Drayton House Nursery School, Guildford | Fees, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

Mislead by the manager, before rejecting my daughter for childcare because I only wanted to book two days a week, previously having discussed that this would not be an issue but that her preference would be for three days, leaving me in a difficult situation two weeks before her proposed start date with a very upset little girl after a very excited trip to the shop to buy special uniform shoes and dresses. I was told that my daughter wouldn’t benifit from being at her setting, my daughter is extremely bright and I feel that was an unfair assumption to make. My son went two two very different settings throughout his time at pre-school and he was very settled and benefitted hugely from the diversity, and is particularly bright himself. I feel that I was deceived, let down and looked down on. As a single parent is can be more difficult to do the best for your child but I had not expected this treatment. This is very upsetting for all of us and I feel I have been discriminated against for not fitting the social criteria, I hope that these are not values that they teach the children. For this reason could not recommend the setting.

In hindsight I have realised that they received the form with my daughter’s medical information on a couple of days before the rejection phone call, she was quite poorly last year and may have some long term underlying issues but unless she is obviously unwell there would never be any more chance of her needing a hospital admission than any other child in their care. Now wondering if this contributed to the unprofessional manor of the nursery manager. Either way I feel that dishonesty and discrimination are at play here. I have lost out on earnings because of this but my daughter is now settled and very happy in an extremely welcoming and more child centred nursery with significantly more space to run, learn, use their imagination and play, which were factors I felt was lacking at Drayton House. Absolutely believe that this age is crucial for learning these important life skills through exploration not just holding a pencil. I was working in childcare with the EYFS around 10 years ago so I do know what I’m talking about a little bit. Come to think of it, during my last 30 minute visit to the nursery I interacted more with the children than the staff did.

Excellent nursery and pre-school, with long serving committed staff members, and a well structured progression of children through the school. A rather traditional approach, which has worked well in my experience.