Pauline Foster's Reviews

great childminder

Pauline looked after both of our sons, one is now in school, the younger one moved on to kindergarten, as he is now 30 months, but he is still one day at Pauline's.
We do not have any family in the UK and it was important for us to have a childminder close by who is somewhat "extended family" for us. Pauline provides excellent childcare. Even though our son only goes there one day a week now, he always is looking forward to it on a Friday and is in a good mood when we pick him up. We love the fact that she has had the same staff for years, creating a consistent environment for our children. It almost feels like a little community and this helps us when we sometimes do feel homesick for our own country. Our son loves the food at Pauline's and we have learned quite a few British children's songs when our sons sang them on the say back home from Pauline.
Pauline always communicates well with us, even though drop off and pick up times can be busy, but there is always time to discuss something important. In a busy city like London it is great to have a place for our kids that apart from home gives them consistency and a connection with the local community.

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by Britta on 16/03/2025

Response by Pauline Foster on 19/03/2025:

Thank you for your review. We pride ourselves in providing a home-from-home childcare service where the parents feel confident enough to get on with their daily work knowing that their child is well loved and will be taken care of, as if they were in their own home. Both myself and Jaye ( my daughter) are qualified childminders working together and Roselyn has worked with me for over 14 years and we have no plan to change this.

Excellent childcare

Our son started with Pauline almost one year ago when he was 10 months old. We are so happy we found her - the standard of care is excellent.

Her team are all lovely and we really appreciate the consistency of this as we are aware some
Other settings have a much higher staff turnover, so this was very important to us. Our son has bonded really well with the whole team, and they all know him and his little individual Personality very well.

The space itself is spotlessly clean (no idea how they manage it with so many little ones to tidy up after each day!). They run as variety of activities and we enjoy receiving photos and videos regularly in the parents WhatsApp group, which also creates a real sense of community with other parents and carers. Each child has an individual book with a record of activities, nappies, food and sleep each day, and we always look forward to reading this when we get him home to see what he has been up to!

The best part of being with Pauline has been seeing how happy our little boy is and how much he is thriving - he comes home with new words and skills almost daily and as a parent is is wonderful To know that when we can’t be with him He is still being brilliantly cared for.

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by sfoxley on 15/03/2025

All 3 kids very happy at Pauline's

Our youngest child of 3 has recently left Pauline's. It really was the end of an era. All 3 kids were really happy there. The middle child joined at 9 months and the others were 12 months. Pauline's house was full of fun and energy. We loved the WhatsApp group with loads of info and pictures/videos. We get a tiny fraction of that at nursery. I was very emotional when the last child reached pre-school age and I moved him to a formal nursery in preparation for school. Pauline made each child feel so special and really understood their differences. We loved Jaye and Roselyn who were consistently with Pauline the whole time. We know we wouldn't have had such consistent care in nursery.

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by Benberg on 11/03/2025

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.

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by Rehema 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.

An excellent, professional and caring childminder

Pauline is a fantastic childminder and I am gutted that I no longer need her to look after my 15 month daughter.
My daughter is my only child so was a bit nervous to leave her and go back to work as she hated being left even when I just left a room sometimes. However, Pauline filled me with confidence and I always felt she was in safe hands. Pauline also has a beautiful home which is so clean, tidy and organised with a lovely selection of toys, activities and a great outdoor space, also next to Mayow park and 5 mins to Sydenham station. Pauline and her team have felt like extended family and I they will be missed.
I would highly recommend her to all parents.

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by Pearson on 08/07/2019

reveiw to be updated.

*Child minding has not started yet*
Me & my daughter meet this lady for a talk when we got to her home she warm welcomed both of us in to her home & we both felt really comfortable
She explained her dudies & what she does how she works etc a very lovely lady
This is the first time I've been in need of a childminder and am nervous about it but I'm more then sure my daughter will be very well looked after

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by Parent on 30/08/2015