How did you get to where you are?
I have been lucky enough to have experienced different roles within early years and work with children of different ages. I started my career at a children's gym. I worked there for three years before traveling to Sydney and supporting the opening of a new children's gym in 2019.
I have been working at Jesters since 2021. I started as baby room leader for one year before being promoted to deputy curriculum and wellbeing manager. After six months as deputy, I was put on a pathway to become nursery manager in April this year.
Did you always aspire to work in management?
Yes, to me leadership is about having an impact and influence on others. I enjoy working with people and part of my role is to support my team to progress in their career development. I have the opportunity to mentor students and to inspire their practice building the foundation to my overall passion which is creating magical childhood experiences.
What challenges have you faced as a young manager and how have you overcome these?
I have faced many personal and professional challenges in my career, most recently during my pathway from deputy curriculum and wellbeing manager to nursery manager.
The pathway took place over four months. At the start, I was faced with the devastating loss of my grandad, which was extremely difficult for me. My grandad is someone who played a huge part in my life growing up and someone I have always looked up too. When I plan activities and experiences with the children a lot of them remind me of my time spent with all of my grandparents.
A further challenge was finishing my final year at Anglia Ruskin University for my Foundation degree in early childhood. This involved a lot of time management and organisation so that I could reach my full potential within both areas and use what I was learning to enhance the practice within my team. I stretched myself further then I ever have before and am so proud of what I have achieved.
I also found many professional challenges along the way, one being the national staffing crisis over the winter months. This put a strain on my team and left them feeling overwhelmed and overworked. We overcame this as a team, supporting one another.
We all believe in the importance of family and kindness and sharing that with each other especially when times are tough.
What advice would you give someone aspiring to reach the top at a young age?
Surround yourself with people that inspire you and support you. To me success is about working hard and believing in yourself.
I have been so fortunate to be around some truly wonderful role models, including my parents, grandad and most recent manager, Rachel Morris and our managing director at Jesters, Alison Doherty.
Alison recently shared with me some words of encouragement that underpinned everything my parents taught me growing up. They were, “Allow yourself to feel that you have done your very best. Success is reaching your own potential and own markers in life and knowing that you have done everything you can”.