Practitioners need to have a deep understanding of child development, pedagogy and curriculum design in order for them to decide how to help each child in their care to make progress. While always important, it is perhaps even more so as staff plan how to reintegrate children into nursery settings following the coronavirus lockdown.
Pennie Akehurst, managing director of Early Years Fundamentals (EYF), says this time is an opportunity for practitioners to reflect on how best to meet the physical, emotional and learning needs of their children when they return to nursery, but managers ought to be mirroring this process for their staff.
The new Development Matters guidance will also focus more on the individual child and practitioners using their professional judgement rather than using it as a ‘tracker’, which was unintended but has become the norm in some settings. Writing in Nursery World (see Further information), Dr Julian Grenier says that to be effective, the new guidance will ‘need to help practitioners to sequence experiences, activities and teaching so that all children, especially children in disadvantage, develop a deep and secure understanding of key skills and knowledge, and experience joy and delight in their learning’.
For all this to happen, leaders need to ensure that staff are supported to develop and further their knowledge, something that is also being given greater prominence under the new Education Inspection Framework (EIF).
Building subject knowledge
According to the Ofsted early years handbook, ‘The practice and subject knowledge of practitioners build and improve over time. Leaders have effective systems in place for the supervision and support of staff.’ In the same way that a practitioner needs to understand where a child is developmentally before responding appropriately, Ms Akehurst says leaders should baseline the knowledge of staff and identify the gaps through the interview process, induction and ongoing conversations about performance. They should then use this information to tailor professional development programmes that will improve the quality of teaching and learning. She warns not to presume that because someone has gained a Level 3 they will have strong child development or curriculum knowledge.
‘Once you can baseline a practitioner’s knowledge and get a feel for what they know, understand and can do, you can then think about professional development programmes that are really going to make a difference to practice,’ says Ms Akehurst. ‘How can we expect staff to deliver a really robust programme around the seven areas of learning if they do not have enough depth of knowledge around mathematical development or communication and language development? We can’t.’
When practitioners have access to a tailored professional development programme, they are able to articulate their ‘learning/development journey’ and the difference that it has made to their practice.
Also, leaders should be able to talk to inspectors about the impact of professional development programmes and what they are doing to support weaker members of staff. They will be expected to discuss the issues they are dealing with, the actions that have been taken, the progress to date and what they will be working on in the future.
Performance management
Before the EIF was implemented, EYF’s research identified staff management as the number one trending issue in the recommendations and actions made by inspectors for nine terms. ‘This is significant because over and over again our research was telling us that our sector hasn’t a mature enough understanding of performance management and how to effectively support its staff,’ Ms Akehurst says. She puts this down to many leaders not having received specific training on people management with many early years qualifications.
‘The problem with performance management is that the EYFS refers to it as supervision, but supervision and performance management are not the same thing,’ says Ms Akehurst.
‘Supervision is about meeting with a person on a regular basis to talk about their work and workload, whereas performance management is about what we do to understand how effectively a member of staff is able to carry out their roles and responsibilities. It is a much wider view. The Early Years Inspection Handbook refers to performance management, which is a much bigger deal, and I think some settings are maybe missing that.’
Ms Akehurst recommends having ongoing conversations with staff and ensuring they know what is expected of them on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. ‘Supervision and performance management conversations need to have lots of different parts,’ she says. ‘Rather than trying to cram everything in to one conversation every term, it would make more sense to have shorter conversations that focus on different elements of the role over the term… and let’s remember that not all of these conversations have to take place with the manager – our DSLs [designated safeguarding leads] and SENDCos can also provide support for staff.’
However, if leaders are not confident with performance management and what those conversations should cover, she advises that looking at and for the same things as inspectors will help.
‘Scrutinising the inspection handbook will provide leaders with an understanding of what inspectors will be observing and what they may want to talk about with practitioners,’ she says. ‘Using this as a basis for our conversations with staff will ensure that leaders can target the things that will make the most difference to practice.’
CASE STUDY: Kindred Nurseries
At Kindred Nurseries, which has 15 settings spread across greater London, Essex and the south of England, new staff follow an induction programme which sets out the group’s ethos and vision. They are also given a post-employment checklist of what training it is deemed they need to do during their first six months and are paired up with a ‘buddy’ who can show them around the nursery and is there to answer any ‘silly’ questions that they may not want to ask the manager.
Supervisions are held off-site three times a year by the manager, or sometimes a room leader alongside the manager, as part of their own professional development.
‘Being off-site, in a café or by the river, enables staff to be more open and is also a treat,’ says head of operations Annie Tierney. ‘It’s proved a success because although there are the same questions and records, it is more informal and we get more out of staff.’
Managers have a ‘walkabout’ every morning where they greet people and observe staff, parent and child interactions. ‘It is a chance to offer professional challenge and question, such as asking why they have got the paint out and what they are doing or have thought about. It helps to prepare them for inspection but also reflect on their work and help professional development. We want to make points at the time; there is no point talking about something two weeks later,’ says Ms Tierney.
Managers also have a question of the day, such as asking who the LADO (Local Authority Designated Officer) is and what they do. This is used to inform future training and to improve practice.
‘Staff get used to the professional questioning and challenge, and stronger members of staff support others and follow up with informal training,’ Ms Tierney says. ‘We find role modelling and coaching the best way to improve performance, rather than sitting in a room six months later during a supervision.’
Observations are conducted peer on peer using grade descriptors such as outstanding, good or inadequate to enable staff to think about how they can increase their level of teaching and make their performance outstanding. Managers also record observations, which Ms Tierney says helps ‘true reflection’, such as discussing interactions and noticing when practitioners do not call children by their name.
‘We need to upskill practitioners to run with children’s interests and build on their age and stage of development, because the basic milestones are not included in the training,’ says Ms Tierney. ‘If staff feel that they are improving and learning, then they will go on to improve the nursery. They need to feel that it is OK to get things wrong and that they can improve together.’
Advice for leaders
The continued development of staff needs to be a strong focus. To do this, leaders need to provide effective management systems:
- Induct staff carefully into the vision of the setting and expectations.
- Use induction, supervision and observations to identify staff strengths and weaknesses and plan how to support these.
- Provide a range of ways for staff development, including mentoring, peer support, professional questioning and training opportunities.
- Give regular feedback.
Further information
- Development Matters: A good start? by Dr Julian Grenier, www.nurseryworld.co.uk/features/article/development-matters-a-good-start
- Early Years Fundamentals, https://www.eyfundamentals.org