Case Study: Ashbridge Independent School and Nurseries
Overview
Established in 1995, Ashbridge Independent School and Nurseries aim to provide children with the best quality care and education. Starting with one nursery and a school, the group has now grown to a school and four nurseries, providing care and education to over 1,000 children in the Preston area. Ashbridge currently employs around 250 staff across all five of its settings — including practitioners, teachers, management, bursars, and support staff.
The group transferred all four of its nursery sites to Connect Childcare’s software in August 2017 and operates the full package. The main objective of transferring to a new nursery management system was to provide staff with an easy-to-use, comprehensive platform that would also support parents.
Challenge
It was essential the Ashbridge teams had access to a more robust booking and enquiry system, but another key focal point was the need for all four of the nursery settings to become more environmentally friendly in the process. Ashbridge’s previous set-up was heavily supplemented with paper.
One of the biggest daily challenges for the Ashbridge settings was ensuring staffing levels were correct across all four of its settings. In addition, the nurseries required a solution that could help reduce the time spent on admin-intensive processes.
Solution
Implementation of the Connect Childcare software, iConnect and ParentZone, was introduced across all four nursery sites within the agreed timeframe.
From an efficiency standpoint, Connect Childcare has helped Ashbridge make time savings across all areas. From checking staff ratios against regulatory requirements, to managing funding and occupancy levels with ease, the early years setting has been able to ease the burden of physical paperwork and streamline its processes.
Ashbridge has since moved towards using other functionalities of the software, including the intelligent staff management feature for admin tasks such as payroll support and management of staff queries.
While Ashbridge has reaped the benefits of its investment from a management perspective, the observation and assessment modules have also enabled its practitioners to better communicate with parents when sharing updates. It has also ensured child experiences are tracked against the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) requirements.
With information stored securely and electronically, the switch to using the Connect Childcare software has also meant that Ashbridge can provide evidence at the click of a button during Ofsted inspections, further eliminating the need for stacks of paperwork that would have otherwise caused additional stress in the past.
In December 2023, Ashbridge Independent School and Nurseries resigned another two-year contract with Connect Childcare.
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About the Author
Content Marketing Executive at Connect Childcare