Sunny Bright Day Nursery is a Outstanding Nursery providing a welcoming child orientated environment where practitioners support children on their journey to becoming independent learners.
As a HighScope Quality Assured setting, the nursery continuously works to thrive, and be the best that they can be. After a change in dynamics when one of the Deputy Managers left the setting in March 2019, Nursery Manager Stacey Johnston recognised the need to develop the Leadership skills of some of her existing team.
Stacey said: “The teaching and care that we provide our children must be of the highest standard and to do this we must continue to provide our colleagues with the help and support that they deserve. I wanted to ensure that my room leaders felt confident within their new roles and what was being asked of them.”
Sunny Bright Nursery contacted BSA Training for help in improving leadership and management skills in their team. BSA Training is an award-winning training provider dedicated to improving people and organisations. Run by trainer Bobby Singh, the business offers a multitude of courses such as Leadership & Management, Business Strategy, Sales and Marketing, Team Development, Communication and Customer Care.
Having worked with Bobby in the past for similar management training, the nursery felt he was the ideal coach to provide strategies to support members of staff through their professional development. “Since taking part in Bobby’s training, the management team at Sunny Bright Day Nursery has become more focused on the wellbeing of their members of staff on both a professional manner and a personal level. The team evaluated the nursery values and what would be expected of them in a management role. Hopefully this has started to build confidence and made it clear to the team what is expected of them.” Stacey continued
A key learning from the training was that it is important to take the time to ask colleagues if they feel happy in the workplace and what motivates them as members of staff at the nursery. Room Leaders Kirsty Smithson and Liz Felse both felt the training helped them deal with difficult conversations, when having to speak to staff members and parents. “I now feel more confident with making decisions within a leadership role,” said Kirsty. “The delivering of the course was fantastic with a good mix of slides, stories and work time,” added Liz.
Baby Room Leader Nikki Hutchinson found the training reassured her that everyone wants to achieve the same outcome. “The training was friendly and to the point. It was brilliant to discover everyone was on the same page, and we all basically want to do the best we can do for the children in our care” said Nikki.
Stacey liked that within the training Bobby sent out a survey to all staff members, this was a list of words for staff to best describe their co-workers. The results were very reassuring, showing us that the team knows us very well and used very similar words to what we chose about ourselves.
The senior management team within the training have also put strategies into place since, providing the team with an annual survey asking them anonymously if there is anything they would like the management team to change to support the team. Supervisions have been amended to include staff views of Stacey as a Manager not just her feedback on them. Hoping that this will help Stacey to understand how her team sees her and to reflect on her own role.
Deputy Manager, Adrienne Mackland said: “Since the training, I have begun to go out of my way to support staff by asking them if they are happy, if their workload isn’t getting too strenuous, and if they feel supported. I have found that by not only reflecting on our practice but what motivates us individually and as a team very effective.”
Stacey added that she would recommend BSA Training to others. “The way Bobby delivers and conducts the training is in a very professional but approachable way. We all felt very comfortable to seek advice from him and we found the advice very constructive. What he was asking us to do as a nursery was also achievable.”
Overall Stacey said” staff who took part in the training feel confident, supported and most importantly happy in their roles. This reassures me that the children in our care will continue to get High Quality care and learning experiences daily, and staff will feel supported, motivated and enjoy coming to work. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
The management team at Sunny Bright Nursery have always worked together and communicate their views on daily events within the nursery but by providing the training hope to do this more effectively continuously in the absence of Stacey. “I was so pleased to work with such a prestigious nursery and help them refine their leadership skills,” said Bobby. “It was heart-warming to see the team realising that they are all there to achieve the same objective – to provide the best care possible for the children.”
BSA Training are passionate about people development and helping businesses grow. They work with business to understand where they are, where they want to be and how to help them get there. BSA Training are also approved providers of a local training funding initiative, which means subject to eligibility can help businesses access 70% funding towards the cost of the training.
Comments (0)