Kim Stabler - What's Going On at Woodford (1/2) By Cilla

(1/2), (2/2).

Kim Stabler doesn't just enjoy her job; she loves it. As Area coordinator for Hull City Council Crèches, she's based at Woodford Leisure Centre but manages the children's care facilities at Woodford, Ennerdale and Costello Leisure Centres in Hull. She's a lively, smiling mother of 3 girls and has worked in childcare since she was 21, when her first daughter started at nursery school and she began as a volunteer. These days, her first daughter (now 23) is studying at Hull University to be a primary school teacher, her 19 year old is a travel agent and the youngest at 14 is still at school.

Kim's worked at Woodford Leisure Centre for 16 years, starting as a crèche assistant, progressing to Supervisor and has been in her current job as Area Coordinator for the past 5 years. All 3 crèches that she manages are OFSTED registered so Kim's job is to maintain the OFSTED standards as well as managing the working teams of staff. 'It's a nice job. I've always enjoyed working with children.

I'm lucky to be working with really good, motivated teams - it's like a family, really, such a good atmosphere and everybody helps one another'. Kim is working hard to provide even more useful and positive resources for children and their parents and carers. 'The crèche offers children free play - where they have the opportunity to make their own choices about how they spend their time. Some play is, of course more structured'. In January this year she introduced a new monthly event at Woodford called Healthy Parents, Healthy Kids. Kim says; 'After the introduction of the Every Child Matters 10 year strategy, I asked if parents thought they'd benefit and it's been a real success.

'It's like a drop in centre for parents and carers to come for advice. It's hands-on and friendly - with plenty of toys for the children to play with! As well as raising awareness of what services are available in the city, each month there's a specific topic covered; in March parents were offered car seat checks, this month it's story telling. There's also a resident Health Visitor in attendance each month - no more queuing for the scales!' 'We also offer free vouchers for several activities such as aerobics and swimming - taster session for parents or children. There's so much going on - we just need people to know about it!'

Continued .... Next Page (2/2)

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