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Learning and Development

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Effective education requires both a relevant curriculum and practitioners who understand and are able to implement the curriculum requirements. Effective education requires practitioners who understand that children develop rapidly during the early years – physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially. Children are entitled to access provision that supports and extends their knowledge, skills, understanding and confidence, and helps them to overcome any disadvantage.

Our Learning and development programme covers a wide range of the curriculum and supports and helps practitioners with their continuous professional development, giving them the knowledge and skills to provide high quality stimulating environments that give all the children in their care the highest education and play opportunities to be the best they can be.

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EYFS Mentoring

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There is a growing awareness of the importance and value of mentoring and coaching in early year’s leadership. Our associates will help you with critical reflection exploring the context of leadership and the value of mentoring.

A key part to developing leadership practice is promoting a greater understanding, awareness and critical insight into the needs of staff and leaders themselves and into meeting the needs of communities, families and children who engage with your organisation. Our Associates will help you to have a deep understanding of the importance of mentoring support, develop a dialogue with staff and provide and insight into the points of view and professional perspectives. It will provide opportunities to develop practical skills and encourage their use in improving practice.

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Consultancy Days or Half Days

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Consultancy days allow for discussion, guidance and support from an Associate to review your vision, practice and provision which will contribute to the continuous improvement of your school or setting and identify development and training needs. The visits will allow us to identify the change needed and begin to work together to effect positive change. Sometimes practitioners will know what needs changing but need a little (or a lot) of support to implement the changes. Consultancy days allow us to form a strategy as well as professional support, advice and guidance to turn situations around.

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Ready for your Inspection?

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Our Quality Improvement Ofsted inspections will help you whether you are pending an inspection or just want to know where the setting currently stands. An inspection can beneficial. Our Associates will use all the relevant Ofsted public documents as its guiding framework and will undertake joint observations with the management of the setting to identify any areas for improvement and identify good practice. It will feedback and the end of the day and devise a development plan that can be reviewed at follow up visits depending on your needs. Having a Quality Improvement Inspection allows us to work together to identify areas that need addressing before that important inspection, it will help to develop your confidence and support you in taking control of your inspection.

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Post Inspection Support

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Following inspections settings often feel the need for an outside view that is focused on driving improvements. Our Associates will work with you to self-evaluate and identify improvement priorities against the current Ofsted framework.

We are happy to discuss individual support for settings that supports you in being Ofsted ready. We will deploy Associates to work with your setting to ensure that recommendations and actions are addressed and that staff are trained and ready for the forthcoming monitoring visit and next full inspection with confidence.

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Self-Evaluation

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Tackling writing your SEF can be daunting when it should be enjoyable, a time for reflection and what has worked well and where you want to be in the future. It should celebrate the care and education you deliver to children on a daily basis.

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Self-evaluation should help you make accurate judgments and identify the impact of the work you are celebrating and emphasise how you meet the grade descriptors judgments. The SEF should be used be used as a store for all of the setting’s evidence.

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We know how big a task it can be so why don’t you let us help? We have vast experience which can support providers to write their SEF and we are more than happy to support providers who don’t feel at ease with technology. We can come to the setting and support you with reviews or we can proof read and support you from a far.

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Outdoor Environment

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Do you have a fabulous indoor environment but outdoor is a bit of a mess? Do staff think outdoor play is a time to chat while children run themselves ragged? If so we can help. The outdoor environment is just as important as the indoor environment and children should be able to access the same quality of learning opportunities wherever they choose to play. Hopscotch can help to transform your outdoor provision and we also train staff on how to use the outdoors effectively.

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Working with Parents

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We know that working with parents is not always plain sailing and we also know that some staff would prefer to hide than engage with parents too! This is where we can help. We work with staff to increase their confidence and we also look at the setting from a parent’s point of view to help you make those exemplary first impressions and nail the things that really matter to parents.