AARIANA SONIA DABAS MURGATROYD
“Our daughter started at the nursery at 21 months and stayed there for 18 months before moving on to Foundation Stage 1 at another school and so our experience of Ladybird was extensive – and wholly positive.
First and foremost our daughter loved her time there. That was best illustrated by the fact that whenever we went to collect her she never seemed to want to leave. She always hung around, playing outdoors in the cooler months or simply riding around on the tricycles indoors during the hot spells. The fact she was always happy and relaxed to stay on after the time when she was due to leave was, to us, a sure sign that she was happy there.
From a parental point of view, there were many aspects of the nursery that we liked. The fact it wasn’t large meant it presented our daughter with a good transition from home to academic life, without overwhelming her. We also liked the fact that the staff were all so friendly and accommodating and all of them seemed to know our daughter’s name, whether or not they were teaching her. That gave us the impression of a real family feel to the place.
There was flexibility too. Sometimes, for example, if our daughter didn’t sleep well, we would bring her to nursery late and that was never frowned upon; similarly, when we wanted to transition her towards the longer school hours she would experience at FS 1, it was easy for us to extend her nursery hours without any hassle at all.
The teachers were wonderful and professional and our daughter loved every one of those she interacted with, and the teaching assistants, similarly, were wonderfully caring and nothing ever seemed to be too much trouble.
Additionally, the camps in the breaks between term-time allowed us to continue our daughter’s routine, something we valued a great deal.
We found the place to be a terrific community and our daughter found herself in a whirl of parties during weekends as parents interacted.
Ladybird was a fantastic way for our daughter to move from living and interacting with her family to a point where she was comfortable and thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her peers. It meant that when she moved to school, the next stage of her education, she was able to do so seamlessly.”
BRIAN MURGATROYD
Father of Aariana Sonia Dabas Murgatroyd, Ladybird student January 2017 – July 2018
