Evergreen Early Years – two nursery settings in Lancashire, explain how their shared values, which they call “the Evergreen Way”, underpin their curriculum and promote the wellbeing of staff and children.
(Also included as a case study for QIP 6)
At Evergreen Early Years, we don’t see wellbeing as a separate entity, something to meet or achieve. Instead, we have a strong set of values that we call "The Evergreen Way". These are a shared set of values held by every member of our team drawn up over years of working together, based on what is important to us and what principles we value.
We believe that if we adhere to our Evergreen Way then we are valuing people’s wellbeing by understanding their uniqueness, supporting them, and providing them with a caring, respectful place to be. Our policies and plans are written from everyone’s ideas and input, no matter what position they hold within the team - everyone’s voice is heard.
Our ‘Evergreen Way’ also forms an integral part of our bespoke curriculum, ensuring we teach children our values.
Children’s emotional health is always considered, and these values run through all we do in our everyday caring, teaching, and learning. An integral part of our Evergreen Way is building relationships that are honest and trusting. By knowing each other well, and spending time together in and out of the setting, we can recognise when people may not be feeling their best and provide a listening ear, a kind word or time to talk.
Professionally, we have developed a bespoke 1:1 and appraisal system so all members of the team are given a platform to regularly discuss things that they may need support with. We also have a large and varied leadership team, so that people can identify with someone they feel comfortable to talk to. Our sickness levels are very low. We start out with very clear expectations and our team respects these and value the approaches that we have in place to support them in their health and wellbeing; these include meeting after any absence to discuss how people are and if they need anything.
When people start with us, all physical and mental health needs are discussed openly, and care plans are drawn up. We review workload and working hours regularly and are flexible with these to ensure people feel their work life balance is managed well, for example altering job roles following long term illnesses or arranging flexibility in hours. We send out regular questionnaires to the team to gain their opinions and give them opportunities to share anonymously if they prefer.
We have team members who have completed mental health first aid courses, and wellbeing training. We subscribe to magazines, publications and sites that provide articles, activities, and signposting to agencies. This information is shared with our team and families where we feel this will help.
Celebrations are a really important part of Evergreen. We love to celebrate together with regular team development days twice a year, social events, and charity fundraisers with our families. We have just recently organised an awards day, where everyone received an award specially made for them. These were shared along with kind words and looking back at all we have achieved since opening with a range of photographs, floor books and parents thank you cards, gifts and poems.
September 2024