This week, we’re joined by Sara Adams as we discuss her experiences and reflections as an early career teacher. As part of the conversation, we explore the importance of an effective learning environment, building meaningful relationships with children and peer learning. 

• Watch our free ECT Webinar
• Explore our free Audits and Guides
• Discover all our CPD courses and Webinars

00:00

Here at Early Excellence we specialise in early childhood education. We offer expert advice and guidance through training, consultancy and classroom design. With the Early Excellence podcast we aim to inspire and support you as well as challenge your thinking. So if that's what you're looking for, you've come to the right place.

00:26

Hello everybody, Andy Burt here. Welcome along to episode 102 of the Early Excellence podcast. In this week's episode, we talk to Sarah Adams from Sandy Hill Academy in Cornwall, which is part of the Aspire Trust. As part of the conversation, we talk about all sorts of things really. We talk about Sarah's experience as an early career teacher. She's just new to working in the nursery and we talk about her experience so far. So lots to listen to here, lots that I think you'll find really interesting and useful.

00:55

Here you go, here's my early excellence podcast chat with Sarah Adams.

01:07

Hello and lovely to see you. How are you? Hello, I'm very well, thank you. Thank you for inviting me. Very good. Well, it's good to have you. It's really good to have you. So let's, we're gonna talk about your time as an early career teacher. Cause you're in your first year of teaching, started in September. Yes. Yes, started in September as your first year of teaching. And so I wanted to catch up with you really, just to give us an insight into what that's like for you.

01:37

It's many years since I was an ECT. In fact, I wasn't an ECT. I was a newly qualified teacher in those days, many, many years ago. So for you, what's it like? That's what we're going to be talking about. That's what we're going to be finding out about. And I'm sure lots of the things that you say will strike a chord with people who listen along to the podcast. Absolutely. So let's get started. Before we kind of get into...

02:05

your time so far as an ECT. Can you tell us a bit about yourself? So whereabouts you currently teach, so what Sandy Hill is like as a school, a bit of context, the year group that you're teaching, when you started, all of that sort of information. Absolutely. So, well, I am a mature teacher, so I decided to get into teaching much later. So I've already had a career.

02:34

before this, but I always wanted to be a teacher. So, you know, I have had a family, so I've got four children of my own. My eldest is currently at university studying maths now. So now I just thought it was my time to change my career and do something for me. And as I said, I always wanted to do it when I left school. So I went to Plymouth University and now I retrained.

03:05

I did a degree in education. So I have got a degree in maths many years ago, but I felt doing a PGCE on the end of a maths degree that I done over 20 years ago, put me a bit out of the field. So I did a new degree in education. I wanted to understand the backbone of education before I took the leap into it.

03:33

So that's what we did. I came and did that at Plymouth University and then completed my PGCE last year again at Plymouth University. So fantastic. So I'm curious now, what was your previous occupation? What was your previous career? So my previous career, I was a plumber. Wow. We have a family plumbing and heating engineer business. So yeah, quite a change. Very, very big change, yes.

03:59

Wow. Was there one specific moment where you suddenly made up your mind that you were going to go into teaching or do you feel that it was a gradual thing? It was a gradual thing. It's always something I've wanted to do and I've always had apprentices and had that teaching through our business, bringing on the next generation of plumbers, etc.

04:25

stepping out of the family business, you know, we've sold up and both moved on and both into more academic roles now. So, yeah, so just a small change, but a big change at the same time. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so you've moved on from your previous occupation, from your previous career, and you've made that in your mind up to go into teaching.

04:53

At what stage did you decide actually I want to go into early years teaching? Was that something that you did once you qualified or was it a part of the course? Or maybe did you have that idea before you even went into any of it? Was that the first thing you thought of maybe? Well, not really. So whilst I was at university, I really liked the diverse sort of...

05:18

paths you could take through education, not necessarily in a school, it could be anywhere in social care and all sorts. I love research. I delve into little areas and then I've tried to narrow it down as I go. Once I got into my PGCE, I knew I wanted to be in primary education. I had explored lots of different options through my degree. I was

05:47

felt privileged in that way. Because sometimes I think if you say do a degree in teaching specifically, you kind of already can be pigeonholed. And I just had that fortunate area in the education degree that I could broaden things. But I still came back to primary teaching from that, which was wonderful. And then I did my first placement in a very rural school on Bobman Moor.

06:17

and we had Key Stage 2 all in one class. So we had Year 3, 4, 5 and 6, which I absolutely loved as well. So I was like keen to explore all of those sort of areas. And then the class next door was the EYFS class. And I kind of found myself dipping over there and then, oh, do you need some help? And I was just like, there's so little and you could just see.

06:46

all of the things that were happening over there. And you could see clearly in this school where one key stage finished and then the next key stage picked up and then moved on. Because it was so small, I could really see those, the definitions. So then I went into my second placement in PTC and it was a year one class.

07:12

quite low socioeconomic area. And that's when I started really like having a love of the much younger curriculum and the exploration that you could have in all of those areas. And just the children that come in just have that love of just being there and wanting to learn and all of these things.

07:40

Yeah, as I've gone through my training, I've got younger friend, younger friend, younger. But that's great that you enjoy that. You know, and then it's something that you've sought out. Because I think it's certainly in my experience, I think there are kind of almost like two types of people who work in primary schools. And there's one type of person who really enjoys being in the early years and sees the possibilities and how interesting and fascinating it is.

08:09

and the creativity of it and so on. And then another sort of person who actually doesn't really want to be in there at all and will walk in and then walk out fairly quickly and doesn't like maybe the disorder of it perhaps or the unpredictability of it. It sounds like you found a thing. If it wasn't for that person at university, I'm like, no, I need the older ones. I need to be able to say, we're doing this, this, this, deliver it. But it does not work like that at all. As I found.

08:38

Not at all. And so being in the environment, you can just see the wonderful possibilities that just come from every tiny little moment that happens. It's such a big thing in the early years, just from the simple child playing somewhere.

09:03

taken something that you've shown them previously and then they're using that in a different area just, it's quite magical. So it's something I've definitely would like to stay in. I don't think I'd want to be out of early years now. Well, that's the thing. I think it is very much an area of education that kind of gets under your skin a little bit in that it becomes part of what you do. And it's one of those things that

09:34

to me anyway, is always interesting. You know, it's, and you know, I'm in the years and years and years that I've been around and worked in early years education. I still find it fascinating, you know, watching a child who's engaged, watching a child have an idea and then seeing them carrying that idea out, looking for what materials they might need, looking for what resources they might need, seeing learning happening, you know, almost in a kind of a,

10:03

that sort of raw, really energetic, that kind of really at the edge of being children, being at the edge of what they can do. It's fascinating to watch that happening. It is wonderful. And so, yeah, it's something that very much draws you in, I think. Yeah, and you don't have that teacher over child sort of scenario. The child teaches me just as much because I can't do.

10:31

the next thing until that child has taught me what they already know or what they are exploring or the words that they can use. I don't know what the next day is going to bring for me to enhance that. So it is definitely a two-way thing in EYFS and I am learning I think far more at the moment.

11:00

too much already, if you like, pre-planned. You can have an idea of where you're going with it, you can have an overview of where you're going in terms of what you want the children to learn, etc. But at the same time, on a day-to-day basis, actually, you've really got to be observing and engaging with the children to really find out more about them, to find out more about what they can do, what they're interested in, what they're fascinated by, the sorts of learning behaviors that you can see.

11:28

in order that you can then move forward with the children. And it is about that. You're right, it is about a two-way process. It's about a learning relationship being formed between you and the child and the child and the adults. You know, it's very much that kind of learning relationship. It sounds like you've got off to a great start, I have to say.

11:58

is about having all the fun and the children enjoying coming in every day. That's what I'm loving the most is just they come in the gate and they're ready. They're just coming in with all of their things, waddling in and they just are happy and that's heartwarming.

12:25

And they take their cues from the adults quite often. So if they can see that you are genuinely interested and genuinely enjoying being there and that you're having fun yourself and you're enjoying it, then actually that's such a good starting point. It gives you such a strong foundation for building relationships with them. But also for them to come and show you something or for them to come and tell you something that also made them laugh or was interesting to them

12:54

you're already kind of blurring that boundary between the adult and the child in a more formal sense. It is, yeah. And engaging with them. Trust is such an important part of, especially for my learning journey myself, is establishing that trust in relationship with each and every child. You can have your trust of your class and as a class they'll do.

13:21

pretty much everything that you're asking them, but that every child has that different sort of nurturing need. And when you can just break through that little trust barrier with each and every one of them, then they open up and we can move forward. We can then have the fun and we can have all of those instructional things that we need to happen for them to have a happy day and to have a successful day. Then

13:51

We have to break that barrier first, I found. And so, and that takes time. So establishing those really early routines and just having familiar adults around and just having fun so that they can just let down their guard just a little bit and let you get in and trust. And then everything else comes afterwards, but I do find nothing is achievable before that.

14:18

point out. It's all built on relationships, isn't it? I think the effective practice that you see, it's always built on strong, trusting relationships. And without that, it becomes very difficult. You know, if children don't trust and don't want to engage with the adults, if you haven't spent time building that relationship, then children will just move away.

14:46

Children will move away from wherever you've just appeared as an adult, they will move away from you if you haven't built up that relationship. But spending that time building that relationship has never wasted time, I think. It's always valuable. And it's just as valuable to take two steps back and then move forward and not have it in my mind, oh, we're at this point and we should be at this point now. I've kind of let go of that.

15:14

so much now. I think coming into it on the first day, you think you need to be doing this, this, and this. Whereas, yes, those things do need to happen, but they're never at the same pace you think they're going to happen. And they're all child dependent and every child is different. So, each one of those happens on a different day. And so, I did learn very early on to leave those things behind and just think, actually, it's okay to go back a couple of steps today. And

15:44

you know, try it again, try it a different way. And then you tend to move on a little bit quicker when you need to with that child because you can break down barriers in a different way. So it's, yeah, it's been actually really, really lovely. I've got a lovely cohort. Yes. Yeah, yeah. No, it's really interesting. I think I'm just going back to what you were saying just before about that idea of relationships and that trust.

16:10

We talk a lot, I think, in the early years about, particularly at the moment, about communication and language skills in young children and vocabulary, etc. But of course, all of that, you know, if you're going to learn new words, new vocabulary, if you're going to learn communication skills, then actually you've got to have that relationship, first of all, with the person, with the other person or the other people around you. You know, all of that is built on that relationship, first of all, isn't it? So, yeah.

16:39

Yeah, all of that and taking time and valuing that is important. Absolutely. I think it's great you've already got to that conclusion. Well, yeah, and the children that are coming to me now are nursery age. They're three and four years old and these children are, their world is their parents and their family unit around and that is it. And they've gone from this world and maybe a play center or a soft play and things.

17:08

or maybe a restaurant, but then they're coming to this huge nursery with all of these other children and that vocabulary isn't there. The communication for that is not there. And so, it does need to dip in right back so that we learn from where the parents stop and school starts that that's a massive bridge to work on in the very first term.

17:39

Yeah, at least. Yeah. Yeah. So you mentioned the nursery. Do you have a straight nursery class or do you have nursery and reception as a mixed class? So we have a straight nursery class. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And is that a big nursery? What sort of size are we talking? Well, yeah. So we have a big space. We're very, very fortunate to have a very big space. And currently at the moment we have

18:06

30 children that attend the morning or all day session and then we have 31 in the afternoon. So we've got 37 children all together. Yes. Again, though, you know, it's a big undertaking to have to be running that as an early career teacher, I think. You know, that's a lot to take on board. And that's not always valued, I think. You know, that's not always appreciated how much of the logistical work.

18:34

somebody who's teaching within a nursery does. Organizing numbers of children, ratios, et cetera, staffing. Absolutely. There's such a lot to it, isn't there? So there's even more so than if you were working within, say, a straight reception class. Yes. So it's more of a logistical management. Find that. I don't think I anticipated it as much in the beginning. As we've gone through, I've gone.

19:02

the amount of things you've had to learn all the way through. But like say the logistics of it and the administration of it is early on quite a big percentage. But I think what I learned the most was that the teaching isn't the same as throughout the school. The teaching

19:31

teacher at the front of the classroom and delivering. The teaching is having those conversations is, oh, you know, I'm taking my coat off now and this is how I do it. And those, it's just the conversation. So, there, your time is just split differently. You know, all of those things can still be achieved and done. It's just...

19:56

different from how my teaching course would have taught me this is how most teaching is done and I've kind of had to undo all of that slightly to adapt to work in the nursery. Just really, really strong early years team here. So it's really, really good collaboration for us to have an event for moving forward. Yeah, no, absolutely.

20:24

So talk us through then, so you've got this big nursery environment. Have you made any changes to it? Is it the same as it was when you first came into the space? Have you developed it? Can you talk us through the space itself? I guess if you've already got a team there in place, then actually to a certain extent it would already be established. Yes, so...

20:49

Yes, I did. I managed to come in for a few weeks before the term started in September. I came for some time in July with the old nursery teacher who's moved forward within the school and then just learned the practice, learned what was going on and what was happening with the early excellence.

21:17

set up and all of the furniture and the resources, how it's used. And then just gave me some really delicious sort of things to work with over the summer on how I was going to develop my own practice because it's easy to kind of step into someone's planning and just read off what they have established already. But I'm...

21:45

I question everything and I'm a kind of person who's just like, why is that? And I don't understand why do you do that? And why is that book on there? And I need the rationale behind things. And so I've tried to unpick everything that is on. We use like roadmaps for our curriculum where we can easily see, you know, where the children are in the developmental stages.

22:15

where things should happen according to the curriculum and then we can like unpick those sort of areas and see how they work. But I need the rationale behind it so some of those things I can develop and change and say well this might work better because this is how I operate. And so that's what I've been doing. So at Sandy Hill our learning environment is set out with the early excellence.

22:44

furniture and we're very well resourced here, we're very lucky. And our aim really then with that is to support the children's ability to regulate their thoughts and all their feelings and their emotions whilst they're pursuing all of these activities. They're not activities that are spread around the edge of the room, they're all integrated in between everything. You have to navigate around every sort of area in our.

23:13

nursery. And then that, whilst I'm pursuing these activities, then, you know, we can help these children to exercise their perseverance and their determination. So all of these things I'm looking at how all of these resources can sort of help with those. And my mind's going all the time, it's like, right, well, can I change that? Can I move that? Because the children are running in this area from this role play to this section.

23:41

How do I just break that little run? Or maybe I can just move a cupboard there and we can make a little area there. And just those little things that I've noticed that maybe I'm not managing, they're running around or effectively. And so from the meantime, while I'm learning how to do that or what I can put in place, let's just move that and put a physical barrier there. And it's just all adapting as we go.

24:09

every day change into what the children are looking for and what they need. Will Barron It's really interesting. Basically, what you're saying is you're making it your own, aren't you? You're not just taking over from somebody else and carrying out what they've been doing without knowing the why behind it.

24:39

home or anything. And so it's really for me, I just like to know why something is happening. And if I don't know, I'd like to understand. And, you know, there's a really solid foundation of resources and planning already set up. And so we don't need to redo that, but I still need to be able to change how I work.

25:05

and how these roadmaps help me as well. So we can just adapt and move along as we go. Yeah, yeah. I think that's really healthy that you as somebody there, as the teacher in the nursery, you need to be able to talk through the practice and make sense of it yourself and kind of own it really. And you can't do that if you're just carrying out what somebody else has told you to do because that's what worked for them. It kind of has to be something that...

25:31

that works for you and you understand it really, you understand the reasoning of it, even if it's a journey, you kind of understand actually the process within it, and you're questioning it and wondering about it. Now it's really interesting. It's interesting what you were saying about also that kind of watching the children and how they respond to the environment, because you're absolutely right, you might see children say running within the space. And...

25:59

It's if that is happening, as I often say to people, there's no point really just standing there every day and telling the children to stop running. There's really no point sounding like a stuck record saying stop running. How many times have I told you stop running? Because whilst you're saying that something else is giving them a stronger message that says run and that is the environment. So the space there, if there's a big long corridor or whatever it

26:29

That's basically saying go for it, run. The space in front of them is inviting them to run. And so if you're going to just stand there and say, stop running, you kind of, you kind of wasting your time. We've got to change really the way that that space is in front of them. So we've got to slow them down a little bit, which is what, of course, what you were saying that actually you can, you can add a piece of furniture here or there, something gently, um, kind of slowing the children down really from space to space.

26:58

Absolutely. Yeah, we're, we're looking at people that help us as an, like an overriding topic at the moment. And we have the police costumes out. And so we have lots of cops and robbers and things like that going on and which has encouraged the running around and you know, there's a lot of speed involved. And although you want them to explore that as well, it's, you know, can always be safe inside. And so.

27:27

It was just for me, right, let's change the space. Let's direct the children differently and then let's get some different vocabulary in there so that we can then encourage some different areas to explore because there's a lot more that police can do to help. And now we've made a big tree and now there's a cat stuck up the tree and now they're dressing up as, so we're just trying to encourage.

27:56

their thoughts and their processes and trying to foster their independence to find a different way and stop the running. Yes. Oh yeah, definitely. Definitely. Yeah, it's all part of that process, isn't it? All part of that learning process. Okay. You mentioned that you did a PGCE. So you trained on a PGCE course, which presumably that's a year or just under a year. Yeah, it's a year. Yeah. Okay. So...

28:26

having done your PGCE, I was going to ask you, was there anything kind of as you started that you wish you'd known? So kind of almost sort of, is there something that's part of the course or in the lead up to you starting your new role in September that you thought, oh, I wish I'd known this? Oh, good. But there's so much because I think when I first started interviewing and then thinking about

28:52

gosh, you know, I've done this now and I really need to be thinking about working. I don't think you really, I think you come out or I came out of my PGC thinking, yeah, I know how to teach, I can do that. Little did I know that it is so very different. But, you know, they give you the bones of everything and that is important. I think for me, I wish I had more understanding of the curriculum itself.

29:21

Again, it's words on a document and you can read it and you can know you can read it.

29:31

putting that in place gives you a completely different context. You can read those sentences completely differently after your first day of practice. Then after your first half term of practice, you can go back and read them and then you would interpret them differently again. I wish I had more opportunity, I think, to spend on the curriculum during my PGCE to revisit it.

29:57

it's, you know, we go back to it and say, yes, we're going to link everything to the curriculum, you're going to deliver it, you're going to do this. But I would have liked, yeah, I would have liked to go into the nitty gritty of the rationale again, behind the curriculum and the thoughts behind it, and how that is implemented differently. Yes. Yeah. We had our two placements, which are very, very different. But

30:25

having a key stage two placement, if I had a second key stage two placement, I suppose then you can see what they've pulled or where they're interpreting things differently. Yes, you can see it in more depth probably. It's tricky, isn't it? It's a bit like you were saying that to a certain extent they teach you the bones of it and then you need the experience in order to make sense of it. That's right.

30:51

you haven't at the point when you learn it on the PGCE, you haven't got the experience to know what, now how does that make sense to me? No. What does that look like in context? I haven't, I haven't got the experience yet. And so, and certainly, in my experiences, I also did a PGCE many years ago now. I found that I learned such a lot in the first, well, for many years, but certainly, a lot within the first two or three years.

31:20

It was a huge process of development of watching and listening and kind of tuning into what children are doing, really getting to know a lot more about child development because that's that's crucial I think, particularly when working in the early years. An understanding of child development is such a massive thing that again whilst the course would have touched on that, you know, my PGCE course.

31:49

it wouldn't, you know, you can't possibly do it in enough depth. No. In a way that actually you would want it to be in order to influence your teaching. Yeah, I think that understanding of child development is huge, isn't it? It is a huge, huge thing. And so yeah, I do wish I had some more knowledge in that area. Also,

32:19

really any knowledge of before it coming out is anything outside of say your class. So we touched on like SCN and all of those sort of things we didn't really touch on EAL or anything like that. So I think I would have liked to have explored just like Makaton, just a simple, just something

32:48

simple that could have happened before. I didn't even think about doing those things before. And I really wish I had Macton. The very first day I started, I was like, how do I communicate? I have no way of actually communicating with these children in particular. And so that was, I would have really liked.

33:17

something other than my voice to be able to communicate. Yes, yeah. And I think most people who work in a nursery, I think they come to that same conclusion that actually, there's only you when you're talking, you've only really got your voice to a certain extent when you first start out. And you start to learn different ways of engaging with children and communicating with children, partly Makaton.

33:45

but also kind of body language, the way you position yourself, being silent, being alongside children, mirroring, copying what they're doing, showing them that actually that you are watching what they're doing and that you value what they're doing. There's so many different ways of communicating with young children, but it's not just about using your voice. So yeah, with communication and language being such a huge part of EYF as well, I think...

34:14

It'd be really nice communication and language to be quite a big part in the PGCE of exploring lots of different ways for your own practice for moving forward with communication and language. Just exploring that, that would have really, really helped me definitely on my birthday.

34:37

And then kind of as a follow up question really, I was going to ask you about advice. Have you been given advice since you started? And what was the best piece of advice you've been given? Gosh, well, like I said before, I've got such a great team around me. And I know you said earlier, sometimes in the nursery it can be quite isolating, but I've been so fortunate that we have such a close knit team. But I've just remember,

35:06

my EYFS lead saying to me, reflect, question and talk constantly to every adult that you come in contact with. Question and reflect all the time. We just talk all the time. So, if we're passing, we're talking about how the day's gone, talking about every child, I can confidently say that just because my EYFS lead is good, I can talk to them.

35:35

not in my class all the time, that if I mention a child's name, she knows that child because of the conversations we have every day. At the end of the day, we debrief constantly in our team and just ask how our day's gone. Then each one of us knows each child in the class. I would know

36:05

teacher is talking about a particular child because we've had conversations. And I think that was the best bit of advice I've had is just to keep talking. Keep talking. And I think there is something really special about, particularly a nursery team who kind of go through it together. You know, it's because it's hard, you know, working in the nursery, of course, is really hard work.

36:28

You know, it's physically exhausting, mentally exhausting, you know, and emotionally as well. It's hard, hard work. And I think, but what it does do is it really pushes people together. And you become this very close network, a close team. And where it is possible to have that time at the end of a session to talk about how it's gone, you know, in terms of debriefing, you know, it's useful in terms of kind of de-stressing as well and so on.

36:58

But it's also really valuable in terms of those meetings, really, that often can be just informal chats, actually often form a strong basis for planning for what we might do next. So somebody might say, well, have you noticed that little group over there? They keep going back over to the water area and they keep doing this. So we've got to, they're really interested in whatever this aspect is. So we've got to show them this tomorrow. I'll bring something in and I'll show them.

37:27

or we've got to show them a video clip of this, they'll find this amazing, or whatever it might be. And I think that level of planning, that level of short-term planning based on something which is very much bespoke and tailor-made to the children who are there in this moment in the classroom, I think that's really powerful and really important. You know, we do, as you mentioned earlier, we have a

37:54

Generally, we have a plan in place, a kind of a curriculum plan. We have an overview of kind of what we want to teach the children. We've got a plan of maybe a project or a topic or whatever it might be. But it's also important that we have the, like you say, the kind of the ability to talk about what we've seen and to be able to move forward with it as well. The flexibility to do that is really important. So all of those interactions with.

38:23

your team and the wider EYFS team around you, they are the planning. All of those conversations is your day-to-day planning. It's what we're going to be doing next. It's what we're going to be doing in the next session, or it's what we're going to be doing this afternoon. All of those conversations influence that all the time. It could be right now, something's not working. Okay, well, let's just...

38:50

figure this out and let's take these children off and you go and try something different because their interests aren't here. And so we need to adapt and move all the time. And like you said, we do have a long-term plan that we try our best to move along with. But again, if it doesn't work, we can revisit that in some more scheduled planning time and that's what our PPA and things like that is for.

39:19

For me as well, it's been really important to be able to constantly move our plan in and constantly rejig things because I'm learning as well what works and what doesn't work. And then also what works now with this cohort isn't going to work with the next cohort as I'm finding right now because I had all my September starters in and now I have January starters.

39:43

you know, even though they're very similar in age, these children are going to be with us for five terms now. And so what worked in September for those children doesn't work for these children. And especially even with the early excellence, you know, we at the beginning of the year, you strip everything back and we teach everything. But then these children have been in for a whole term and they have a few things out and then you have new children in. And it's like,

40:10

Okay, what do we do now? Because we should be stripped back. We can't strip back because we've got all these children. How do we do that? How do we navigate that? And so, you know, as we have a really good team and a strong team in, we can adapt that really quickly and just say, okay, well, we can use our children to model and, you know, and, oh, you know, this child knows how to use their glue sticks. How about we sit with them and we learn how...

40:38

they're doing and get your children to interact. And so that we haven't got to strip these areas right back, but we're still then also teaching these new children as if it were stripped right back. So that adaption has been absolutely key to navigate in these last couple of weeks of new children. That is, I think, the most challenging thing about working in nursery.

41:07

is not that the children are really young, because of course they are. The really challenging thing is the constant new groups of children coming in, just as you've got the last lot of children just settled. And so you're constantly sort of having an eye on actually the children who are now having been with us for a term or maybe two terms, whilst also

41:33

thinking, well, actually, what about the group of children who are coming in or they've just started? And how do we make sure that we don't end up with children who are missing out in terms of their induction because they're joining halfway through the year? That's right. So, you know, if you imagine sort of in September, the children in September who are new, they get generally quite a lot of attention.

41:59

We take them through the different areas, we show them how to use the resources, we do all of these sorts of things. Whereas actually, if they start in January, or if they start maybe after Easter, actually they might not get that amount of time with somebody. And you've got to be careful that actually they don't kind of get lost within the whole big picture. Exactly, they don't get that adult time, admittedly. However, they have something that they, September

42:29

you know, the resource of the children that are already here. And so they have that extra commodity as such really, because they have, you know, almost, you know, 20, 25 other children that can show them instead of the one adult. And so as an adult, we have modeled that to these children and on a whole they're modeling and using those things in the way they've been shown. And so

42:59

that trust that we've built up, we can now trust them to model that beautifully for our new children as well. And then you can kind of like, I found you can almost take a little step back and let those conversations happen then between the old children and the newer children. And you can hear all that you have been.

43:22

chanting all of this time and you can see the little mini teachers in all of those children that are role playing out and we use it like this and we hold the scissors like this and it's been absolutely delightful having those children and having you know the asset of the of the cohort that is already in. Yeah absolutely and that's why of course that it's never time wasted it's always

43:52

really important use of time to really be spending time modeling, scaffolding, supporting, introducing the areas of provision to the children early on in the year. Because actually, if you do it well, they will be the children that help you later on in the year when you've got newer children coming into an area which potentially is already quite busy. Yes. And so, yeah, it's always time well spent, I think, and always important to really, to give that time.

44:21

to supporting children who are new. Yeah, no important stuff, important stuff. You know, I was going to ask you basically about, about your practice and how it's developed across the year. But actually, from what you've already said, it sounds, it sounds like actually, you've already given us such a lot, you know, you know, it's hard to pinpoint a specific thing, because actually, you've already talked about so many things that you're reflecting on so many things that you're considering.

44:51

so many things that you've thought about as you've gone through, even just a, you know, basically you've had one term. Just had one term. It's been a whirlwind, but it's been amazing, absolutely amazing. Yeah, it's, yeah, but I'm so impressed at how reflective you are, you know, at this early stage of your teaching career. I really am, you know, genuinely, I'm not just saying that. I think you are, you know, really thinking through, you're not getting, it sounds like you're not getting

45:21

the sort of the day-to-day stuff, but you are actually really thinking about kind of why you would do things, you know, the reflecting on the, what the children need, reflecting on not just sort of carrying out the planning, but actually, well, why are we doing this and can we be flexible enough to meet the needs of the children? Absolutely. Yeah, I know I'm really genuinely really impressed. Thank you. Yeah, no, it sounds great, really does. And then the other thing I was going to ask you was basically what next? You know, so as I feel like I ought to let you go.

45:51

I feel like this is part of your, this will be I'm sure part of your planning time that you've got time out of the classroom. No, it's all good. So I don't want to use up too much of your time. What's next? If you thought about kind of the rest of the year. We have not so much on the horizon. There's so much we want to do. So I think from my own personal development, I'm going to be doing some walkthroughs of reception in year one.

46:20

So I can understand where literacy starts in reception, so where I need to be ending, because I was all very well doing all of these things every day, but I have a point to reach. So I'd like to see that and see what it looks like in reception. And then through there as well, onto year one, I want to just see where that, how that progression happens. And then same with the phonics as well, I want to see how...

46:48

that look. So we're going to be doing some walkthroughs and we're also going to have a look at some focus, sort of vocabulary in our areas to enhance all of those areas. So having overriding topic just so that I can get the staff to hone in on those children and I can just put a couple of names up and say, let's focus just on this little bit of the curriculum.

47:14

and this bit of vocabulary because I've not seen that and try and encourage that out to amuse some children on. So that's where I am at the moment and hope we develop some of our outdoor areas in the summer, get some plants growing and things. Sounds about right. Yeah. I mean, the other thing that links with what you were just saying is that it strikes me as well that you're very...

47:41

in terms of you and your role, you're very useful to the rest of the staff team as well. In that, well, of course you are, but you see what's in that, you know, you were saying that actually you want to go and find out about what happens next in reception and what that then looks like in year one in terms of the practice and that progression. But of course the opposite is true in that actually we can look in the other direction and

48:06

your year two teacher or your year one teacher or your reception teacher, they need to know what does the start of the journey look like? What does it look like when those children come in in the nursery at three? What does literacy look like? What does communication and language look like? What do mathematical skills look like? What are the prime areas of learning? What do they look like at the start of the journey, the right at the very start of the journey when these children first come in?

48:35

of rationale for them as well, just to, so that they can just have that little bit more depth on where, you know, what that line in the curriculum means to them and where it's come from as a, I suppose from nursery. So definitely. Yeah, and a pulse beyond that. So not just the reception or year one, year two, but also, you know, your year six staff or your maths coordinator or whoever it might be within the school actually.

49:02

everybody needs to have an understanding of that whole score. And we do, yeah, we're very lucky here. We have all the leads. They start from nursery when they do their work throughs and see what it looks like here. So it definitely helps having a whole score approach. Yeah, it sounds like you're in a really good place, I have to say. It really does. It sounds like, you know, from their point of view, they've employed the right person, without a doubt. You know, from what you've said already,

49:31

so early on in your teaching career, working in nursery, you know, I can, yeah, I'm sure that actually your teaching practice as a whole is going to develop and build, you know, you've got such a strong starting point to build on. But also, I think in terms of you within the school, you're clearly fit into the team, you know, both the nursery team and the whole school team, you know, as a valued member of both.

50:00

the smaller team and the bigger team and that you're in the right place. We have a good team and we have a supportive team and that does make a massive difference when you're starting out in any job and especially in teaching when you need a strong team around you and so we are incredibly lucky at Sandy Hill. Just finally before I let you go, I'm going to have to ask you.

50:26

I hadn't planned on asking you this, but I didn't know that you've previously been a plumber. You mentioned that you were a plumber at the start. Okay, that was your previous career. Okay, go for it, hit me. Has there been a time in nursery or in school so far where you've had to call on your plumbing skills? I'm worried now that you're gonna tell me something pretty grim. Oh my, yes, no, we have. We've had two floods in nursery so far, so.

50:55

the summer holidays we started and we had a huge flood in the nursery so we had a boiler, a big boiler leak and then recently after the half term another boiler, we'll have two boilers in there and both of them have gone. And you're like, you're the go-to person as soon as anything like that happens, go and get Sarah. Ask Sarah, ask Sarah, yep absolutely but it's good to keep your finger in lots of pies. Absolutely.

51:24

I can certainly teach the children a bit of plumbing, that'll be fine. Yeah, what a skill to have. Absolutely. Sarah, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much. You've been absolutely fab. And it would be great to catch up with you maybe in the future and see sort of later on That would be amazing. how you built on this brilliant start. Thank you so much for joining us. It's been fab. Thank you so much for having me.

51:57

So there you go. Thank you very much to Sarah for joining us for this week's episode of the podcast. I hope you found all of our conversations and our discussions useful. That's about it for this week, everybody. Have a good week and we'll see you next time.