Are you thinking of attending Childcare Expo?

27th September 2016

Childcare Expo – an event dedicated to the early years sector strives to enrich its visitors with valuable knowledge and learning experiences to impact on daily routines within their own childcare settings. With Childcare Expo Midlands opening its doors this Friday for what is guaranteed to be a hit with a jam packed schedule of CPD seminars, interactive workshops, not forgetting the brand new Twinkl Inspiration Zone running a variety of sessions throughout the day, if you have yet to register for your free tickets then listen to what a previous visitor had to say.

Joanne, Nursery Manager of Siblings Nurseries North East Ltd visited Midlands last year as well as the Manchester event just gone. Here, Joanne explains the impact following on from the shows and highlights how important continual learning and development is to everyone within the sector.

What drew you to attending the upcoming Childcare Expo Midlands?

I was immediately drawn to the seminar titled, ‘Men in Childcare’. I have recently recruited a man into a post and I am interested in learning more from the experts! I’m very interested in all of the seminars. I wanted my staff to attend this event to allow them to learn first-hand from the influential and creditable speakers and become as enthused as my colleague and I have become from attending previous ones. 

From attending the show previously, what do you consider to be the best bit?

Going away inspired and ready to continually improve practise within our setting. Some seminars confirm that our practice is exemplary and hearing it from the experts in the early years field is so reassuring that we are on the right track! The costs of the seminars are reasonable meaning I can afford to send more of my team instead of me disseminating to them. I’m amazed that I can sit for 45 minutes in each seminar and have so much information to digest and they are of a very high quality. You can take away everything that’s been said and put into practice very easily. 

What idea did you put into practice immediately from what you learnt from attending Childcare Expo?  

From Childcare Expo Manchester 2016- I returned and checked all the Ofsted documents were current following that seminar. We also completed the outdoor audit given out by Gail Ryder Richardson and put action plans in place. The school ready training identified we were very strong with this already but without the seminar we didn’t have the confidence to realise this. So that was amazing. The OAP seminar showed us we were on the right track but Di Chilvers programme was that step beyond the online OAP system we use and now we want to invest in hers! Basically, the whole event formed our development plan for that term and beyond. 

What drew you to the early years sector?

I’ve always loved children and all I wanted to do was work with the early years age range. I’ve worked across private, voluntary, education, local authority ran sure start, children centres and social care managing nurseries. I have also spent time as an early years inspector for Ofsted. I now own a private day nursery. 

What do you love the most about the early years sector?

I thoroughly enjoy making a difference to a child’s life. I love how each day is different and I love how children will never cease to teach me new things and continue to amaze me! Now I’ve reached a time in my career where I want to teach my team the skills and knowledge I have gained over the years. I love seeing them develop professionally. 

I’d also like to say that we were inspected on 9th September 2016 and have been graded outstanding in all areas. I firmly believe these events have been a huge benefit and have contributed to the grade we received. We are looking forward to coming back on Friday!