Spotlight on…Lucy Atkinson

HOW DID YOU SET UP YOUR CHILDMINDING SERVICE, LUCY’S LITTLE LAMBS?

After teaching for three years, I moved in with my partner on his family farm and saw an opportunity to provide a childminding service from what was then a games room at the end of the farmhouse. As soon as Lucy’s Little Lambs was established, we became very popular and within months I took on my first assistant. I soon employed a second member of staff, but even with three of us I was unable to meet demand, and with space in the house limited after having two of my own children, I began to look at options to move the business out. I received a Leader Grant from the Government and got planning permission for a timber-clad, steel-framed building to house a nursery.

WHAT IS THE NEW HIGH GREENBURY SETTING LIKE?

The nursery is open plan, with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out across the countryside. Our aim was to finish the building to the standard of a home, and we have a full-size dining table and normal toilets. The children all share one play space, as I saw from childminding the many benefits of children of all ages interacting with each other. The setting is on a working farm, so the children have 1,200 acres of land around them to explore, and will take part in lambing and calving time. We also have a Forest School. Children spend a great deal of time outdoors, which is so important, and we are dedicated to ensuring they have the time and space to play and have fun.

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WILL MISS ABOUT CHILDMINDING?

I will miss our daily routines, but I am excited for all the new opportunities the nursery presents us with, and I have a wonderful team of early years educators to help me along the way. I will miss the outings we went on, as it was exciting to discover new places; however, we have so much to see and do on the farm that this far outweighs taking the children out. We are very excited to present all our hard work to our new families and for them to experience the space we have created.