Staffing

From viewing many nurseries as a potential customer, I understand and do not underestimate the importance of good staff.

All our room leaders are qualified early years educators to a minimum level 3. They are supported by qualified early years educators, early years assistants who are currently studying their level 3 qualification and nursery apprentices.

As a nursery we fully support our staff with continuing their professional development and have recently set up our own training academy. We recently had a number of our apprentices qualify with their level 3 who have taken permanent positions within the nursery company. The nursery manager gained her level 5 qualification whilst working within the company, and one of our room leaders is a childcare assessor.

Where possible, our apprentices are over and above rations. All the staffing team that you see during a viewing of the nursery are employed by us. Staff all go through the same rigorous interview stages and DBS check and references are requested before starting with us. We interview and employ our own bank staff meaning that we don’t use outside agency staff. 

The children are cared for in small groups within their own age appropriate rooms. All the children are constantly supervised and the nursery follows the OFSTED and government recommended staff to child ratios. These are as follows

0-2 years 1 member of staff to every 3 children

2-3 years 1 member of staff to every 4 children

3-5 years 1 member of staff to every 8 children

All staff work within the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum.

Ofsted write:

‘Excellent leadership and management of the nursery ensures that the views of staff, children and parents are used to shape the service and make continuous improvements’

‘The dedicated quality assurance manager supports staff highly effectively and monitors the quality of the nursery. This includes ensuring that the cycle of observation, assessment and planning for all children is accurately implemented into staff practice.’

OFSTED INSPECTION APRIL 2013