Connect Childcare chats to Sam Holland at Busy Bees Nursery Group
With over 3,400 nurseries in our portfolio, we’ve decided to shine the spotlight on a different one each month, to get to know them a little better!
This month we’ve chosen Busy Bees, the UK’s leading nursery group…
We’ve recently renewed our three-year contract with Busy Bees and towards the end of 2020, we successfully deployed the software across an additional 170 sites – in under eight weeks. There are now 341 Busy Bees nurseries and thousands of parents using our software and apps across the UK.
Simon Irons, Global CEO for Busy Bees, recently commented: “Our partnership with Connect is a vital part of how we continue to help our settings to operate more efficiently and facilitate better engagement with our parents. The team is always on hand to help with any queries and goes above and beyond to ensure our customers are equipped with high-quality solutions.”
As part of our regular Q&A series, we interviewed Sam Holland, quality advisor at Busy Bees. Here she tells us all about her workplace, job role and experience of using nursery management software.
Connect Childcare chats to Sam Holland...
- How long have you worked in the nursery sector?
I’ve been in the Early Years industry for 17 years. - Sum up your typical working day in three words:
Supportive, rewarding, and engaging. - Why did you choose Connect Childcare?
We wanted to enable parents to be more involved in their child’s learning journey at nursery.Instead of using traditional paper learning journals, parents can now access a timeline of their child’s daily activities every day – either online or via the ParentZone app – as well as view photos, videos, and observations made by their child’s key person.
Extending child learning and development outside the nursery setting and into the home really helps parents better understand their child’s learning progress and allows them to log observations of their own too!
- Describe our nursery management software platform in one word?
Helpful. - And your favourite feature?
Being able to share photos and videos from the day, at the click of a button. With every day being a busy one, digitising the observation process has not only helped us save time, but it’s also a safer way to store children’s records. With loose paper journals, it’s easier for pages to get lost or damaged. - What’s your biggest challenge as a quality advisor?
Currently, I would say it’s adjusting to new ways of working. The pandemic has been – and continues to be – difficult for so many people, and I’m really proud of my colleagues for the amazing job they do each and every day. - But what do you love most about your job?
There are so many things, but I truly love being creative and having the opportunity to set up exciting and inspirational rooms in which children can play and learn. - Complete the sentence: ‘Connect’s technology has enabled us to’…
… bring to life the child’s nursery experience with regular updates, images and conversations between nursery and the home.We know parents lead busy lives so the fact that the ParentZone app can be used on the go is a real bonus. We also believe it will enhance our parent partnerships and engagement, with the two-way sharing of activities.
- When you’re not at work, how do you relax?
I love long walks and photography. - 10. Finally, what advice would you give to nurseries considering investing in management software?
Do it! Enabling parents to become more involved in their child’s learning is such a worthwhile investment.
Feature on our blog!
If you’re a Connect Childcare client and you’d like to take part in our Q&A, complete the form by clicking the button or drop a quick note to our PR manager – via amy@scribapr.com – and she and the team will take it from there.
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About the Author
Marketing Lead at Connect Childcare