FOUNDATIONS FOR LEARNING
- Six nurseries
- 389 childcare places
- 79 staff
Chairman Michael Brandon opened his first nursery, Foundations for Learning, when it became clear to him 'there was something wrong with the education system'.
He saw it as 'a building that had luxury apartments at the top in the form of university education, and the first and second floors were schools - but in terms of nursery education, there was no basement and no foundations'.
So in 1998, he set up his company in a bid to create some proper, solid foundations. His first nursery was opened by MP Stephen Timms in Newham, east London. He now has six nurseries, three in east London and three in Greater Manchester.
The nurseries are built around evidence-based practice and multi-sensory teaching methods. Staff aim to take an auditory approach linking music and language, a visual approach linking art and literacy, and a kinesthetic approach through PE, dance and numeracy.
'Our core subjects are very much PSHE, PE, singing and art. From these we then look at knowledge of the world which is science, literacy and numeracy,' says Mr Brandon.
But he thinks the free entitlement has disrupted the curriculum at Foundations for Learning, as it means children now have more varied attendance patterns at the nurseries. 'How can you have a coherent curriculum for children when you have some of them leaving in the middle of a session? It has certainly made things more difficult for us,' he says.
'The three nurseries in Greater Manchester have been offering afterschool clubs and holiday clubs for a while. It is a more gradual process in east London, where the nurseries only recently started offering holiday clubs.'
Mr Brandon finds one of the biggest challenges, and the most exciting thing about working in the early years sector, is managing staff.
When he retires, he hopes to pass on shares in his business to his managers, as the business model is very much a professional partnership. 'I believe that a third of the company should be owned by the leadership team,' he says.
Staff are recruited in the expectation that they will want to share ownership of the company. They gain 'partnership' status through being elected and earn the right to own shares in the company.
The nursery chain saw a slight dip in occupancy levels during the recession. However, numbers are starting to rise again, and this is seen as a positive sign.
Mr Brandon adds that 'when things really start to pick up, we will be in a position to expand.'
CHILDREN 4 MOST
- Four nurseries
- 191 childcare places
- 90 staff
The owners of Children 4 Most have a very hands-on approach and this has been integral to its success.
Co-owner Nicola Sullivan says, 'Two of us are qualified teachers with an early years specialism and we have years of experience working in nurseries and schools. Our nurseries are very popular and they stand above the rest because we know what we are doing.
'Standards are very important to us and we oversee everything at the nurseries. Owners who don't have a background in the early years can often struggle.'
Ms Sullivan originally set up the business with Alison Davies, although the pair admit that if it hadn't been for their families, it would never have happened.
Ms Davies' partner is the maintenance manager for all the nurseries and her mother looks after the business side and staff development, while Ms Sullivan's mother is in charge of health and hygiene.
The four nurseries in Lancashire, Manchester and Cheshire are all very popular and their good reputation, says Ms Sullivan, has enabled them to withstand the recession.
All four nurseries concentrate solely on offering daycare as they don't have the space to offer holiday or after-school clubs.
They regularly change the curriculum, adding new dimensions, says Ms Sullivan. 'We focus on different areas of the curriculum and we have specialists who come in and work with the children. This term we have someone coming in to practise yoga with them and last year we had someone who came in and did music and movement.
'At our Squirrels Wood nursery in Manchester, we are focusing on growing vegetables and cooking. The nursery is set in spacious grounds surrounded by woodland and there is a gardening area where the children grow plants and vegetables, which we then use to cook with them.'
The first nursery opened in 2000 and the group has grown gradually over the years. But more expansion is not currently on the cards. 'We are not sure whether we want to open another nursery at the moment,' says Ms Sullivan. 'I think we will just concentrate on building up the ones we have.'
MACE MONTESSORI
- Five nurseries
- 244 childcare places
- 66 staff
Rapid growth is central to Mace Montessori. After the company finishes expanding its Finchley school next year, it plans to open one nursery school a year over the next three years.
Mace Montessori School was formed in 1997 and was bought by Rehana and Shahid Hamid in 2005.
All five nurseries are in London, with the headquarters at its Hammersmith nursery.
Jon Lloyd, business development manager, says, 'Retaining and motivating staff is a challenge, but an important challenge. Mace nurseries need to be fun places where parents and children are greeted by happy staff who make them feel welcome.'
Team-building is a priority and as well as arranging social gatherings and Christmas lunches, the company takes the staff on highly-subsidised trips abroad.
These have included weekends in Paris, Amsterdam and Milan. 'It helps to foster an atmosphere of togetherness, which is so important in a multi-site company,' says Mr Lloyd.
This applies to the children in the setting too. 'At Mace we recognise the importance of giving children the time to play, and it is one of the strengths of the Montessori method that children explore their environment independently and progress at their own speed.'
The nurseries use specialised Montessori materials designed to encourage children's natural curiosity.
As for the recession, it is difficult for Mr Lloyd to gauge the extent to which the business has been affected. He says, 'We haven't gone bust and have been able to re-invest in our existing schools and new sites. Maybe we'd have done even better if it wasn't for the economic downturn.'
So it is onwards and upwards for Mace. In September it opened a new nursery in Finchley. Next January it plans to open up three more rooms in its Finchley school and in January 2013 it will open a seven-room nursery school offering 120 childcare places. Then there are plans to open one nursery school per year over the next three years.
PORTICO DAY NURSERIES
- Five nurseries
- 206 places
- 62 staff
Portico Day Nurseries has seen steady expansion since Nicole Politis joined forces with her brother and set up the nursery chain in Merseyside and Lancashire in 2002.
The pair now run five nurseries and the secret to their success is quite simply their staff.
'We strive to make sure our staff are happy and we have a very low staff turnover,' says Ms Politis. 'All our managers have been with us from the very beginning and our deputy managers have all been with us since they were students.
'We have regular staff meetings and team-building days and we have a Staff Member of the Year. We find if we have happy staff, we have happy children.'
Ms Politis originally trained as a nursery nurse. After ten years working as cabin crew for British Airways, she became pregnant and decided she wanted to start a nursery.
So nine weeks after her son was born, she opened her first nursery, which she admits 'was very hard'.
The five Portico nurseries all provide full daycare and two offer breakfast and after-school clubs for children up to the age of eight. The company went through a worrying time earlier this year because it runs nurseries at two children's centres, which were inevitably vulnerable to cuts in Government funding.
'Factories and shops also closed in some areas where we have nurseries and parents could no longer afford to send their children to the nursery,' says Ms Politis. 'But things are improving now.'
The extensions in maternity leave also affected Portico at first. 'We found some mothers would then take a year off. But now, because of the recession, mothers are keen to get back to work,' says Ms Politis.
Innovation is at the heart of Portico Day Nurseries and the group is keen to embrace new skills.
'Some of our staff are trained in baby massage, so we do a lot of that. We also provide Zumba dance at three of our nurseries, and we are training up more staff so we can roll it out across the whole chain. Both the children and the staff do it, and they love it. We also teach Spanish at all the nurseries.'
Ms Politis has also found that it is good to work with other private providers instead of competing. She holds regular meetings with other settings in the area.
Growth is important. Ms Politis says, 'We would love to expand still further and we are always on the look-out for buildings in good locations.'
BUILDING BLOCKS NURSERIES
- Two nurseries, two pre-schools
- 165 places
- 56 staff
When Building Blocks' owner Jocelyn Ashton was a childminder, she became so frustrated at trying to work developmentally with different age groups on her own that she turned a disused building into a nursery.
'I trained as a teacher and my background is in cognitive development,' she recalls. 'I planned different developmental activities every day for all the different children in my care and I was so frustrated that I couldn't do all the things I had planned, I hired someone to help me and moved into the building.'
The nursery, in Wimbledon in west London, grew from there. Ten years later Ms Ashton runs two nurseries, two pre-schools and two facilities offering breakfast clubs, after-school clubs and holiday clubs for children up to the age of 13.
The other nursery in Teddington was already operating when she bought it.
'It was a failing nursery when I bought it in 2007 and it has just been rated by Ofsted as outstanding.
'To be rated outstanding is our ultimate aim. But it is not just a badge to us. We feel it is our responsibility to be at the top and we have always worked on that basis. We have a very clear vision for the nursery and our aim is to improve all the time. We expect all our staff to come up with ideas and take control of their own career progress.'
Ofsted praised Building Blocks for its 'exceptional' parent partnerships. The company prides itself on being very open with parents. They are heavily involved in evaluating the nursery provision and are able to review policies and procedures through the teachers and parents group.
Ms Ashton has always focused on planning and objectives. 'Encouraging reflective practice is vital to quality,' she says. 'When I first started running a nursery, daycare was the main element, but I kept telling staff they are teachers and integral in a child's development. Now there has been a shift in the way people think about childcare, but my staff changed their approach a long time ago.'
In terms of the future, she is up for a challenge; she would like to take over a failing nursery group and turn it around.
