Staff & Committee

Kirsty Salmons – Lead Practitioner and Manager 

Kirsty joined Buttercups in January 2006 and has been Lead Practitioner since September 2009.

Kirsty’s Qualifications include:

• Foundation degree in Early Years Childcare & Education – Level 5
• Early Language Lead Practitioner (ELLP)
• CACHE Diploma in EYCE – Level 3
• Designated Person for Child Protection
• Paediatric First Aid
• Food Hygiene
• Risk Assessment
• Behaviour Management
• SENCO
• Basic Signing

Lauren Deeks – Senior Pre-school Practitioner

Lauren joined Buttercups in September 2011 and became the Deputy in 2019.

Lauren’s Qualifications include:

• Diploma in Children’s and Young People’s Workforce – Level 3
• Equalities Co-ordinator
• Designated Person for Child Protection
• Paediatric First Aid
• Food Hygiene
• Behaviour Management
  
• Basic Signing

Gillian Crowe – Pre-school Practitioner

Gillian joined Buttercups in September 2019.

Gillian’s Qualifications include:

• Cache NVQ in Childcare Level 2
• Paediatric First Aid
• Safeguarding/Child Protection
• Food Hygiene

Melanie Marshall & Donna Bray Ladds – Pre-school Practitioners

Melanie & Donna joined Buttercups in September 2019.

Qualifications include:

• Paediatric First Aid
• Food Hygiene
• Safeguarding / Child Protection

Robyn Owens – Pre-school Practitioner

Robyn joined Buttercups in 2020.

Robyn’s Qualifications include:

• Level 2 in childcare
• Safeguarding / Child Protection

Sally Saunders, Pre-School Practitioner

Sally joined in April 2021.

Sally’s Qualifications include:

• Cache Level 3 Diploma in childcare and education
• Basic Child Protection
• Paediatric First Aid
• Food Hygiene
• Cache Level 2 in Understanding children’s and young people’s mental health

Liz Smith – Admissions & Finance Officer

Sometimes we have extra people helping in the setting, for example work experience students, or additional staff to cope with extra demand for places. If we have other staff in the setting we will inform parents via our parent mail system.

Key Person System

Each child attending the setting is allocated a Key Person. This person will have particular responsibility for that child during his, or her time at Buttercups.

We find that this helps and benefits each child, as close monitoring and recording of information by their own Key Person will enable them to tailor the curriculum to meet the unique needs of each child they are responsible for. The Key Person will also maintain communication with the parent/carer of that child on a regular basis and be the contact person at Parent Consultations.

Committee and the status of our Pre-school

Status of the Pre-school

Buttercups Community Pre School has recently become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), a corporate body which is regarded as having its own legal entity. As a result we now have a new registration number with the Charities Commission (1194906) and have been required to re-register the setting with Ofsted. Our new setting number is 2659015.

Although there has been no change at all to the pre-school, how it is run or our members of staff, it does mean that Buttercups can no longer be rated as ‘Outstanding’, until we have our next inspection of course! This means we have had to remove our rating from our website, however, you can still view our previous Ofsted reports using our previous setting number here https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/ and type in the URN box 2659015 ).The Pre-school is also a member of the Early Years Alliance.

As a registered charity we are heavily dependent on Nursery Education Funding and the fees and charges we levy parents/carers in respect of the care and education we provide. We try to keep our fees to a minimum and do this by undertaking a number of fundraising events and activities throughout the year. Because of our reliance on fundraising we greatly appreciate your support and involvement in this area.

Committee

Buttercups is run by an elected committee of volunteers, which ensures that major decision making is in the hands of those parents/carers whose children attend the Pre-school.  These volunteers also act as our Charitable Trustees. The Committee is responsible for reviewing both policy and practice, and for the employment of members of staff. Fundraising is also a major part of the Committee’s role and responsibilities.

The Committee meets once every half term in the evening and any parents are welcome to attend and ask questions, or make comments. Details of the Committee meetings are e-mailed to parents and noted in our newsletters.

There is an Annual General meeting in the autumn term, at which the Committee for the following year is elected. Parents will be informed in good time of the meeting, as they are welcome to attend to meet the staff and other members of the Committee.

Without a committee of volunteers the Pre-school would not be able to function properly. If you are interested in joining the Committee please speak to a member of staff, or a Committee member. A list of current Committee members is displayed on the wall in the mobile. All Committee members are DBS checked and registered by Ofsted.

If you would like further information regarding Buttercups committee, please email the chair at buttercupscommittee@yahoo.com

A list of current Trustee’s can be viewed on the Charity Commission’s website here.