TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOUR NURSERY.
It’s a family business owned by my mum, and my children came here too. It’s a village setting with a lot of families; there are cousins of cousins and next-door neighbours and all sorts. We also have an out-of-school club for up to 11-year-olds.
HOW DID YOU MARK THE NURSERY’S 30TH?
We had a party on the theme of ‘p is for party’, so the children all dressed up as things that begin with ‘p’. We had Peppa Pig, a pumpkin, a couple of pirates and lots of princesses! We got out some old photos from the very beginning, and some of the parents who attended the nursery themselves got to have a good laugh at their dodgy ‘80s hair.
DID YOUR MOTHER INSPIRE YOU?
To be honest, I did a business degree and intended to do something else, but this was home and after university I got my Early Years Professional Status and knew this was where I wanted to be. Childcare has changed so much in that time and there is so much admin that it’s been quite handy to have that prior experience. But it probably does run in the family; my husband always jokes he hears my daughter coming home talking about all the other children just like me!
HOW DO YOU FIND WORKING WITH YOUR MUM?
Working together is fine, luckily, apart from the fact all we do now is talk about work. Mum still comes in every day, but mostly she’ll just hover in the background; she leaves me to do most of the day-to-day work.
WHAT IS THE SECRET TO YOUR SUCCESS?
We’ve been here such a long time now that we have no advertising costs; it’s all word of mouth, and we still have a waiting list. We are very lucky to have such a great team. We offer funded hours and, touch wood, it’s all been fine and we are still here and plan to keep going. We read so many horror stories about the early years that it’s nice to talk about the good news sometimes.
