A nursery manager at award-winning Huddersfield nursery group Portland Nurseries is celebrating 25-years’ service.

Over the last quarter of a century, HR and finance manager Samantha Warburton has dedicated her life to nurturing young people and, in that time, has touched the lives of thousands of children across Kirklees.

She originally joined Portland House in Lindley – the first nursery in the Portland Nurseries group – as a nursery educator. She has since worked in several different roles, including manager at Oakwood House & Forest School for 10 years.

A caring and skilled early years teacher and Forest School leader, she is also a qualified trainer and assessor and led the early years training across all sites in the Portland Nurseries group.

“The fact that I have worked at Portland for so many years says a lot about the wonderful working environment at Portland and our high levels of childcare,” said Samantha.

“Much has changed over the past 25 years but Portland has remained consistently outstanding in its provision of early years education. I am tremendously proud to have played a part in that and the positive development of so many young children, many of whom are now grown adults.”

Samantha has seen many changes in the industry in 25 years and highlighted the Covid pandemic as a particularly challenging time of the nursery sector but added that at Portland a renewed togetherness came from the adversity.

“Covid was a was a very difficult period for everyone but the past couple of years has proven how strong we are as a team.

“We have worked hard to continue to provide industry-leading levels of service across the Portland Nurseries settings and I look forward to continuing to do that for years to come.”

Portland Nurseries joint managing director, Anastasia Murphy, said: “Samantha has been a core member of our team for 25 years and has played a key role establishing us as one of the leading independent nursery groups in the UK.

“I would like to thank her wholeheartedly for her dedication and commitment to Portland and to upholding the very best standards in childcare.”