School in Margate, combines strong community and family links with
excellent practice. Ruth Thomson went to visit.
When the directors of Manor House Nursery School in Margate discovered that two of the children attending their setting were sleeping at home under towels on the floor, they bought bedding for the family and helped to source some beds.
It is a good illustration not just of the levels of deprivation in the area but also of the degree of commitment on the part of the nursery to support children and their families. And it was this dedication, combined with excellent practice, that made Manor House the worthy winner of the 2014 Nursery World Nursery of the Year Award.
Opened in 2008 and owned by directors Jayne and Sean Sheerin, and Clair Stevens, the 120-place nursery is located in a grand Victorian house, but within one of the poorest areas in England. Its district, Thanet, is the most deprived in Kent, while its ward, Margate Central, is ranked 22nd out of 32,482 wards in England, placing it amongst the 1 per cent most-deprived in the country.
What this translates to is a high concentration of poor migrant and young families, often with social problems - among them unemployment, domestic violence and drug, alcohol and sexual abuse.
'Some families in crisis followed the support services and were moved here. Others have been moved down because it's too expensive to house them in London. And we have a huge number - and variety - of migrant families,' explains Jayne. 'So, a lot of people have been shipped here; it wasn't their choice to come.'
Exacerbating families' problems are Government cutbacks. Despite some regeneration in the town, principally the Turner Centre art gallery, 'the rest of Margate is dying', says Clair, 'and now with the cuts in services, everybody's struggling - the schools, the hospitals, the doctors' surgeries, the children's centres... We're all overstretched.'
AIMS AND APPROACH
In their practice, the directors have been influenced by Bronfenbrenner and his research into the environmental and societal factors influencing a child's development.
They have found inspiration too in the work of Margaret and Rachel McMillan. 'We're dealing with the same issues they were trying to address in London 100 years ago and, like the McMillan sisters, we place a huge emphasis on health and the need for lots of fresh air, good food and sleep,' explains Clair. 'Physical and mental health were to the forefront of our thinking at the start.'
As a result, the outdoors is at the heart of their provision. They have their own kitchen, where meals are cooked from scratch, and they have sleep rooms, with naps being non-negotiable with parents.
'Yes, we work closely with parents, but we try to listen to the voice of the child, particularly around sleep, because it's so important to a child's development,' says Clair.
As to their overarching goal for the children in their care, Clair explains, 'We want to give a preparation for life not just school, so they can fulfil their potential, be the best they can and feel they belong. We want them to be competent, independent, ready to have a go. It's all about trying to improve not just the education of the child, but their whole being - their health, well-being, sense of belonging. It's so important that they feel strong enough to have relationships, to bounce back when things are challenging and are able to communicate their own needs.'
NURTURING
Nurturing relationships with children, and parents (see box), are central to practice in the nursery. The bulk of parents are from low-income working families; about one-fifth are unemployed. A variety of families have attended the nursery - Somali, Iraqi, Japanese, Spanish, Bulgarian - so staff work hard to get to know the parents and learn key phrases of a child's mother tongue.
'There is such a huge cross-section of nationalities, so it's not a case of just employing a Polish worker to support a new Polish community,' explains Jayne. 'But we've got very nurturing staff.'
And to ensure that the children receive all the support they need, the nursery has supernumerary staff, as well as a Senco and teacher who are out of ratio.
Additionally, parents are given as many free settling-in sessions as they want and, rather than appoint a key person from day one, the nursery monitors a child over the initial six weeks to see who they are bonding with naturally. At least two key staff also go with the children when they move to another room.
CHILDREN'S LEARNING
The nursery plans for the individual child. It has at the moment, for example, a child with cerebral palsy and another with Down syndrome. Children's learning Senco, Donna Rodgers, and teacher, Glynis Corey, also work closely with the children and their families to address more general problems, principally language delay, which is common in many attending the setting.
As learners, however, all the children are seen as 'very capable', says Clair. 'We follow their interests, their view of the world is respected and they are listened to.'
Planning is kept loose and set aside in favour of any new fascination that the children may have - on one occasion, a desiccated squirrel that had been dislodged from a tree in a storm. On another occasion, a two-year-old thought a pine cone was a baby hedgehog. The children went on to investigate: 'Do hedgehogs grow on trees?' And one child's grandmother, who happened to have baby hedgehogs in her garden, provided a lot of the answers.
'It's about appreciating children's awe and wonder,' says Clair. 'They look at things in a totally different way from adults, through different glasses. We've had children exploring light and shadow and trying to collect up light in buckets like water.'
CONFIDENCE AND SELF-ESTEEM
Also topping the nursery's list of priorities is promoting children's confidence, self-esteem and independence, principally through 'lots of different experiences' (alongside familiar routines and places).
Indoors, there is an emphasis on loose parts, blocks, natural resources and role play (with a whole room dedicated to it). But it is the outdoors that 'ticks all the boxes' in what they want to achieve for the children. The nursery building was picked largely because of its extensive outdoor area.
Each age group bar one enjoys free-flow between the indoors and out. For the past five years, the nursery has also run a forest school programme, which has now been rescheduled to give the children more opportunity to undertake trips into the community and get involved in beach school.
Daily, small groups of the children head off in a minibus on trips into the community, visiting such places as a castle, the Turner Centre and a farm shop. Clair says, 'Children are much more motivated and animated outdoors. They find their voices there.'
Now the nursery has expanded the forest school land it rents on the nearby Quex estate to five acres and has set up a farm. As well as remaining a forest school site - the local authority has paid for a log cabin so the funded two-year-olds can also enjoy the experience - the land will be used as an allotment and the farm is already home to ten chickens, two goats and seven ('lively but small and friendly') kunekune pigs. Next the directors hope to extend the perimeter of the farm to incorporate part of a neighbouring paddock to home some rescue donkeys.
Sean says, 'The farm enriches further the forest school, community and nursery sessions, adding another layer of interest for the children and a valuable resource for staff.
'Practitioners use the farm area, under the cover of a huge parachute, to tell stories, encourage language and communication, and enhance their relationships. Children feed and groom the pigs and goats and feed and collect eggs from the chickens. It shows children how to be kind and look after living things, which in turn promotes empathy.'
FINANCIAL COST
The nursery's success comes at a financial cost for both directors and the 50 members of staff, six of whom are men.
'We have a good reputation, a high volume of children and a waiting list but, given that such a huge number of children come just for their free 15 hours, profit is always limited,' says Jayne. 'We could close our kitchen and work to higher ratios, but we don't want to do that - and neither do the staff. We didn't come into this for the money, and the same goes for our staff.
'Some are on their second or third careers and topping up their pensions with their nursery salary. We can't pay them school wages but we try to balance that by being happy to engage with their personal issues, and we've seen a lot of people through a lot of things in the past six years.'
But directors and staff have much to be proud of, and to celebrate, this year. And, as Christmas approaches, they will be heading to the farm with all the parents and children and, like last year, reindeer will be part of the celebration.
BUILDING STRONG LINKS WITH FAMILIES
Supporting parents underpins everything that the nursery does, and the starting point for building strong links with families is being non-judgemental, says Clair.
'We have never met a parent who doesn't want the best for their child, and we recognise that despite 20 per cent unemployment among our families, we are a community with all sorts of different skills.
'It's also about making parents feel comfortable and welcome. We aim to create a thread - an unbreakable thread, hopefully - that parents will feel able to come along at any point they need support.'
Mostly that support is advice about their children - from behaviour to nutrition - though often it is about having realistic expectations of themselves as parents or seeking help with services.
In the case of one mother, the nursery was able to signpost her to services to help tackle her terrible housing, her child's language delay and her own ill-health.
'She felt she wasn't being listened to, and we've been able to provide her with friendly voices and we have been able to be the voice for her,' says Clair.
The nursery does not push the idea of home visits. 'So many people are banging on families' doors trying to assess them; parents don't want to be judged before they've even started nursery,' says Clair.
'Here at nursery, it's just between us and them, and everything we do is for the good of the child, and the parent as well, and once families realise that, they become much more open to entering into a lot of dialogue with us.'
Words of advice are not always enough so the nursery also provides emergency childcare, something that is particularly welcome during school holidays, when tensions can run high in some families.
'We have some families who don't engage,' says Jayne. 'They come in, drop and leave, but we never give up and feel we have the right staff on board to try to work with them.
'Where we have a huge, huge impact on both children and parents is with our youngest families. Some are incredibly young - 15, 1 6, 17 years old - and sometimes they arrive drowning. But they come to know they can ask for advice, they won't be judged and we won't be taking notes about them.'
Educating parents about their children's learning is an ongoing process. Eighteen months ago, the nursery followed the suggestion of two parents and set up its own Facebook page.
'We weren't sure about the idea,' admits Clair, 'but it's been one of the best things that we've done. It's been a very good way to dripfeed information to parents about learning, health... all sorts, as well as day-to-day things in the nursery.'
More recently, the nursery has set up a Parent Nursery Association, has increased the times when parents can join their children at forest school and now encourages parents, where possible, to send staff a 'digital postcard' about what they have done as a family.
'The postcards help us pick up children's interests and celebrate what the family has done together - it's good for parents who can't afford holidays,' says Clair.
