My Life as Miss Claire

As most of you know I was a pre-school teacher in Portsmouth, England for 12 years. I have been working with children since the age of 14 - Summer nannying job, then full time when I left school for 2 years - then onto Highbury College where i qualified as an N.N.E.B nursery Nurse

I was the first member of staff of Craneswater Day Nursery and straight in as Deputy.

We opened with just 4 children but then it grew

The nursery first opened Jan 1990 and based in Portsmouth.
then we relocated to Henderson Rd, Eastney

We started off in one of the owners rooms in her house and as more and more children (and staff started) we over took her 4 story house.. to the point where we had to move out , so the owner bought 2 derelict houses and knocked them into one purpose built nursery.
we were open all year round, just days off for Christmas and stated bank holidays and open from 8am-6pm.. I did 8-6 - even tho my shift finished at 4..i did 2 hrs of admin , paperwork and reports...

My room was for the 3-5 year olds.. I started off with 4 and twelve years later I had 25 in my class each year.

I didn't want the children calling me Miss Kelly (as I was known then) and I didn't want them calling me Claire either.. I wanted personable but still teacher status so to mix the two - Miss Claire was born

All children had to leave me to school by 4-5 yrs old knowing how to read, write, do basic math & science - this became official in the late 90s when nursery vouchers for parents came into action and all nurseries had to pass OFSTED inspections and high levels of education for 'my' age group. I was in charge of the OFSTED process and we passed with flying colors every year for the years I was running the nursery

Each day we had lessons planned, covering all four areas of education PIES (Physical, Intellectual, Emotional and Social) and it was all done through fun and play - every child that I had in my room LOVED to learn, through the way that I did it.. they all aspired to get the infamous smiley face on there work lol

As well as running the pre-school room - I was also in charge of the whole nursery as well.. we had 5 rooms - baby room (3mths-12mths) walking baby room (12mth-18mths) , Toddler room (18mths-2yrs), nursery room (2-3) and then my room. each room had the staff ratio to children in the room BUT I got sick and tired of hiring wannabe child carers who were filling in time.. I needed serious people to work with children and work in a nursery.. 

 So after much thought  I decided to train and qualify myself as an NVQ assessor (National Vocational Qualification) this system was/is similar to apprenticeships, work training through agencies.. The person studied, trained, the same as college level but all on site. All work (written and practical) set by the NVQ was assessed by me.. levels 1, 2 and 3.. I decided when they passed, failed, moved on, and then ultimately being employed.. I hired and fired so many over those past 12 years till I had a good team of dedicated nursery nurses.

So a pretty hectic life for one person.. 25 children to teach and 15 members of staff a year to train and qualify too, as well as run the nursery as a whole.  

From the first year I did music concerts for the children to perform for their parents, we hired a church hall in Portsmouth and they children did an hour long performance - using normal carols, to modern Christmas songs, and all dressed up costumes that were made by the owner. I even did solos at the end of each concert with the children as background too.. 

This stopped when we moved to the new building, as there were no local church halls for me to use, so I had to come up with another plan..and this I did...

The end Leavers BBQ...more of that in a moment

The biggest movie each summer, trips to the beach, Theater trips including "Rod, Jane & Freddy, Playbus, Pantomimes but our ULTIMATE trip was my last one in 2001..

So just a little bit of what I used to do - But for 12 years I had 25 children aging from 3 - 4 1/2 in my room (just me btw - and a helper) and every year I lost about 12 of them

Also every year I organized all the emergency services to come and talk to the children (with vehicles) police, Ambulance and Fire.. the kids LOVED this

Every year we had a change over, the moving up of children of each room to the next and we made it the end if July. This was when my older children left me to go onto school (and most of these children had been at the nursery since they were 3 months old too - VERY emotional..So I started the Leavers BBQ - the parents made the food and we had a huge party, all parents, staff & children..

Now recognize the costumes?..Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance "Feet Of Flames" Costumes I made too, as well as teaching them the moves, the songs and they LOVED it.. biggest decision was choosing the Michael every year..

So for about a month, all you could here was this in my room , they were perfect every time they did it and cried every time they did it for their parents too xXx

now the most scariest but warmest thing of all is I have alot of my children are still with me now.. on facebook, they make up 50% of my contacts..

I have my kids still around me and it's wonderful - they are now at college, Uni, married, with children but all of them remember me and they are all successful in what they are doing.. feels good that i gave them all a great start in life and that they are all big achievers too

I set up a group page for them and I loaded up 400+ photographs for them, and most have reconnected with their first friends / girlfriends / boyfriends..its totally brilliant

Love you all loads x

Had to load this one.. a few months I reconnect with one of my girls.. she was in my last class and we were chatting and she wanted one of these x