Childbase - News

We all contribute

The future of Child Base really does rest in the hands of those of you who continue to work to build our success.

Awards night success

Congratulations to two Child Base colleagues for their great performance in this year's NMT (Nursery Management Today) awards.

Chicago

A team of five Child Base Nursery Practitioners has joined the world's early childhood education community for a conference in Chicago.

Ofsted report result

Congratulations to three of our nurseries for achieving the highest award from Ofsted.

Five Star Awards

Every year our Five Star Awards recognise Child Base colleagues who make a positive difference to their nurseries.

Play it again

Music should be a vital part of children's lives and when they can make music themselves they will feel immensely satisfied.

National finalists

Child Base was among the finalists at the National Business Awards - as a nominee for the City & Guilds employer of the year.

The award is for organisations that are good at developing staff and helping them achieve a good work-life balance - and Child Base was among ten companies nominated.

Lending library

Everyone has a favourite story - and for the children at Green Park Day Nursery, there's the opportunity to take their best-loved nursery books home and enjoy them all over again.

We all contribute

Thanks to our employee share scheme and our recent issue of free shares to staff, we are in a unique position in the childcare industry.

The majority of the company is now in the hands of our staff, making us more empoyee-owned than any other company in childcare.

A record number of people have stepped up to buy a part of the company they helped create and 229 Child Base employeees have now chosen to invest their money in the Child Base All Employee Share Plan (CASP).

Awards night success

These high-profile awards are designed to reward excellence in childcare, and winners were announced at a gala evenign in November at London's Hilton Metropole Hotel.

Carol Hylton, Manager at Lime Grove, was highly commended in the Nursery Manager of the Year category. She says: "it was great to receive this recognition. I really enjoy my job - as a Senior Manager I support other nurseries as well as running Lime Grove.

Zoe Keegan, of Highbury Lodge, was a finalist in NMT's Nursery Cook of the Year award. Zoe, an experienced chef who has been cooking at the nursery for 18 months chose one of her own delicious recipes, Mild Vegetable Tajine, for her entry, and was one of the top- five contenders who were invited to take part in a 'cook-off'.

Chicago

All nursery practitioners were invited to apply for the trip, which took place in November. The aim was to give staff the opportunity to strengthen their knowledge of the best approaches to high-quality early childhood education.

The chosen team were away for a week and as well as attending dozens of seminars between them, they also had the chance to visit children's nurseries in Chicago, go on an organised Grand Tour of the city and squeeze in some shopping on the famous Magnificent Mile.

Ofsted report result

The Government's inspectors have rated both Highfield and Seabrook as 'outstanding' for nursery education and quality of care, while Oak Tree achieved 'outstanding' for its quality of care and 'good' for education.

Alison Beard, Manager at Highfield, said "The inspection was very thorough, so it's pleasing to achieve such good results. We have a great team - everyone is very committed to what we do here.

Jo Pueschel, Manager, Seabrook, comments: "We're delighed with the results and I'm so proud of the staff. What really shone through for the inspectors aws the pride taken by staff in their work and in the nursery.

Sue Parker, Manager, Oak Tree, adds: "Our team is happy and motivated and we never compromise on the care of an individual child, so we are pleased that Ofsted gave us this very high rating for care.

Five Star Awards

For 2007, the awards focused on those who make their nurseries brighter and more welcoming places - staff who really make a difference.

Parents as well as colleagues, were invited to nominate the staff member or team they thought deserved special recognition, and the response was excellent!

Contratulations to Ivy Hollier, of Meadow View, our overall winner for this year. Ivy recieved 11 commendations from parents, and was praised as "a long-standing and committed practitioner who combines consummate professionalism with friendliness and support both for the children in her care and their families."

Ivy will receive a realaxing weekend break for two at a worldwide destination of her choice as a thank you for her efforts.

Three more Child Base stars were named as regional winners - Laura Spavins of Lavenders, Vicky Ellis at Knowle Green, and Rose Parfitt at Pelican. Each will win a weekend break in Europe - or a voucher to enable them to book a holiday of their choice.

Nursery winners will each receive a five star certificate and a weekend break of their choice. This year's stars include two teams - the Ladybirds Rooms at Field House and the Ladybirds Room at Cedar Park.

Play it again

Music stimulates all the senses, training your child's brain to organise and conduct numerous activities all at the same time.

The stimulation offered by music has been shown to boost brain development and the processing of musical sounds is closely related to the processing of speech sounds. The ability of listending is the start of analysing both speech and musical sounds and listening requires your child to concentrate on selected sounds. Exposure to music offers this.

The main characteristics of music - pitch, timbre, intensity and rhythm - are all found in spoken language and therefore musical experiences can help your child listen to, remember and produce language.

Exposing your child to musical activities can also result in many other benefits including a higher IQ, enhanced abstract reasoning ability, improved auditory memory, increased creativity and a better manual dexterity (holding objects, walking).

National finalists

Colleagues across Child Base are also enthusiastic about the company's people-friendly policies.

Lending library

The new lending library is proving popular with children and parents alike. Nursery Manager Emma Hewer explains: "Parents were asking us if they might borrow some of our books, so we decided we'd make it official with a proper lending library".

The idea of the library was adopted from Sound Foundations, and it works really well because children are so involved in the choosing and borrowing process.

What's happening at Child Base...