Celebrating one year with a civic award

April 18, 2017 | Kelly Salambasis

More2childcare Nursery which is in Greenwich is celebrating its first birthday with a Business Award presented by the Royal Borough of Greenwich. One of three winners in the category, the Civic Award recognised More2childcare for their “outstanding contribution to the social, economic and physical wellbeing in the Royal Borough”.
Officially registered by Ofsted on 1st April 2016 the social enterprise nursery (set up as a Community Interest Company) seeks to pioneer new approaches to flexible working to support working families. Run by 3 local Mum’s and Business Women – Kelly Salambasis, Eve Daniels and Glenda Alexander who know the difficulties first hand of combining family life and a career, it seeks to offer solutions with a range of childcare options available to parents. It operates out of the buildings to the rear of the Forum in Greenwich (off Trafalgar Road) and has just acquired additional space there to increase its capacity from 68 to 80. This first year has seen rapid growth and exciting developments to meet local demand. These have included:

• Creating a second garden space in a previously unused area at the back of the building. The children enjoy both gardens fully equipped with mud kitchens and space to explore, dig, plant and play.
• Recently acquiring extra space within the building to create a distinct baby unit with 12 spaces and an additional separate space for 16-24 month olds.
• Sports sessions for under 5s encouraging agility, balance and coordination in readiness for Primary School and to help keep Greenwich’s children active and healthy.
• A busy work hub/hot desking facility that has facilitated flexible and self-employed working whilst children are using the nursery across the corridor
• Popular crèche sessions for families who need more ad hoc and flexible care and don’t want to commit to a regular space.
• A teacher led pre-school room offering completely free 15 hour places (subsidised by the nursery)
• Creating over 26 jobs at the nursery – 92% of those being flexible and/or part-time to help with family commitments as well as providing employment to 3 members of staff after long-career breaks to raise their families
• Over 50 families benefitting from a family first aid courses offered at the nursery

Kelly Salambasis, Director commented on the award and the last year. “We are so happy to have been recognised by the Royal Borough of Greenwich at the Civic Awards. The large empty rooms we took on just 12 months ago that are now full of children and staff are testament to the vision and hard work of everyone who has been involved in the business. The Awards are the icing on the cake.”