Highworth Childminder - About Me
My name is Maxine Apps and I live with my husband Simon,
a PR &
publicity photographer and my son who was born in March 2005. Living
with us is our border collie, who is very friendly and excellent with
children. We also have 11 ducks that live in
their own enclosure in our garden and tropical fish that live in the house.
My husband and I have three other children between us from 11 to 16 years of
age.
We are a family of music lovers. The children are learning a number of
instruments including drums, electric guitar, piano, flute and recorder. My
husband also plays the electric guitar and the piano and I dabble with the
piano too. My husband and I have sung with both Highworth and Swindon Choral
Societies in recent years. We listen to a huge range of music from classical
to rock and everything in between.
Prior to childminding I spent 15 years working for Nationwide Building
Society. Firstly in the branch network and, for the last five years at their
Swindon head office. I worked as part of their training team and achieved an
NVQ Level 4 in Training and Development.
Since becoming a childminder I have achieved a Level 4 qualification
'Certificate in Early Years', a level 3 qualification 'Certificate in
Childminding Practice, a level 3 qualification
entitled Safeguarding Children, which relates to child protection, and a
level 2 qualification Certificate in Equality and Diversity.
In June 2006, Trio accepted me as a Network childminder, which means that I
will be visited regularly by a co-ordinator to ensure that I am working to
standards higher than those set by OFSTED. I am also a GEM childminder providing support to newly registered
childminders and those going through the registration process and I tutor
for Trio running training courses for childminders.
I received my first full OFSTED inspection in March 2006, a copy of which is
available on request, and in which I received a rating of ‘Good’.
In my spare time I enjoy cooking, scrapbooking, card making, glass painting,
walking and cycling.
The children enjoy arts and crafts and we enjoy making our own cards for
occasions such as birthdays and Christmas.
