The Village Nursery was named after the African proverb ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. Director Julie Lightley says, ‘We are very much of that mind. It is not just down to the manager to give the staff everything they need and to support them. It is all of us.’
The group’s six settings have an open and questioning culture, she says, facilitated by discussion apps, social media groups and regular feedback to management. ‘Staff welcome it,’ she says, ‘because the worst thing is to leave them in isolation.’
Induction
The group’s induction process lasts three months. Ms Lightley says, ‘We used to cram it in on the first day, which was so wrong. We picked all that apart and built a new induction system which takes them through the probation period.’
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