Karen W
Childminder in Basingstoke
Usually responds within 12 hours
Female Member since Nov 2011 Last Updated Nov 2024 Last Login 12 Dec 2024
My Summary
Support Emotions And Mental Health
About Me
Karen's Kiddie Care.
UPDATED November 2024 inspected by OFSTED October 15th 2024 and maintained my
OUTSTANDING. (Ofsted report added in documents)
If your looking for school age childcare spaces I only pick up from Marnel schools.
UPDATE: All after school places are filled.
Hi my name is Karen I'm an OFSTED REGISTERED Childminder and an EYE provider (early years education) which enables me to draw down the grant that provides free childcare places for 3 - 4 year old and 2 year olds. and from September Babies from 9 month.
I live with my Partner and three dogs called Toby and Chester (Border Collies) Buddie (Maltese)
Toby, Chester and Buddy have been a fantastic addition to my setting, I've had three children through my setting that have been scared of dogs and since meeting Toby, Chester and Buddy they have overcome these fears. Toby, Chester and Buddy are a great way of showing children how to be kind and care for animals. My dogs have their own area so are not around the children all the time.
I have been a Childminder now for the past 19 years, I love my work and seeing the children learn and develop and reach their full potential. I have always been a caring person which has lead me to work in childcare, I love getting out and about with the children and providing them with a whole range of learning and developing experiences in the environment.
My home is subject to the regular OFSTED inspections to ensure suitability, My partner and myself are DBS checked, I have also helped with some training courses run by PACEY by providing resources that inspire childminders to improve their settings and outside environment, I have also been a mentor at a PACEY run group in the past. I have a seven seater car with full MOT and service records, I have a clean licence and appropriate business cover for my car and home.
I have recently become a volunteer for Barnardo's, I help with the delivery of courses for first time mums, providing them with helpful information on Birth to 5 year old and other support groups.
I provide a safe nurturing environment where your child will get the attention and care that caters for his/her individual needs, I strive to encourage healthy eating and work in partnership with parents on the awareness of: Allergies/food groups/appropriate food for age and stage of development, and have flexibility with likes and dislikes. I encourage children to drink water by providing fresh drinking water that they have access to throughout the day.
I provide school pick ups but only from Marnel Infant/Junior school (local to me)
Non-Smoker
Non-vaper
Please see parents review
My Experience
I have worked with children from different backgrounds and cultures I promote equal opportunities and anti-discrimination and anti-bias practices for all children. I have had experience with challenging behaviour and help a child with his transition into pre-school (child now in full time school)
I have helped children that are of different language that do not speak a word of English when they started with me, to speaking English and having a great understanding when they start their early years at school.
My Qualifications
EYFS training.
SPACE Community Training
Grade A Diploma in home-based Childcare Level 3
Paediatric First Aid
Advanced Childcare Protection
Level 2 Food Safety
EYE Business Support
Safe Guarding Children
My Availability
I have no availability
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before School | no | no | no | no | no | no | no |
| Morning | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no |
| Afternoon | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no |
| After School | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no |
| Evening | no | no | no | no | no | no | no |
| Overnight | no | no | no | no | no | no | no |
| Last Updated: 06/11/2024 | |||||||
My Fees
- Childminding from £6.50 per hour
my fees are:
£6.50 full time
£6.50 (part time part time is any hours under 21hrs)
£6.50 after schoolers
All snacks and drinks are provided free of charge.
I provide all wipes and sun cream.
Parents need to provide a pack lunch
My Local Schools
- I provide pick ups at Marnel Community Infant School
- I provide pick ups at Marnel Junior School
- I provide pick ups at Merton Infant School
My Ofsted Inspections
The inspection grades below have been obtained from the Ofsted website based upon the registration number the childcare provider has provided to us. You should verify this information yourself prior to using the childcare provider.
My Documents
- Inspection Report (added 07/11/2024)
- Inspection Report: Outstandng (added 16/10/2020)
- Ofsted Certificate (added 26/05/2017)
Reviews
Below are the latest reviews for Karen W. Please note that reviews represent the subjective opinions of other Childcare.co.uk users and not of Childcare.co.uk. Parents must carry out their own checks and references on childcare providers to ensure that they are completely happy before enaging in the use of their services.
My son has been with Karen from the age of 9 months until 3 years, and he absolutely loved his time there. I was nervous leaving him at such a young age but I genuinely had nothing to worry about, Karen made me feel extremely comfortable and I have loved hearing all about his day and what he has been doing!
The confidence in my son has grown tremendously during his time with her and I couldn’t recommend Karen highly enough !!
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Karen has looked after our daughter from 15 months up until she recently started school in September. We could not be happier with Karen as a childminder. We knew our daughter was in a safe environment with an extremely caring and personable childminder. The growth we saw in our daughter year on year was amazing and this was all down to the environment Karen creates. Karen is very active in educating, teaching and supporting children to explore and learn in a fun way, but tailored to their own individual personalities too.
Karen has an amazing childminder network which means our daughter embraced meeting new children she was not normally with day to day. This further improved her social skills, whilst having the most amount of fun too. Karen also organised and completed many days out with our daughter, which gave new experiences all based from Karen's ideas.
We cannot recommend Karen highly enough and anyone who is considering Karen as a childminder for their children, then please do it. You will not be disappointed.
Karen, thank you for everything. Gemma.
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Karen has spent the summer looking after my almost 2 year old and she has been fantastic. My son settled very quickly and that is greatly down to Karen's caring a loving environment. Harvey always looked happy doing different activities both at Karen's home and was often out at new parks which he loved exploring. My son always came home worn out but so happy so I know the he had lots of fun. I would recommend Karen to anyone and will definitely book my children in without hesitation. Thank you Karen.
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Karen was a wonderful childminder to our son Myles from August 2015, when Myles was 10 months old, until July 2017. Right from the start Karen has made us feel safe and reassured by inviting us to visit her setting and showing us the wide range of toys and educational material she works with. Karen has a warm and welcoming home with rooms and sections specifically dedicated to certain activities, as well as a large and well looked after outside area with plenty of exciting equipment for children of all ages.
Karen is admirably well organised and takes children to various groups on an almost daily basis, which I think was a great opportunity for Myles to socialise with diverse groups of children of different ages and participate in a very wide range of activities that stimulate all senses (such as singing & dancing groups, crafting groups, messy play groups etc.). At the same, more individual playing and learning at Karen’s house was equally provided, where Myles could bond more closely with the other children in Karen’s care. Furthermore, Karen sometimes joins up with other childminders to organise bigger events such as a sports day or a picnic in the park, which is great fun for the children. As a result of these varied social and educational opportunities Myles grew up a very confident little boy who is always eager to explore the world.
One of the many things I appreciated about Karen’s setting was that she took interest in Myles’s development as an individual and worked closely with us to provide tailored support for Myles. For example, she supported Myles in his bilingualism and we regularly talked about strategies to ensure that his language development didn’t fall behind, including a possible referral to a language specialist at a later stage. Karen also supported us in recording Myles’s food intake in detail so that we could discuss his eating habits with our health visitor.
Karen kept a personal folder and a scrap book for Myles where she recorded his individual progress and creative efforts, which we were very happy to see. She also provided us with a daily record of Myles’s activities, food intake, toileting progress and general well-being, as well as often sending us pictures of Myles during the day which never failed to bring a smile to our faces as we could see that our child was happy and well looked after. On top of this, she has regularly taken time to discuss Myles’s progress according to the EYFS framework in great detail, which has been very reassuring. On the other hand, Karen is also very approachable and was always available for an informal chat whenever we had any questions or concerns so that we could ensure we were all on the same page when it came to raising Myles.
Karen is very well qualified and experienced, and attends regular training courses to further advance herself in the field, which left us reassured that Myles was receiving professional and competent childcare. We could tell that he really loved Karen’s setting since he was always happy to come to Karen’s house in the morning and had a broad smile on his face when he saw her. It was great to know that he had a caring person looking after him that he could bond with.
We really appreciated Karen’s flexibility and hard work in everything that she did for Myles and we can very warmly recommend her setting to anyone in need of a friendly and reliable childminder.
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