Piplings Nursery

I will confirm that there had been a misunderstanding and that the day after the original post(which has only just come to my attention) it was clarified by the nursery that the deposit would certainly be returned. We have never withheld anybody's deposit unless they were in breach of their contract. We have had very good relations with this client. We took a lot of time and care over their situation despite being without any information for a long period of time. We wished them well and we still do. I admired the poster for retaining confidentiality at the start - a good example to everyone.

CLAU Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Definitely avoid Piplings! > > Our child attended for a while and although there > were constant issues with bad nappy rashes (they > only routinely change nappies twice a day!), high > staff turnover with no notification to parents of > who was leaving / joining and lots of errors in > the daily reports which made them redundant as > weren?t accurate, the main issue was to > accidentally discover that they didn?t have an > ?onsite chef cooking organic food? (as we were > told in the site visit in summer 2018) but were > using pre-ready meals. > > We complained about that and asked for an > explanation and instead of an apology or any other > form of reassurance, we received an email giving > us notice of termination of a few weeks. This was > highly devastating for us as a family as our child > had built friends there and I was 8 months > pregnant, which of course they knew about. > > The ?management? which you will never see or speak > to (everything is by email) is very defensive and > rude and every response you?ll see is dismissive > and just to protect themselves. Just for clarification, the poster knows why they were given notice and it was not to do with the questions they had asked about food. The meals were freshly cooked and provided by a very good, professional nursery catering company. We do notify parents of staff who are leaving/joining in our newsletter. Nappies are changed as and when needed as well as the routine twice per day. It's quite demoralising for staff to see posts like this when they work so hard for the children and parents. Piplings is a really happy place and we need to keep it full of people that share those values of trust and partnership that we hold in high regard.Please don't let this post put you off!We are happy to discuss any negative comments on here with you ourselves if you would like to ask about them!

george74 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hi Hannah. > > From our experience of dealing with Piplings, I > would stay well clear. Whilst the day care is > supposed to be pretty good, the overall management > team/owners are truly shocking. We placed a > ?1,400 deposit with them to take our son, only to > find out a week later that we were pregnant, and > could not afford the fees on one salary. 3 months > out and with a waiting list as long as your arm, > they refused to refund us any monies from our > deposit, and I would go so far as to say they were > very arrogant about the fact that they could do > so. It seems they have a separate income stream > from ?deposit payments?, as we were one of > several, we later found out..... Would not > recommend for sure! Plenty of other good > nursery?s in ED, so best of luck. George 74 has posted about this multiple times. I don?t think its fair to accuse us of arrogance when we were just asking him to abide by the contract he agreed to. I don?t know what he means by income stream from deposit payments ? most people stick to their contract and get their deposit back. It?s the few who don?t stick to their contract that may not have had a deposit returned ? we do make this very clear in our terms. George may be one of several people over 11 years (and hundreds of clients) that wanted to breach their contract but I don?t think that?s a fair reason to post so negatively. To anyone reading this and feeling any concern, please do ask us about it so we can reassure you around this matter.

goldilocks Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > But for balance - I'd have to say that in years of > using the forum, that's the first whole-hearted > recommendation for Piplings I've ever seen! I > would recommend searching for previous comments > which are generally along the lines of the care in > the nursery being fine / good and the management / > admin being awful. It may be though that things > have changed recently and the glowing > recommendation above is the new normal, but would > make sure you had understood everything fully > before signing up. You have been using the forum for almost as long as Piplings has been around! Perhaps you didn?t look back far enough? There are some super positive posts about the nursery. So it may be the first recommendation you have seen for Piplings but they do exist!

motorbird83 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I have friends with children there. The actual > staff are meant to be lovely but they've > complained the management aren't great. Most > recently they changed food preparation policy > without informing parents and then were less than > forthcoming when challenged about it etc. > > Life is too short. I'd avoid. > > And to the poster who said all nurseries in ED > would behave as Piplings did about the deposit I > can assure you that's not true. My daughter's > nursery held her place at no cost when I informed > them I couldn't start at the agreed date due to > unforeseen circumstances they were sympathetic to. > They also have a hardship fund for children whose > parents fall on hard times. And they are OFSTED > outstanding. I?m glad to hear that your friends are happy with the nursery staff (they are indeed lovely!) It?s a pity though that they have complained to you about the management ? because it would be more helpful if they talked to us so that we can work towards setting right any problems they have had. They probably didn?t realise that you were going to post negatively about their nursery. You say that most recently the food preparation policy was changed? This was brought to our attention as an issue 9 months before you posted this so I?m glad to hear that 9 months had gone by without further issue. The food provided was fresh, healthy, nutritious and yummy! We could have done better with our communication as not all parents were aware that we were having our food semi-prepared offsite whilst we were without a chef for a while. A break in the communication chain between management and staff where a number of explanatory leaflets were not given out. It was all resolved and we now make our policy even more clear than it was to cover this kind of eventuality. That was kind of your nursery to hold a place at no cost to you as you had extenuating circumstances. We have also done that many times for people ? but holding a place is not the same as a place being cancelled. This client wasn?t starting later than agreed ? they wanted to completely cancel a place that they had reserved. Bear in mind that the nursery you refer to is a charitable social enterprise comprising of approx. 42 nurseries across London so it would make absolute sense that they had and could afford to have a hardship fund. We are not a large charity ? we a small one setting nursery.

B&G Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > We went for a viewing and I got a horrible vibe. > The introductory email says - and I quote - > "arrive too early and we will leave you outside > waiting, yes, even if it is raining". > > I asked a question about child to adult ratios on > the tour, mainly to make polite conversation > because it was so awkward and was told "we aren't > going to answer that now, there is an opportunity > for questions at the end". > > Then, in the garden, I was quite puzzled to see > all the babies in the garden penned in by milk > crates, whilst the bigger kids ran around. You'd > think for ?1800 a month they could afford to fence > off a separate section if it's required. > > They are really strict on things like breakfast > time (arrive "late" and your kid doesn't get any > food), and they always leave the main gate open > despite all the buggies being stored in the front > garden. A friend had her Bugaboo Chameleon stolen > and the nursery initially refused to even tell the > other parents, let alone assist her. > > I put a post out like this when we were looking > and I received countless messages from nursery > parents who have had problems. Hopefully some will > get in contact with you also. Although this is some time after you have posted - it has only just come to my attention and it does need a response. We usually get really good feedback from our nursery tours (and did get good feedback from the other people who were on the same tour as you) and I'm sorry to hear that your experience back in early 2018 was disappointing. You say that you are ?quoting? from the introductory email but I have to point out to you and other readers that you are completely incorrect. The email actually said: "If you arrive late we ask you to understand that as you will have missed key information, we will need to rebook you for another date if available. Can we ask you to avoid arriving too early, as we do not have waiting room facilities and you will need to wait in the grounds until the start of the appointment (even if it is raining, sorry!)." On all of our tours we ask our visitors if they can save their questions for the end as we have a Q and A session then (in addition to the FAQ you were sent). I?m sorry if you felt this came across badly ?the staff member showing you around was disappointed to hear that as that wasn?t her intention. The reason we chose not to fence off an area for babies is because we want the flexibility to be able to change the space as and when needed. Freestanding fences are not secure enough for this so staff choose to use our milk crates (that the children use for seating and den building etc.) to create a boundary for the little ones so that they are kept in a smaller area. Children are not refused food if they are late! We do have a set breakfast time that is packed away at the end. If children do not come during the breakfast time then, naturally it is assumed they had breakfast at home. Very occasionally a parent may arrive outside of the breakfast time and ask for the child to be fed as they missed breakfast at home. We would never say no to this request. We do not claim to take responsibility for any items left on our forecourt. However, we do our best (our gate is currently locked between 9am and 5pm) and in 10 years there has been one missing buggy. Your friend has been a valued client of the nursery for more than 4 years (maybe she has told you that her children have been really happy) and has sent more than one child despite the missing buggy way back in November 2017. Again, you are incorrect with what you post here. We informed other parents of the situation the following day. We did not refuse to tell other parents and provided all the assistance that would be possible in this situation. Thank you for taking the time to give us feedback when we asked you for it. It was welcome and we looked to see what we could learn from it.