The Tops Team

Cheryl Hadland

Managing Director

Cheryl Hadland founded Tops Day Nurseries in 1990 when she was 30 years old and a mother of 2 small boys. She had been a volunteer committee member and pre-school assistant in a playgroup with her 3 year old, whilst attending a pre-school leaders course. Cheryl decided that opening a day nursery that was open all day rather than just mornings was needed in the area, so she reduced her workload at her scuba dive centre and opened the first Tops Day Nursery, Tops Parkstone in Herbert Ave, Poole.

Cheryl completed a 2 year course with the PPA (now called the Pre School Learning Alliance), a Montessori correspondence course, and then the NVQ3 in Early Years Care & Education. Over the following 10 years she completed her Certificate of Education, Degree, and Masters Degree in Education at Southampton University.

Amy Alderson

Tops Operations Director

Amy joined the Tops Day Nurseries family in Dec 2006 as deputy manager, before being promoted to Nursery Manager at Tops Boscombe. In 2013 Amy was promoted to Area Manager, Managing all central nurseries including Tops Poole, Tops Parkstone, Tops Bournemouth, Tops Boscombe and Tops Charminster.

Amy was promoted to Operations Director in 2014 and now supports all nurseries with leading training sessions, monitoring and improving quality and managing the operations team.

Amy is an Early Years Professional holding a post graduate qualification as well as a Early Years Degree. Amy has over 13 year’s childcare experience, 10 years at Tops.

Maria Thomas-Luker

Administration Director

I joined Tops Day Nurseries as a Nursery Assistant back in 1990 so its fantastic seeing the company celebrate 27 years.

I have so many memories of my time here, and being part of the design team for our 18th birthday re-brand is one of my biggest achievements; it was such an honour to be asked and the whole day and re-launch was very emotional, I was so proud to work for Tops. I came into work on the morning to find birthday cards through the door from neighbours, and to see our new logo swinging on the sign outside made me cry, I thought I’d burst with pride.

Since joining the company I have achieved my Levels 2, 3 and 4 in Childcare and my Level 7 in Management and Leadership. I really enjoy working for Tops as I love being part of such a fantastic team. We all have such amazing strengths as individuals but together as a team we achieve so much and I’m always so proud to say I’ve worked for Cheryl for 29 years. It’s like being part of a very special family.

Charlotte Percival

HR Director

I joined Tops Day Nurseries, Parkstone in 1996 after completing my NNEB at college as a Nursery Assistant. I was quickly promoted to Room Manager and then Assistant Deputy Manager.
During this time, I gained my NVQ 3, as well as my Assessors Award. In 2000, I was promoted to Nursery Manager at Tops Bournemouth. After maternity leave, I joined the head office team as Internal Operations Manager, heading up the personnel team, and internal policies and processes as the company started to grow. In 2008, after returning from maternity leave for the 2nd time, I was offered the HR Director position within Hadland Care Group and joined the board of directors.

I am now responsible for managing and overseeing the HR team, and have achieved CIPD HRM L7.

Harriet Pacey (Mat leave)

Sales & Marketing Director

I joined Hadland Care Group as Business Development Manager in 2017. I hold a Masters in Early Years Education and have Early Years Teacher Status. Prior to joining Hadland Care Group, I had worked in various roles in the Early Year sector, including owning/managing a nursery and being a management consultant for a number of other settings.

My first degree is in Business Studies; how businesses work have always interested me greatly and I think it’s really important that those involved in the Early Years sector have a good understanding of the business model it’s built on and what’s required to keep it sustainable.

Paul Lord

Finance Director

I started my career in finance at Fitness First in 2001, with my first role being ‘Accounts Assistant’. As the business grew, I was offered opportunities that enabled me to develop my skills in the finance arena, leading areas such as cash flow management, financial reporting, budgeting, decision analysis and controlling spend.  I have since completed the CIMA accountancy qualification, and performed my first managerial role as ‘Management Accountant’, leading a team of 5.

Subsequently, I worked at B&Q as ‘Operational Finance Manager’ and as ‘Retail Finance Reporting Manager’ at Ageas. The experiences I obtained during these roles gave me the desire to become a company leader from a financial perspective, which I why I applied for ‘Finance Director’ at Hadland Care Group.

I can safely say it’s the best career decision I have made. I am enjoying the opportunity of working with an extremely talented group of individuals, who have the interests of our learners forefront in their minds.

Micah Faure

Legal Director

I started at Hadland Care Group as a General Office Assistant, whilst studying at university. After I finished my 2nd Degree in 2012 in Law, I came to Head Office to work as Employment Law Advisor within the HR Team. I then went to Cape Town that year to complete my 3rd Degree in Employment Law at University of Cape Town.

During this time, I completed an internship for Price Waterhouse Coopers where I learnt a valuable motto from my supervisor, which was “Always volunteer to do stuff you don’t know, test if you can learn it and if you can do it, people will trust you more”. This is why when I initially started working at Head Office, I volunteered to support HR, Administration, Finance and Property. I was then quickly promoted to Legal Advisor.

I have also volunteered with the Free Rep Unit doing Social Security and Employment Law Cases. Due to my good working relationship, and the years of trusted advice I offered her, Cheryl offered me the position of Legal Director in 2017.

Jo Penn

Health and Safety Manager