National awards for nursery staff

Kristina Johnson and Julie Crowther, of Mon Ami Children’s Nurseries, were named as winners at the Nursery Management Today National Nursery Awards 2017.

The awards are held annually by Nursery Management Today, a leading business publication in the nursery sector.

They aim, in its words, to ‘reward excellence in childcare and celebrate the very best people in the nursery sector’.

Last Saturday, in a glittering gala evening at the Hilton London Metropole, Kristina took the title of Operations/Regional Manager of the Year, while Julie scooped the award for Nursery Nurse of the Year.

Kristina, from near Coningsby, oversees the work of all four outstanding Mon Ami nurseries in Alford, Boston, Swineshead and Wragby, while Julie, from Louth, is the lead practitioner for young babies under the age of two at Mon Ami’s nursery in Wragby.

They received their awards from TV presenter and adventurer Ben Fogle.

“We were completely shocked when we heard our names read out as the winners, but we’re absolutely delighted as well,” said Kristina.

“These are individual awards but we like to think that they’re a reflection of the hard work and dedication of all our staff at all four nurseries. It’s great news for our business and it’s also nice to put Lincolnshire on the map at an event which was attended by early years professionals from all over the UK.”

Mon Ami was founded in 2002 and now all four of its Lincolnshire nurseries are rated outstanding by Ofsted. The latest to be inspected was the new Wragby nursery in February 2017.