In January 2021 two Bolton Ladies, Mandy Worsley and Julie Robinson had the passion and drive to support children after working in health and education respectively for the past 25 years.
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hildren in their care were greatly affected during the Pandemic. Julie, the owner of two Bolton nurseries, had come up with a concept with five other local nurseries using a dinosaur called Wellasaurus, which had been used to encourage children to return to the nursery during the pandemic and afterwards. A fun way to help them feel safe singing the Wellasaurus song. Julie approached Mandy, whom she has worked with before to deliver health and well-being support and asked her to form a partnership looking at how to incorporate mindfulness into the daily lives of little children. This led to Julie and Mandy setting up the business Mini Minds Matter UK in 2021 during COVID 19, after identifying an increased need to support pre-school-aged children, parents, and carers during this challenging time. They began to write their first book and Wellasaurus gained 12 more friends, such as Happyasaurus, Kindasaurus, Uniqueasaurus and Strongasaurus to name a few. Julie is a qualified teacher and nursery owner with over 25 years of experience in the education sector Julie looks at the curriculum for the early years and takes a holistic approach to care with a focus on well-being, with Mandy’s 30 years of knowledge and skills as a Qualified Paediatric nurse, in health and social care, this enabled them to then formulate the Mini Mind Approach. In a year, four books have been written to support the approach and the programme rolled out to over 30 50
LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE
partners including nurseries, schools, after-school clubs, farm schools, special needs schools and women’s refuges locally and internationally in Florida USA. They have received awards, reached best-seller status for their books, and kept the cost affordable. They also secured sponsorship from a local business to part-fund the annual fee making it accessible to charities, childminders, and foster carers. They would love to build more links with small businesses that feel they may like to support their local school nursery or carer to have access to this award-winning approach. The Mini Minds approach has been incorporated daily, for 12 months now within Eagley School House Nursery, and has been identified by OFSTED in the recent inspection as ‘life changing’ as it enables children to embed skills to support emotional intelligence to cope in Modern Britain’. To have the Mini Minds approach validated in this way is completely rewarding. If you would like to connect with Mandy and Julie and consider sponsoring your local school, nursery or early years provider they would really love to have a chat with you: E Mandy@minimindsmatter.org.uk E Julie@minimindsmatter.org.uk Follow them on social media and LinkedIn to see the wonderful work in action changing children’s lives in Lancashire, further away in the UK and even in America. They have big plans for the next 12 months and hope you will follow their journey. F @minimindsmatteruk I minimindsmatteruk www.minimindsmatter.org.uk www.lancmag.com
