Helping Hands

About Me

My name is Gail and I’m an OFSTED registered childminder living in Kingswinford.
I was awarded Good in my last inspection (oct 2022).
I am happily married with two children aged 20 and 15. We moved to a larger house in 2013 due to the childminding business growing and we needed more space, and more toilets!!!.

I am a Network Childminder and hold my Level Three Diploma in Childcare, Level 3 SENCO and a foundation degree in Early years. I am also accredited so I can offer free nursery places for Time for twos, and 3 and 4 year olds and more recently the 2yr old funding from April 2024.

I am also a childminder mentor. I enjoy helping others start on the path of childminding!

I have also over the past 18 months (may 2024) been employed by DfE in a covid recovery programme for early years as an Area Lead mentoring and supporting childminders across the country. The support has all been online and has been a very rewarding journey for both the minders I’ve helped along the way and my own personal journey.

I Was awarded a scholarship in August 2013 for academic achievements which I was very proud of. Hard work does pay off!

I love childminding which I find very rewarding and my children love meeting and playing with the children in my care.

I live very close to local areas such as Kingswinford, Dudley, Wordsley, WallHeath, Milking bank, gornal and sedgely .

My home has been inspected to ensure It is safe for all the children and I regularly do risk assessments in both my home, garden and any outings I take the children on.

My recent move has been for the benefit of not only my family but for the childminding children too. I now have a downstairs toilet and a very large living room which leads into a large dining room and additional play area for the children, and from this room continuous access to my kitchen and rear garden. The garden has been landscaped to make the environment both safe and enjoyable for your child with areas designated to be shady as it is a south facing garden. We have returfed the lawn using artificial grass. The downstairs areas available for childminding are airy and spacious allowing lots of flexible space for fun activities.

We have recently added an outdoor den / sheltered space that is multi functional and we use all year round with the children.

I work within the Early Years Foundation Stage ensuring all children are involved in daily routines and activities geared towards developiong their Creative and Physical development, Personal,social and emotional development, problem solving,numeracy,knowledge and understanding of the world and communication language and literacy.

We do library visits aswell as local parks and outdoor settings.

Both myself, my husband and my son have enhanced crb checks and I have just retook my Paediatric First Aid certificate and child Protection course.

The back garden is secure and the artificial lawn is also a great sensory resource too which is great for babies and children with additional needs and as the children cannot pull the grass and try to eat it, it also offers a safe environment too.

From october 2012 my mom who has a background in working within the NHS as a care worker with the mental Health registered as an assistant suitable to work with me. I have also two years ago taken on another assistant to offer more flexibility although both assistants work opposite days to each other.This is a beneficial move for all concerned, not least the children who already know both assistants very well.

I am registered for overnight care and do currently have a couple of children for the occasional night to help with parents unsociable work hours.

Safety is always paramount and as such there are full risk assessments in place to support this.