www.thebabyroom.blog

One of the major findings from our baby room project has been the need for baby-specific professional learning. We’ve explored not only what should go into this professional learning, but also the best ways for it to be delivered. We’ve found that there’s a big desire across baby rooms for more coaching-based professional learning. For example, 60% of participants wanted access to coaching (N=85). However, from our conferences, we know that coaching is the least accessed form of CPD for baby room educators, pointing to a massive gap between what works and what’s available.

In this blog post focused on coaching in the baby room, we had the joy of speaking with Hayley Nation-Smith, the nursery manager at Lanterns Nursery School and Extended Services, a maintained nursery school in Winchester. Hayley explained how they embed coaching in the culture of their baby room to achieve high-quality provision.

About Lanterns Nursery School and Extended Services

In response to the expansion of the childcare entitlement Lynsay Falkingham, head teacher, led Lanterns Nursery School and Extended Services in making the decision to open a baby room in September 2025. They set it up from scratch, from writing policies and procedures related to children 0-2 years old, to creating the physical space for provision. They placed their baby room on the ground floor of the nursery with bifold doors that open to the garden and the meadow, encouraging free flow play. They also kept group sizes small, with nine babies cared for by a team of four educators.

Coaching for baby room teams

For Hayley, the most important component of high-quality provision are the baby room educators. They are the ones who provide secure, attuned relationships, which are the basis of babies’ learning and development. This means that investing in educators through continuous professional development, including coaching, is essential for achieving the quality of provision they’re striving for.

As nursery manager, Hayley explained her vision of coaching which focuses on psychological safety and unconditional positive regard. In keeping this central to her leadership, her team feels safe to come to her with new ideas, and they also feel safe to openly problem solve together as a team without judgment. This culture has led staff to experiment in their pedagogy and develop their own curriculum, fostering a sense of ownership in their practice with babies and their professional identity.

Professional confidence, quality improvement, and family support

At Lanterns Nursery School and Extended Services Several, the baby room team engages in individual and team coaching. Hayley also runs team development during INSET days that embeds coaching principles, such as open questioning, reflection, and drawing the teams thinking out. The headteacher, Lynsay, has been integral to embedding coaching in the baby room culture, championing this form of CPD for baby room educators by supporting with arranging the necessary cover to make it happen and writing this CPD into school-wide policies.

Hayley shared the impact of coaching on one baby room educator’s professional confidence. The baby room team had been wanting to develop their in-the-moment planning; however, during a coaching session between Hayley and one educator, they discovered that in-the-moment planning didn’t feel authentic to her pedagogical philosophy. The educator instead described herself as a ‘thinker’, reflecting on how she thrives when she has time to reflect and then plan. Having this understanding of her professional identity meant together they could come up with a better way to support her approach to planning. It resulted in Hayley ringfencing an hour out of the room once a week for the educator to reflect on her key children and plan. Recently, the educator traced the impact of her planning sessions to more personalised experiences for the babies that drew on their fascinations and needs.

Hayley has also been using coaching in discussion with families. Rather than giving directive advice when asked for support, she has been using coaching conversations to guide parents through reflections on their baby. This approach values the family’s knowledge just as much as the educators, and also places an emphasis on things the family can change as opposed to the baby’s behaviour. This approach has cascaded across the baby room team, shaping how they communicate with parents, ensuring all stakeholders’ expertise work in tandem to offer babies the best support.

Looking to the future

Moving forward, Lynsay and Hayley will lead the coaching strategy together across the maintained school, with coaching now embedded within plans for the upcoming academic year. This is a significant achievement and one worth celebrating: an initiative that began in the baby room has grown to influence practice across all age groups. In Hayley’s words: 

‘Coaching is reflection, and reflection leads to stronger professional judgment and confidence. Stronger professional judgment and confidence lead to a change in practice, which means better outcomes for babies.’

As this case study demonstrates, investing in opportunities for reflection and professional growth can strengthen educators’ confidence and judgement, ultimately enhancing the quality of provision and outcomes for babies. This leaves us with some important questions for your practice:

• What opportunities for coaching and reflection currently exist within your baby room?
• How might coaching help strengthen partnerships with families?
• What is one change you could make to embed a stronger culture of coaching in your setting?

Share your reflections in the comments below!