Putting the playing child at the heart of everything we do
Hi there! I’m Karen Holmes, manager and owner of Play Academy. In the Summer of 2019, my life took a huge, exciting turn when I took on this wonderful club. Up until then, I had spent 20 years as a very happy & successful Primary School teacher. During my time as a teacher, I had the pleasure of working with many, many children across the primary age range. I also trained as a student mentor and worked alongside trainee teachers supporting & developing practice. In addition to this I was also responsible for the PSHE curriculum across the whole school, an area I am still massively passionate about.
Whilst building my career as an educator, I was also bringing up my two gorgeous sons Toby & Zach. Because I was juggling being a mum with being a teacher, I fully understand the desire parents have for quality wrap around care for children; it’s something my husband and I accessed for our two lovely boys during their primary years.
As my career progressed and opportunities were being put in front of me, I paused for a bit and realised that teaching was no longer for me. I was spending less and less time doing the things that had steered me into teaching in the first place; planning, creating & facilitating new and fun quality experiences for children. I wanted to get back to just having ‘fun’ with little people, blowing bubbles, building dens, playing boards games, enjoying the outdoors and most of all…….laughing! To allow children a comfortable, home from home space to practise being good citizens, develop key life skills and master the art of a two way conversation.
So, in 2019 I was fortunate enough to be presented with an opportunity to run my own out of school club and I can honestly say, I’ve never looked back! The first 7 months of running the club was an absolute joy. We did all sorts of fun things; things I’d missed doing as a teacher and I was able to start building on the already fabulous team of staff I had. I forged some great relationships with both our club partners and our fabulous families and we quickly got to work implementing a number of my ideas in order to take the club forward. Food is a great passion of mine and it was so much fun being able to share this with the children and the staff. I introduced a buffet style snack table that often had new foods on, foods that children might not always want to try at home, it honestly went down a treat! We also introduced food themed evenings; our Greek Taverna night definitely being a favourite! Unfortunately, the terrible pandemic that the whole world was faced with at the start of 2020 meant that Play Academy faced a rather large bump in the road.
So the past 3 years has given me the quickest, most challenging introduction into ‘how to run your own business’. There were times throughout the pandemic when I questioned whether I could do this as a relatively new business owner, however, all the way through this both my husband and I agreed that the most important thing for me was to make sure I did absolutely everything I could to keep the club open and continue to serve my very lovely, loyal families!
So yes, we’re still standing and yes it’s been tough, but I have learned all sorts of things about myself, my staff and the way in which I want to take the club forward. I suppose my biggest lesson has been, be honest, trust your heart and believe that anything is possible!
The very big cherry on the cake in April 2022 was our Ofsted Inspection followed by a report that we’re all very proud of. Click on this link to have a read……..
https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/16/2537067
So, somebody once asked me; “What makes your heart sing Karen?” and the answer to this is, standing back and watching my wonderful staff engaging and facilitating quality play activities for all our amazing children. Although I had a fabulous teaching career filled with joy, I can now hand on heart say, I was meant to do this!
