Marian joined Ladybird Lane in 2023 as a Preschool teacher, having previously worked in a Forest and Farm School setting. She is a qualified teacher with a Masters degree in Early Years Education.

Marian believes passionately in learning through play and is particularly enthusiastic about play outdoors. Marian is responsible for the Preschool group in the year before they move to school; and for supporting the manager, Meena, to lead Learning and Development.

Marian has a Key Person role and dedicates time doing fun, focussed activities with small groups of children. Marian work on early phonics, small motor skills and number games which will help children be ready for later reading and writing at school, but all developmentally appropriate within the EYFS. When not doing specific Preschool work Marian joins in the life of the nursery.

Marian works with several small pre-school groups (3-5 year olds) to extend their learning across all areas of the curriculum and is always mindful of their differing abilities and the pace at which they learn; the degree of learning may differ significantly between a summer born and autumn born child, or a child who may have an additional need, and this is always taken into account during planning so that we offer a differentiated curriculum that is inclusive for all.  Marian continues with the development of their social skills to prepare them for making new friendships and follow new routines with confidence when they leave to go to school.  She organises meetings with parents to update them on their child’s progress at least once in the academic year (more often if required by us and/or requested by parents/carers). Marian has up to 16 children in her key group.

Marian is also responsible for updating our ‘closed’ Facebook page on a weekly basis using photographs and written descriptions (provided by the children’s key practitioners) to highlight many of the focused learning the children have accessed during the week.