Staff Spotlight with Dean the bus driver
My name is Dean. I’ve been living in Santry all my life, born and reared here. The work at Little Harvard is ideal for me, it’s lovely, handy work compared to my previous career in the military.
A typical day at Little Harvard? I come over at 8am and make sure the bus is ready to go. What we’ll do is a BOS on the bus, what’s known as Before Operational Service, just checking that the bus is ok to get going. Then we’ll get the kids on to the bus, get them strapped in nice and safe to and then we’ll escort them with one of the girls down to the school.
Once we get there that’s where the fun starts: getting them off the bus then getting them lined up, across and into the school. Then I’ll park the bus up and I’ll probably go into the creche, I like to give a bit of hand whether it’s with the bins or brushing the floor or something that makes life a little bit easier for the girls that are in there working hard.
The best thing about the job, for me, is the crew inside. The staff, the manager Jane, all the workers, they’re spot on, they’re a nice friendly bunch. They can’t do enough for each other. It’s an amazing atmosphere to work in. The bond is there is amazing. There’s no egos in there, nothing like that. It’s a very good team to be around. Sometimes I’ll be in there at half ten talking without realising, oh I finished half an hour ago, I’m going home!
The staff are amazing to work with, and you do get a buzz off the kids there. Kids are very unpredictable, they come out with the craziest of things and the funniest of things. It’s enjoyable, every day is a little bit different. You see different characters every year. It's good fun.
Little Harvard is a highly professional organisation. The ethos they have, their backbone there is pure professional. The way they treat the kids, the way they treat parents, what they do behind the scenes like fire safety, fire drills, everything is spot on there. Any issues you have will always be addressed within a day. There’s no problem at all there. And once again the company seems to be growing and growing, it’s an amazing company to be around and be a part of from the Manager in the Jane and the regional manager Danielle, they can’t do enough for you. If you need any assistance or any help at all, basically there’s no problem at all.
My son is twenty-one now, it seems like only yesterday he was 5, so I’d say really really enjoy every moment you can with the kids. Let the kids be kids. Let them be crazy, let them be fun, we’ve become too strict on that. They’re amazing souls, they’re amazing to be around and that bit of fun you get out of them. One thing I always say and I’m probably guilty of it myself, tell your kids, that you love them nearly every day. Like I say my son is twenty one now, and if I tell him now I love him, he’ll probably throw me a dig or something. Really make the most out of it, every second you can, cos they’re such amazing, amazing people.
