In August, 100 of our Daisy Nursery team members from across all roles and locations headed to Dyers Barn on the Chawton House estate for our annual team AGM and Daisy Awards!
Our four nurseries do a fantastic job at delivering engaging and high-quality early years education to children across Hampshire, and it brings us great joy to celebrate this hard work with our full team every year. Our 2026 theme of ‘Everyday Exceptional’ was all about how we can make each moment in our nurseries, even the seemingly small ones like putting on coats or picking books from the library, even more special and meaningful for the children.
In previous years, the AGMs have been held at our own unique locations but this year, we decided to give our hardworking team a change of scene and venture out of our familiar nursery settings.
This led us to Chawton in the heart of the South Downs National Park and the grounds formerly owned by one of Hampshire’s most famous families. Sitting just a stone’s throw from the Jane Austen House, the 2026 AGM venue was Dyers Barn, a beautiful spot nestled in the parkland surrounding Chawton House, a property once owned by Edward Austen Knight, Jane’s own brother.
The day started with just those in leadership roles across the nurseries engaging in a series of workshops from our company director, Vicky Peterkin. These interactive and motivational workshops were designed to help our fantastic leaders upskill in team management and find new ways to make our environments even more inspiring for the children in our care.
After that, we were joined by the full Daisy team for an afternoon of talks and awards. Our keynote speech came from Louisa Devonport from Jigsaw Early Years Training who led a session centred on reigniting the fire in your belly, and the significance of what we do as early years professionals. Following this, Vicky reflected on the past year at Daisy and shared her goals for the year ahead.
We closed out the day with our very own take on the Oscars – the Daisy Awards! With ten award categories, and 20 winners in total – plus a very special bonus award – it was a joyous part of the day that saw many Daisy colleagues recognised for their hard work throughout the past academic year. Most of the award categories were open for Daisy team members to nominate their colleagues, this led to many heartfelt nominations and moving sentiments, showing just how much the team appreciates one another.
Other awards came from parent votes where hundreds of parents kindly shared which member of the Daisy team they would put forward for a special recognition award for their nursery. Plus, we had a Learner of the Year category for a team member who has been working especially hard to achieve an early years qualification this year. To round off our awards ceremony, we also had a bonus award for the best nomination to recognise the time and thought that went into sharing such special feedback about one another.
We’re wishing a huge congratulations to all our winners from across all four nurseries, and a huge thank you to all our team members for their ongoing enthusiasm at both this year’s AGM, and every day at our nurseries.