Rehema's Reviews

Setting more appropriate for older children

Pauline's setting is currently probably most appropriate for pre-schoolers, based on the number and age of most of the children when our one-year-old started with her; and the staff numbers combined with the setting's approach (we were told children are looked after by all staff rather than assigned a key worker). She promotes self-sufficiency in children of all ages from the outset, for example, self-soothing to sleep. We chose Pauline's setting because she is direct in her feedback to parents, but we had hoped this would be reciprocal. Her communication with parents is also dependent on availability, including during inital settling in. Unfortunately, we removed our child from the setting after six days. We were dissatisfied with the communication combined with her approach not being consistent with our parenting style, which meant we weren't able to find a way to work collaboratively on the care of our child.

• Overall
• Setting
• Cleanliness
• Food
• Communication

by Rehema about Pauline Foster on 24/02/2025

Response by Pauline Foster on 25/02/2025:

The age group within the setting ranges from 10 months to two and a half years old. At present I have one child that is three years of age, that only attends on a Monday and Tuesday.
The child in question would have been attending Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays once she had started.
Up to the point of leaving, settling in had not been completed and the child had only attended for 4 days the first week staying for 3 hours per day from 8.30am to 11.30am. The second week the child attended for 2 days, Monday and Tuesday, for 4 hours on each of the days from 9.30am until 1.30pm.

My approach to settling in and the daily running of the setting was explained to both parents during the interview and also again on the second day of the child starting her settling in as her father requested a meeting at 8.30am that morning on her second day of settling in.

The meeting was granted but I had to explain that requesting a meeting at 8.30am is not an acceptable time and I do have children that comes for breakfast. during the meeting we discussed how we were going to communicate going forward. I informed him that the child will have a daily book which will be taken home for parents to read at the end of each day and that there is a parents whatsapp group.
I added the mother to the whatsapp group and she requested that I add the father to the group as well, which I did.
I also explained that I would send pictures of what the child had been up to that day either at the end of the settling in session or at the end of the day,. and that upon collection of the child at the end of the settling in session we would speak face to face about the child's ,3 hourly session and how her day went.
As the child father said that he was unable to concentrate at work, due to missing his daughter I said to him that I would try to keep him more updated, and this I did as much as possible as I also have other children in the setting.

The following week on the Monday the child had her first meal with us and a daily book was given.
The daily book stated the child's activities, snacks, lunch, sleep and if the child had soiled for that day. Pictures, videos and messages were also sent to the parents that day. On the Tuesday, which was the child's birthday I did a little celebration for the child with balloons and the other children wishing her happy birthday. As it was a busy day I did not manage to send these to the parents before collection. Upon collection at 1.30pm this was explained to the parent, and I also said jokingly that I had not managed to send her anything today as I have not even managed to have a cup of tea as yet. The parent replied sternly "For heavens sake Pauline thats what I'm paying you for". At that stage our communication deteriorated.
The videos were sent over later that day and I also received a message from the parents stating that they had decided to hand in their notice and would no longer be bringing in their child even though there were 2 more settling in sessions to go.

So even though the child has been with me for 6 days in total, they were made up of 4 days of 3 hours settling in and 2 days of 4 hours settling in. Within that time the child has had 2 meals with me and 1 nap. So it is unfair to judge me on food as I cook fresh from scratch on a daily basis and pride myself in making sure that all children have their 5 a day which the parents would have experienced if they had only given it enough time.

In terms of communication, you can see throughout my response the different and various ways I communicate with parents.

This particular parent is probably better suited to a nanny that can provide 1 to 1 care as she does not believe in the child being put down at nap time without a book being read to her, patting her on her back and if that does not work then you should walk around the room with her in your arm which is all good if you are only caring for the one child.

I have been a childminder for over 16 years and have never had a review like this before.