My Best Course - Thinking and talking outside the box

Janet Shepherd and Amanda Moore run a thriving childminding business, A and J Tots To Teens Childcare, based in Warrington. Recently, the pair purchased a house to be used for the service - and with more space to play with, they began to look at new training options.

They were attracted to Family Boxes training, a Concept Training course offered by Warrington Borough Council and which is designed to provide a practical tool to develop conversations about areas relating to equality and diversity.

A physical box is a key part of the training, with the contents providing a springboard for children to open up on the subjects that matter to them. The content of the boxes depends on the children using them. The training also involves taking delegates through the Equality Act and gives them the chance to evaluate their own views on inclusive issues.

'The training was appealing because at the time we had a couple of children who were going through some changes. One had just acquired a baby sibling and the other was moving house, and we could see this was having an effect,' says Mrs Moore.

'The training turned out to be fantastic. We split into groups to talk about our ideas and suggested scenarios that we could use for the boxes. We identified issues such as same sex parents and different skin tones as being important and began to think about how we could use the boxes as a way of opening the door for children to talk on their own.'

Mrs Shepherd says she and Amanda came away from the course feeling empowered and with a clear idea of how inclusive practice contributes to the EYFS outcomes.

'We've since made boxes ourselves,' she says. 'We've got a box with two mummies in it and one without a dad. We've got boxes that have sari material. One of our little boys was fascinated by a lady he'd met with one arm, so we removed an arm from a doll and put that in a family box. The boxes have opened doors for the children.'

Concept Training www.concept-training.co.uk.