Caterpillars Day Nursery

I used to live in Carshalton from the early 80's and this building was our Library, well it should have stayed a Library instead of being disgracefully turned into a Nursery for the local yummy mummy brigade, this was a disgusting and poorly thought out decision clearly by the local council if it was their fault.If i had a child i would have rather this place stayed a Library and a place of learning rather than a Nursery.

Our child attended from the age of 1 until aged 3.5. We moved to another nursery at pre-school level because we felt that Caterpillars was not providing value for money. Our concerns were related to the following:Invoicing is buyer beware. Confirmed with other parents who also find invoices vary from month to month. Like others, we maintained a spreadsheet which we monitored to push back on erroneous charges. The manager ignored our concerns and pushed us to finance person who only worked on Fridays, which usually dragged things on.High management turnover. Onto the third manager since we started. Current one uninterested when we had questions e.g. about invoicing. Had initially thought very junior member of staff as usually saw chatting to receptionist with feet up on desk, checking in early starters noticeboard. Surely the receptionist couldn’t handle this alone?Negotiating child funding can be a nightmare. They stretch the funding over the year. Watch out for “we only apply to set number of days” i.e. including Mondays (to ensure some days fall over bank holidays). They won’t tell you that stretch funding also applies over school holidays. We found out from another mother, after the fact. Be careful, push back!The nursery consistently raised charges. The building does not appear to be well maintained. I’d also note the smell of sewage in the pre-school room upstairs. This could be interpreted as either a pure profit making move or that the business isn’t efficiently run (note regular change in management and observations about existing manager).Pre-school kids have more sophisticated needs, of course. Staff often appeared less engaged e.g. we would see them bored looking at their phones which we hadn't seen at other levels. Our new nursery has a syllabus with learning objectives for the year. Caterpillars doesn't!Outside space minimal. The pre-school room (in addition to stinking of sewage) is also small. It can be a long day from 7:30am-5:30pm but at this level they don’t promote naps, with only a small mat in the corner for rest. Child exhausted and ratty by end of the week.I hope this review helps. We understand other parents have taken out their child from preschool in recent months. We’re very glad our child has moved from this nursery as much less stress, particularly around invoicing. I would be very careful if you’re selecting this nursery and if your child is currently attending, please use this as a guide to negotiate with finance, particularly around the stretched funding - good luck!

If I could give this nursery a 0 starts I would. My friend used to work at this nursery the nursery isn’t bad the issue is the staff and management. If you work here and quit forget about getting a reference because you either will never get one or it will take you months until they can be bothered. The staff is awful if you don’t fit in with them they treat you very bad and make lies about you they care more about friendships with each other and having a room of friends than having competent staff. Unqualified members of staff act like they are room leaders, not once did my friend see a unqualified member of staff getting their level 2 or 3 actual talk about college or have interest in getting a qualification. Nearly half of their staff are unqualified they have no structure all the children do is play no single learning goes on in that nursery

Really great staff. Very welcoming.

The nursery closed down and they never paid my deposits back for 2 children

Was offered a job here a few years ago. When I called called back I was told I was unsuccessful??? Thankfully I found a better job