Attention to detail

Around the other side of the centre is the pirate ship where all sorts of high sees adventures are had. I was not able to take photographs of the teachers and children, however I saw teachers and children interacting and discovering together. Children were racing trucks along the ground stopping (thankfully) within inches of our feet.

This is the gate through to the garden and view to the street. A parent at the centre made this gate. How is the for a sense of community?

Debra and I were having a lovely chat!! It was such a lovely day

The Castle

I have warned Ralph that there could be numerous requests for one of these from many NZ services. You gotta love this!!! It almost took my breath away - how cool to have one of these

 The children are able to go outside from early in the morning until they have had enough. This is the first time I have been in a centre in Canada where the children are able to be outside from early in the day and have access to water. To be fair the weather is improving.

This is the inside of the castle with spaces for children to be without all necessarily having to be involved in the same play. 

There are tables for social play and higher levels for the children to have an elevated perspective of the space. 

Even though it is quite big, there is still a lot of space for the children to play be involved.

 Keeping the theme of 'Lions Gate' going with the castle, there are two large lions guarding the entrance. Careful thought given to the detail and keeping the spaces connected through bridges and stones.

You want one too??

Parents making life easier in the engine room

After seeing how much of a headache it was for Katrina (Debra and Ralph's daughter) to process attendance and staffing, he designed an app so now parents sign in using their child's name on the app and it automatically records the time the child arrives and departs. Staff also sign in when they arrive and this generates the staff timesheet. 

This is working together as a community and finding solutions to problems - this centre is so amazing in all of the layers of the centre operations from interactions with children through to administration and management.

'Little Jimmy's'

Little Jimmy's is the drop in space for families for a range of purposes. I knew Pen Green had spaces for parents and children, however I had not appreciated the variety of spaces and multiple functions these spaces provide. The space is named after a Councillor - Jimmy Kane - who partnered up with Margy to lobby for the provision of a service over 30 years ago. The space is named to recognise his contribution to the establishment and growth of Pen Green - he has scottish heritage and shared the vision for the centre for children and families in Corby.

The main educational themes are evident here too - schema, parent engagement and wellbeing!! A parent attending this morning was telling me all about trajectory schema in one of the children's play - not her own child either!!! How groovy is that!

 A variety of services are available at 'Little Jimmy's' - the health services set up clinics on specific days and parents can come and attend while their children are at the Nursery. Sometimes the family does not have a child attending and they just come to the drop in space. I met a group of mothers who come to 'Little Jimmy's' every Thursday morning for a catch up and a coffee. Their children do not attend nursery. Families are able to use the space in ways that are meaningful for them, rather than for purposes defined for them. I think this is something quite unique - genuine power sharing with parents and families.

 As it is a drop in space and you can't anticipate who will attend - it is tricky to set up the environment. Therefore the space is predictable for families. Parents requested to have a dedicated space for very young children as a constant...below is how it was presented today.

 There is sand play inside - it is more of an inside activity than outside...wait until I tell you about 'the beach'. I am waiting to get a photo before talking about it.

 Below is the space to come in and make a coffee/tea - breakfast too if you had to leave the house early and need to get a bite to eat. There is nothing that they have not thought of here at Pen Green!

Thank you Kathy for taking the time to talk with me about your role in the lives of people involved in the Pen Green community

Presentation - Kate Hayward - Assistant Director Research Base

Main points for me from presentation:

• Community and engagement (community development approach) - Parents know their children best. Need to work with parents in ways that share knowledge about the child, and they need to be able to share their knowledge through genuine dialogue.
• P.I.C.L - Parents engaged in their Childs learning
• Use video a lot to understand what children are doing 
• Community is really important if you want to make a difference in the lives of children. Resistance is good as at least you know people have a passionate point of view about something.
• There are 120 staff across the whole organisation - social services, health and education working together for families
• targeting of interventions can often be thought of to be a deficit model - challenge the thinking is a way of working (not a programme) - engagement with communities and working with each other.
• Parents make decisions and lead assessment conversations. How do you understand your community?
• Kate referred to our 5 questions - Do you know me? what do you know about your community? Do you hear me? Can I trust you? Is this place fair for me? Do you let me fly?
• Develop things here that parents have been leading the assessment of need. Parents tell the service what they think is important and distributing the power. 

Beliefs and values about working with parents?

• Negotiating this and owning what ours are.
• What you believe affects how you work with a family
• Meet - 'The Pen Green Loop' - there is some connection here to our 'Helical Vortex' concept - anyway - it is about how what happens in each of the settings impacts on the other through observations by both and having a shared dialogue - this is both formal and informal.

Settling children and families into the centre - strengthening connections.

• There is a two week setting period where the child is supported to transition into the centre - not only by parents - all significant adults/siblings can be involved in settling the child. I thought this was great as the teachers get to meet and observe the ways the child interacts with these 'significant others' and build on these observations to strengthen a relationship with the child incrementally over time (albeit 2 weeks). It is a way to create memories with children at the centre, levering off the emotional connections the child has with these important people. Stroke of genius I think and not putting the pressure on parents only, inclusive of a variety of people in the life of the child. The possibilities are endless - Uncle, Aunty, neighbour, grandparent, older sibling.....Imaging the insights you would get into the life of the child through observing and sharing time together.
• A way to get to know and understand the child
• After 6 weeks at the centre - the teachers share a video clip about the child's engagement at the centre
• For children attending longer, there can be several clips. There are PICL groups where parents are invited to come and watch video clips of their children (collectively watching clips of each others children). Parents are able to watch the clips together and share ideas. 
• For some families, they meet 1:1 as well - again this is formal or informal - the team at Pen Green work hard to make it manageable.

Main frameworks - shared language to discuss learning:

• Notice, recognising and responding
• Wellbeing - Leavers levels of involvement 
• Schema