Become An Essential Early Years Partner and Build Nursery Partnerships That Last

In this episode of the Approaching Schools podcast, I share why relying only on public classes can keep your income unstable and how building long-term nursery partnerships can change that. 

I talk about what nursery leaders are really dealing with right now – funding pressures, staff workload, and school readiness,  and why they don’t buy “activities”, they buy outcomes. 

You’ll hear how to reframe what you do so you’re not just running sessions, but actively supporting communication, confidence, physical development and EYFS outcomes, becoming an essential part of a nursery’s provision rather than an optional extra.

With thanks to our sponsors at LoveAdmin

If you run a children’s activity business, you’ll know this already.  The hard part isn’t the sessions.

It’s everything that sits around them.  The bookings, the payments, the messages, the registers, the forms… all the moving parts that come with trying to run something properly.  That’s where our partner LoveAdmin comes in.  It’s not about being the simplest system on the market.

It’s about having the right things in place.  The kind of functionality that actually reflects how children’s activity businesses are run, and gives you the visibility and control you need as you grow.

So instead of patching things together or outgrowing your setup every year, you’ve got one system that supports you to run more efficiently and build something sustainable.  If admin is starting to feel like a blocker rather than a support, it’s worth a look…

Go to LoveAdmin.com today to get started!

Access your free ThriveHub course, exclusive to Approaching Schools Podcast listeners at https://loveadmin.com/cerys-thrivehub/

Transcript

hello and welcome to the Approaching Schools podcast. I'm Cerys Kenneally, and I help children's activity providers to build key business relationships with schools and nurseries without having to use cold calling or stalking. I want to help you earn a more reliable and consistent income while building your social impact and enriching children's lives with ease, so join me as I take you on a journey and let's make a positive difference together. If you run a children's activity business, you'll know this already. The hardest part isn't the sessions, it's everything that sits around them, the bookings, the payments, the messages, the registers, the forms, all the moving parts that come with trying to run something properly, and that's where our partner, Love Admin, comes in. It's not about being the simplest system on the market, it's about having the right things in place, the kind of functionality that actually reflects how children's activity businesses are run, and gives you the visibility and control you need as you grow. So, instead of patching things together or outgrowing your setup every year, you've got one system that supports you to run more efficiently and build something sustainable. If admin is starting to feel like a blocker rather than a support, it's worth a look. Hello, and welcome back to the Approaching Schools podcast. Today, I want to talk about something that I genuinely believe could change the stability of your business if you work in early years, because if you're relying solely on public classes right now, you already know how quickly things can change. Children move on to nursery, don't they? Families move, parents' financial situations change all the time, and numbers are fluctuating. And before you know it, you're promoting again, posting again, filling spaces again, and wondering where the next inquiries are coming from, and I need to tell you something today. The providers I see in this industry building the most stable businesses across the sector, the ones creating consistency, predictability, long-term security, they're not replacing public classes, but they're building nursery partnerships alongside them, not nursery partnerships where they pop in once, not nursery partnerships where they send one email and hope, not nursery partnerships where they become the person who just runs a session, but real partnerships, the kind where nurseries see you as part of what they do, part of their provision, part of their long-term thinking, and part of their future planning. And today I want to challenge how you think about nursery partnerships completely, because I think this is where so many amazing providers in this industry are getting stuck. Now, I often see providers approach nurseries exactly the same way they approach parents, and it makes sense, because many of you started with public classes, didn't you? You built something amazing. Parents love you, children adore you. You've grown through word of mouth in your community, but nurseries buy differently to parents. Okay, nurseries are not thinking, would the children enjoy this? They're thinking, does this strengthen what we already do? Does it support our team? Will it fit our setting? Is it going to help us deliver EYFS outcomes? Is it going to make the staff's life easier? And this matters, right? Because nurseries do not necessarily need another extracurricular activity, but they do need support, and if you understand that everything can change for you and your business, because one of the biggest mistakes providers make is approaching nurseries without understanding what nursery leaders are actually dealing with, because early years in the UK in 2026 is not an easy environment to operate in, let me tell you, funded childcare expansion has created opportunities. Yes, more families can access childcare support. Yes, and demand has increased. Yes, but nursery leaders across the country have been speaking quite openly about the pressure they're under right now, because more children through the door does not automatically remove pressure, does it? Funding continues to be one of the biggest conversations happening in early years, and providers continue raising concerns about funding rates versus operational costs, like staff wages or national insurance increases, energy bills, food costs, recruitment, retention, training, resources, nurseries are balancing exceptional care and education whilst trying to build financially sustainable settings, and then add in something else, the needs of the children themselves, because school readiness has become one of the biggest conversations happening in education right now. Out teachers are increasingly reporting children starting reception without some of the foundational skills they historically expected to see, like independence, communication development, self-care, attention, emotional regulation, language development. In fact, a recent survey found teachers estimate around 37% of children are starting school not school ready, with growing concern around communication skills and things like confidence and independence. Now let's take a quick break, because one thing I hear a lot from clubs is this: we know we're making a difference in our community, but how do we show it impact is often much bigger than registrations or attendance numbers alone. It's the confidence built, the connections created, and the role your club plays in the community around it. Inside Thrive Hub, Love Admins Practical Learning and Resource Hub, there's a course called Understanding Your Community: Measuring impact with confidence, it explores simple ways to gather feedback, understand who you're reaching, and turn everyday insight into evidence you can actually use, whether that's for funding applications, partner conversations, or helping families better understand your impact. And once you've finished, you'll also get the Community Impact Action Pack with templates and tools to help you start measuring and sharing your impact with more confidence. If you'd like to explore the course, you can follow the link in the show notes to access the free Thrive Hub course that Love Admin are offering for my listeners this month. So, some teachers even reported spending significant parts of the school day supporting basic self-care needs rather than teaching, and we know from the media, don't we, that there are concerns around screen time right now, speech and language development, attention, social interaction, confidence, and increasing complexity of special educational needs and disabilities, too. Nursery teams are often carrying huge responsibility in helping children develop those foundations before school, which means this matters massively. Because if you approach nursery saying, "Would you like my class? you might accidentally miss what they actually need, but if you position yourself as somebody who strengthens communication or supports physical development or builds confidence or encourages listening skills, develops social interaction or supports emotional expression, even now you're having a completely different conversation. And what I'm about to say might sting slightly, but I'm saying it because I care. Too many amazing providers describe themselves like this. Are you ready? I run music sessions, I teach dance, I deliver music sessions, I do yoga, I provide storytelling. Now that explains what you do. Yes, but it does not explain why a nursery might need you. So, instead, could you try something like this? I support communication development. I strengthen confidence and participation. I help children build listening and attention skills. I support physical development. I strengthen wider provision through structured enrichment. Can you hear the difference? Because one sells activity and the other one sells outcomes, and nurseries buy outcomes that are aligned to their curriculums, particularly long term. So, think about it, if a nursery leader is worried about communication delays or school readiness or children struggling with confidence or physical development or engagement. They are not sitting there thinking who in the community runs the best music class, they're thinking who helps strengthen what we already do, and that is a completely different buying psychology. So I think providers are massively underestimating something here. Because nurseries are not simply childcare settings, are they? They're balancing education, safeguarding, parent relationships, staff wellbeing, retention, funding, recruitment, inspection readiness, increasingly complex child needs and school readiness, because school readiness has become such a huge national conversation in the media. Schools are feeling real pressure too. Teachers have spoken openly about it, as I said, because they're seeing increasing numbers of children arriving needing that additional support with independence, routines, communication, and social development, so these nursery leaders are not sat there simply thinking, how do we entertain the children, they're thinking, how do we prepare children, how do we support development, how do we strengthen foundations, how do we give children the best possible start, and if you arrive creating more work for them in some way like. More admin, more complexity, you accidentally become another pressure, not a solution. So I want to talk to you about becoming essential. What does that actually mean? It means you stop becoming something extra and start becoming part of how the nursery operates, an essential partner, one who supports staff, who fits routines, who understands the nursery realities, who gets transitions, who understands staffing pressures, and gets the practitioner workload, and they make life easier as a result, not harder, because if your session creates any extra stress, you are going to become optional to that setting, but if your provision strengthens the nursery outcomes, you become valuable to them. If your support genuinely helps them, you actually become harder to replace as well, and that's where these long-term relationships come from. Okay, not by like sending more leaflets, not by trying to sell harder, but by becoming genuinely useful to nurseries. So I want you to think about this honestly, because if I asked you, what problem do you solve for nurseries right now, could you answer that quickly? Because it's not I teach dance, is it? And it's not I do music, it's not I run sessions, but I want you to really think carefully now about what problem you do solve. Is it confidence, communication, listening, physical development, creativity, emotional expression, school readiness, engagement, social development? Because when you understand the problem you solve, your messaging changes, your positioning changes, and what I see a lot is your confidence changes as well, and that's when your conversations change too. So I want you to think really long term now, okay? Because the providers building stable businesses in this industry, they're not chasing one booking, they're not thinking term by term, they're building long-term relationships. Those relationships are creating consistency for them in their businesses, the consistency is creating predictability in their income, and this predictable income is providing stable growth, and growth creates options for them, and I see in these businesses all the time less reliance on parent inquiries, less panic when numbers fluctuate, less dependence on social media algorithms, and more stability, because stability matters, doesn't it? Not just for your business, but actually for the nurseries you're approaching too, because settings themselves are trying to build sustainability, consistency, continuity of learning, strong provision, long-term foundations, and the providers who win long term understand something really quite crucial here, because nursery leaders are not buying sessions, they're building provision, and they choose the people who are going to strengthen it. So, here's what I want you to do: take your current description of your business or your partnership and rewrite it, move away from things like I run and move towards I support nurseries too, or I help settings strengthen, or I help children develop. Think about the outcomes, think about the real world support you can provide, and think about a long term partnership, because you are not just a provider, you are helping strengthen early years provision. You are helping the children, the families, the practitioners, the nurseries, school readiness, confidence, and development foundations that children carry with them into education. And when you start positioning yourself around contribution, the nurseries start seeing you differently too, so thank you so much for listening to today's episode. And if it has shifted anything in you at all about how you think about nursery partnerships, share it with another provider who needs to hear this message, will you? And if you want support building long-term nursery and school relationships, that is exactly what we do inside the Approaching Schools Academy. So, do get in touch to find out when our next enrolment is happening, and I will see you in the next episode. Thank you for listening to the Approaching Schools podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, do come and let me know in my free group for children's activity providers approaching schools, so that I can make more content like this that you'll love. You can find me on my socials at Cerys Kenneally, and my inbox is always open. I would love for you to leave a review on iTunes and hit subscribe on your favorite platform, so you can be the first to know when a new episode is ready. Until then, chat soon.