My husband and I cannot praise Moira’s care highly enough. We feel as though she became our daughter’s third grandmother over the year and a half we have been with her and we left with a very heavy heart (due to relocating). We miss her warmth, her professionalism, her deep knowledge of childcare and her enormous heart. Read the Ofsted review but the rating of “Outstanding” doesn’t really do her justice!

The many points to note include:

1. The settling was very smooth. My husband stayed at Moira’s setting for the first few days, then left for a few hours in the first week comprising two days of childcare, half days the second week to full days from week 3. We have never had a single day where our daughter did not want to attend; she was always positive about going off to see Moira.
2. On reliability, Moira has never take any time off other than for planned holiday, in respect of which we received several months' notice.
3. Our daughter's speaking and comprehension are advanced for her age and Moira was great at identifying this and helping us support our daughter’s clear desire to articulate herself. An example would include Moira’s suggestion of repeating our daughter’s sentences back to her but adding a word to lengthen the sentence and develop her language skills.
4. We caught up with Moira regularly on our child’s development. She would make suggestions/ recommendations at the time of the discussions and in context. We love how highly academically trained she is, her decades of experience in various childcare settings, and that she is able to provide theory and context of the various schools of thought on child development eg Froebel, which has informed my and my husband’s reading about early years development. Practically, she would give us clear, concretes suggestions that we could easily implement at home so that we, with Moira, were consistent in the techniques used to develop our daughter. For example, she suggested giving our daughter a small jug to pour her own water into her own cup at home to help motivate our daughter to increase her water intake. We’d never have thought of this and it worked really well.
5. We haven’t got space here to mention all of the development we’ve observed in our daughter that have stemmed from Moira’s care. By way of a brief summary, they include (i) social interaction with other children e.g. using gentle hands; (ii) motor skills e.g. walking; (iii) self-care, including hand washing and safely negotiating the stairs; (iii) fine motor skills; (iv) phonics and numeracy; (v) tidying up; and (vi) confidence with other children.
6. Moira tailors the setting to the children in her care at the time. For example, our daughter is very fond of small animals and small world play with animals, and so Moira regularly took her to the local farm where there are small animals and bought toys that supported that interest (such as the Farm In A Tin). She also loves singing and reading and Moira integrates singing into the day and our daughter sings to us the new songs she has learned from Moira. Our daughter has been enjoying Room on the Broom and so Moira took her to the theatre to see it. There is no way that a nursery could offer this level of care and adapt so uniquely to the interests of each child in the way that Moira does.
7. Moira makes wholesome, nutritionally balanced food for the children. I remember walking in one morning in winter to the delicious smell of lamb hotpot; even the stock was homemade.
8. Moira also babysits for us, which was ideal because we knew that our child was in the best care and with someone she knew and trusted; we trust her completely.

I cannot imagine any setting in which our daughter would have received better start, or more tailored care, than Moira’s setting. There is frankly nothing more that Moira could be doing to improve. She is an outstanding role model, she holds her self to the highest standards and is a wonderful, kind, pragmatic and outstandingly capable support for parents. We feel extremely fortunate that we found her.

• Overall
• Setting
• Cleanliness
• Food
• Communication