Little Garden The Potters Bar Day Nursery & Pre-School (Previously Head Start Potters Bar)

I re-joined the Head Start group in November 2020 as Deputy Manager after taking a year out to gain some experience as both a Deputy and Nursery Manager, and proudly managed the successful reopening of a nursery during a world pandemic. Prior to this, I had 8 years service in our Crews Hill nursery. Whilst working full time, I studied towards my BA (Hons) in Early Childhood Studies and proudly graduated in 2017.

I am now the nursery manager at Head Start Potters Bar.

The majority of my experience over the last 10 years has been with pre-school-aged children. Since having my own daughter, it has opened up a whole new world of baby development and play ideas for me. I have a real love for sensory, malleable, and messy play and like to share my knowledge with those around me in the hope it’ll inspire them to provide inviting, fun, and meaningful learning opportunities for the children in our care.

I’m passionate about working closely with parents and carers to support continuous learning at home; even something so small as reaching out to offer some support and advice can and will have a positive impact on a child’s overall development.

I started working for Head Start Day Nursery in September 2010 as an apprentice, once I gained my level 3 Diploma in early years and education qualification I became a full-time nursery assistant, from there I worked up to senior nursery practitioner and on to room leader. After many years of working as a room leader, I was offered a promotion to a more senior role of 3rd in charge. In 2019 I then worked my way up again to secure the Deputy Manager position.

In 2017 I left to have my first child who currently attends our preschool room and I returned from maternity leave once again in September with my second child who is currently attending ours under 2s room.

Most of my experience over the last 11 years has been based on babies from 3 months up to 1 year old. I have also spent periods of time running the 1–2-year-olds room and the 2-3 year-olds, over my time at Head Start I have worked with all ages and gained lots of experience and knowledge along the way. I have had the experience of working closely with many SEN children over the years and have undertaken lots of training courses along with this, I recently started my Level 3 NVQ for becoming a Special Educational Needs Coordinator.

I am very passionate about my job and enjoy working as a team and helping others be the best that they can be. I believe working in early years, we have one of the toughest jobs, we have the responsibility of caring for the most precious souls, we have the responsibility of making sure they are safe and happy and provide them with opportunity to thrive and develop and to give them the best start that we possibly can.