Qualified Teachers In Children's Centres

[Guest]

I am a qualified teacher appointed at the beginning of term to work in a Children's Centre. My role is still being developed and I would be interested to hear how teachers are working in other centres. At the moment the main role seems to be easing transition through the settings from 0 to 5. I would appreciate feedback from any practioner working in a Children's Centre as my role until now has been in a school foundation stage unit.

[Beau]

Hi denisea

 

I'm afraid I don't work in a Children's Centre but wanted to welcome you to the forum. It sounds like very interesting work. Hopefully someone else will be along soon to add to this topic.

[Guest alisonjayne]

Hello and welcome from me too, sorry I cant help you as I work primarily with 3 to 5 yr olds, I am sure there will be someone to offer you support advice etc.

Ali

[Helen]

Hi Denise,

Your question is so relevant to me at the moment! I run my own nursery, but have just taken on a six-month contract to work as the Foundation Stage teacher in a Children's Centre nursery. Unfortunately the nursery received an "inadequate" Ofsted result in June, and I've been appointed to work with the manager and staff to improve the provision.

My work really has been to put into place a series of weekly training sessions on the FS, to set up an observation, planning and recording system and to train staff in its use, to audit the equipment (or rather, lack of it!) and place orders for resources across the six areas of learning, and to help staff start and maintain children's records. The other half of the role is to do with observing the staff at work and giving feedback on their practice, and this is something that a colleague takes responsibility for, as there are not enough hours in the week for me to do that!

Last week, I attended a course run by Early Education specifically for teachers attached to Children's Centres. It was really disappointing and I learned nothing new; the day was spent with people saying they didn't know what was expected of them I had thought the course was going to give me lots of inspiration to manage change, etc.

I look forward to finding out more about your role

[Guest]

Thanks to those who welcomed me and to Helen who told me which buttons to press - hope I've got it right.

Helen, I too was at The Early Childhhod conference in London last week where it was obvious that the role of the QT is very unclear. I am luckily one of 5 Qts appointed 3 weeks ago by my authority. We are at present working as a team attending lots of meetings and courses and bouncing ideas of each other. Hopefully by Christmas we will each be based in a centre but still be able to work as part of a team which I think is important as it could be quite an isolated job. So far we seem think a big part of our role will be easing transition between childminders, daycare and school nurseries and trying to establish a system of ongoing assessment/record keeping which moves with the child. Our line manager is very enthusiastic and supportive and is providing a lot of our training so we are all singing from the same hymn sheet when we eventually deliver training.

[Helen]

What a great idea.....working as a team across a number of Centres. One thing I have noticed is that the previous QTS in my place must have felt very isolated; she used to withdraw FS children from the main nursery room and formally teach them in what was the known as the classroom. (Soon put paid to that when I started!)

How many Centres are planned for your LEA? It sounds like you're pretty organised, and other LAs could learn a lot from you

[Guest alisoncole]

Hi Denise,

 

What area are you working in as I too am working as part of a team of 5 Children Centre teachers and am interested in how you are developing the role. Do you know of any forthcoming training for teachers involved in this way? If not I wonder whether any one else does?

 

Thanks Alison

[Guest]

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Hi Alison

We are working in the north east. Currently we are attending all training available in our LA on anything to do with 0 - 5. Three of us are new to the authority so as well as being updated we are able to meet practioners from all settings.

There is a conference being held at The Marriott Hotel, Gosforth, Newcastle on Tuesday 18th October which may be relevant.

The Association for Early Childhood Education is going to start a forum for QTs in Children's Centres. I shall let you know when I hear.

Denise

[Guest]

Hi

 

I have been an Early Years Teacher in an Early Years Centre on Teacher's terms and conditions (with 2 managment points) for the past two years. We cater for children aged 2-5 and offer integrated services. I am SENCo, team leader and part of management team. I am based in one centre. We are becoming a Children's Centre and I feel my job description may change but again I will be only teacher in the team.

 

I think local authorities are all tackling this issue differently but am very interested in keeping in touch with other teachers working in Children's Centres

[Guest]

There are four Early Years Centres, with one teacher in each. We meet up once a month to discuss issues etc and are line managed by our individual Centre Manager and also Early Years Co-ordinator from local authority Early Years Team. Initially there will be five Children's Centres with provision for many more over coming years. Not sure whether our conditions will change or whether new teachers into post will be on teacher pay and conditions or alternative (soulbury scale)? This hasn't been decided from our Early Years Review yet!

[Guest]

I work as QTS in an authority - but not attached to a specific NN or NN. I am trying to help CC's buy resources. Does anyone have a list of resources needed when setting up a new nursery? To save a bit of time

Lisa

[Guest]

Dear Leedwa

Interested to know whether you work full time/ or .5. I know that all CC's should have one teacher at least .5 time. Would also like to know what qualifications/area of expertise your line manager has that you report through to as I would have thought he/she must know what areas you should be looking at. This is just out of personal interest.

Nikki

[Guest]

Dear Nicola

 

I work full time as the Early Years Teacher based in one centre but we are not CC yet - building work to be finished in May/June time and staffing structure etc for the multi-agency team has not been arranged yet - to my knowledge.

I have sent you a PM.

 

Thanks,

Louise.

[Running Bunny]

I work as QTS in an authority - but not attached to a specific NN or NN. I am trying to help CC's buy resources. Does anyone have a list of resources needed when setting up a new nursery? To save a bit of time

Lisa

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Not sure if you are covering all ages, but if you look at Community Playthings website they have a 'creating spaces' publication for birth to three with age-appropriate resources for all areas.

 

Don't have a list for older children unfortunately.

[Guest]

Not sure if you are covering all ages, but if you look at Community Playthings website they have a 'creating spaces' publication for birth to three with age-appropriate resources for all areas.

 

Don't have a list for older children unfortunately.

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Hello denise a

I have also just been appointed as a Qualified teacher to work across two Childrens centres in N Somerset. One is already built and has a Nursery and the other one is still a field-but the plans are very exciting! I am currently a Reception teacher in an infants school and -like you would very much like to get and keep in touch with other CC teachers.

Gail

[Guest tricia_s]

I am a qualified teacher appointed at the beginning of term to work in a Children's Centre. My role is still being developed and I would be interested to hear how teachers are working in other centres. At the moment the main role seems to be easing transition through the settings from 0 to 5. I would appreciate feedback from any practioner working in a Children's Centre as my role until now has been in a school foundation stage unit.

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Hi, I've just joined the site, and it's good to hear that other QTS attached to Children's Centres are equally anxious about their role. Here in Middlesbrough we have 4 QTs,who are all employed through Sure Start. We will have 8 Children's Centres by March 06, with a possibly further 4 by 08. The 4 of us meet as a team, and are very much linked in with the School Improvement service Foundation Stage Advisors. We do joint training for schools/non-maintained settings, which seems to work well. As well as the QTS/Area SENCo role, we all have other roles within our Sure Starts, so the time committment for each children's centre is difficult. In April 06 we are moving to a locality structure, with 4 localities, and 1 QTS in each locality. We will be supporting all the other non-maintained in our localities. Most of our Children's Centres are on school sites (only 2 are not) and part of our role will be to link the two settings, by sharing planning/assessment. Middlesbrough has 100% nursery provision within school nurseries, so the children's centres will often have children who are accessing both. We have started to do termly joint quality assurance visits with the school advisor for the Foundation Stage, so we are all agreed on what quality looks like, with feedback given to the settings. Most of our work so far has been around advising on planning/assessment, resources (we have a Foundation Stage loan resource linked to our Toy library, so settings can try out items before committing to buying, or just borrow resources for up to 6 weeks for a nominal fee (£1 to join and 50p per item)

training, and giving feedback on observations within the setting. None of us are on teachers pay and conditions, and 3 of us are on the local government pay scales (Principal officer), and 1 on Soulbury. I would be interested to hear how other places are operating. It would be good to have some central training, or regional forums where we could meet to share ideas. In the N.East we tend to meet our colleagues through the Primary Strategy regional meetings, and some have set up informal meetings with neighbouring authorities.

[Guest]

Hello Gail,

We have now been in post since 1st September. The role is still developing and we are about to begin a project on 'Transition'. We have each been given an area which includes a variety of settings and we are going to look at how children move between settings and what information is passed on from birth to six.

We have attended a lot of training and familiarised ourselves with the area. It has been valuable working together as a team for this term as I think it could be quite an isolated role and we know that when we are placed in our separate CCs after Christmas we've developed a good support network. It has been very interesting, but very different to working in school.

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

Denise

[Guest]

I am a qualified teacher appointed at the beginning of term to work in a Children's Centre. My role is still being developed and I would be interested to hear how teachers are working in other centres. At the moment the main role seems to be easing transition through the settings from 0 to 5. I would appreciate feedback from any practioner working in a Children's Centre as my role until now has been in a school foundation stage unit.

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hello i am a Recp teacher and am wanting to know more about merging of reception and childrens centres? can any one help me?

[Guest]

Sorry I can't help, but welcome to the forum, Amanda. There is a lot of expertise out there so I'm sure someone will be along soon.

[Guest]

Hi

 

Our school in the process of becoming a Children's Centre in Phase 2 in Durham. Are all authorities employing teachers separate from schools or will .5 QTS be covered by schools in some instances?

 

Help would be appreciated as Sure Start County Durham aren't really answering our questions.

 

Thanks x

[Guest]

Hiya, hope someone gives you a reply on this one - the fact is I don't think they know how they are going to manage all this themselves as yet - it's all a good idea in theory but has anyone yet worked out how it is all going to work in practice. From what I can see there is some sort of financial support for a .5 of a teacher for a short term period but after that then who knows. I too would welcome some other peoples input into this to see if any other LEA's have sorted all this out.

Sorry no help at all.

Nikki

[Guest]

Very relevant as I have an interview on Wednesday to be QT in a CC setting. To be honest I am a bit vague about what the role will be seemed to be about supporting and equipping practitioners in planning, assessment, prep for OFSTED, resourcing. The job will be 2.5 days in the CC and 2.5 out and about in other settings with the option to work from home to do admin!

I have to do a presentation and would love some ideas from all you experienced CC QTs! My subject is: "How would you develop and implement a high quality teaching and learning strategy ensuring better outcomes for children and engaging parents and other professionals"! Eek - any thoughts?

Heyjude

[Guest]

Very relevant as I have an interview on Wednesday to be QT in a CC setting. To be honest I am a bit vague about what the role will be seemed to be about supporting and equipping practitioners in planning, assessment, prep for OFSTED, resourcing. The job will be 2.5 days in the CC and 2.5 out and about in other settings with the option to work from home to do admin!

I have to do a presentation and would love some ideas from all you experienced CC QTs! My subject is: "How would you develop and implement a high quality teaching and learning strategy ensuring better outcomes for children and engaging parents and other professionals"! Eek - any thoughts?

Heyjude

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How did you go on with your interview? I have an interview next week for Teacher in Childrens Centre. Any tips?

Edited March 28, 2006 by Guest

[Guest]

I got the job!

My advice is first of all be yourself and talk about what you know and already do.

Then have something to say about Every Child Matters, Inclusion and Birth to Three. I really messed those up and kicked myself afterwards!

I talked a lot about forging partnerships with parents and also how I would go about bringing in changes and tackling difficult situations with staff.

That's about it really. Hope that's helpful - every success.

Judith

[Guest]

I got the job!

My advice is first of all be yourself and talk about what you know and already do.

Then have something to say about Every Child Matters, Inclusion and Birth to Three. I really messed those up and kicked myself afterwards!

I talked a lot about forging partnerships with parents and also how I would go about bringing in changes and tackling difficult situations with staff.

That's about it really. Hope that's helpful - every success.

Judith

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Thanks Judith

Congrats on getting the job hope it rubs off on me

Andrea

[Guest]

Hi I too am about to take up post of Teacher in a childrens centre having taught reception for many years. Our school is having a centre built on site and I am transferring as teacher/pedagogue at least for the first year. I haven't really got to grips with what the post will involve but am about to complete the ofsted registration as my first task. Has anyone else had to do this yet? It's great to know there other people out there going into this new situation, hope we can support each other!

[Guest]

FAO Heyjude,

What does your job entail? I am just thinking about applying for a post in a childrens centre and the job description sounds familiar, with 0.5 teaching and 0.5 outreach. Did you have experience of birth to three before applying? What do you do on outreach? Do you teach the nursery aged children in the centre? Also are you enjoying it? Can you just generally give me some pros and cons as I am a bit undecided whether to apply

 

Sue

[Guest]

Hi Susie65

 

I have just sent you a personal message about what it is like teaching in a Children's Centre.

[Guest]

Thanks Judith

Congrats on getting the job hope it rubs off on me

Andrea

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Andrea - just realised I didn't ask whether you got the job?

heyjude

[Guest]

Hi Susie65

 

I have just sent you a personal message about what it is like teaching in a Children's Centre.

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Hi leedwa - I shall be starting in September as a QT in a CC and would value any advice or insight that would help me!

Heyjude