A London-based nursery owner is calling for settings to join together for collaborative training.

Jennifer Lewis, director of Smarty Pants Abbey Lane Nursery and Clever Cloggs Day Nursery in East London, is facilitating a training day The Power of Play – How Play Changes Lives for childcare settings to access continuous professional development at cost price.

“This is a small training event for nursery owners, leaders and practitioners to start a movement for settings to join together collaboratively, to access training” she said. “Collaborative training days bring costs down.”

Lewis said that although many local authorities provide training, this is often limited to one or two practitioners per setting. “If you can only send one staff member at a time, there is no opportunity for staff to learn together,” she said.

Lewis’ settings close for four days a year to provide whole-team training. “I am raising awareness in my local area for other settings to have at least two or three setting closure days per year,” she said. “By informing parents when they register with your setting that you have closure days for staff training which is part of their contract, parents would be aware of the need for CPD for your practitioners. Practitioners  shouldn’t have to do twilight sessions or weekends, as many staff have caring responsibilities of their own. We need to start banding together to ensure that early education is valued in the same way that people value schools.”

The Power of Play – How Play Changes Lives  comprises six workshops led by trainers Ben Kingston-Hughes, Sylvia Lewis and Gareth Cotterell, covering topics including how children develop empathy, developing an effective learning walk, Ofsted inspections and shared sustained thinking. The whole-day training is aimed at leaders and managers, while practitioners can attend the morning session, comprising three workshops.

Jennifer Lewis will be speaking on recruitment and retention at the Nursery Management Show, at London’s Excel, on 30 November. Click here for free tickets.