Brid Stenson
Nursery Owner
Brid trained as a pediatric nurse and worked at Great Ormond Street Hospital before establishing her first nursery in 2003. She has gone on to develop her brand of family-run nurseries, delivering care and education for children under five. She has a passion for ensuring that all children have access to exceptional outdoor learning experiences. With this in mind, she has recently opened a forest school. Brid fosters a culture of kindness and care throughout her nurseries and ensures that staff wellbeing is high on the agenda.
Louise Knox
Nursery Director
Louise comes to Rainbow Day Nursery with an extensive teaching background in early and primary education. As a former Head Teacher, Local Authority Advisor and freelance Ofsted inspector, she has worked in many schools and early years settings to provide teacher training and support to raise the quality of care and education for children.
She is both passionate about and a firm advocate for developing outdoor learning to support risk taking, well-being and resilience. She understands the importance of providing a nurturing, holistic and inclusive curriculum to meet the needs of the children.
Louise is committed to providing a clear vision and oversight of all operations to establish a safe and positive culture across all the nurseries within Rainbow for our staff, children, and families.
Lisa Dewar
Operations Manager
Lisa joined the Rainbow family in 2016 as Nursery Manager following an established career in Early Years that started in 1995. She has successfully led teams to achieve Outstanding outcomes during Ofsted inspections and supported them in day-to-day practice. Lisa is now in an Operations Manager position, overseeing all of our Rainbow branches.
Lisa is an advocate for developing individuals and leaders to ensure they become the best versions of themselves while providing high-quality and holistic care. She uses creative and inclusive teaching to ensure that each team member and child reaches their full potential and maintains a passion for learning.
Aslihan Mani
Nursery Manager, Langdon Road
Aslihan joined Rainbow Day Nursery in 2018 and has over 14 years’ experience in Early Years. Her passion and drive enable her to create a modern-day approach to support children’s learning and development where children thrive and learn fundamental skills. She previously led her team towards The Curiosity Approach Accreditation when she managed our Hayes Road branch. She also led her team at Hayes Road to achieve an Ofsted Outstanding judgement in October 2023.
Aslihan’s vision for Langdon Road nursery is to create a happy, creative and language-rich environment where children are free to explore, investigate and express their own thoughts and imaginations using natural authentic materials and loose parts. She and her team have successfully created an environment where children grow, flourish, take risks and are one with nature, while maintaining an enjoyable place to work. Aslihan supports her team to be motivating and passionate practitioners while working on their continuous professional development and wellbeing.
Nicola Johnston
Nursery Manager, West Wickham
Nicola has 30 years’ experience within the childcare industry. She has taken on numerous senior roles, such as Room Leader, Deputy Manager and her current role as Manager of Rainbow Day Nursery, West Wickham. Nicola had a break from childcare for 10 years while raising her son. However, she carried out other managerial roles within different industries. Working with children has always been Nicola’s passion, which led her to returning to childcare at Rainbow Day Nursery 6 years ago. Nicola is extremely passionate about creating a calm and warm environment for children to thrive, ensuring that each individual child has the opportunity to learn and develop with curiosity and integrity. Nicola is also very supportive of all her staff within her nursery and other Rainbow branches.
Nicola’s career highlight has to be attaining the Ofsted Outstanding at Rainbow Day Nursery in 2022.
Francesca Cennamo
Nursery Manager, Hayes Road
Francesca has a wide range of experience working with children aged 0-5 years. She started as a nursery practitioner at 17 and soon went on to leading a baby room. Francesca joined Rainbow Day Nursery in 2019 as the Langdon Road manager, overseeing the learning and development of 60 children. Francesca is a keen advocate for ensuring that every child develops and grows to their best of their ability. She also has extensive experience in supporting children and their families with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, able to utilise MAKATON and British Sign Language to further help children in her care develop and to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to communicate.
Francesca’s key principle is to lead her team by example and provides the very best environment and development for both the children in her care and her staff.
Libby Griffin
Forest School Manager
Libby has spent the last 5 years falling in love with forest schools, having explored the English woodlands alongside little adventurers. Libby is keen to spread the magic of forest schools amongst the children in Bromley, so they can learn through nature and discover the wonders it has to offer. Libby holds a BA Hons in Early Years and Education Studies, Early Years Teacher Status and a Level 3 in Forest Schools.
Talisha Francis
Pre-school Manager, Cudham
Talisha began her journey at Rainbow as a Nursery Apprentice. With her dedication and commitment to the company over the past six years, she has worked her way up to now the Pre-school Manager at our Cudham branch.
Talisha is passionate about delivering a natural, stimulating and nurturing way of learning. She is an advocate for outdoor learning and inspires children to reach their full potential while embracing our natural world. Talisha prides herself in building trusting relationships with her team, the children in her care and their families.
Molly Schantz
Nursery Manager, Petts Wood
Molly’s childcare journey started in Hayes Road as a work experience student, where she fell in love with the job. In 2016, when the Petts Wood branch opened, she was so excited for the next challenge within her career and eagerly transferred over to embrace a brand-new nursery. Molly fell in love with the nursery, the team and the environment that Rainbow was creating for the children and families. Whilst working at Rainbow, she studied for her Early Years Foundation Degree and then went on to complete a BA Hons in Childhood Studies. Both of these gave her a strong foundation of knowledge about the development of children.
Molly feels that childcare is an industry where we are continuously learning – no child, family or staff member is the same. Being a parent has given Molly valuable insight into child development. Molly’s passion lies in creating an environment where children and staff are comfortable and secure to be themselves and for everyone to give one another the time, quality interaction and care we all need to learn, grow and develop.