Working with Mon Ami

Mon Ami is an award-winning small group of nurseries in Lincolnshire owned and run by Samantha Lunneman and her partner Jarrod Britton. The pair opened their first nursery in Swineshead near Boston in 2002 when they were unable to find high-quality childcare for their daughter Amelia.

Since then they have opened two more nurseries, in Boston and Alford. All three have been assessed as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted while Lincolnshire’s Birth to Five Service has given Mon Ami the highest possible grading for education and welfare.

The Mon Ami ethos is to provide a calm, homely, natural environment for children, encouraging them to take managed risks and learn from the objects that surround them. All three nurseries have recently been remodelled and redecorated to provide settings that have the ambience of a home from home rather than an educational or childcare institution.

All three nurseries are housed in former residential premises and are characterised by natural fabrics, real objects (rather than plastic toys), open fireplaces, high-quality wallpaper, wood floors, muted colours, tall windows, cushions, sofas and open-ended resources.

Mon Ami employs highly trained staff, many of whom have achieved their qualifications while working for the nursery group. The company has a very lower staff turnover and is committed to providing bespoke training opportunities to all employees.

The Totem Pole

Samantha first came into contact with Mary Barlow from The Totem Pole when she attended a Beginning with Babies training course at the Kenwick Park Hotel near Louth in 2009. Mary’s ethos and beliefs are similar to those of Mon Ami and all 50-plus employees at the nurseries have now had an opportunity to undergo bespoke training with Mary, either at their own nursery or at The Totem Pole’s training and resource centre near Grantham.

Samantha Lunneman says:

“I first met Mary Barlow on a Beginning with Babies course that she was delivering for Children’s Centres and designated providers. Training sessions can be quite boring but this was quite the opposite; it was really good to have someone else approve of our ethos and beliefs.

“Mary’s training corresponded exactly with our ethos: providing a homely environment and letting children take managed risks, for example. After years of being asked to do things differently it was refreshing to find that there was an expert out there who agreed with us. It was really good to have that confirmation and affirmation. We’re now completely confident that what we’re doing is right for the children.

“We thought all the staff should have the opportunity to experience Mary’s training so we’ve taken some of our employees to The Totem Pole and Mary has done some training for the others in our settings. Since then we’ve kept in close contact with Mary and she’s visited us often to deliver training for us.

“We feel very comfortable with Mary Barlow’s ethos and ideas with regard to childcare. She’s a very inspiring trainer, especially for younger staff who come back from the training sessions really enthused about their work. That enthusiasm definitely feeds down to the children too.”