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22 November 2011
Recent Comments from our Learners
Margaret I thought I'd use this opportunity to say a HUGE thank you for all that you have done for me! I now have my Award! I feel so relieved! You have been all that I could have asked of you. You were supportive in my low times, understanding in my lost times, joyful in the happy times and most of all patient through the entirety of my study! I cannot thnak you enough for all your support, encouragement and love. I am eternally grateful, really. I am also extremely thankful for your support of my church life and calling. It's lovely! I'm over the moon! From (probably) your longest running childcare student! With love Rob C
Sylwia wrote this week: I am very pleased to have my placement. All staff are very nice, and ready to help. I am so excited to do this, and it means a lot to me. Thank you very much for all your efforts in helping me achieve this. Sylwia Z
11 November 2011
We recognise that not everyone needs all the information contained inthe Safeguarding your Nursery product, so we have provided smaller ‘bite-sized’ CD in the same series – and this is reflected in the cost too! We have also made these available for instant download, so you can buy and use immediately! You may even purchase just one document! These are currently being trialled by a University, and its associated nursery settings. Our range of Quick Nursery Documents is ideal for nursery owners, managers, and supervisors. The items are available as a Microsoft Word Document that you can download and then use immediately whatever the time of day. Ideal if you need the document urgently! As the document is provided as a Microsoft Word document you can fully customise it for use in your nursery setting.
Safeguarding the Nursery Data Protection Health & Safety Recruiting Safely
These are produced in association with Docs2Assist http://www.docs2assist.com Key features of Docs2Assist CD-ROMS: Comprehensive but straightforward advice and guidance; Written by authors with an extensive and impressive wealth of knowledge and experience in the topic; Documents that you can fully customise for use in your organisation saving you time and money; Easy to use with a dedicated technical enquiry desk to answer any enquiries relating to the software; Excellent value for money
1st August 2011 NO TIME TO COMPLETE HND?
What can you do if time constraints prevent you from undertaking this qualification? Here at DAC we are pleased to offer an alternative! The Level 5 in Leadership and Management Award, Certificate or Diploma available (minimum time needed is just 60 guided learning hours) and no need to attend classes!
Essential Resource now Available DAC Childcare is proud to announce a brand new tool available for you to ensure that your nursery operates as well as it can and that you are best placed to attract new clients.
SAFEGUARDING your NURSERY
designed to guide you through the steps necessary to recruit staff effectively including how to undertake background checks ensuring that you employ only the most suitable persons for your setting. Risk Assessment is covered in detail - allowing you to understand the processes and procedure of managing the safety of all those in your care. Data Protection is an area frequently misunderstood - Safeguarding your Nursery provides clear information on what exactly is required, to keep within the law.
Fully Adaptable Documents Included within this resource are more than 30 forms, letters, checklists and other documents that you may customise, complete and use within your own nursery setting.
This resource is available on C D Rom, at just £45
No CD drive on your computer? For just £2.50 extra DAC will supply Safeguarding your Nursery on a USB memory stick!
For more details and to take advantage of this extraordinary offer
call Margaret on 01978 366366
www.dac-childcaretraining.co.uk October 2010 ‘Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness’ If, like me, you love the myriad colours on the trees this month, you will appreciate these words immortalised by John Keats, in his poem To Autumn, in 1820. We are reminded that, although the darkness arrives sooner, there is still much beauty in our environment. Back to practicalities – we continue to look for opportunities to develop courses requested by our clients. As a result we have recently added BTEC Health & Social Care (Level 3 & Level 5), along with Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector. This is more frequently known as PTLLS (sounds like petals), and provides a very good grounding for those who are involved in training people in the workplace; where the training is publically funded (eg grants) those delivering the programme must have at least PTLLS. Ourania, who lives in Piraeus, was delighted to receive her certificate recently; here is her message to us: "Sweet Margaret I just received the certificate and that lovely congratulations-card from you!!! I cannot describe how thrilled I am for achieving this goal…. also because it was in English – a language I love, but still not my mother tongue. A billion "thank you" are not enough!!! Take good care!! Rania xxx"
To all those of you who are expecting an Ofsted inspection this term we say ‘just be yourself’; in the days when I used to undertake this practice in Wales the main focus was on assessing the extent to which the setting meets the needs of the children and their families. Although the EYFS has brought with it added responsibilities and the need for even more record-keeping, the priorities remain the same as they have always been – supporting happy, confident children at each stage of their development.
As you might know, we are subject to many ‘checks and balances’ each year, in relation to every programme we are approved to deliver. This year BTEC has introduced another, ‘overarching’ inspection; to this end we will be welcoming a Centre Quality Reviewer to out premises, on 1st November. We promise to let you know how this goes (warts included) in next month’s newsletter.
That’s it for now, best wishes Margaret
September 2010
New Term – New Beginnings!
Well, here we are, at the start of a brand new school year; many of you will be welcoming nervous individuals into your settings
(And of course there will be lots of children starting out on this adventure too)!
Those of you who are ready to embark upon BTEC Business or Management courses will be exploring the brand new programmes, whilst the ‘favourites’ will be available for all levels of Childcare qualifications.
You can be assured that all DAC staff will be very well acquainted with any changes, as they occur; and all assignments will be updated to take account of the new programmes.
Officially August was the coldest and wettest for a very long time – despite this we’re sure many of you succeeded in providing great treats for the youngsters in your care. Tell us about your escapades and we will be delighted to share them with other readers.
Tomorrow I shall be on the 5 o’clock (am) train, to visit one of our HND students in her workplace; we look forward to catching up with all of you on that programme, in the UK and abroad, over the coming months.
The start of a new year is traditionally the time when companies review the cost of their services; here at DAC prices have not risen for 3 years. We will need to make some increases; for those already registered there will be no change at all. The additional charges will reflect the changes in size of some courses, and will come into force with the new qualifications – that means no increase for childcare courses until January 2011!
News of courses around the country will be provided as we receive them.
Please remember to send us information about your summer jaunts!
All the best for a brilliant start to the new term
Margaret
August 2010
Hello again
So much has been going on here at DAC that I really do not know where to start – no doubt, as some of you ‘wind down’ for a long summer break, for others it will be business-as-usual over August.
Congratulations to Saira and Beth, who have just achieved their National Award in CCLD; just a final push needed for John and Emily to complete the final unit on the National Award and Higher National Certificate.
We have also received an update from Sister Alberta; she continues to work with children in her native Ghana, and has begun her Level 3 Playwork course with DAC.
You might remember that in the last newsletter I told you of changes to BTEC qualifications – for those on the Business and Management programmes these changes will come into being on 1st September, when most qualifications will move onto a different framework.
A decision has been made however, that the Childcare courses will remain in their current format until 31st December. The size and worth of the courses will remain as they are now; there will however be different titles, and some changes to the content. This is to ensure they are brought up-to-date, and reflect the changes taking place in the sector.
Those already enrolled onto the current programmes will be allowed a certain time to complete their qualification; over the next two months we will be writing to each student to advise about this.
Some of our students have expressed an interest in sharing e-mail addresses with other learners, so they may support each other – if this is something you want to do please let us know, and we will forward your details.
Until next time, best wishes
Margaret
www.dac-childcaretraining.co.uk
June 2010 CHILD SAFETY WEEK Serious accidents can cause injuries to children that take months or years to heal. The psychological damage caused to children and their families often lasts a lifetime. Yet many of these accidents can be prevented by taking just a moment, to move a hot drink, check a smoke alarm, lock the medicine cabinet, switch off the dryer or take your foot off the accelerator. That’s why the theme for 2010 is ‘make time for safety’. For parents and carers our key messages are:
More children end up in hospital because they’ve been seriously hurt in an accident than any other cause. Many of these accidents can take just a moment to prevent. We want everyone who cares about children – parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, childminders, foster carers - to pledge some time and help stop the children you care about being hurt in a serious accident. For more information on Child Safety Week, and how you can become involved go to: http://www.childsafetyweek.org.uk
BTEC IS CHANGING From September 2010 all qualifications in the UK are having an overhaul; they are being put onto a new framework, which measures unit size in credits. Apart from new titles, this will not mean any big changes to students; however, for those who are registered on the current titles there is a limit to the time allowed for completion. I will be writing to all registered learners in the next 6 weeks, to explain how each of you might be affected. VISITS During the last 3 months I have had the opportunity to spend some time in a variety of childcare settings, supporting our HND students; I have been made to feel very welcome at all venues. It is a privilege to be able to witness the many examples of Good Practice that take place in the playgroups, children’s centres, day nurseries and other settings across the country, and to see the children, staff and other adults getting down to the serious business of Play. Thank you!
Thursday 14 January 2010
And all we have to cope with is Snow!!!
On Tuesday 22 January 2010 a massive earthquake, measuring 7.0, struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti. Although no official figures are yet available, it is feared that tens of thousand of people have been killed. The Red Cross estimates that up to 3million people have been affected by the disaster. Many building, including the presidential palace, United Nations headquarters have been wrecked in the quake, which struck about 10miles SW of the capital, Port-au-Prince. The Disasters Emergency Committee has launched an appeal for donations; if you wish to contribute please follow the link: Disasters Emergency Committee Below you will find some photographs of the devastation that is occurring in Haiti in the aftermath of this disaster. Many nations have already pledgeds support in helping Haiti to recover from this tragedy; further updates of responses to the earthquake can be found on the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news.
Stunned, but alive in the wrexkage
Rescuers carry another victim to safety
In comparison, is a little inconvenience because of snow all that bad??
Monday 11 January
RESEARCH FINDS NO ADVANTAGE IN LEARNING TO READ FROM AGE FIVE
A researcher at the University of Otago has provided quantitative evidence that teaching children to read from age five is not likely to make that child any more successful at reading than a child who learns reading later, from age seven.
The ground-breaking research was conducted by Dr Sebastian Suggate; he has been awarded a prestigious Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to further his studies into childhood education.
Starting in 2007, Dr Suggate conducted one international and two New Zealand studies, each one backing up the conclusions of the other; that there is no difference between the reading ability of early (age five) and late (age seven) readers by the time those children reach their last year at Primary School by age eleven.
Comparing children from Rudolf Steiner schools, who usually start learning to read from age seven, and children in state-run schools, who start learning to read at five, he found that the later learners caught up and matched the reading abilities of their earlier-reading counterparts by the time they were 11, or by Year 7.
Therefore, the previously unscientifically tested and widely held view that children in New Zealand should learn to read from age five, now appears contestable; Dr Suggate, in three years of studies, involving regular surveys of around 400 New Zealand children, found no statistical evidence of an advantage in reading from the earlier age of five.
He decided to study childhood reading because he could not find any quantitative controlled study within the English-speaking world to establish whether later starting readers were at an advantage or disadvantage. He found only one methodologically weak study conducted in 1974, but nothing since that time. Yet people regularly insist that early reading is integral to a child’s later achievement and success. He admits to being surprised, therefore, by his own findings that this is not the case.
“One theory for the finding that an earlier beginning does not lead to a later advantage is that the most important early factors for later reading achievement, for most children, are language and learning experiences that are gained without formal reading instruction,” says Dr Suggate. “Because later starters at reading are still learning through play, language, and interactions with adults, their long-term learning is not disadvantaged. Instead, these activities prepare the soil well for later development of reading.”
“This research then raises the question; if there aren’t advantages to learning to read from the age of five, could there be disadvantages to starting teaching children to read earlier (at age 5). In other words, we could be putting them off,” he says.
Dr Suggate conducted three studies over three years to obtain his data. First, he re-analysed data collected as part of the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment (known as the PISA Study) across 54 countries and found that by the age of 15, there was no advantage in learning to read early from age 5. This first study has recently been published in the International Journal of Educational Research. He then conducted two studies based on research in New Zealand only. The first compared the reading ability of 54 children who had attended Rudolf Steiner Schools (who begin learning reading from age 7) with another 50 children who had attended primary schools. Children were tested at the age of 12, at state-run intermediate schools in Dunedin, Christchurch and Hastings.
The study controlled for their home literacy environments, the economic situation of their parents, parental education, school decile rating, their vocabulary development (called receptive vocabulary), ethnicity and sex. Their reading fluency and comprehension were then measured and he found there was “no difference” by age 12 in the reading ability between the early and later starters.
Dr Suggate’s third and final study was a longitudinal one to look at reading from day one to the end of primary school, and to see whether differences in school experiences and the primary curriculum at the two different types of schools would have accounted for the ability of Rudolf Steiner children to reach the same reading level as their state counterparts by age 12.
As well as controlling for the same variables such as economic situation of families, education of parents, sex, ethnicity and home literacy environments, this study also looked at second language ability, and found out how the teachers taught reading in their classes using questionnaires. This also looked at the amount of time teachers spend on oral language activities versus reading activities to help rule out, or control for, any differences in teaching methods that might account for the results.
“At the end of the study, the data was analysed using Hierarchical Linear Modelling, which is commonly used in longitudinal studies, and a particularly robust way to analyse data, and estimated the point at which the early starters and later starters of learning to read met – and it came up with 10.89 years – between 10 and 11 years of age,” he says.
“It was very exciting and unexpected – one of those science moments. The results concurred with the results of the other two studies and there were no differences in the abilities of the early and later readers by 11.”
In this last study, the groups were also divided into three quartiles based on reading ability. By the age of eight or nine, the earlier lower performing readers had caught up with the earlier high performing readers. “Many families have children who do not achieve well in reading at the beginning of school, so this will be quite comforting to them,” says Dr Suggate.
The last two studies are currently in preparation for submission to publications, although he understands his findings are controversial as this study is the first of its kind to look quantitatively and statistically at this area of childhood learning. “This research emphasises to me the importance of early language and learning, while de-emphasising the importance of early reading,” he says.
“In fact, language development is, in many cases, a better predictor of later reading, than early reading is. Secondly, this research should prompt educationalists, teachers and parents to reconsider what is important for children at age six or seven to learn, and third, it may give heart to parents whose children have initial difficulty learning to read. The picture is more complicated than simply early mastery of reading skills.”
Please let us have your views on this article Margaret
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