i agreed to the court mediation to show i had attempted to settled before court. the nursery then lowered what they wanted to claim to one months fees (390). i collected 3 statements from parents who had taken their children out for the same reasons and sent a sar. when i got the information back there were enteries on my sons files that i had complained twice about the standard of care and the nursery toilets, two months after i had taken him out which showed they were just making things up. after pointing this out to them they agreed to drop all action about a week before the court date. thanks all for the advice.

hi lp the main reason we didnt want to counter claim and get into a legal battle is we havnt long been back on our feet financialy and we dont want to risk losing and ending up with a big legal bill to pay. i am disgusted with the way the nursery have carried on over this. we already filed defence which was pretty much the one you posted. we received aq a couple of days ago to be submitted by 1 dec. can we still counterclaim and if so would we end up with big legal bills if we lose. im sorry i havent been on for a while and i havent really gave this court case the attention i should have as ive had a bit of a hectic few weeks. i lookforward to hearing from you thanks gr

LP sorry i havent been on for a while been having a bit of a hectic time myself. after chatting with oh we decided to just defend the claim on the basis that they didnt provide suitabe care and that their claim is flawed because they are claiming a silly sum. will let you know if we come unstuck but i would like to thank you for your time and advice.

yeah i did have one friend who took her child out before i did for the same reasons. i will speak to them. thanks gr

BBC - Press Office - Whistleblower reveals failings in care of under-fives this is a summary of the programme made on the company. im trying to cantact the reporter. Fulwell Grange Kindergarden - Ofsted here you can find the nurseries last 2 ofstead reports. the earliest one finds some faults but the latest one shows all problems rectfied.

both acknowledgements are because the served one on me and o/h. i have untill 2nd november to submit defence. all the dates will be estimates unless i get a copy of records from the nursery. we moved house and so we moved our son to a nursery closer. upon starting the nursery (march 2007) he was under 2 so was in a seperate room from the over 2's. while he was in the under 2 room all was fine bar one or two incidents/accidents which you expect with children. after turning two in august2007 he was put in the over 2's. the vast majority of staff in this room seemed very junior. incidents were 1, my son was bitten several times which we were later accidently told by one of the staff was by the same child. 2, the number of accidents he was having had risen dramaticly to the point we were given an accident form just about everytime we went to collect him. 3,there were several occassions when he came out of nursery sporting noticable marks and bruises to which we were told "he had it when he came in this morning" or "he hasnt hurt himself today" 4, very often when we collected him and got him home he would have a dirty backside where it just hadnt been cleaned sufficently. 5, there were 2/3 occasions when collecting him he was having his nappy changed and was left on the changing table unattended which was a 3/4ft height. 6,upon collecting him we often found him climbing unattended and on occassions he and the other children were left with not enough staff in the room. 7. on 2/3 occasions we were phoned to collect him because he was bad but when we collected we found there was absoluting nothing wrong with him. at first we were thinking we were just being a bit negative but as things seemed to be getting worse we raised concerns with various members of staff and started picking him up earlier just for piece of mind but nothing seemed to improve so in the january 08 we removed him from the nursery and put him back in his old nursery which was for me driving a further 2 miles away and for o/h dropping him off by public transport was as 1 hour journey. the dates are not precise but i could get all the dates of the recorded accidents/incidents from the nursery as they should still have them on file i am on now chasing the makers of the bbc programme and will let you know how i get on. thanks gr

yeah o/h took both acknowledgements direct to the court today. will give them a call tomorrow. with regards to the counter claim i have no idea how much to claim for damages/expenses. could anyone give me an idea of a fair amount to claim. my defence will be pretty much the one leagalpickle has posted but i will post a full copy before i submit it to the court incase i mess it up. all help is greatly appreciated thanks gr

hi all and thanks for all the brilliant advice. i am going to defend and counter claim. i wanted to ask, the nursery in question is a national company and were recently subject to a bbc documentary where some of the issues raised were a child died in their care and they were allowing staff to work without any references or police checks. we were sent a letter just after taking our son out of nursery from the company telling us this docu was going to be broadcast and the letter detailed the points that were going to be raised and offered there 2bit defence to these claims. would this be any good to use in my defence as i think i still have this letter. thanks gr

hi guys and thanks for all the advice. yes i did terminate in writing and verbally. i made nursery aware that i was by no means happy with the standard of care they provided. i was never sent a lba and i was only sent one reminder to which i responded. just to be clear my next steps are to -acknowledge the claim -sar the nursery for all documents -prepare my defence thanks gr

thanks poppy i dont have any evidence as i threw out everything regarding nursery 2 months ago as i hadnt heard from them for that long how ever i can remember off hand that he was bitten by the same child 3 days running once on the chest twice on the arms , he twice came out with very noticable brusing on his head, he was always coming home with a dirty bottom and almost every time we picked him up he was climbing or left up a height unattended. all of these concerns were raised with nursery manager at the time of taking him out. how would i go about getting the information the nursery hold? thanks gr

hi all i really dont know how they are claiming over £800 when all they should be claiming is on months nursery fees which was £360 ish.

im thinking they havnt cancelled his account straight away and they have let it drag on for another month or so but i can only find this out by getting the information they hold.

hi poppy no there were no fees outstanding because i always paid one month in advance however i did pay a £50 depoist which i was led to believe that if a months notice wasnt given they would keep the £50 for that which they did. im thinking ive got two ways to advance 1. admit part of the claim (one months fees minus £50 deposit) 2. defend all off the claim on the basis they were not providing my son with a reasonable standard of care. any suggestions on the best way to proceed.

i did receive one reminder to which i rang them and stated that i terminated the agreement because i felt they had failed in there duty of care to my son and after that i have received nothing from them. to mount a defence i would need all the information the hold about the "account". can i get that somehow under the data protection act.

hi ineed some advice. my sons nursery are taking me to court gor unpaid nursery fees. i took my son out of this nursery because i was not happy at the care they were providing and the number af 'accidents' he was constantly having. i told the nursery this and took him straight out without any notice. the agreement was one months notice to quit which was £360ish. ive got a cliam agaist me in the post this morning for £816.21. their particulars are " we claim for unpaid nursery fees at our fulwell grange kindergarten for their son ******. despite several reminders the fees remain outstanding. the claimant claims interest under section 69 of the county court act 1984 at the rate of 8% a year from 1 march 2008 to 29 september 2008 of £36.21 and also interest at the same up to the date of judgement or earlier payment at a daily rate of 0.17p." any advice on how to proceed will be great thanks