Under the Willow Nursery

Our son has been attending Under the Willow from the age of ten months through to when he was three. The nursery was very supportive of first-time parents and made us feel at ease. Our son has flourished in the Montessori environment. They have a broad range of activities for the children, a great outdoor space and a healthy menu with a wide range of foods for the children to try and develop their taste buds. We received regular updates through a phone application on our son’s daily routine, with the lovely bonus of photo observations. The staff are all very friendly and supportive. I would thoroughly recommend the nursery.

Wonderful, caring, attentive staff and fantastic facilities, my child has been extremely happy at Under the Willow for the past two years. My child’s confidence has grown and he’s excited to go to nursery each day.
I’d highly recommend this nursery.

Lovely middle-class nursery in Dulwich. I sent both my children there. I felt my children were in a safe and nurturing environment. The owner is very caring and understanding. There is also a chef there who makes fresh nutritious meals daily, I highly recommend it.

Very happy with everything about Under the Willow. The staff have shown great levels of diligence and professionalism at all times, from when we first paid a visit through to now, when our daughter has been full-time at the nursery for four months. We particularly love getting updates and photographs of all the activities they get up to.

My son started at UTW in October at the age of 22 months. It never took long for him to settle in even though he was the youngest in his class. The team at UTW are very helpful and I get a report every day on how he is doing and what we should work on at home. The activities are fantastic and he is allergic to eggs but still manages to bake (without eggs) every Monday and bring his cooking home. Massive thank you to the whole team for looking after our boy. His speech is coming along nicely and he eats every single meal. He now runs inside and looks forward to going every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

I have had two children at Under the Willow nursery and have seen it go through many positive changes from turning into a Montessori nursery to introducing the Outdoor forest school. The staff are always very approachable and caring to the individual needs of children and families. The food is freshly cooked on site and is always varied to encourage healthy eating, which is also complimented by baking activities. The size of the nursery is intimate yet big enough for the children to have enough other companions to form close and firm friendships. Key teachers are chosen for each child for them to form strong bonds and to encourage them to participate in activities and learn about new topics which sets them up nicely for a school environment once they leave. My eldest daughter (now at school) still tells me what fond memories she has of her time at UTW and enjoys seeing teachers and the other children when we go to pick up my youngest.

Our daughter has been attending UTW full time since she was 7 months old. We found everyone to be extremely helpful and accommodating from the outset, allowing us to view the nursery on two separate occasions before we signed up. The team are down to earth, professional, always smiling and extremely approachable. As our baby was quite young when she joined, we felt a bit apprehensive but she absolutely loved it from day 1. In fact, she likes it so much that she brings us her coat and shoes in the morning when she is ‘ready’ to leave. We love the Montessori approach, especially the promotion of independence, wooden toys, amazing healthy freshly prepared meals and the fact that the kids spend a lot of their time playing outdoors and gardening. Parents are kept well informed about their child’s progress via an app with regular updates and pictures and are encouraged to share observations at home also. We are extremely happy and cannot recommend this nursery highly enough!

My daughter has been at Under The Willow nursery for over a year and a half now, having started when she was just over a year old. She loves it and is visibly very happy to go in each morning. We have found the team at the nursery very engaged – they clearly have an excellent knowledge and understanding of each individual child and their needs and are very good at communicating with parents about this regularly, both formally and informally. It’s also clear that a lot of thought goes into providing a variety of activities and exercises for the children, to make nursery fun as well as meeting objectives for early years learning and development. We chose Under The Willow nursery partly for the nursery environment which is great, with a garden and plenty of outdoor space set well back from the road, and indoor areas all on one level. The menus are also good and certainly meet with my daughter’s approval! We’re very happy with our choice, and we’ve now signed up our new baby to start in autumn 2022.

Our daughter never had a day when she didn’t want to go to nursery and we were all so happy with our experience with Under The Willow. During our time there, staff turnover seemed low, and morale very high – we were impressed with the management and communication. Food was wonderful (better than at home!), healthy and warming. Her keyworker really took the time to find what made our daughter tick and there was always a happy, upbeat energy at drop-off and pick up. We miss it.

Our son started attending the pre-school at Under the Willow Nursery when he turned two. The staff are friendly, enthusiastic, caring and provide a lovely environment for the children to learn, explore and thrive! We particularly liked the incorporation of Forest School trips into the nursery week which gives a fantastic opportunity for the children to be immersed in nature and gain independence. Since attending the nursery, our son has grown in confidence and really enjoys learning. Every day has a different focus and our son has taken part in baking, football, gardening and yoga. The food menu is healthy and nutritious and is cooked on site by the nursery chef. All of the children sit down to eat together and it is lovely to see them all enjoying their food! We have had a great experience with Under the Willow and are very thankful to the staff members who have supported our son over the years in preparing him for primary school. Would highly recommend this nursery.