Nursery World - Supporting Skilful Communicators and Competent Learners

Jean Lloyd is the proprietor of NHS workplace nursery Caterpillars, situated in the grounds of the Royal United Hospital in Bath. Each year she looks at ways of maximising the value of the training budget she receives from her local council and aims to line up short courses which fit the current needs of staff. Ms Lloyd herself participates in the courses, as a way of ensuring that staff are benefiting. 'An advantage of this Hannan Consultancy course was that we could have ten members of staff attending it at one time, which helps with team building and putting theory into practice,' she says. 'They attended three two-hour sessions and I sat in on the last one.

'An advantage of this Hannan Consultancy course was that we could have ten members of staff attending it at one time, which helps with team building and putting theory into practice,' she says. 'They attended three two-hour sessions and I sat in on the last one.

'This was a very useful course for more junior members of staff. They were shown how to use language during practical activities with children to develop their communication skills. The emphasis was very much on observing children and getting their feedback rather than practitioners doing all the talking themselves. Interacting with children is very much a two-way thing and this course was all about asking the right questions, so that children's responses can be enlarged upon.

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