In the same week, the employee-owned chain has been rated a ‘World Class workplace’ by engagement specialists, Best Companies.
There are currently 78 nurseries in the UK who have achieved their Bronze and Silver Award and gone on to become Green Flag-certified by Eco-Schools.
Childbase’s nurseries are powered by renewable wind and solar power, and children are involved in a variety of eco-projects. Gardens contain bug hotels and bird feeders, to encourage biodiversity, and children plant and tend fruit, vegetables and herbs which are harvested for meals and learning activities. Food scraps from snack breaks are used in nursery composters, and materials from craft projects are reused so that just over 1 per cent of waste ends up in landfill.
To attain Green Flag accreditation, nurseries must engage in a seven-step programme led by an eco-committee of children and staff.
Rigorous vetting of the projects, which focus on 10 topics including Global Citizenship, Energy, Marine and waste, is then carried out by an independent inspector.
Mark Bird, Childbase Partnership health safety and environment director, who was involved in the development of the UK Early Years pathway for the international Eco-Schools programme, said, ‘This has been a mammoth five–year project for Childbase Partnership but it is really only a start. Currently we have 14 nurseries with two consecutive Green Flag awards and we aim to increase that to firmly cement Childbase Partnership as the centre for early years environmental education.’
Emma Wallbridge, manager Julia Durbin Day Nursery in Oxford, which is waiting to hear about its second Green Flag award which will take Childbase Partnership to 16 "doubles", said, ‘There is a real pride amongst parents and the staff team about how our children are embracing their responsibilities to the environment. I never get tired of parent stories of young children telling them off for putting recyclable waste in the wrong bin or for not turning off their lights.’
From left to right: Corinna Whitbread and Tracey Twyman at Childbase Partnership's Grasshoppers Day Nursery in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
Meanwhile, Childbase Partnership was the Number 1 Sunday Times ‘Best Big Companies to Work For’ in 2020, and this year it has been rated a ‘World Class workplace’ by engagement specialists, Best Companies, which will place it in the running for the overall league tables of the UK’s best workplaces at the end of May. It has been listed in the Sunday Times Top UK workplaces for 14 years running.
Emma Rooney, managing director at Childbase Partnership, said, ‘We are enormously proud of this recognition following a year blighted by the world-wide pandemic and enforced separation. My 2,000 plus partners in our employee-owned business are most definitely "world class". Frontline workers throughout, they collectively rose to meet every single challenge with extraordinary dedication and professionalism, keeping our 44 award-winning day nurseries open for the families we serve, and children’s development and learning on track.’
The Childbase Partnership is the sixth largest nursery group in the UK with 44 nurseries providing 4,209 childcare places, according to Nursery World's Nursery Chains league table published in March.
- To register with Eco-Schools visit http://members.eco-schools.org.uk/Register
