PURPLE POST July 2022

A warm welcome to the July edition of Purple Post - official photos from the Parenta Gala below!

We now have the official photos from the Parenta Gala which we are excited to share with you! But first, time to reflect and talk about our Remarkable journey so far...

It’s been almost three months since our Parenta Inspiration Conference, and we’ve all had time to reflect on why we work here and what makes it all worthwhile (remember the pillowcase task?!). We wanted to revisit what Remarkable means to us; and what being 100% Remarkable looks like. 

100% Remarkable – what does it look like?

We are all striving to be the best, and to change children’s lives - and we are taking big steps to achieve our Remarkable status. However, we still have some work to do - and a couple of areas in which we urgently need to make good headway are both focused around one thing – ‘reputation’:
 
 

• We want to (and believe we can be) THE employer of the year, for ALL (not just some) colleagues. This is what we are striving for (see image above):

“Our colleagues love to work at Parenta. They feel valued, supported, motivated and energised because they are proud to help change children’s lives.”
 
 

IMPORTANT - This is what you can do to help get Parenta’s image back to where we want it:
 
 

Please leave a positive/honest review for Parenta on the website Glassdoor during the month of August. Here is the link: www.glassdoor.co.uk – this will assist with improving our reputation, both within and outside the organisation.

Here are just a few extracts of the most recent reviews – please add your review and help us be the best!

“Good communication/regular meetings to see where colleagues are at. Help and support is always offered whenever you need it. Regular social activities bring teams and colleagues together for some fun.”

“The company culture is really good - I've never worked anywhere before where motivation and working together as one large family are so important.”

“Amazing family feel to the company, reliable teams and colleagues, the best support from managers - I feel if I ever have an issue I am not afraid to bring it to my manager, balanced work load, the ability to constantly grow in skills related to my job and also in other areas and criticism is always constructive, never negative.”

“There are loads of changes happening sometimes at the same time but we can see the positive impact. I love the fact we support children and change their lives.”

“Thank you all for being so understanding and working with me. It does make me cross when I see others use bad reviews, just because they were let go for potentially not doing what they should be at work, It's sour grapes. I can not thank you enough for being so flexible and supportive. 100% recommend.”

• 5* Google Ranking – we cannot underestimate the power of a positive Google review. We know that our current Google review rating does not reflect all our hard work and effort, so we are going to change that.

This is what you can do to help:

Can we ask all customer facing teams to request for a Google review when you have a positive interaction with a customer? If they are willing to send in a short testimonial then, please follow up with this NEW LINK: https://bit.ly/MyParentaExperience

We understand that not everyone will have a Google account, if that is the case then can we request a review on our Facebook page instead? These links are below:

In next month’s issue, we hear from “The Parenta Returners” – those colleagues who decided to leave the business but who realised “the grass is not always greener on the other side” and we have welcomed their return to the Parenta Family with open arms!

We welcome them back and look forward to hearing their stories. 

All learners on a Level 3 Childcare EYE course must have completed and passed a Level 3 Paediatric First Aid course BEFORE they reach EPA. In the past, we have used two different training providers for this – neither of which have delivered to a satisfactory standard.

Therefore, as of 1^st August, we will no longer be providing Paediatric First Aid to our Level 3 apprentices – thereby putting the onus on the learners’ employer to allow their learner to attend a relevant course near to them. This will not only be easier for the learner, as they will find somewhere local to them, but it will assist the employer with ratios and having more control over when the learner attends the course.

All employers of current Level 3 learners will be contacted by us in the near future to convey this message. Please direct any questions you may have regarding this to Charmaine Kennedy.

The Functional Skills team is growing! We have a new English and a new Specialist Skills Tutor who starts on 1^st August and a new maths tutor starting on 8^th August. With our team growing, we will be able to start new courses in September and will be able to accommodate many more learners. Exciting times ahead!

Please remember to direct all exam enquiries to exams@parenta.com
and all Functional Skills enquiries to fs@parenta.com

National Dog Day

National Dog Day is celebrated annually on 26^th August and, as the name suggests, celebrates all dogs! The date of 26^th August was chosen as that is the day the founder, Colleen Paige’s family adopted their first dog ‘Sheltie’ from the local animal shelter, when Colleen was 10 years old.

Dogs are a very important part of a family and for me personally, not being lucky enough to have children of my own, they are my fur babies.

Lots of Parenta staff have dogs so we thought it would be a nice idea to celebrate National Dog Day by holding a virtual dog show for a bit of fun and to showcase our dogs. 

There will be a rosette for winning dogs in each category.

There will be the following categories:

• Best dressed dog
• Dog most like its owner
• Muddiest dog
• Cutest dog
• Other pets pretending to be dog (not to leave other pet owners out!)

Please send your photos to me, jill.mckenna@parenta.com by 15^th August 2022. We will then put the photos into an online gallery to be judged and winners announced, although all the dogs are winners in my eyes.

The continuing adventures of the Parenta Bear

A special thanks goes to Anita Vaghji for updating us all on what adventures her Parenta bear has been up to! The bear clearly enjoys a cocktail (or two!) and Anita is showing her bear the finer things in life, including taking a ride in the Porsche! Keep the photos coming throughout the month so that we can continue to connect through our bears, even when we are working apart from each other.

KEEP THEM COMING!

July’s social activity: online game: Treasure Hunt

We had fun at our online Treasure Hunt game! Here are a few pictures, and you can find a few more on our intranet social pages here.

Well done to Rosie's team for winning!

Keep those high fives coming!

We have a winner for July – it's Tutor Beth Kelly - well done Beth! 

Don’t forget you can start voting for our August employee of the month already. Keep that Kudos coming and please give recognition for all the hard work our colleagues are doing. 

Here is last month's winner, Christoper Dale, talking to us about life at Parenta.....

“I just wanted to write to you to let you know how honored and grateful I feel for having Christopher Dale as my assessor. He hasn’t only taught me and guided me in every area of my NVQ L3, he has also given me great pieces of advice and has been truly supportive in those ‘low moments’ in which I thought I would never reach the 100% of my course. Christopher has guided me and supported my efforts in a very professional way.“

Carolina Uscátegui 

“I’m recently new to this position and have found some aspects of invoicing difficult, but I know I can raise a ticket and get a response and the help needed quite quickly. I’m happy with the outcomes and find the service to be very friendly, helpful and the information effective in being able to solve my problems.”

Lucy Deane

“Support as high quality and friendly as ever. Couldn’t manage without it!”

Breakfastclub

“Very helpful and understanding. Offered training which is fantastic!”

Oasis Nursery

“Charlotte was very helpful and accommodating with a couple of queries I had today. Thank you.”

Caroline Payne

1.     Don’t forget to use the staff intranet! It is a treasure chest of resources all ready and waiting for you to use.

2.     When sending documents to the Marketing team for creating and/or branding, please ensure that the FINAL version which has been approved and signed off by all relevant parties and line managers – including those from other teams – is sent to the team. Please ensure that the correct data with all the required fields is included as a CSV file. This will avoid re-work and delay in returning the documents back to you.

Thank you!

Resources to help us, our learners, and our settings

A reminder that all Parenta resources can be found here on our staff intranet, all in one handy place.

We publish additional industry expert advice, news articles and crafts in our free magazine and on our blog.

Here are this month’s How to Guides and documents that have been added to the staff intranet:

Baby News!

Amie Leek gave birth to a baby boy named Greyson Leek on 8^th June 2022.

Congratulations!

Parenta Magazine

Our free monthly magazine is packed with news articles and advice pieces - all of which are written to help nursery managers with the efficient running of their settings and to promote the health, happiness and well-being of the children in their care. Please do read it and send the magazine link to your contacts.