Hello, and thank you for visiting. I’m Sylvia Greinig, and Nursery Matters is my way of supporting the people who care for our youngest children.
I have spent my whole working life in education, and most of it surrounded by young children and the people who care for them.
For more than forty years I was a School Principal, and I ran numerous nurseries, where I trained and educated many nursery nurses at the start of their careers. I have owned schools in Yorkshire and Devon, and spent nine years as an Ofsted inspector, which gave me a clear view of what good practice looks like and how hard practitioners work to achieve it. Along the way I studied in the United States under Matthew Lipman and Ann Margaret Sharp, the founders of Philosophy for Children, and lived for a time with Ann Margaret and her husband, Philip Guin. Matthew later invited me to join them at Montclair State University as a professor, which sounds grander than it is: in the UK, it would be a lecturer. I chose to turn the invitation down, but their belief in children as natural thinkers and questioners has stayed with me ever since. I also gained a BA (Hons), a Postgraduate SEND Diploma and, for the love of it, an MA in Anthrozoology from The University of Exeter.
I began writing seriously during the Covid lockdowns. At the same time, I watched a generation of young nursery practitioners begin their careers with courses moved online, placements cut short and little chance to learn alongside experienced colleagues. None of that was their fault. Nursery Matters is my way of giving back some of what they missed: clear, practical guidance that explains not just what to do, but why it matters.
Everything I write is shaped by a simple idea I call the Influence of Noticing. Please, if nothing else, as you read these books, just notice more of what is happening around you. What we notice shapes what we think, what we do and the culture we create, and that culture shapes children’s lives. What better role can there be? I’ve been working this way for decades, but only recently gave it a name; The Influence of Noticing.
I live in the Devon countryside with three generations of my family under one roof, where I write every day. When I’m not writing, you’ll find me at the piano, listening to classical music or settling down with a good whodunit. In my youth I was passionate about horses and sailing, and for almost 24 years I served as a Trustee of Wild Planet, working alongside some inspirational people in the South West.
If something in these books helps you understand why your work matters, then they have done their job. Because it does matter, more than you might ever know.
