Fennies is expanding its group of award-winning nurseries and is on track to double in size by the end of 2022.
by Caroline Horsley
We’re excited to share that our award-winning group of nurseries is expanding, starting with the opening of six new settings by the end of 2021! We’re very proud of the high standard of education and care we provide at Fennies, gained over our nearly 30 years of experience.
Our staff well-being programme, team of internal experts and parent partnerships will be incorporated throughout each of our new nurseries.
Fennies Walton will be the first nursery opening as part of our accelerated growth plans, which will be followed by Fennies Eltham, Bromley London Lane and Raynes Park, creating 550 new nursery places, with more locations to be announced soon.
Educational offering
We have a dedicated in-house buildings team working closely with our education and quality experts to create a space specifically for early years. Our new nurseries provide an environment that embraces change as children grow and develop and continuously adapt to their specific needs.
This meticulously thought-out design of our spaces means that our nurseries are not only a space where children can learn and grow, but where staff can be innovative in how they deliver daily activities and education.
Fennies also offers an enhanced delivery of the EYFS framework, designed by our very own education team. Our enhancements include a STEM program, focused art sessions, well-being activities and linguistics and PE coaching taught by our internal specialists.
This specifically designed curriculum, combined with the highest standard of resources, allows practitioners to be creative in their delivery and come up with exciting learning opportunities for the children to explore every day.
Each one of the new nurseries will also include the Fennies Sensory Experience; a bespoke multi-sensory environment designed to elevate development for under-2s. The sensory experience features a variety of equipment including gel mats, sound panels, light-up mood tube and an infinity panel that introduce children to the concept of cause and effect.
Each corner of the sensory experience can be used to create a calm relaxing atmosphere or a stimulating learning opportunity, which means that our educators can create the perfect environment for every activity.
Staff offering
Despite a challenging year for the childcare sector, we’re incredibly proud of our team's resilience. To make sure that staff felt supported, we launched a staff well-being program which included weekly webinars with updates about the latest government guidance, Monday mantra posts on our staff app to encourage positive thinking, and specialised training for staff who were isolating.
This is something that we’ve continued even as lockdown has eased to maintain a strong connection between our practitioners and senior management team and to boost morale. We’ve received some excellent feedback from our teams who were encouraged by the amount of communication they were receiving.
This dedication to our employee offering and innovative nursery spaces means that our staff are able to progress with us throughout their career as they build upon their skills every single day. We have many cases of staff members joining the company and evolving all the way to management roles. This is the case at our Beckenham nursery, one of our largest settings with a two-year waiting list.
Joining Fennies
The Fennies culture is centered around our values; accountability, quality, leadership, and diversity.
It’s important to us that the staff joining our new nurseries have a feel for this culture, so we’ve introduced a buddy nursery scheme, where new starters will have the opportunity to join our existing nurseries for a chance to experience this where possible. This is a great way for newer employees to work collaboratively with our current teams and be offered support whenever needed.
Best Companies Award
We’ve recently been recognised by Best Companies and have received two awards for our dedication to out teams and culture; the Education and Training’s top 25 best organisations to work for; and Top 100 companies to work for in the South East.
If you’re ambitious and dedicated, we’d love to hear from you! We’re currently hiring for our new sites so if you’re interested, please send your CV to recruitment@fennies.com or view our job listings here.
