Year in Review with our Founder and CEO, Susan

As 2026 comes into view – we recently sat down with our Founder and CEO, Susan, for her annual review and round up.

“As 2025 comes to a close, I always take time to look back on what we have achieved, share our successes and find reasons to smile. Early years moves so quickly, and challenge us in new and different ways but taking time to look back before looking forward is essential. 

This year, our aims were consistency, reliability and safety and security – looking back at the year it’s clear we have made great progress in ensuring these themes made their way across the business.

Consistency and Reliability

  • We launched Nursery in a Box across the group, which meant live updates and better access to on demand information for our parents.
  • Hosted over 30 training events for our people including our first “Room Manger” promotion course and a whole package dedicated to the development of our “Next Level Leaders”.
  • Reviewed our internal audit process, promoting consistency and high standards of early years care and education across the group.
  • Launched “Baby Sensory” classes every Friday, in partnership with Lullababy Nottingham.
  • We launched our new “I Can” curriculum, landing at all nurseries in January 2026.

Safety and Security

  • We improved accident and incident reporting with the introduction of Nursery in a Box.
  • We continued with upgrades of our security systems, with Paxton entry and exit systems at Cherubs Kimberley, Mapperley and South Normanton.
  • We reviewed our GDPR and Cybersecurity measures and policy, ensuring the highest protection in an ever-evolving technological world.

Parent Satisfaction Survey Results

We hosted 0ur annual Parent Satisfaction Survey back in July, which showed some real improvement and alignment with the aims and objectives we set at the start of the year.

  • The meals and snacks are varied, balanced and nutritious – 97% (up 1% from 2024)
  • I trust the Early Years Educators with my child’s safety and wellbeing – 96% (same as 2024)
  • My child/ren enjoys their time at Cherubs Nurseries and is getting the best start in life – 94% (same as 2024)
  • The Early Years Educators care about and support my child/ren’s learning – 93% (same as 2024)
  • My child/ren’s nursery is well-maintained – 92% (same as 2024)
  • My child/ren’s nursery has a good range of resources, toys and equipment (same as 2024)
  • My nursery ensures all children are included – 88% (up 12% from 2024
  • I am proud that my child-ren attends a Cherubs Nursery 84% (up 1% from 2024)

Our team are finalising this year’s summary, which will be shared with parents soon.

Awards, Ofsted, Recognition and Community Impact

We were proud to be award-winning this year, recognised by DayNurseries.co.uk as a Top 20 Medium Nursery Group. Not to mention being shortlisted for two awards at this year’s Nursery Management Today Awards.

In June, Cherubs Ilkeston received their first Ofsted inspection. We were incredibly proud of the team who achieved a “Good” grading. With Inspector, Lianne McElvaney commenting on the well-organised curriculum, vast range of experiences available to the children and the strong parent partnership.

Sands, the baby loss charity, was our charity partner this year and I’m proud to say we raised over £9,000 – which we were able to match fund to over £22,000. As always, thank you to our parents for your generous donation and support of these events.

In September we celebrated a year of partnering with Kit & Kin. To date, we have swapped over 200,000 nappies to Kit & Kin’s biodegradable alternative. This doesn’t include the swap we’ve also made to their wipes and nappy sacks. 

Celebrating our People – Long Service and Recruitment

Celebrating the long service of our people continues to be something I look forward to. This year, we have celebrated some incredibly milestones of our people including:

  • Lydia Bell – 5 years
  • Chloe Wright – 5 years
  • Sammy O’Neill – 5 years
  • Megan Harris – 5 years
  • Amy Bennett – 15 years
  • Alina Tinsley – 10 years
  • Amy Smith – 10 years
  • Danielle Wilson – 20 years
  • Michelle Long – 25 years
  • Gemma Flinders – 25 years

Our people really do make Cherubs Nurseries and I am incredibly proud of what they do everyday. It really matters and we have a dedicated, hardworking and passionate team across our nurseries, leadership teams and head office. Thank you for everything you do.

Speaking of our people, we are currently recruiting across some of our nurseries. I have linked these opportunities below:

Looking Ahead to 2026

Just before Christmas, work finally started on our new nursery in Bulwell, Nottingham. Expected to complete in August 2026 and open from September. This will mark a huge milestone in our history, as we celebrate 33-years of Cherubs Nurseries with a brand new nursery and state of the art training academy for our team. Not to mention, Cherubs Bingham opening its doors (Phase 1) in February 2026 too.

As we look towards 2026, the year looks brighter than ever – and we’ll continue to work to realise our vision: To give all children the personalities, skills and experiences they need to take on the world without limitations.

I would like to thank everyone who has been part of Cherubs Nurseries this year. From our incredible Educators to our Heads of Nursery and those who work behind the scenes in our Central Support and Head Office. As we head into 2026, I would like to wish everyone all the best for the New Year ahead. We look forward to welcoming our children, families and teams back from Friday 2nd January 2026.”

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