Turning Themes into Strengths

We look at how our babies’ brains grow and how connections start to form. Children need to have ‘serve and return’ interactions with the people around them to co-regulate and feel reassured. The stress response system can help babies to become calm more quickly with the reassurance of our practitioners. We explore appropriate experiences that coincide with Penny Tassoni’s Prime Time Experiences. We then go on to discover the differences between treasure baskets and heuristic play. Quality prime times are also discussed and explored through scenarios. In addition we also look at respectful handling of children.

This is such an important topic that emphasises our duty of care to children, families and our colleagues. This training explores many elements of child protection. To list a few, The Difference between Safeguarding and Child Protection, The Role of the Designated Safeguarding Lead, Current legislation, Types and Signs of Abuse, The TED technique, Whistleblowing, Contacting the Local Authority, Prevent Duty, Honour Based Abuse, The Toxic Trio, Online/E-safety, Witchcraft, Fabricated Illness, Non-Mobile Babies, Child Criminal Exploitation, Adverse Childhood Experiences and Associated People.

We explore Susan Scott’s 7 Principles from her book ‘Fierce Conversations’. We take the time to consider how we leverage these principles to develop our leadership ability. We reflect upon our current practice and identify areas of development to confront tough issues.

We explore how the role of the key person has evolved to include working with both children and their families. It is much more than just meeting our children’s care needs. In Birth to Five Matters the importance of the ‘Triangle of Trust’ is mentioned. The presence of a key person helps a child to feel emotionally secure when they are away from home and provides a reassuring point of contact for parents. Every child deserves an adult that understands the power of connection and helps them to be the best that they can possibly be. They deserve a champion!

We consider how we can create adjustments to reduce greenhouse gases. The biggest contributors towards global warming are energy, transport, water, food and fashion. We explore how an average nursery contributes to these areas and then offer suggestions on how we can reduce our impact on the planet. We highlight the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals. These goals identify that ending poverty and other deprivations must be considered with strategies that reduce inequality, improve health and education, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests, starting with the early years.

The ranges within Birth to 5 Matters are explored. We breakdown what an observation is and why they are important. We look at advantages and disadvantages of a range of observations to discover how we can observe. We dive into the characteristics of effective learning, consider whether we are interacting/interfering and if we are objective or subjective when making observations. The differences between formative and summative assessments are discovered. Continuous provision is analysed and recommendations are given for inspiration. You even get to create provocations or invitations. Everything then links into the intent, implementation and impact of children’s learning.

The brain and its architecture play a huge part towards self-regulation. Connections that are used more are strengthened and contribute to the building of circuits within the forebrain which in turn helps our children’s understanding. We look at the behaviours that we see in our children and consider why these behaviours may be being observed. We look at how to help children self-soothe and support the children in our care. We also explore how environments - in addition to our practitioner - may contribute towards children’s associated behaviours.

This training considers everyone’s unique leadership style. We reflect upon how we can adapt our style to suit different situations. We discover the cycle of professional development and how at Kids Inc we support team members with their individual goals and aspirations. We look at learning styles and we can apply different skills to support individual needs.

All the training that we deliver surrounds the Statutory Framework of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). This is the mandatory document that we need to follow. All practitioners need to have a comprehensive understanding of what this entails. This is split into 3 sections, Learning and Development, 2. Assessment, 3.Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements. The EYFS has 4 overarching principles, A Unique Child, Positive Relationships, Enabling Environments and Learning and Development. In order to do this we follow Birth to Five Matters and aim to nurture, educate and inspire our children.

This training challenges the viewpoint that a natural outdoor environment with a wealth of experiences cannot be offered in certain settings. We look at nature’s language and how certain words are disappearing from our children’s vocabulary. We assess the risks versus the benefits of learning experiences within our nurseries as well as look at how we can dynamically risk assess to consider the individual and environmental risks. Through discussion and interactive experiences we consider how - as practitioners - we can be effective educators and how we can avoid hindering the learning process.

Within this session we discover how we can train/facilitate our training sessions that we lead with our nursery teams. We explore different stages of learning: forms of assessment and learning intentions. We implement new training strategies to gain engagement: through using ice-breakers: energisers and coaching. We want to develop the different learning styles and how the trainer can position their own Clifton Strengths themes to enhance their training.