TRAINING
A bespoke approach
Tracey Hobbs, early years development officer at the Alliance, gives an overview of the Alliance’s bespoke training offer
Tracey is an early years development officer at the Alliance and supports settings with their training needs.
What is bespoke training?
The Alliance’s bespoke training offer tailors a package of resources specifically for an individual setting. After you have spoken with one of our team members, we’ll put together a collection of training materials to meet your setting’s needs.
What are the benefits of this approach?
Our bespoke service is a cost-effective solution to meeting your staff training needs. We work closely with settings to define your aims and identify the best courses, which can be adapted to your setting’s circumstances.
Our flexible approach varies the topic, course length, level and venue to suit individual needs. Most sessions are delivered online to save on venue costs. Our bespoke courses prioritise the skills and areas that need to be addressed, allowing us to create tailor-made sessions without compromising quality or content.
This will give every member of staff the same, consistent learning experience, giving all members of your team the same level of knowledge at the same time. We can also discuss real situations from your setting.
Case study: Clowns Day Nursery
For the last two years, the Alliance has been working with Clowns Day Nursery and Manor House Pre-school in London. Tracy Landy and Ruth Nash, manager and deputy manager at the setting, said: “Right from the very start of our partnership with the Alliance, Tracey and her team were eager to find out about the training needs of our setting. Based on the information we gave them, they put together a bespoke package of training that fits with our ethos and pedagogy.”
The whole team completes training together via Zoom, with in-person sessions once a month and support during inset training days.
The training package for Clowns Day Nursery has covered topics including:
- children's emotional wellbeing
- cultural capital
- maths garden
- understanding two-year-olds
- the revised EYFS
- connecting through play
- the two-year-old progress check
“Training with the Alliance has provided us with ongoing professional development for more than two years. The timing of the training was perfect as it has provided us with the support we required when transitioning into using the new Early Years Foundation Stage framework, as well as providing us with a virtual Inset day and monthly virtual training sessions during the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Tracy and Ruth said: “Every training session has been informative, research-based and presented in an accessible way. The training has engaged the entire staffing team, including the administrative team and kitchen staff. As a result, we are now having more discussions about how we can adapt our practice to meet the needs of our children and their parents. We have seen a definite shift in the daily practice of our practitioners.
“The Alliance naturally embeds reflective practice into all their training sessions. The impact of this is evident in the way practitioners in the nursery look back at and reflect upon previous training we have received. They make links between the information given then and consider practical ways to implant the training as part of their daily work.
“What we have found most helpful is the structure and content of the training sessions which have supported the learning and development of all practitioners working with children across the nursery – from babies to four-year-olds. The sessions are based on educational theory and pedagogy, are relevant to current themes in education and always include an interactive element where staff are encouraged to discuss pointed raised and relate them to our setting.”
Find out more
If you are interested in bespoke training for your team, please visit our website at bit.ly/ EYABespoke to find out more or contact us at connect@eyalliance.org.uk to discuss your individual needs.