Dicky Birds Day Nursery and Preschool Raynes Park, Durham Road

We’ve had such a lovely experience at Dicky Birds. My son settled so easily and absolutely adores all of the staff. I’m so impressed with their kindness and care and my son’s sign language, social skills and politeness seem really developed for his age and I credit all the lovely staff!

Great nursery. Dicky Birds has created a nurturing and fun environment for both my sons and they have both loved their time there. In particular, I have been pleased with the variety of play experiences and the beginning of the educational curriculum.

Lovely friendly staff and warm environment. Thank you for all you do to take care of our daughter. She has moved rooms and grown with the nursery. We’re very grateful for the safe supportive environment you give her.

I echo some of the other comments that the standards at the nursery have dropped tremendously since the ownership changed (our elder daughter went to the same nursery three years ago, and had a wonderful time there – we were equally happy as parents). The management team now are unresponsive and rarely respond to emails. Our daughter is leaving to attend kindergarten at a local school, and it was unclear whether she was invited to the leavers’ sports day or not. I emailed to seek clarification and never received a response.
Classroom staff are probably trying their best, and likely care for the children.
For some reason, the higher-ups within the ownership structure thought that it would be sensible to place the admin burden of managing the financial side of the childcare business on the managers of the individual nurseries. (I query whether childcare practitioners ought to also have the skill set to manage finances, set fees, and chase payments). The core competence of the children-facing team is to care for the children as best they can; not having to take fee payments over the phone.

We are so happy that our son is at Dicky Birds Day Nursery, Durham Road. The staff are extremely caring and attentive. He has great relationships in his room and also with others throughout the nursery. I feel confident that he will have a great day and is looked after well. Excellent nursery!

Dicky Birds Day Nursery and Preschool is a wonderful nursery. The love and care they show our son is genuine and constant. He was quite socially anxious when he started nursery, but the staff went to such great efforts to make him comfortable and happy, his confidence has grown immeasurably this past 18 months. Every day, my son comes home saying he’s “had fun”! The range of activities and the experiences offered is amazing, and my son has learnt so much through playing and exploring – trips to the local park to play football is a particular favourite of his. The food offered to the children is incredible, I feel very confident that my son eats tasty, balanced, varied meals and snacks, and portions are generous with second helpings given when wanted. The bond my son has with the staff at Dicky Birds has blown me away and exceeded my expectations. We don’t have family close by, but Dicky Birds have filled that gap and become extended family, a home-from-home for my son. I couldn’t recommend the nursery more highly.

I have full confidence in sending my son to Dicky Birds Day Nursery because of the hard work of the people that run and support his room (Pelicans). In particular, I am continually impressed by his room leader for her ingenuity with activities and commitment to every single child. Most recently we received thoughtful Mother’s Day gifts that would have taken a huge amount of work and planning.

We are very happy with Dicky Birds Durham Road.
All the staff we know seem to deeply care about the children. We think a few of them are like an extended family. Our children have strong bonds with them. They go there all day every day, and we can see how much they learn. The activities are varied; they do baking, drawing, painting, messy play, reading, singing and dancing, and they go to the park a couple of times a week.
The food is cooked on-site every day, and the menu is varied.
We are very happy overall.
On the slightly negative side: It would be good to have parts of the building/rooms refreshed as some parts are old now.
The communication/emails from management are not regular, and the fees increased twice lately: once in September once coming up in April. It’s becoming very expensive, and we don’t have a choice but to accept these fees. We are not businesses ourselves, so increasing the fees twice within eight months during this period of inflation is very difficult for us.

Great care for my child and always take an interest in my son’s development. I would prefer more information about the menu and perhaps support in teeth brushing as other nurseries do this.

Both our children attend Dickybirds and we can’t speak highly enough of the staff in the Pelicans and Signets rooms. The boys both love their respective key workers and have formed a real and lasting bond with all the staff in their respective rooms.
Our only negative comment relating to our experience at Dickybirds is that the communication from the nursery’s management team is almost nonexistent. They’ve been stretched far too thin and are barely able to reply to the simplest enquiry. Also, Kiddy Carru has raised the nursery fees multiple times in the last few months with very little explanation or justification.
The staff in the rooms are fantastic but they are let down spectacularly by their managers and employers.