Magic of Childminding

Small settings, big learning, real connections.

Coram PACEY
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Magic of Childminding: Stella

Spotlight on Stella

Stella is a trustworthy, dependable, gentle and caring professional. She is an early years and special educational needs and disability practitioner and an Ofsted registered outstanding childminder; and the director of a large childminding setting in Manchester. She is married and a mother of three children.

Stella has over 23 years’ worth of experience working in various educational and care settings in varying roles such as, a teacher, nursery and pre-school practitioner, church – children with special educational needs and disability (SEND) teacher, SEND outreach worker, deputy service manager and girl child education facilitator among other roles.

"I chose to become a childminder to fulfill my own unique knowledgeable expertise calling as an early year’s professional educator and to build strong academic foundations for early years children and preparing them to achieve their potential and have better life chances. I wanted to close the gap in SEND childminder provision and I wanted to offer a smaller and one-on-one individual early health, education, nurturing, care and safety provision for children who cannot settle, learn and thrive in other larger settings."

Stella

An inclusive, safe and supportive environment

Stella offers quality provision which upholds and implements both the national and local early educational objectives – ‘Best start in life’. An Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ childminder, Stella’s setting places the children’s safety and welfare at the heart of everything they do.

Stella maintains a caring and warm-hearted atmosphere that is safe, loving, secure and stimulating learning environment to develop the whole unique child. An exceptionally inclusive environment, she carefully removes all forms of learning barriers including ‘Silencing and Silences’ thus promoting the voice and the rights of the whole unique child, reducing inequalities, promoting and improving life chances from a young age.

"The magic of my setting means closing the gap for the children and families whose education, care and safety needs are not being met. It means
closing the gap in SEND provision and removing all forms barriers to children's learning."

Stella

A special setting

“Stella has been absolutely amazing with my boys. I first sent my older son to her when he was a baby, and he did so well with him that choosing Stella again for my youngest was a no-brainer”- Parent

Stella’s setting offers an inclusive, warm, family‑centred approach and a commitment to high‑quality care setting. It is well-furnished with a carefully selected range of high quality learning resources for both outdoors and indoors. She offers a blend of structured learning, creative activities, and free play that encourages confidence, independence and curiosity. And great outdoor trips!

Stella’s has built a specific curriculum with core areas of development: early speech and language, early sound awareness and development, early social and emotional development, early literacy, maths and writing skills development, early science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) development and early ‘good levels of development’, supporting the child and the whole family. She works closely in partnership with parents and other relevant agencies for specialist input and support.

Mentoring and giving back

Stella provides support and opportunities with the apprenticeship programme for young people and adults, who want this pathway for their career development enabling them to learn on the job and to attain their early years practitioner’s qualification.

She has performed the role as a SEND support childminder for other childminders and has provided high quality peer support to improve practice within the local community.

"It is magical to see children arrive to my setting with few words, then start to grow, develop and master life skills and desirable knowledge. It is rewarding to see the children start to challenge you in conversation and displaying their communication skills and thinking critically - I love this growth. Some have speech delays and are on a list waiting to be be seen by speech and language therapists, yet during that period of waiting my intervention has helped them gain speech and language and be ready for school without specialist intervention."

Stella

"Stella is an incredibly talented and experienced childminder, with years of dedication to education and care. Not only does Stella provide exceptional SEND provision to children who would otherwise struggle in larger settings, she is determined to help close the gap and give all children the best start in life. Among her many accolades, I am proud to have awarded Stella the PACEY Regional childminder award for the Northwest, she is a truly inspiring childminder."