Barnabee’s preschool is owned by Sam Lavender and Jo Fern who have 20 plus years of experience in Further education, Primary school, Early years and SEND.

We have qualified staff here at Barnabee’s and are all fully qualified ranging from Level 2 right up to Level 6.

Our staff recruitment procedure is very thorough and we have a three stage process. We will first have a chat with the selected applications over the phone, this is to gage their personality, its extremely important to us that they have the same ethos as the team, happy, warm and welcoming, keeping the family feel environment, this is a must for us to carry on the reputation that Barnabee’s has.

We then invite the shortlisted people into Barnabee’s to have a walk around and say hello to the staff, after the walk we will then carry out the interviews. We as managers then have a chat with the team and will then ask the person who we have all agreed on, to come into the setting and work with the staff for a few hours, this is extremely important to us for the staff to be apart of the process, their feedback and thoughts are taken into account as they will be working with them. We then carry out the DBS update process and send for references from their previous settings. Until this process is carried out and they are clear to work with our children, we then offer them their contract and start date.

We have a fully qualified SENCO who has many years of experience to guide you and your little one through their journey with us, supporting you in accessing all the areas that your child may need, which could be speech and language, physical support, Autism and EHCP’S.

Our staff either work part time or full time, this helps us with staff absence, as our part time staff cover the days our member of staff may have off from work, providing a consistent approach to your little one’s learning. Using outside agencies can affect the dynamics of the room as our children do not know who they are. Especially our little ones with SEND who do require the familiar face every day to settle them into their day.

At Barnabee’s the staff are very important to us, we all work cohesively together which provides our family feel environment.

We as managers ensure all staff are supported by a welfare check regularly through each term/week/day. A simple chat of how they are feeling personal or work related and offer any support they need. We feel the job role in itself comes with so much responsibility looking after your little ones health, safety, safeguarding and educational development, they have to be happy in their role. We do also offer an open door policy for them to come and chat anytime.

We all work together as a team an do not practice any hierarchy, we are as one in a team and all respect each other.

Children learn so much from being in an environment where everyone respects each other and is a happy place to be. A smile and a hug goes along way to feel reassured and comfortable whether your an adult or a child.