What makes a good Nursery Manager?

[BuffyFanForever]

Hi all thinking of making a job move to managing a nursery. What do you think makes a good manager and helps a team to really know their stuff and be confident in their roles? Any advice appreciated from parents and early years educators!

The manager just left at our nursery and it's really fallen to pieces. I'm not sure what she did that was good but it was so much better then

Sorry to hear that @theotherfossilsister , if I do make the move really want to get the children, staff and parents feeling confident and happy!

From my experience, monitoring staff practice more. A lot or inexperienced staff get away with a lot away from managers eyes.

Family member has just left the childcare sector because of a shit manager so a good one really does make a difference! So I’d say, don’t shout and use personal insults against your staff, and be prepared to muck in instead of sitting on your arse hiding in the office. And make sure building repairs are arranged promptly.

look after your staff and regularly check in how they are doing etc. Happy staff will be better for the children.
being on floor sometimes too so you know the kids also & good communication with parents.

Be completely on top of all your policies and procedures and ensure the staff and parents are too. Set the bar high in terms of standards and expectations. Ensure that parents and staff are 100% clear on how things operate. Childrens safety and happiness should be at the heart of everything you do.

Have regular ongoing check ins in parents/carers re: their child's development.

Invest in ongoing quality training. Link up with quality nurseries and arrange for your staff to visit to observe them. Send staff on quality training regularly.

Recognise your staff's strengths and utilise them, e.g. Sarah is great with gardening - have her run/organise the nursery veg plot. Tom loves cycling - have him take children out on balance bikes.

Ensure the environment is changed regularly to keep it interesting/stimulating for children. Involve the children in this - what areas would they like to see set up? Do they have ideas how it could be achieved? I had a bunch of children enthralled ALL DAY decorating a large cardboard box (it was various different things throughout the day - from a shop to a submarine!)

Promote inclusion at every opportunity - don't allow children to bully others in any way.

As a parent:

Quality comes from the top. If you have a good attitude it will filter down.

Be familiar with all the children and their families - the personal touch is noticeable.

Be practical and pragmatic rather than running the place by tick box.

Value the staff - happy staff will make the place. Cover for them so they can nip out to their child's Nativity, things like that.

Make sure the children have plenty of outside time, even in the rain.

Do all you can to ensure decent food, not bought in crap.

Do all you can to be flexible and reasonable with your staff and be fair, no favouritism.

Folk will put up with poor pay for other things like how holidays are allocated, letting folk swap shifts, issuing rotas months in advance etc.

Have high expectations but don’t micromanage a room that is running well. Try to match staff with their preferred age groups and strengths. Have a floating staff member each day so that there is always cover for sickness, lunch and paperwork.
Be there to listen but don’t be so accommodating it messes shifts up for other staff. Don’t over rely on the reliable staff and burn them out.
Know policies, procedures and EYFS inside out. Always know the building ratio each day so you know the right number of staff are there and staff by room need not by numbers especially if tricky children are in.

Back the staff over the parents and don't be flexible with your sickness policy.

Parents will push and push and if will frustrate staff who will end up leaving.

Create a free flow feeling with regards to yourself, so that your staff are used to seeing you in the room helping out. Otherwise when you enter it will feel like they have to stand to attention.

Also don't enter the room and start telling them this is messy, why are you sitting etc. Observe the room as a whole. They may have just finished a stressful activity and are sitting for 5 min.

Don't have favourites and beware of people trying to be overfriendly with you.
Other staff will notice and feel frustrated of 'Sarah' is always in the office helping with filing instead of being with the children.

From a parent who's had a few different experiences.

Provide a comment box for parents to provide anonymous feedback if they wish, I tend to openly raise things but I have known others when they have issues to want to have a way to raise without their name

Provide updates when there are staff changes including temporary staff changes which provides the names of the staff in charge of the children and their qualifications

Involve parents in meeting new staff as well as yourself as a new manager and have review meetings with the parents to check the child's progress as well as any feedback they have on staff, menu, daily updates etc

Provide the rolling menu updates as soon as they come out and communicate if there will be deviations to this, some parents use these menu plans to plan their own meals (e.g knowing child will eat less of X meal and they do a full dinner that night, more of another so they do a light tea that day etc)

The ideal nursery would provide a middle of the day update for parents just to say all is fine, or live updates rather than just one at the end of the day, especially when child has just joined