Children’s Mental Health Week: Billy Bears Nursery

Exploring how our nursery Billy Bears ensures children’s mental health is taken seriously.

Promoting mental health awareness in childhood is crucial, as early intervention and support can significantly impact a child’s long-term well-being. By creating a dialogue and offering resources, Children’s Mental Health Week aims to contribute to a healthier and more understanding society that prioritizes the mental health of its youngest members.

As an organisation that prides itself on our work with children and youth, we sat down with our partnering Nursery in Solihull: Billy Bears.

They have recently gone under a marketing refresh at the Nursery, with the implementation of new uniforms, a new logo and new assets to have around the Nursery for staff, parents and most importantly the children to enjoy!

Speaking with Natalie Richards the Nursery Manager, we wanted to highlight the changes at Billy Bears and how important these updates are in terms of boosting mental health in the working environment.

• In almost under a year you’ve changed things around at Billy Bears with a new Logo and uniform, implemented a new Curriculum a most importantly: a high Ofsted rating… How has that helped you and your staff mentally?

The whole team are relieved to have gotten through the last year. We believe it has made the team stronger and more determined than ever to succeed and make Billy Bears thrive. We all feel valued and are proud to work for the company, we feel mentally strong and will continue to grow. We feel our workloads are manageable and we have reduced stress.

• Have you seen any changes in the children at the nursery since the remodelling?

The children have adapted really well to all of the changes that have been made, they are enjoying exploring and learning with the new equipment and toys. I personally do not feel the children have been affected by the past year because we have such a strong dedicated team and they have continued to provide opportunities for each child on a daily basis. The children are at the heart of everything we do, and they have continued to thrive.

• Why is awareness of children’s mental health so important?

We believe it is so important for children to have a happy and safe environment to learn in, this encourages them to have good mental health which helps them to develop the resilience to cope with whatever life throws at them and helps them to grow into well-rounded young adults. Having good mental health helps them build positive relationships as well as being sociable, improving behaviour, helping them be critical thinkers and having good communication skills.

• What is the focus for Billy Bears for 2024?

Our focus for 2024 is to continue increasing our numbers and taking on more staff. Our main focus will be on teaching and learning so we can continue to improve on the children’s learning whilst implementing our new curriculum.