker I have since learned this is very normal when building new bonds. We had one meeting where we came up with a few actions, but there were only a few days given for it to work before he was rejected from the nursery with no follow ups I was simply called every day to collect him early before he was finally rejected.
There are some very out of date practices in place at this nursery and seeing how well my son has since settled at another nursery I feel there was something whole wrong with how Dreamcatcher run their baby room and I believe this warrants an investigation. Every childcare professional have since been shocked and we don't think any other family needs to go through this awful ordeal.