Sue Adamson and Hopscotch Nursery
What is your business?
Hopscotch Childcare is a day nursery for children aged 0 – 8 years old, situated next to the city centre. Our aim is to offer the highest possible standard of childcare in Liverpool, something each OFSTED report always shows. The nursery has been built to accommodate three age groups. The St Anne’s Street nursery is set in a fully refurbished former primary school, so our facilities are fully accessible and perfectly suited to providing outstanding childcare.
Set up in 2004, Hopscotch Day Nursery has strong beliefs for children’s health, safety and welfare and our mission statement reflects this. Fully OFSTED accredited, Hopscotch is a traditional nursery with a contemporary approach.
We are committed to ensuring each child has the best start in life and that means at least 5 portions of fruit per day…everyday. Bringing in nutritional meals that help achieve a balanced, healthy diet is part of our daily routine. In addition to this, healthy lifestyles are also promoted; meaning fresh air, exercise and a few heaped table spoons of child development are present throughout the day. Last, but certainly not least, Hopscotch aim to be as socially responsible as possible. Recycling, car sharing, green days out and tree planting trips are just some of the ways in which we help care for both the environment and your child’s future.
Why did you start it?
I spent 14 years as a registered child-minder; I was so committed to ensuring that each child in my care stayed with me right up to school age that each time I started to develop Hopscotch Nursery, another sibling of one of the children in my care would come along and parents would plead with me to take them on. So it took a little longer to launch than I had originally planned, but I couldn’t walk away once I had committed to take care of a child. Parents need to know they have a constant level of trust and care.
What makes you unique?
At Hopscotch we value our childcare practitioners and ensure they receive regular training and operate a Key Worker system whereby each parent has a dedicated member of my team looking after their childcare, in that each parent and child has a relationship with the staff member, they are briefed by them at the end of each day to keep parents up to date on their child’s day. This allows for personal and individual care for each child and support for each parent at a time when they need it most, similar to a child minding environment. My personal standards are very high and as a mother myself; I see things from a parent’s viewpoint and accept only the best standards of care for the children in Hopscotch.
What are your plans to make the most of the Capital of Culture?
We take our children out to experience lots of culture across the year every year and in keeping with the Capital of Culture theme, at the moment we are holding a Superlambanana competition, asking for photographs of each child and parent with as many Superlambana’s as possible. The aim is to encourage parents to get involved and get out into our City with their children. Each photograph is being displayed in the nursery and there will be a prize for the family with the most pictures. We also take our children out and about in the city to libraries, museums and the likes in our 6 seater buggies – the children love going out and learning about their city as much as we enjoy taking them.
Do you have any tips?
Go with your heart and be fair and flexible to the individual needs of your customers – then the business side of things will take care of itself, remember I deal with children not products and they always come first. And last but not least, love what you do – I know all of my team certainly does!
