In recent years, we have been faced with several difficulties which have caused significant distress to not only adults but children alike. The recent coronavirus pandemic has caused the world to change significantly and there was once a time when masks and testing were not the norm in our lives.
We have been faced with the additional stresses of things such as strains of financial issues, increases in the cost of living, and being subject to a world that has the highest media presence in history.
While parents and carers do all they can to shield children from such issues, children are slowly beginning to see the implications these are having on our society. This significantly contributes to children suffering with ill mental health. Research has shown that one in six children aged as young as 5 to 16 were identified as having mental ill health in July 2021. This is a significant increase from previous years – with 83% of young people with mental health needs agreeing that the pandemic had a negative impact on their mental state.
At Monkey Puzzle, we believe that it is imperative to ensure that children are supported to reach their highest potential without significant pressure to learn, which can often lead to increased anxiety and stress in children from an early age. To encourage this, we make it a priority to create safe and secure environments for children to fully express themselves and build opportunities for children to learn through their own interests.
Over the last year, our Early Years Quality Manager, Jess, has had the pleasure of delivering training on self-regulation to our fantastic practitioners within our network. Jess expressed that “The training has been vital in equipping practitioners to proactively support children to manage their own emotions. It established the significant influences in which our children’s lives may be impacted both personally and in their role within society. The training has equipped practitioners to look beyond the symptom of these big emotions and to focus on the cause and how they can support the children to overcome those challenges”.
Our amazing teams have been working incredibly hard to support children to become resilient and to understand that is ok to feel sad and angry – teaching them that it’s how they deal with those big emotions that’s important. The children within our nurseries are big thinkers and we are so proud of that, but big thinking comes with even bigger emotions. This has been very evident in the way the children across Monkey Puzzle have been able to bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic. They have shown incredible resilience and confidence in returning to our new normal and we are so proud to have been on the journey with them, their parents, and our teams who ensure our nurseries are the ideal place for children to play, learn and grow.
Jess McCarthy
Early Years Quality Manager – Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries
Jess is one of our fantastic Early Years Quality Managers at Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries, responsible for offering leadership and guidance to our nurseries, ensuring they maintain the outstanding childcare that we deliver. A strong leader with excellent communication skills, Jess has worked in a variety of childcare roles before joining Monkey Puzzle, working at all levels within nursery settings. Jess draws from her wide experience of early years education to support our teams, building relationships and passing on her invaluable knowledge to help them to continue to drive forward for even more success.
