About Cheryl Hadland
Cheryl Hadland, MA(Ed), is the CEO of Hadland Care Group; the founder and chair of Tops Day Nurseries, Aspire Training Team, and Green Early Years Champions for Change, a charity that shares good practice in sustainability within the early years sector. She was the founder sponsor of the APPG (Childcare and Early Education) in 2017 following political decisions that rocked all three pillars of sustainability, threatening the existence of good quality early years education even before COVID-19 came along. Hadland’s book, “Creating an eco-friendly early years setting” was published by Routledge in 2020.
The nurseries follow SchemaPlay pedagogy and use the OMEP Education for Sustainability awards to audit environments and provide curriculum signposting. After 35 years working in early years, Hadland believes the sector has a vital responsibility to safeguard the healthy and prosperous future of children by doing what we can to embed sustainability in every decision we make. Tops became B.Corp in 2021 and was awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise (Sustainable Development) in 2022. Tops were the first large group of nurseries where all settings had achieved Eco Schools Green Flags, SAS Plastic Free Champions and to operate at NetZero CO2e emissions overall.
