Welcome to the first issue of the quarterly PEAL e-bulletin.
PEAL originated as a consortium project of the National Children’s
Bureau (NCB), Coram Family and the London Borough of Camden. It is
funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF)
as part of the Early Learning Partnerships (Strand 3: Developing
the Workforce) and its rollout is currently led by NCB, the
National Childminding Association (NCMA), the National Day
Nurseries Association (NDNA) and the Pre-school Learning Alliance
(PLA).
The PEAL e-bulletin will be emailed on the last Tuesday of every
three months.
Contents:
- Introducing the PEAL Team
- PEAL News
- New Redesigned PEAL Website
- Updated Training Pack
- Feedback from Evaluations
- Future Training Dates
1. Introducing the PEAL Team
Sue Owen is
Director of the Early Childhood Unit at the National Children’s
Bureau (NCB). Sue compiled the original PEAL funding bid to the
Department for Education and Skills (DfES, now Department for
Children, Schools and Families (DCSF)) in 2003, with Gillian Pugh.
Sue has general management responsibility for the Workforce
Development Strand of the Early Learning Partnership Project
(ELPP), which includes the PEAL rollout. She works on this project
with Parenting UK.
Joyce
Connor joined NCB in September 2005 as the
PEAL Principal Officer, Parents and Families. She developed the
training programme and supported materials to help early years
practitioners enable parents to become involved in their children’s
learning. Her role now involves managing the PEAL roll out,
including management of staff and resources, promotion, quality
assurance of the training and materials, and keeping links within
NCB and ELPP Strands 1 and 2. Joyce's early work included working
as a teacher, in community play schemes and residential units, in a
number of childcare organisations and as a freelance trainer and
consultant.
Helen Wheeler is
the PEAL Senior Development Officer. She was appointed to the
project in July 2005. Her role includes collating successful
practice in involving parents in their children’s learning in the
early years, reviewing the latest research and literature, and
producing materials for the PEAL training pack. Helen has taught in
infant and nursery schools for over twenty years, most recently
coordinating an ethnic minority achievement team across two nursery
schools in the London Borough of Ealing. This included working in
innovative ways with children’s families to build relationships and
parental engagement in learning. She has also worked part time in
the Sure Start London Regional team, as a home-school tutor
tutoring writing courses and supporting families educating their
children at home, both in the UK and abroad.
Liz McIntyre is
the PEAL Development Officer. Her main job aspects are to
contribute to development of the website, work towards the
accreditation of PEAL, evaluate the training, and be aware of new
policy/research initiative that might contribute to the PEAL
training. She also attends trainings where she supports trainers.
She previously worked as a Family Learning Development Officer in
the London Borough of Harrow and has worked in the voluntary sector
as a Coordinator of a Weekend Family Learning Group for families
with pre-school children. She is also a qualified social worker and
adult teacher.
Heather Goodwin
is the PEAL Admin and Training Coordinator. She has been working
with PEAL since its inception and is responsible for the logistics
of the training as well as the coordination of the trainers. Her
previous experience includes working in the Arts sector, managing
venues in the South East of England.
Ashley Duke
joined the PEAL project as the Administrator in May, previously
having worked in the children’s charity sector for the past five
years. His main role is to take all bookings for events and to send
confirmation letters to all delegates.
Faye Hounsome
joined the PEAL Project as the Temporary Administration Assistant
in September 2007. She is responsible for supporting PEAL in the
2007-2008 roll out. Before joining PEAL she completed a masters
degree in human rights at the University of London.
Keith Phillips
has worked for children's organisations all his working life.
Starting out as a Playbus driver and playleader, Keith went on to
be a teacher in a secondary school, then running community based
children, young people and family projects. Keith has been working
as a freelance consultant for nine years on Sure Start Children
Centre development, training and quality assurance and organisation
development in the voluntary sector. As Associate Lead Trainer for
the Peal training programme, Keith has worked with the team from
the beginning helping to pilot the training and support of new
trainers, as well as training and assisting at events.
Laura Dixon
joined the PEAL project as the Conference Organiser in September
2007. She is responsible of organising the training events. That
involves booking venues, catering and being involved in the general
attendees booking process.
Lynn Stevens is
the PEAL Grant Monitoring Officer. She joined NCB in June and works
primarily with the 15 sub-contracted organisations funded by the
ELP3 strand to deliver training. She is a central point of contact
for advice and support, and manages the reporting and payment
process. Lynn previously worked in a similar role for three and a
half years at the Big Lottery Fund and is currently a voluntary
fundraiser for a local charity in Brighton.
Paulina Filippou
is the PEAL Communications Officer. She was appointed to the
project in July. In her role she focuses on raising the profile of
the project through all the possible communications channels
available. Having completed a Psychology degree, Paulina worked for
five years in mental health, both directly with mentally ill
patients and with families and carers, including young carers and
siblings. Her career then changed direction and for the last three
years she has been working in communications and events management
in the voluntary sector, and with an interest in health and
children and young people.
Beki Hawes is the
PEAL E-publishing Assistant. Her main role is to develop and update
the new website. Appointed to the post in June, Beki worked
previously on the Understanding Slavery website, and in the
publishing department of the National Maritime Museum in
Greenwich.
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2. PEAL News
2a. New Redesigned PEAL
Website
The new redesigned PEAL website
http://www.peal.org.uk/ was
launched in September. It plays a key role in supporting early
years practitioners working with parents to improve the learning
outcomes of children. The new site offers a range of essential
tools and resources, including latest links to research and
information on training programmes supporting early years
practitioners. It also acts as a platform for the development of an
online community, uniting practitioners across the country by
sharing good practice ideas and invaluable experience beyond the
skills gained from attending the PEAL training. Also available on
the site are details on all the training events and the booking
process.
2b. Updated Training
Pack
PEAL has a new DVD illustrating the
importance of involving parents in their children’s learning, and
tips on how early years settings can encourage this involvement. It
includes parents talking about how observing their children has
made them realise how children try and make sense of their world
and how much they can learn from a very early age. The DVD is
projected during the training events and will soon be available for
the training participants.
PEAL has also produced seven new practice examples of good
practice ideas for early years settings, some of which are taken
from our new partners: the Pre-school Learning Alliance and
National Childminding Association. The new themes that are covered
describe alternative ways of building partnerships with parents,
and involving parents in their children’s learning. This
includes working with fathers, working with parents with babies,
and taking day trips.
2c. Feedback from
Evaluations
We are committed to monitoring and
evaluating the delivery of PEAL training to ensure consistency and
quality for all those attending. The Research and Evaluation
Department of the NCB (National Children’s Bureau) conducted a
postal survey of a random selection of participants who attended
the first eight PEAL training events for children’s centres between
September 2006 and January 2007. 83 people responded to the
survey.
Headline findings revealing what participants gained from the
training include:
87% felt more motivated to involve parents where they
work:
31% were ‘a lot more motivated'
56% were ‘quite a bit’
79% felt the training gave them more confidence in their
own ability to involve parents at their setting:
24% had gained ‘a lot' more confidence
55% had gained ‘quite a bit’ more confidence
71% had gained confidence in their ability to encourage
parents’ engagement in learning in their own homes:
21% had gained ‘a lot' more confidence
50% had gained ‘quite a bit’ more confidence
A fifth of respondents reported that they were using some of the
practical examples suggested. These included completing more home
visits; using video and digital cameras to share observations;
sharing music sessions with parents; establishing portfolios for
record keeping; involving parents in role-play; and developing a
listening library. Others had started to develop new settling in
procedures, were having an ‘inspire day’ in which parents would
help select from the ideas, and had thought through priorities in
order to create more time to talk to parents.
For more information on our evaluation process, or to see more
comments on the training, go to our evaluation page
2d. Future Training
Dates
Details of training events are available
on our training page
We want your feedback and
ideas!
Please direct any comments or queries
to:
Paulina Filippou, Communications Officer, PEAL Project
– pfilippou@ncb.org.uk
Beki Hawes, E-publishing Assistant, PEAL Project –
bhawes@ncb.org.uk
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