An Oldham nursery that opened three weeks before the first national lockdown has celebrated its first birthday after the owner paid staff out of her own pocket to keep them on.
Shine a Light Day Nursery, run by 52-year-old Jane Marsh, reached the milestone today, March 2, after a turbulent year.
The new childcare facility in St Phillip's Drive, Royton, was forced to close just three weeks after its opening as a low number of key worker children made it impossible to keep going.
Mrs Marsh described that moment as “devastating”.
She said: “We were two weeks in and everything was going really well, we had really small numbers because we’d just opened but we were growing nicely.
“Then we started seeing the news.
“We were contacted the week leading up to the announcement to say it was very likely that we would only be able to open for the children of key workers, and because we didn‘t have many key workers we couldn’t afford to stay open.
“It was absolutely devastating.”
Mrs Marsh, who has worked in the childcare sector for 22 years, was forced to shut down the nursery she’d spent a year perfecting.
This is her first time owning a business, as well as managing it, putting even more on the line for the devoted mum.
Closing wasn’t the only blow she faced as none of her staff were eligible for furlough.
She added: “My girls started at the beginning of March, so because they weren’t on payroll at the end of February they weren’t eligible for furlough.
“I wanted to keep them on, it was hard finding people and I needed them with me.
“They shared my passion and I wanted them on board so I paid their wages out of my own pocket.
“We’ve really tried to find staff that reflect what we feel we try to provide and they’re amazing.”
Mrs Marsh is dedicated to looking after her staff, doing what she can to make them feel valued for their hard work.
She keeps a wellbeing basket in the staff room, with small treats and tokens to help her workers take care of themselves and stay positive.
The site also has a yoga room available for the older children, with plans to open that up to local mums when restrictions are eased.
Although coronavirus has given the nursery a rocky first year, the team are confident that things are on the up for them.
Mrs Marsh said: “It’s just turned out, we’re getting a great reputation and a lot of our enquiries are coming from word of mouth now.
“It’s not been easy, there were lots of sleepless nights, but really it couldn’t have gone better, we’re made up.
“There were times when we were very close to making a decision to close but that passion in me just made me think ‘I can do this’.
“We just feel like we’ve turned a corner from the amount of enquiries.
“We have space for 69 children a day and we’re a third there now.
“Hanging in there and just having the belief and passion to keep going after a lot of sleepless nights has worked out.
“I’ve kept some great girls in employment through a really difficult time. When they couldn’t get furlough it was panic stations but here we are.”
For more information, visit the Shine a Light Day Nursery website.
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