Staff Development

Most of our staff training takes place within our by-monthly staff meetings.These meetings have clear focuses in order to teach/re-cap/introduce new practice etc. They are listed below, newest first:

STAFF MEETING Safeguarding update and Lockdown procedure November 2018

We all updated our knowledge on current safeguarding legislation by carrying out an online course. We also had training on our lockdown policy and familiarised ourselves with the procedure to follow if the need should arise.

STAFF MEETING In the moment planning 25th Sept 2018

We learnt about how to be more child led within nursery. We learned about how to extend the childrens chosen activities by asking open ended questions. We are swaying away from adult led activities but just extending what the children choose to do. To also include a ‘teacher moment’ in observations.

STAFF MEETING – GDPR 23rd May 2018

We looked at the changes in data handling and how this will impact on nursery. We also all completed the online course.

STAFF MEETING Deaf training 22nd March 2018

Susanne from DAHIT came in to give us deaf training in order to give support to a child in our care. We were able to have greater understanding of what nursery life sounded like from the childs point of view and given pointers into how to fully support them whilst in nursery.

STAFF MEETING EYlog, SEF and Effective Environments 26th Jan 2018.

We learned that the SEF (Self Evaluation Form) which we submit to Ofsted prior to an inspection is to be condensed. We also had further training on the EYlog system of writting observations and reports.

STAFF MEETING Raising Standards 18th Sept 2017

We learned about the ‘curiosity approach’….. bringing curiosity, awe and wonder by providing open ended resources and unusual objects to explore. Having a more natural and rustic feel around nursery…introducing crates etc

STAFF MEETING safeguarding recap/ Peer on peer 24th May 2017 We had a safeguarding update to make sure we are up to date.

PAEDIATRIC FIRST AID – MARCH 2017

Most of the staff team have spent 12 hours over weekends and evenings completing a full paediatric first aid qualification. Course content was lots of theory aswell as chance to put into practice during practical opportunities. We all managed to pass our assessments too to gain our certificates

STAFF MEETING – Letters and sounds 27th Jan 17

STAFF MEETING – PRIME AREA -CLL 28th Nov 2016

We learnt a lot of strategies to develop effective communication in children. We learnt about the importance of verbal and non-verbal communication skills and about the importance of giving children time to think and reply

PAEDIATRIC FIRST AID – November 2016

3 of our staff team booked onto a full 12 hour paediatric first aid course to increase their knowledge in order to support a child with additional needs.

STAFF MEETING – Disclosure 20th Sept 2016

Today we had a guest speaker, Donna, who helped us get a greater understanding of disclosure. We learned that it is important to judge how much information is necessary  to pass on to others.

STAFF MEETING – Role of the Practitioners 25th May 2016

We looked at how we can make quality interactions with children – be at their level, our body position, knowing when is appropriate to join in, how we can extend learning etc

BRITISH VALUES TRAINING 31st March 2016

Today Emma and Laura attended a British Values course to clarify this fairly new concept. There were some misconceptions about what the term actually meant so the course helped to get a clearer idea of this. It was said that the title ‘British Values’ could really be changed to ‘Human Values’ as it is mostly about having a sense of self, how we treat others ect and not to do with being British!

It is broken down into 4 values:

DEMOCRACY: teaching the children that their views count, giving them choice, valuing each other, being fair and restorative practice

RULE OF LAW: understanding that rules matter, know the consequences of behaviour, learn right from wrong, taking responsibility and ownership of their actions

INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY: Know who you are as a person, be positive about themselves, risk taking, opportunities to self risk assess, self esteem/ confidence, expressing feelings and having a high level of wellbeing.

MUTUAL RESPECT AND TOLERANCE: respecting differences in people – faith, communities, traditions, Challenging stereotypes – gender, cultural, Promoting inclusivity

STAFF MEETING March 2016

On 24 March we closed early for our second staff meeting of the year. The focus of the training for this meeting was looking at the Leadership and Management aspect of the inspection framework. We are always wanting to keep moving forwards with regards to our practice and provision and this area enabled us to begin to look at what to expect from an inspection and evaluate ‘where we are currently at’ as a setting. Everyone is nervous when it comes to considering inspection and we all have that fear that however much we think we know, however experienced a practitioner we may be, your mind can always go blank! We want our staff team to feel equipped to share their knowledge of their key children and be confident in their practice as they know that what they do on a daily basis benefits our children and they know why they do what they do. Yet we must always, always strive for more, and quite rightly so! As well as looking at requirements we also received some training around Safeguarding as Sian has just been on a refresher course. She shared some key messages from this course and it made us discuss as a team various elements linked to this. We also discussed standards and how we want to make sure, as a whole team, that we are always aiming for the highest we can possibly be. We considered the importance of ensuring that we are always following policies and procedures and talked about ways in which we can ensure we are all really familiar with these. Each staff meeting our team complete an evaluation form with regards to their training and they analyse their knowledge and understanding prior to the meeting and then evaluate this at the end. With the hope that it is much improved!! They also identify any potential future training needs they may have. We know that our next staff meeting will incorporate an element of ensuring ‘British Values’ are embedded in our practice and provision as we have Emma and Laura (our Deputy and our Curriculum Coordinator) attending a course on this aspect. They will put together a booklet to share their knowledge in the interim and then as part of our next staff meeting they will strengthen our understanding as a team and get us to reflect upon this area linked to the information gained from the course they attended.

STAFF MEETING January 2016:

This meeting focused upon our confidence as practitioners and realising that we know our children so well and where they are at and we discussed how we could evidence this.We re-visited the updated safeguarding policy and a mini quiz on the characteristics of learning and our practice and what our nursery represents. We read each others’ long observations and discussed the content and quality of them. we clarified the expected length and how we need to gain an overview of each child to ensure we are not missing ares of learning out etc when making observations.We also talked about our updated parental baseline assessments and how we must track our children two weeks after they have started linked to the initial parental information (baseline).

STAFF MEETING November 2015:

Robert and Kerry came in to share some whole staff team training on ‘Building Relationships through Restorative Practice’. It was interesting and made us think carefully about the way we interact with each other, and our children, and consider the levels of challenge and support within our everyday environment and practice. We considered how relationships and communication are key and we analysed how when children find themselves in conflict situations with each other we would be better placed to ask, ‘what’s happened?’ rather than, ‘why?’ as really there are three sides to every story…both sides and somewhere in between is likely to be the truth! By considering who has been affected and understanding how it makes them feel, we can all come up with a plan as to what to do next and move on from this. It was thought provoking (although mostly common sense), but made us reflect upon our daily practice. They are hoping to roll this training out to parents in the future so let us know if you would be interested and we’ll keep you up to date with any future developments.

STAFF MEETING September 2015:

In this meeting we looked at handwriting across the building and introduced a policy around this. We discussed what we should and should not be doing with regards to writing with our children.

We then discussed Ofsted and the new CIF (common inspection framework). We looked at our current practice and put forward ideas for our action plan as a nursery to ensure we are covering this new framework. Sian had recently attended a safeguarding update course and she ran through new developments and we discussed how our policy must refer to the ‘Prevent Duty’ and also ensure we are clear about how and where to get help/ advice and make a referral – ‘The Front Door’ approach to ensure children’s needs are met and their welfare and well-being safeguarded.

STAFF MEETING May 2015:

This staff meeting focused upon the role of the practitioner as ‘teacher’. We looked at lots of photos taken of actual practice and discussed the importance of quality role-modelling and having clear focuses etc. We considered our body language, vocab and the role of the key person. We discussed when we are out and about around the village and opportunities for teaching and learning. We considered time management and not missing those golden opportunities for learning, sharing sustained shared thinking and whether we interrupt children’s play too often. We considered our positioning around the room and the use of our learning environment and how we facilitate this for our children.

STAFF MEETING March 2015:

We re-visited ‘movement play’ as a whole staff team and this helped to refresh the memories of those familiar with the principles of this and introduce the subject to those who are new to the staff team since the initial training. As well as focusing upon movement play, observations etc, we re-capped the scales of ‘well-being’ and ‘involvement’ and also went through a whistle stop tour of schemas again.

6th February 2014

A few of the staff team took part in a Paediatric First Aid training evening. We learnt how to:

• perform CPR
• recovery positions
• deal with cuts, burns, head injuries
• use a defibrillator