‘When doing staff supervision,’ says Catherine Lawrence, ‘it is really hard not to give advice. But this isn’t always helpful – and you are doing it to somebody rather than them thinking of it themselves.
‘The idea is that it is about staff thinking for themselves. It is similar to sustained shared thinking. As practitioners we won’t go in and tell children the solution. Yet when you are working with adults you can often end up saying, “Why don’t you do it like this?” We should be using early years practice more in life.’
The inclusion manager and early years co-ordinator of Moreland Primary School took Early Education’s course in effective supervision. The course lasted from 9.30am to 3.30pm and took the form of group work and work in pairs with professional coach Jane Cook, focusing on practical development of coaching and mentoring skills.
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