Nursery Management: Case Study - Open to new ideas

Owning her own nursery has been a lifelong ambition for Andrea Mardel-Ferreira. Now her dream has come true and along with her business partner, Kate Greenaway (not to be confused with the London nursery school and children's centre), she owns two nurseries in Leicestershire.

Achieving this has been the culmination of a long and varied career in the sector. Ms Mardel-Ferreira started out in a private day nursery in her twenties and later worked at a children's centre with children at risk. When a member of her family suggested she run a nursery in a property they had acquired, she went on to build up a successful 70-place site, which within two years had achieved 90 per cent occupancy.

'After seven years of doing this, I thought it was time to own my own nursery,' she says. She subsequently joined forces with Kate Greenaway, a primary school teacher who had been given the opportunity to rent a property in Barrow upon Soar.

'We took the plunge and Kate and I opened Lime Tree Day Nursery in September 2010 with 75 childcare places,' says Ms Mardel-Ferreira, who is joint managing director.

'Within nine months, the nursery was full and we had a waiting list. I haven't got a pre-school place available until 2014 and there are no baby places until 2013,' she says.

HANDS-ON APPROACH

Ms Mardel-Ferreira attributes the popularity of the nursery to the fact that there is always one of the directors on site.

'Staff appreciate our high standards,' she says. 'We both have a lot of experience and I have just finished my BA in Education Studies and am on the verge of completing my EYPS.'

This provides some special insights into how a good relationship with parents can be achieved. Ms Mardel-Ferreira says that all staff are genuinely concerned about sorting out any problems, big or small.

'We have CCTV in all the rooms and we find this can be reassuring for a parent if they have concerns. Every day when they come to pick up their children, we have a slideshow of photographs on a screen, of the activities the children have been doing that day. When the child leaves the nursery to start school, we give the parents a DVD with all the pictures of their child.'

The nursery likes to be as accessible as possible and a parent can ring at any time and speak to the child's key worker. On a more formal basis, there are parents' evenings where they can spend time talking to staff about their child's development.

Ms Mardel-Ferreira says that when it comes to the relationship with parents, what is most important is making them feel comfortable and confident about their child being at the nursery.

INNOVATIVE PRACTICE

The pair have just opened a second setting - Lime Tree Day Nursery in Loughborough - with 85 places. It occupies the ground floor of a hotel conversion and offers spacious, homely rooms.

Ms Mardel-Ferreira is keen to replicate the standards of learning and care established in Barrow upon Soar, despite the fact that she and her partner may not always have time to be so hands-on. So, appointing high calibre staff is vital. 'We were delighted when the opportunity of a good property came up and have employed an excellent manager,' she says. 'After being open only three weeks, occupancy at the nursery is looking good.'

The directors are keen to embrace new ways of learning. As well as basing nursery practice on the EYFS, they also use Te Whariki, the early childhood curriculum for New Zealand.

'The EYFS separates things into different areas, whereas Te Whariki looks at learning as a whole. You are part of the children's learning rather than controlling it, and there is a lot of family involvement,' says Ms Mardel-Ferreira.

Training is very important to both directors and they expect the high levels of staff retention at the Lime Tree Day Nursery to be mirrored by similar loyalty at Loughborough.

'We have an induction for all new staff and six weeks after they start they have a quiz to ensure they have learned all the information,' says Ms Mardel-Ferreira. 'We also have monthly supervisions where we discuss where they want to go with their career.'

As to the future, she says, 'There is potential to expand but I wouldn't like to become too big as hands-on management is really important to us.'