Jennys Little People

About Me

My name is Jenny Leatherland and I live with my husband and my youngest child. I have 3 children, my eldest, 27, is a year 2 teacher and my son 23, is a welder and my littlest is 9 and a fully fledged member of our little team.
I am a Ofsted registered childminder and have 16 years professional childminding experience and 28 years experience as a working Mom myself (I left my oldest son with a childminder) so I understand completely, how important it is that you feel comfortable and confident with any childcare setting. My services offer a real home from home, caring environment where children are made to feel safe and loved and so are able to develop and learn effectively in a fun and family orientated surrounding.

I am very privileged to say that I have fantastic working relationships with the parents of the children in my care and we work together on developing skills such as self confidence, speech, social interaction, play, academics, toilet training, appropriate behaviour and school readiness amongst many other things. I’m also extremely happy to say my parents all have great relationships with each other, it’s cheesy, but we are all very much like a huge family.
Feel free to ask for references from my parents, they’d all be more than willing to give you a “rating” for me, which, to me, is the most important rating out there!!

I follow the guidance of the EYFS and make daily natural observations to help children achieve their next steps in order to get them school ready. The nursery/reception team at my local school always know when they get one of “Jenny’s Little People” and I have a brilliant, long standing relationship with that school.

My children are high achievers and have been mostly straight A students (well the oldest two obviously but we have high hopes for the littlest one), respectful and loving and they also have had great relationships with the children in my care, my eldest was my registered assistant when she lived at home, she graduated from The University of Birmingham after studying psychology and is a bachelor of science. She is currently a teacher and is extremely excited about her career path, she eventually wants to specialise in the area of autism within mainstream education. My eldest son is currently a Welder and is also in education to gain his certificates in his chosen profession, he’s very excited and determined to make the most of his career, our youngest is doing fantastically at school and when he’s home he’s there, in the thick of it, with the kiddies, playing his little heart out with all of his little friends.
I strive to be a family run setting for families, with true family values for the children in our care, somewhere they truly feel at home, welcomed and loved. We are not, nor try to be, a day nursery.

We offer a loving environment for children, who learn naturally through interactive, mostly child led play. We have so much fun on a daily basis and offer an extended family to the little ones (and their families) that we care for.

Education is important to me and I have always taught my children naturally and at their own pace (my 9 year old has been a fluent reader for over 4 years) with support and believe that a warm loving upbringing goes hand in hand with a good learning ethic.

I am very flexible for my parents and always try to make myself available for any emergency care requirements (ie school closures) we managed to remain open during the pandemic with no COVID cases in my setting, due to our rapid changes in routines and regimes surrounding cleaning, hygiene, general risk assessments and dealing with children’s illnesses.

Please feel free to get in touch, I now only offer out of hours visits for prospective parents, after COVID hit I changed the rules and my parents have opted out of changing them back and I’m all for my parents opinions. I do have a prospectus that can be emailed or took home to read at your leisure and have even done virtual tours of my home.

I offer settling in sessions (2 hour slots, no more than 3 sessions) free of charge so that we can get to know one another. With an assessment at the end to ensure that everyone is happy with how a little one has settled in. If these sessions haven’t been enough to settle a little one in, more will be offered at the usual daily rate or I will actively help you to look for a setting which may work better for your child.

My home is situated in a quiet crescent, away from main roads and there is ample, safe parking available for parents so that children can be placed safely into cars. I live near many quiet parks and within a pleasant walking distance to a very friendly playgroup.

My home is safe and fully child friendly. The children have a room completely dedicated to their needs full of toys and activities, tables and chairs for meal times, cooking, colouring and creating or just some good old fashioned 'messy playtime' we also find ourselves in the kitchen planning and creating our meals or just making some cookies and cupcakes for the fun of it, the children also have their own toilet facilities. My home has a large fully enclosed back garden, with a shed full of different outdoor toys and activities, we also have a mud kitchen and large apparatus to explore.
We provide a daily journal for children under 12 months old that we fill in daily with the children's adventures and pictures of fun moments and encourage our parents to join in and write anything they like in there too. We also provide a monthly newsletter with all information, birthday dates, competions and a monthly calendar which lets you know what the children will be up too.
I think that my parents opinions are the most reliable sources of information and the reviews that are on my profile are from genuine parents of children that are either still in my care or I have cared for, NOT from other childminders. All of my parents are willing to be contacted as references.

We are a non smoking family.
We have a 3 year old dog, a beagle named Buddy who does not have access to the children in any way.
We did provide home schooling for children whose schools closed due to the pandemic, so if this ever happens again, as long as you can provide the tech, we provide the support and worksheets.