On Saturday March 8th, the baby room team kicked off our series of 6 national conferences in London at Middlesex University! We welcomed a passionate group of baby room educators and nursery managers who shared their experiences and expertise around how to get it right in the baby room.
These conferences are at the heart of our research. They are where we hear from the educators and managers working towards quality in the baby room day in and day out. At the conferences, our delegates have a 45 minute focus group where we get to have conversations about topics like quality provision for babies, professionalism, and qualifications and continuous professional development.
After engaging in these reflective conversations, we put on a full day of professional learning with our amazing speakers:
- Debbie Brace, who sparked provocative and reflective dialogues about settling in babies
- Dr. Gemma Goldenberg, who shared insightful and inspiring information on babies’ brains
Why are we doing our research like this? Why are we offering a full day of free professional learning as a thank you for chatting with us in focus groups?
Well, because we wanted to conduct research in a way that gave as much as we got.
Our baby room educators care for our children at the earliest stage and lay the groundwork for the rest of their lives. Yet, they are often forgotten about in the EY sector, especially when it comes to professional learning. There have been few baby specific professional learning sessions on offer. We wanted to help meet this need with a meaningful, fun day of professional learning that offers a boisterous ‘thank you.’ The time and experience of our delegates is invaluable, and this little bit we could offer in return… just made sense!
After sitting down and reflecting on the day, we had a few takeaways we wanted to share with you:
- Quality baby room provision should be standard for everyone. It’s not ok that we feel ‘lucky’ when provision in the baby room is decent and we’re not completely overwhelmed.
- The qualifications and training we have for baby room educators need to reflect the realities of working in the baby room.
- Without passion, without the desire to be with babies and to be joyfully engaged in their lives, quality is a lost cause.
- The feeling of being undervalued and underappreciated is very real and particularly strong among baby room educators. Their sense of professionalism is connected to how parents’ view them. Many still feel parents do not understand what happens in the baby room and do not see them as professionals. Every baby room educator needs to feel valued.
Holding a safe, warm space for people to reflect and share their experiences with us has been incredible, both for our research team and for the delegates. We can’t wait to see how our conversations evolve across the country.
Our next stop will be York, so stay tuned for more to come!
Over to you!
- What are your thoughts on our key takeaways so far?
- Do they resonate with you, or do you have a different experience?
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