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In our report, Opening the Door to the Baby Room: Learning from the Experiences and Perspectives of Baby Room Educators and Nursery Managers (https://thebabyroom.blog/report-2/), we learned how a strong baby room team culture is foundational for baby room educators to deliver quality care. In this blog post, we spotlight how The Learning Tree Nursery develops a strong team culture in their baby room.

A team culture of reflection, trust, and honesty

The Learning Tree Nursery, located in Cornwall, has one baby room with six babies. Their dynamic and passionate baby room team is composed of two full time staff, alongside the nursery manager, Kerry Millington who offers support as needed. Zoe, the baby room leader, has worked at The Learning Tree for 5 years. She found her niche in the baby room and has really thrived in her practice with children under the age of two years old. Immy, an apprentice in the baby room, started at The Learning Tree Nursery in July 2025 and has worked closely with Zoe to grow her baby room practice.

The baby room team culture at The Learning Tree Nursery developed intentionally over time and is rooted in reflection, trust, and honesty. Reflection guides the practical work of the team, with Zoe and Immy planning activities focused on the unique needs and interests of each baby. Then, after carrying out the activities, the team steps back to consider how it went and what they would change for next time. This process is cyclical, nurturing a mindset of continuous reflection in their baby room.

Working in the baby room is physically and emotionally demanding. Kerry described that in order to have a warm, supportive, and sustainable baby room, educators need to be honest with how they are feeling and trust a team member to step in and offer support. In our report, a participant described this as:

‘Recognising each other’s fullness…. So, if you recognise that a child perhaps isn’t going to sleep for somebody and you can hear the change in the voice and you think, “I’ll take over for 5 minutes, you go over and play with the sand.” It’s recognising that we each have different levels of fullness. It could be something from home. It could be the day. It’s supporting each other, and don’t let somebody struggle. You step in or say, “I need help.”’

To hold space for that honest communication to take place, the baby room team at The Learning Tree have daily emotional check ins. In this space, educators can share if they’ve been unwell, or if they’re feeling drained. This holds space for support to be put in place. As Kerry described, ‘It’s okay if someone isn’t okay, and we will work together to get there.’

Working with the challenges

One of the largest challenges of developing a strong team culture in the baby room is time. Kerry described how there is always something to do or prepare when working with babies, whether it’s changing a nappy, preparing a bottle, or getting ready for the next activity, making it incredibly hard to carve out time to reflect together. To combat this, the baby room team has a daily huddle every morning before the children arrive. This is a space to connect about how they want to work together to tackle the day ahead and champion the individual needs of the babies, setting the tone for what’s to come.

Inevitably, teams will face conflict from time to time. Working in the baby room is demanding. Educators have to show up day-in and day-out for their children, families, and team. Because of these pressures, it’s important to face any tensions that arise head on instead of letting them fester. Kerry described the importance of reflecting together regularly on the team dynamic, communicating with each other about what may have gone wrong, and figuring out the best way to move forward, together. This approach cultivates an atmosphere of mutual respect, which is further nurtured by an attitude of appreciation. When it comes to team culture in the baby room, Kerry ended on the importance of saying thank you: ‘Say thank you every single day to every member of staff. Appreciate your team and offer encouragement. Without them, you cannot have a successful nursery.’

Here are some tips for cultivating the team culture in your baby room:

• Regularly hold time and space for baby room educators to connect with each other. Having time at the start of the day to come together about their wellbeing, what needs to be done for the children, and how they can achieve it sets the tone and expectations.
• Work from a space of reflection, trust and honesty, and think through how your baby room team can cultivate these traits in a way that is meaningful to them. Moreover, reflect on if there are any other values that you want to be the bedrock of your team culture, and how you can ensure that is in place.
• Keep open lines of communication between team members to address tension as it arises. Come from a place of understanding and mutual respect to sort through any issues so you can show up the next day for your team, families, and children.