MEET THE TEAM

BEDLINGTON

BLYTH

Hayley Simpson

Hayley Simpson

Nursery Manager Bedlington

Nichola Barnes

Nichola Barnes

Nursery Manager Blyth

Nichola joined What A Hoot in January 2014 and manages our Blyth nursery. Nichola has a BA(hons) degree in Care and Education of Very Young Children and Professional Practice Studies with Early Years Professional status.

Likes playing outdoors with her two daughters. Dislikes Liquorice!

Amy Anderson

Amy Anderson

Bedlington Deputy Manager

This is Amy, our Deputy Manager for our nursery in Bedlington. She joined What a Hoot in December 2019 and has over 10 years experience working in early years. Amy enjoys exploring different countries and cultures around the world and spending time with family.

Briony Wilson

Briony Wilson

Blyth Deputy Manager

Briony joined the team in October 2015 holds a Level 4 qualification and is our Deputy Manager. Briony is incredibly organised and excellent at leading the team!

She loves holidays and dislikes cold weather!

WOO’S

Katy Buddle

Katy Buddle

Bedlington Senior Nursery Practitioner

This is Katy, Senior Nursery Practitioner in our Bedlington Baby room.
She joined our What a Hoot team in January 2022, and has 2 years experience in child care after changing career paths and gaining a Level 3 qualification EYWF in June 2022. She enjoys spending time with her daughter being crafty and creative with art supplies and cosying up watching movies!

Suzanne Wilson

Suzanne Wilson

Blyth Senior Nursery Practitioner

Suzanne is level 3 qualified and leads our baby room. She joined What A Hoot Blyth in April 2015. Suzanne is incredibly fit, she is a keen outdoorswomen and travels to work on her bike most days.

Suzanne loves going to the gym but hates moths!!!

Lydia Ham

Lydia Ham

Bedlington Nursery Practitioner

This is Lydia. She joined our what a hoot team in February 2020 when she moved to Northumberland from Reading (hence her southern accent) . She has over 20 years of child care experience. She loves spending time with her family, walking her cavapoo Maple and watching films.

Chelsea White

Chelsea White

Blyth Nursery Practitioner

This is Chelsea, she joined What a Hoot in January 2023. Chelsea has a level 3 qualification in Early years. Chelsea works in our baby room and enjoys going to the gym and going for walks with her dog. Chelsea does not like eating fish.

Yasmine Wilson

Yasmine Wilson

Bedlington Nursery Apprentice

This is Yasmine, she is the baby room apprentice and has been working with what a hoot since July 2023. She is working towards her level 3 in early years. She has always wanted to work with children and loves her job and learning new things!
Likes: spending time with family and friends
Dislikes: cold weather

Nicola Middleton

Nicola Middleton

Blyth Nursery Practitioner

This is Nicola, she has a level 2 and level 3 Early Years and Playwork and is currently studying towards a Bsc (hons) in Psychology. She loves messy play and hates bees or wasps.

Tina Andrews

Tina Andrews

Blyth Nursery Practitioner

Tina works in our baby room and holds a level 3 in childcare.
Tina creates a calm environment and all of our children gravitate towards her. Tina loves playing darts and doesn’t like the heat

Charleigh Proctor

Charleigh Proctor

Blyth Nursery Apprentice

This is Charleigh, she is one of our nursery apprentices. She is working towards her level 3 qualification.
She loves spending time with her family and doesn’t like spiders.

TWO’S

Leanne Cook

Leanne Cook

Bedlington Senior Nursery Practitioner

This is Leanne our Senior Nursery Practitioner in our Bedlington Two’s room.
She joined our What a Hoot team in April 2021, and has a level 3 qualification along with 13 years’ experience in child care. Leanne enjoys spending time with her 19 year old son, her cat Molly and her 2 dogs, Rocco and Storm. She loves being organised and takes great pride in her Two’s room.

Tegan Hindmarsh

Tegan Hindmarsh

Blyth Senior Nursery Practitioner

This is Tegan, she has a level 3 in Early Years, Tegan works in our 2 year old rooms and enjoys reading, walking her dogs and spending time with her family.

 Abbie Chrisp

Abbie Chrisp

Bedlington Nursery Apprentice

This is Abbie she joined What a hoot in May 2023 and is currently working towards her level 3 qualification. She has had previous experience working in a nursery before. She enjoys spending time with her friends and travelling to new places.

Emma Morton

Emma Morton

Blyth Nursery Practitioner

Emma is a nursery practitioner at Blyth. She joined the team in August 2018. Emma is an excellent practitioner, she is calm and patient and very respectful of the children’s choices.

Emma loves shopping and spending time with her family. She does not like the dark or moths!!

Kirsty Nichol

Kirsty Nichol

Bedlington Nursery Practitioner

Kirsty is a nursery practitioner in the Bedlington Two’s room. She joined the What a Hoot team in October 2022 and holds a level 3 qualification. Kirsty has around 9 years experience works with early years and enjoys being a part of the children’s early development. She loves spending time with family and all things disney.

Georgia Smith

Georgia Smith

Blyth Nursery Practitioner

This is Georgia she is an Early Years Practitioner and has been working with children for 4 years. She is Level 3 qualified in early years. She has always enjoyed watching children flourish from a young age. She loves messy play and encouraging the children to try new things.

Likes: Spending time with my partner and dog
Dislikes: spiders

Nicola Mckenzie

Nicola Mckenzie

Blyth Nursery Practitioner

Hi my name is nicola. I am level 3 qualified in early years and started here in October 2022. I currently work in the 2s room. I am married and have an 11 year old soon, we love going to the cinema, going swimming and taking our dog chandler for long walks. I love getting messy with crafty projects but I dislike peas and spiders.

Kelsie Cherry

Kelsie Cherry

Blyth Nursery Practitioner

 This is Kelsie, she is newly qualified at Level 3. She loves to travel with her family and make everyone laugh when she runs away from scary moths!

Rachel Moss

Rachel Moss

Blyth Nursery Practitioner

Rachel is a nursery practitioner at Blyth. She joined our team in September 2018 . Rachel is very experienced working with children who have additional needs.

Rachel loves family time and dislikes peas!!

PRE-SCHOOL

Kara Rogerson

Kara Rogerson

Bedlington Nursery Practitioner

This is Kara, she joined what a hoot in December 2021 and has over 10 years experience working in early years
Kara enjoys walking , spending time with family and has two children age 7 years and 11 month old

Abby Errington

Abby Errington

Blyth Nursery Senior Practitioner

Abby is a level 3 nursery practitioner who leads our pre-school room. Abby is very intuitive and loves bringing new ideas and making resources for the room. Abby also has lots of experience working directly with children who have profound additional needs.

She loves football, sunny holidays and dislikes bananas!

Abby Edgar

Abby Edgar

Blyth Nursery Practitioner

This is Abby, she joined What a hoot in May 2023 starting at Blyth and she has recently transferred to our Bedlington site working in our Pre school room. She has 10 years experience working with children, starting her career as an apprentice. She enjoys muddy walks with her pooch, baking and knitting.

Hannah Bloomfield

Hannah Bloomfield

Blyth Nursery Practitioner

Hannah holds a QTS in Primary Education and is also a qualified teacher supporting all ages. She loves spending time with her little boy and anything Halloween or Disney.

 Shannon Sample

Shannon Sample

Bedlington Nursery Practitioner

This is Shannon. She joined the what a hoot team in October 2022. She previously worked in a primary school for just short of 3 years working in nursery, reception and year 1. She loves spending time with her little girl, family and friends.

Jade Crowson

Jade Crowson

Blyth Nursery Practitioner

This is Jade, she is an early years practitioner and has been working with the nursery since September 2022. She is Level 3 qualified in early years. She has always had a passion for working with children since a young age. She loves her job and seeing the children grow, develop and creating a bond with each individual child.

Likes: Spending time with her son
Dislikes: Windy weather

Kacey Weatherby

Kacey Weatherby

Blyth Nursery Practitioner

This is Kacey, Kacey began as an apprentice with us and past her course with a distinction! She is now a fully qualified nursery practitioner.
Kacey likes spending time with her ittle boy, anything Disney & Harry Potter. She doesn’t like spiders!

Chloe Saul

Chloe Saul

Blyth Nursery Practitioner

Chloe joined us as an apprentice in January 2017 and is now fully qualified to level 3. Chloe works in the 2 year old room at Blyth. Chloe loves animals and has recently got a puppy called Peggy! Chloe is a fantastic practitioner and we are so proud she is part of our team.

She loves keeping fit and spending time with her family and friends. She dislikes wasps!

OTHER ROLES

 Laicey Henderson

Laicey Henderson

Bedlington Holiday Cover

Shannon Cheetham

Shannon Cheetham

Blyth Nursery SENDCO

Shannon joined us in March 2019 as an apprentice and is now the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator at our Blyth nursery. 

She loves spending time with her family and going on holiday.

Tracey Hindmarsh

Tracey Hindmarsh

Cleaning supervisor

Tracey is our fabulous domestic lead, she keeps our nursery fresh and hygienic everyday. Tracey works so hard to enable the staff to focus on planning and creating unique learning opportunities for our children. Tracey loves reading and dislikes the cold.

 

What A Hoot Blyth

Address

Albion Activity Centre, Albion Way, Blyth NE24 5BL.

Telephone

Telephone: 01670 798060

What A Hoot Bedlington

Address

Forster House, 2-4 Forster Avenue, Bedlington NE22 6EU

Phone

Telephone: 01670 798060

Learning opportunities for our staff

As well as gaining qualifications in early years care and education, all staff take part in further training to help them to keep up-to-date with current practices regarding early years care and education. We have regular team meetings to ensure continuity and consistency across the whole service.

Recruitment

We are always looking for dynamic and enthusiastic individuals to join our teams!

For information regarding current vacancies please contact blyth@whatahootdaynursery.co.uk or bedlington@whatahootdaynursery.co.uk