Twenty Incredible Years of Childcare
We love celebrating birthdays at Snapdragons, in fact, we love them so much that everyone in our team has an extra day off on their birthdays to show them how much we appreciate them. Now we're gearing up for a birthday that's really special to all of us. It's ours!
Twenty years ago, Snapdragons Nurseries Ltd was born in a farmhouse in Atworth, Wiltshire, and we haven't looked back. Since January 1998, Snapdragons has grown steadily from one small village nursery to a thriving family of eight in Wiltshire, Bath and Bristol. Back in 1998, there were just two children in attendance on the opening day and now there are over 1,100 children attending a Snapdragons nursery every week and many thousands more who have been part of our family over the last twenty years.
What else have we achieved in all those years? Well, we've gained multiple Outstanding Ofsteds and hold national nursery industry awards from Nursery World and Nursery Management Today; we've achieved the highest gold standard Food For Life Served Here award from the Soil Association; we're part of the Pickwick Learning Teaching Alliance. We've trained apprentices, under-graduates and graduates, encouraging and supporting them to further their careers. We've hosted students from all our local colleges and universities and given placements to trainee Norland Nannies from Bath and Japan. Our teams have attended hundreds of training courses to ensure their knowledge is current and relevant: First Aid, Food Safety, Safeguarding, Leadership and Management, Forest School and Nutrition as well as every aspect of child development and early years education. We've built two purpose-built nurseries and converted a farmhouse, a girls' school, a language school, a veterinary college, a church and a conference centre into Snapdragons Nurseries. We still employ five of our original staff, all now holding senior management roles and sharing their expertise.
So, although it's only Snapdragons Atworth who can genuinely claim the 20-year party hat, everyone, from our wonderful team of employees, through our unique and incredible nursery children, to their supportive (and discerning!) parents, can all celebrate the years of knowledge and experience that have helped to make us, we think, a very special family of nurseries. Happy birthday to us!
