Our working relationship: Learning from each other

Charlotte Bateman ‘It has been a pleasure to support Charlotte in her studies and share her enthusiasm’

What does your role involve?

I have overall responsibility for the Little Barn Owls Group, which currently operates three early years settings, with plans to grow this year.

I have worked at Little Barn Owls for over ten years now. I have over 15 years’ experience in the childcare sector. I am driven by a passion for innovative early years practice, led by research.

Here’s what today looks like – I started the morning with a meeting to finalise the agenda of our next staff training day (we close for the day three times a year for company-wide training). I then joined our weekly pedagogical meeting, whereby all of our Artists and Pedagogical Co-ordinators get together for lunch to reflect on the week’s project work and unpick our practice and offerings to the children. This afternoon I spent some time with our children – I’m lucky my office is above one of our nursery sites! As well as catching up on various jobs, myself and one of our nursery managers then prepared for a Parent Nursery Association meeting – this consists of allocated time every few months to get together with parents, share feedback, exchange ideas, and make some plans together for the months ahead. It’s a great way to stay connected.