To ensure quality was at the heart of early years provision within East Dunbartonshire during the expansion towards 1140 hours, the need to provide a coherent and concise training calendar for all settings, including local authority-funded providers and funded childminders, was identified.
Despite the pandemic, there was a drive to ensure that secure inductions were provided for the large number of new recruits to early years and in supporting development and progression for all. The focus for all training was to support Realising the Ambition during COVID-19.
Professional learning sessions were delivered by the early years team throughout the academic year to develop priorities from centres' self-evaluation and improvement planning.
The training was divided to provide themes appropriate to managers and themes suitable for practitioners.
The key themes were:
- Supporting young children at point of transition
- Information for parents on transitions
- Being me through play
- Being me through adversity and trauma
Taking account of:
- Evaluation of HGIOELC 2.3 Learning, Teaching and Assessment
- Evaluation of HGIOELC 3.2 Securing Children's progress
The professional learning calendar was available for staff to sign up to events on glow. Each session was delivered via Microsoft Teams on the same day and time throughout the year, with training for childminders delivered in the evening.
All of the training materials and presentations remain accessible for all staff within the newly created learning hub. Training sessions were organised by the central early years team and were designed to include aspects from peer learning, colleagues from the Additional Support team, Education Scotland, people development and educational psychologists.
This structured approach to professional learning has resulted in real positive outcomes. The calendar meant staff could access all centrally provided training in one place and gave trainers more time to focus on session content, as opposed to event organising. By removing barriers such as travel, more staff were able to attend scheduled events – all sessions were well attended, with up to 40 participants per session as attendees could join from work or from home.
The calendar was great this year as it focused on early years alone, it was easy to access and specific to us as based on early years needs and learning.
The professional learning calendar has been identified as a COVID Keep and has been updated for the new academic year.
The calendar has been developed on the same initial design, with further progression on quality and ensuring there are opportunities for practitioners at every level. Despite changes to Public Health guidance, the sessions will continue to be delivered virtually.