Training & Consultancy

The Little Learners Approach has grown and developed since opening in 2011. Initially inspired by the Reggio Approach and later by nature and more profoundly the children in our care and the team members we employ. We do not claim to be anything but ourselves, although we have taken inspiration from different approaches, our own staff and children have influenced us in an individual way no one else or thing could.

From out of nowhere, back in 2013/2014, we began getting interest from other practitioners and professionals who wanted to visit us and find out more about the work we were doing with our children. We were very overwhelmed and honoured and eventually the demand became too large to handle things informally, so hence the birth of our Training and Consultancy in September 2014.

We began by holding 3-4 hour training sessions on Saturdays and evenings. The demand continued to grow, so we decided to try something different where we could accommodate more people at a time, so that we could keep up with demand. This led to our professional development days which we hold 2-3 times a year. They consist of tours of our setting, discussions with our team and workshops. We sell out for every event which makes us immensely proud and appreciative of the support we continue to get from our followers. We have professionals travel from all over the world to visit us and lots of returning faces who enjoy visiting time and time again.

We also offer bespoke training courses for your team. We have been out to several settings across the UK to do this and have welcomed even more settings to our nursery for a group training session. This works well for getting your whole team on a learning journey of inspiration and change. As well as this we can offer consultancy where we can work alongside you in your setting to help develop any or all aspects of the learning and development you provide.

If you are considering a bespoke training course at our setting, we can offer you a price of £50 per person for a 6 hour day or £30 per person for a 3 hour day. The minimum booking (or payment charge) would be for 20 people and we can cater for a maximum of 50 people in a group training session, although with prior agreement we could extend this to 85. Additional charges would be chargeable for all expenses including travel time and cost for courses held at your own setting.

In addition we can offer professional visits to our setting where you can come as a small group during the working week or a slightly larger group at the weekend. During the working week the maximum visitors we can accommodate is 8, and for the weekend the minimum we can cater for is 9. The price for a professional visit is £75 per person. The visit is two to three hours long involving a guided tour of our setting, all questions answered and time to reflect upon your visit and any enhancements you want to make to your own practice and/or setting, with support and ideas from our professional showing you around.

The most important thing we like to get across is that we are here for inspiration, support and advice only! We will never tell you what to do or pressurise you to do anything you don’t feel comfortable with. Our aim is to inspire you to develop your own approach – something that fits with your ethos, staff and children! And we want you to have fun! 🙂

Mental Health First Aid Training

In addition to our Early Years Training, we now have an accredited MHFA England Mental Health First Aid Instructor.

This two day course qualifies you as a Mental Health First Aider, giving you:

• An in-depth understanding of mental health and the factors that can affect wellbeing
• Practical skills to spot the triggers and signs of mental health issues
• Confidence to step in, reassure and support a person in distress
• Enhanced interpersonal skills such as non-judgemental listening
• Knowledge to help someone recover their health by guiding them to further support – whether that’s self-help resources, through their employer, the NHS, or a mix

Format

• Two day face to face course across four manageable sessions
• Learning takes place through a mix of presentations, group discussions and workshop activities
• Each session is built around a Mental Health First Aid action plan
• We limit numbers to 16 people per course so that the instructor can keep people safe and supported while they learn

Takeaways

Everyone who completes the course gets:

• A certificate of attendance to say you are a Mental Health First Aider
• A manual to refer to whenever you need it
• A quick reference card for the Mental Health First Aid action plan
• A workbook including a helpful toolkit to support your own mental health