Management Focus - Carving a niche
Karen Faux
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
A training company with its own demonstration nursery is now attracting interest from schools. Karen Faux hears what's up.
Totem Pole's reputation for lively, hands-on training is now spreading beyond its native borders of Lincolnshire. In the last year it has supported 1,200 people in its training programmes and worked with 150 different organisations across the county and beyond. Founder and early years consultant Mary Barlow says that her two most popular courses - Beginning with Babies and Fun on the Floor - are constantly evolving to reflect the latest ideas in good practice and meet the needs of practitioners.
Based in the grounds of Belton Woods Hotel, near Grantham, Totem Pole provides a demonstration nursery containing a home corner and a construction area, a studio where training sessions are conducted, a marketplace selling open-ended resources and a hot drinks cafe. Its 'My World Area' was recently set up as a dinosaur swamp with a paddling pool, leaves and camouflage.
Nurseries that have attended its training include the Old Station Nursery group and Little Learners, in Skegness. Totem Pole has also been approached by the Lincolnshire Schools Improvement Service to work with reception teachers.
'Our courses are based around active learning,' says Ms Barlow. 'With Fun on the Floor, for example, we spend the first day exploring activities through the eyes of the child and on the second day unpick the learning behind that. Often when I visit nurseries I see the influence the training has had on the setting, and we also get positive anecdotal feedback from Ofsted.'
Creative learning consultant Katy Smith says she was very impressed with the training Totem Pole devised for Fulbridge School in Peterborough. Under the Creative Partnership scheme, the primary is one of 50 schools designated a flagship for creative teaching and learning. With the Creative Partnership now in its final year of funding, Fulbridge School wanted to bring in training around early years.
Ms Smith, who worked with its senior leadership team, says, 'The aim was to raise the school's attainment in writing and it was identified that working with reception could have a lasting impact. As the school is already of the highest standard creatively, it was a real challenge to find training which could take it up to the next level.
'Essentially, the training looked at supporting children on their creative learning journeys, with a big focus around active learning. Mary's programmes have had huge impact. Scrutinising the indoor environment has resulted in structural changes to the classroom, while outdoor areas have been re-evaluated and now more closely reflect what is going on inside.'
Totem Pole has just been awarded a Grantham Journal Business Award and is introducing an accredited baby massage course in September.
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