Nursery World - 'How we kept our nursery open through a coronavirus outbreak'

Zoe Raven, chief executive of Acorn Early Years Foundation, explains how the group kept one of its nurseries open when children, families and staff tested positive for coronavirus - and the lessons she learned.

Acorn Early Years Foundation's Westcroft nursery

Having kept half of our Acorn Early Years Foundation nurseries open throughout the lockdown period, to provide essential childcare for keyworkers and vulnerable children, we did expect that at some point we’d have a positive test result to deal with in one of our 12 nurseries, and we thought we were well prepared, with our carefully separated bubbles and rigorous hygiene procedures.

The scale of the outbreak at Westcroft, however, took us by surprise in the way it quickly escalated to nine children and four staff testing positive, and it was a steep learning curve for both us and the local Public Health England (PHE).

Register now to continue reading

Thank you for visiting Nursery World and making use of our archive of more than 35,000 expert features, subject guides, case studies and policy updates. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits:

What's included