Melanie has looked after our daughter one day a week for a number of months after our last nanny became unavailable. We instantly noticed how experienced she is and how good her communication with young children is. She has an energetic approach and talks to our daughter about what they are doing all the time, which has really helped with her development from a stage where she was speaking very little to now being very chatty! Melanie always organises fun activities for her and our daughter to do ahead of their day together, but is flexible and responsive if plans need to change. She has such a caring approach, as well as being reliable and communicating what her plans are and when there are logistical issues.

Melanie is very safety conscious and ensures a safe environment for her and our daughter to interact in. She is also very careful with food and toys.

We are so pleased with how Melanie has helped us, it has put our minds at rest to have someone we quickly learned to trust looking after our daughter, and the bond they have developed is reassuring and enjoyable to watch.

I work from home a lot at the moment and while I am never disturbed when working, it is lovely to be able to pop down to make a cup of tea and see the creative and imaginative things Melanie is doing with our daughter - Melanie brings her creativity to the fore in designing things to do with our daughter, from collecting leaves to make collages to building dens and houses out of Amazon boxes.

We're very happy to recommend Melanie to anyone, and if (like us) it is your first child, you will learn a lot and benefit from all the experience Melanie brings as a nanny.

• Overall
• Cleanliness
• Food
• Communication