MEET THE TEAM
Our Evergreen Team
“Let the children be free; encourage them;
let them run outside when it is raining;
let them remove their shoes when they find a puddle of water;
and when the grass of the meadow with dew;
let them run on it and trample it with their bare feet;
let them rest peacefully when a tree invites them to sleep beneath its shade;
let them shout and laugh when the sun wakes them up in the morning.”
– Maria Montessori
“It’s time to return to childhood, to simplicity, to running and climbing and laughing in the sunshine, to experiencing happiness instead of being train for a lifetime of happiness. It’s time to let children be children again.” – LR KNOST
Owner, Early Years Lead Teacher, Forest School Leader, SENCO
mONIKA BROWN
Monika is the owner, creator, Early Years Lead Teacher and Forest School Leader of Evergreen Forest Nursery. This is the first Outdoor Forest School Nursery in the Ribble Valley. Having over 19 years of experience working with children in both Poland and England.
She is very passionate about the outdoors and nature: growing herbs, various vegetables and caring for the trees. She is a beekeeper cultivating 40 hives in total. She love animals and is an advocate for a healthy life style.
Monika is just one-stripe away from being a black belt at Valley Martial Arts of Clitheroe. She has been serving children and families in Lancashire for the last 14 years and has become a big dreamer. Her passion is to create a beautiful, safe space for children and their families where they can comeback to nature and make stories involving the magic of fairies, stories with alpacas, peacocks, campfires, amazing healthy foods and endless childhood imagination. This is slowly becoming a very successful reality. Together with her amazing team she has created Evergreen Forest Nursery in the Forest of Bowland, an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Amy
Early Years Practitioner, Forest School Leader
Amy is a qualified level 3 childcare professional and level 3 forest school leader. She has nearly 20 years of practice working with children alongside her qualifications. She has gained many courses relevant to her work with children and her passion to get them out and teach them in the outdoors classroom.
Amy spent her half terms enjoying working with children in an outdoor pursuit camp for summer (PGL). In this, she gained a passion for the outdoors, teaching children team building and bringing them a level of confidence in new challenges they had never done before in different activities.
She achieved a level of deputy manager at a great local nursery but her heart missed working closely with children and being able to stay with them outside in every weather all year round. Luckily her daughter, Eden, started attending Evergreen Forest Nursery and Amy had a feeling this will be her dream place for work! She is our fantastic Forest School Leader, loved by all the children and the adults. Amy loves singing and playing outdoor games with children, she has a great talent to keep everyone warm and happy even in the rain. She always smiles to children, listens to them, has an incredible patience and never raises her voice. She is a very reliable person and pays attention to the children needs and their voices. She is an amazing addition to our Evergreen Forest Nursery Family!
Amy has two young children, Eden who used to attend Evergreen Forest Nursery (who is now at school and still loves to talk about the forest school and even asks us why she can’t keep going) and a wonderful little boy called Ellis. Amy enjoys exploring national trust parks, walking her dog Buddy and spending time with her family and friends.
Jayne
Early Years Practitioner, Nurse and Family Support Officer
Jayne is a level 3 Nursery Nurse, family support officer and DSL trained. Jayne has been working in a primary school for the last 10 years, within this role Jayne worked with EYfS children, KS1 + KS2 children and the families.
Jayne has great experience working with children on a 1-1 basis as well as small groups. She ran lunchtime clubs, the lego club and was part of the pastoral team – ensuring that each child got the support and learning interventions they needed to thrive. Jayne would support the children and families offering them practical advice on bedtime times, routines, boundaries and supporting the parents in enabling their children to learn, be happy be responsible for their own roles and behaviours.
Previously to this role, Jayne worked as a family support worker at the local family centres. In this role, she was responsible for running parenting groups; stay and play and coffee + craft. Jayne support the families in accessing local activities within the community and working alongside a number of professionals (health visitor, school nurse and the local schools.)
Jayne is passionate about the great outdoors and nature. Having grown up on a farm, she understands the importance of children learning through the natural world and taking “safe risks”.
mUMMY BEAR
Head Chef
Our Mummy Bear is less visible to parents but still remains a very important part of Evergreen Forest Nursery. She cooks for our children every single day! As we are very passionate about food here and strongly believe that a balanced rich diet is the necessary base of the development pyramid in early years, Mummy Bear’s dishes are balanced and full of nutrition. She is an expert in hiding all the vegetables in a pasta sauce or a burger! She is a qualified chef with her Polish cuisine ethos of cooking.
Mummy Bear is an unbelievably good cook; children love her fresh soup (beetroot soup is one of the best) and her other dishes like pasta, cottage pies, pancakes, curry, burgers and many more. She can accommodate every child with any allergy, diet and food intolerance; being able to make wonderful vegan dishes, non-egg banana pancakes and gluten free cakes.
Michael
Gardener, Groundskeeper, Beekeeper
Michael is a rock to Evergreen Forest Nursery. He looks after our 22 acres of land; the trees, our garden, the flowers and the animals. He can talk to the trees and the pigs (his favourite animals). He is the one who makes risk assessments and warms up our barn in the winter, who closes and opens the gates. He is able to even help parents in any unusual situations (changing tires, fixing car engines and using our van to pick up children at the bottom of Eaves Hall Lane when it snows and the lane is traversable to no one but him!)
He is a man with a great passion for the outdoors, with a massive talent for woodworking (every structure and every single fencepost is laid down by his hands here). He is a wise man with a child’s sense of humour, a massive heart and an unbelievable patience. All of our vehicles, our tractors, forklift truck and quadbikes are his, and he makes sure to take care of all our bees! All this put together have made him a superhero for the children attending our Forest School.
He is an amazing role model and male character and this is the reason why he is beloved by everyone at the Forest School. We are lucky to have Michael as part of our Evergreen Forest Nursery Family.