Blog 4 - My Experience of the Degree

 


My Experience of the Degree

To decide whether to study the degree I used the Force Field Analysis created by Lewin (1940) this helped me weigh up the benefits and difficulties of the decision to complete the degree (appendix 2).

My aspirations of the degree were that it would help me develop a deeper level of understanding of children's learning and development but it has also helped with my knowledge of working well with other practitioners and agencies. I am more confident in leading and managing a team and understand how to lead an innovative change.

I now have extended my understanding of child development, professionalism and working with others and I will continue to develop my understanding through training and observation of good practice.

When I complete the foundation degree it will put my pay scale on the grade above in my current employment. Having a foundation degree will support my professional development if I choose to progress in my career such as if I decided I would like to complete teacher training.

I have completed an action plan that I currently following that supports my aspirations of achieved career progression (appendix 1) these include progressing into a different pathway from being a learning support assistant as I am applying for a nurture support assistant job.

I have enjoyed learning from my research whilst studying for the degree and completing the degree has supported my ability to support children and their families in my role as a learning support assistant.

References:

Mind Tools (2017) Force Field Analysis. London: Mind Tools Ltd. [Online]. Available from: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_06.htm [Accessed 24 April 2017].

The University of Kent (2017) Action Planning. Kent: The University of Kent. [Online]. Available from: https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/skillsactionplanning.htm [Accessed 01 April 2017].

Appendices:

Appendix 1:

Achievement	The Benefits	Action	When?	Next Step
To have applied for a different pathway of nurture support assistant.	Applying for a different pathway will give me more child development experience in another field.	To complete the job application and study about nurture in regards to child development and supporting vulnerable children.	To complete my job application by April 2017. If shortlisted interviews are in May 2017.	To develop my skills in the nurture pathway. To become a nurture support leader in the future.
To complete my degree.	When I complete my degree my pay scale for my job will rise. I will have an advantage when applying for new jobs and in progressing as I would now have a degree.	To complete all tasks to the best of my ability and studying all the resources available for each topic.	To complete all work on their deadlines with last piece of work due in July 2017.	To progress further in my career for example in completing a teaching qualification or applying for higher education employment.

Appendix 2:

Force Field Analysis of Degree

Blog 3 - Ongoing Professional Learning and Practice

Blog  3 - Ongoing Professional Learning and Practice

The Early Years Sector is continually progressing and developing therefore to maintain a beneficial understanding of how to support children, their families and other professionals it is crucial to attend training and conferences. It is also important to have continued professional development as it is required by professional bodies and will provide knowledge of the most recent initiatives relating to childcare legislation (PACEY, 2016).

In my setting I identify my training needs and have a discussion every term with my supervisor who will provide the appropriate training to continue my professional development (appendix 1a) and I also was observed by my mentor to support me developing as a practitioner for example by setting a target (appendix 1b).

To maintain best practice I initiated an innovative change in my setting, I identified the need for particular children to be reading more than once a week at school to improve their literacy skills and created data by observing how many reading levels they progressed in a term (appendix 2). This change linked from my understanding of the schools OFSTED report that now the setting is meeting the national average in ability in the English subject and that as my school has an above average amount of EAL children literacy skills need to be continually supported (appendix 5).

I want to progress in my career so I have developed SMART Targets to show how I will manage my progression including a personal target and one set by my current employer (appendix 3).

As a professional I always strive to support areas of the setting that need improvement and from our team meetings I learnt that practitioners were concerned about the children's speech and language in the nursery after the settings hours extended.

I discussed this with my manager and we decided to create and compile the results from a questionnaire (appendix 4). The results showed that 100% of practitioners felt they would benefit from training to support children in their communication and language development and that they had already used Makaton before in a setting from these results I provided staff with further Makaton training to use in the setting and this initiative proved beneficial in supporting the children's language development in the setting.

My personal statement shows my consistant development throughout my experience as a practitioner and my commitment to continuing my professional development (appendix 6).

References:

Cognology (2017) How to write SMART goals and objectives. Melbourne: Cognology. [Online]. Available from: http://www.cognology.com.au/learning_center/howtowritesmartobj/?nabe=5163493439569920:0,5274635704991744:1,5293578322706432:2,5300356598988800:0,571853
1257925632:0,6495360247922688:1,6750875905425408:1&utm_referrer=https://www.google.co.uk/ [Accessed 1 April 2017].

Ofsted (2016) St Mary’s, Prittlewell, CofE Primary School. Manchester: Ofsted. [Online]. Available from: https://primarysite-prod-sorted.s3.amazonaws.com/st-marys-prittlewell-coe-primary-school/UploadedDocument/c4629ac295f849cc8cf4d954f49c237d/st-marys-prittlewell-cofe-primary-school-10011775-pdf-final.pdf [Accessed 24 April 2017].

Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years (2016) Why your training and development is important. Kent: PACEY. [Online]. Available from: https://www.pacey.org.uk/training-and-qualifications/the-importance-of-training-and-cpd/ [Accessed 30 March 2017].

The Makaton Charity (2017) How do I learn Makaton? London: The Makaton Charity. [Online]. Available from: https://www.makaton.org/training/ [Accessed 1 April 2017].

Appendices:

Appendix 1a:

Name of course	Organising body	Brief description of course content	Date
Level  5 Diploma in Leadership for the Children and Young People’s Workforce	City & Guilds	Level 5 Diploma in Leadership for the Children and Young People’s Workforce	08/11/16
Female Genital Mutilation: Recognising and Preventing FGM V2	Home Office	Recognising the signs of FGM and how to prevent this by reporting to the relevant safeguarding officer	05/10/2016
ELKLAN Training	ELKLAN	Attended ELKLAN Training on how to support children with speech and language	01/03/2016
Paediatric First Aid Qualification	Primary Lifeline	Paediatric First Aid	18/02/2016
Level 2 Award in Food Safety and Catering	CIEH	Level 2 Award in Food Safety and Catering	30/01/2014
Autism Awareness Training	N/A	Attended an Autism Awareness course on how to recognise signs of Autism and how to support these children in settings	29/01/2014
Early Years Literacy Conference	Early Years Literacy Conference	Conference on how to support children with their literacy development	04/10/2013
Level 3 Beach School Qualification	Archimedes	Qualified to lead and manage Beach School sessions with children	26/11/2013
Safeguarding Level 1 & 2	N/A	Safeguarding Level 1 & 2	26/04/2013

Appendix 1b:

An observation of my continual professional development

Appendix 2:

Reflecting on an innovative change

Appendix 3:

SMART Targets:

Specific	Measurable	Attainable	Relevant	Time bound
Personal Target: To complete my BA Honours in Early Childhood Studies	To complete my assignments I will use one day of my weekend to study and complete tasks.	I will watch the online resources supplied by my university to gain further knowledge of the topic for that semester. I will have work complete a week before the task is due so I can ensure it will upload and I can proof read my work.	When I am studying I will gain further knowledge of Early Years or interpersonal skills that will help me in continuing my professional development.	My degree course is for one year and I will have completed this by the Autumn term of 2017.
Supervisor Target Set: To have a child with an ILP in my class to have progressed one reading level	To read with this child more than once a week.	I will read with this child twice a week and if possible more than this. To have attended a reading course to support children with their reading and comprehension skills.	My support with this child will progress their reading, literacy skills and holistic development in the class.	In June 2017 this child will have developed their reading skills and if able to have tried the next reading level in the Oxford Reading Tree.

Appendix 4:

Question	Results
Are you aware of what Makaton was before this questionnaire?	Yes – 100% No – 0%
Have you ever used Makaton before in a setting?	Yes – 100% No – 0%
If YES how often were you using this?	N/A – 0% Sometimes – 66.6% Often - 33.4%
If YES how many signs do you know?	N/A – 0% 1-5 – 66.6% 6-10 – 33.4% 10+ - 0%
Would you personally like further training to support children in the setting in their communication and language development?	N/A – 0% YES – 100% No – 0%
Do you feel that parents/carers of children in the setting would benefit from support in helping their child with communication and language development?	N/A – 0% Yes – 100% No – 0%

Appendix 5:

St Mary's OFSTED Report May 2016

Appendix 6:

My Personal Statement