Artemis Childcare

Challenges

The demands placed on the nurseries’ internet connections were increasing as staff started to use tablets to record information, but consistent broadband problems left them unable to use the Baby’s Days childcare management software they were keen to adopt. When contacting their previous supplier to resolve these issues, Emma explains some of the problems they faced: “We didn’t have trouble getting through, but when we did, we always felt that as a small business our problems were insignificant. We’d be passed from person to person and problems took so long to solve or were not solved at all.”

It’s important that nursery staff can quickly access information about, for example, a child’s medication when they need to, but there were times when broadband at all three sites would be down at the same time and even when it was working, WiFi didn’t reach all of the classrooms. This made it difficult for staff to log into their systems when they needed to, and communicating with each other was difficult, let alone keeping parents in the loop. This was a cause of frustration for Artemis’s 40 employees.

Solution

Beaming have installed superfast, reliable broadband at each of the nurseries, meaning they now have the capacity to use the paperless system.

“We closed for a few weeks at the beginning of the lockdown in spring 2020, but since re-opening we can’t let parents on-site, which means that some of them have never actually set foot in the nursery. To help build trust it’s really important that we update the portal with real-time information the parents can access. With the size of our sites, we found this was inhibited by WiFi still not quite reaching all of our classrooms, so we called Beaming.” Straight away, our tech team sent out some WiFi signal boosters and talked the staff through the initial set up remotely.

On the “back end” of things, we have set up Office 365 for the Artemis team, so they can share documents across sites and the managers and directors can more easily connect with each other.

Safeguarding is a top priority, so knowing that Beaming’s connectivity is not only ultra-reliable, but super-secure, too, gives Emma and her team peace of mind. Now they know that if a problem does arise, help is just a quick phone call away. “Where we were passed from person to person when we tried to report a problem before, with Beaming we get straight through to someone who runs diagnostics and lets us know immediately what the next steps are. They take a personal approach with us that we just didn’t get with our previous provider.”

Results

With internet connectivity they can rely on and WiFi that reaches every classroom, the team at Artemis Nurseries have the information they need literally at their fingertips on tablets, and the children and parents benefit, too.

“We use our portal for planning, observation and assessment of children as well as recording daily information such as when they slept, what they have eaten and nappy changes”, Emma explains.

This means that children’s individual needs are catered to directly to help them develop: “We are able to record and share what a child is able to do now, decide what they want them to achieve next and plan out how they’ll do this.” The children have use of large screen computers in each classroom and as tech natives, it means the technology they use at home tracks through to their days at nursery.

On a day-to-day level, parents get real-time updates, “so if we put a child down for a nap, they’re able to get in touch and ask that we don’t let them sleep for longer than an hour or when we update their lunchtime food diary, the parents can plan what’s for dinner accordingly.”

The Artemis team have always recognized the benefits that technology can bring to the nursery, but the Coronavirus pandemic forced them to pick up the pace in adopting it. Emma takes part in child protection and safeguarding meetings daily, and as of 2020 this has all moved online. For this to work, the internet needs to be spot on. “Having Beaming as a partner allows us to feel confident that our applications – whether it be the childcare management system or video conferencing software – can run smoothly, securely, and won’t drop out during the day.”