Jessie Lilley, known fondly amongst families at babyballet® Dartford, Bexley and Bromley as ‘Miss Jessie’, has been recognised for the inspirational work that she does, winning ‘Highly Commended’ at EWIF 2024.

The babyballet team are delighted to say a huge congratulations to our very own Miss Jessie for being awarded ‘Highly Commended’ in the ‘Woman Franchisee of the Year 2024’ category!

EWIF stands for ‘Encouraging Women into Franchising.’ They are a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to making a positive impact in the franchise industry through their mission to, “Educate, inspire and empower women at every stage of their franchising journey.” We were therefore delighted to find out that Miss Jessie had been nominated for not just one, but two categories for the 2024 EWIF awards: ‘Woman Franchisee of the Year’ and ‘Inspirational Woman in Franchising.”

Miss Jessie is the powerhouse behind our largest baby ballet franchise, babyballet® Dartford, Bexley and Bromley. Since opening her doors over 15 years ago, Miss Jessie has welcomed countless young baby ballet stars into her classes. Through her determination and incredible work ethic, Jessie has grown her business to spectacular heights. She employs a supportive team of babyballet teachers along with dedicated administrative staff – all helping to ensure that even more families can experience that extra-special babyballet magic.

However, Miss Jessie’s babyballet story doesn’t stop there. Jessie is a mum to her two boys, Rex and Arty, who has severe autism and global development delay after being born seven weeks prematurely. Inspired by Arty and her own personal experiences as a SEND mum, she was determined to make life easier for families like her own. Jessie brought the idea of SEND-exclusive classes to Head Office just before the pandemic. Working closely with Miss Lara, our specialist SEND practitioner, the pair created and developed the babyballet® Shine program, designed to,

“Directly meet the specific needs of children for whom adjustments to mainstream classes simply aren’t enough; be a safe space where the whole family will be understood and accepted – no questions asked and no judgements; and be a haven for children like Arty with more severe needs, where movement becomes magic.”

In February 2023, Jessie and Lara launched the very first babyballet Shine training day for teachers. A comprehensive, 6-hour session covered everything from the Shine framework, to managing challenging behaviours. Since this first training day, there are now twenty-two franchise areas trained to deliver the babyballet® Shine program to families across the UK. As a team, we are determined to bring these powerful, inclusive classes to more and more families, sharing Miss Jessie’s vision for, “Every babyballet school worldwide to eventually run Shine.”

This year, the EWIF event ran over two days with celebrations the night before the awards event. As Miss Jessie pointed out, this offered the perfect opportunity for “double celebrations and double outfits!” We’re simply-over-the-moon for Miss Jessie – she’s always been an inspiration within our babyballet family but to see her being recognised and celebrated beyond our network is testament to the incredible woman that she is. Congratulations Miss Jessie!

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