Newall Green Primary School was involved in the Government's pilot twos scheme, designed to help schools develop suitable provision for the age group.
Kerry Watts, nursery teacher and manager, says, 'I was shocked that the Government was rolling this out and not offering any training on it, so we decided to buy some privately. Although we have more than 50 years of experience in nursery between us, it has been a number of years since any of us have worked with children under three.'
Ms Watts and her colleagues attended a course, Tremendous Two-Year-Olds, run by Quality 4 Early Years, following a recommendation from a quality assurance officer from Manchester City Council.
The course aims to provide a general understanding of the needs of twos, helping practitioners describe the typical stages of development, consider the impact of the environment, understand the importance of forming secure attachments and identify and promote learning and development. Following training - involving group discussion, sharing resources and choosing words to describe two-year-olds - staff were given an action plan to complete.
Ms Watts, who has a postgraduate certificate in early childhood education and teaching, says, 'We were able to work with Mary to tailor the training. She made us think about the quality of our interactions with children and focusing on that in our observations.
‘Mary also talked about the concept of sharing and how at this age children are egocentric and how two year olds have no concept of time. She suggested using egg timers to show them what five minutes means.
'The way two year olds use the environment is different to threes – children will tip water out and get covered in mashed potato and you have to allow them to be two and explore.
‘The fact they said think of the children as just 24 months rather than two years – i.e. just babies- is something I have used in presentations since.’
As a result of discussions about the need for a 'language-rich environment', the staff contacted their speech and language team, who provided them with resources for vocabulary and questions children might ask. The staff from Newall Green are now doing presentations to local schools about twos delivery in pre-schools.
Mary Lestrange, director at Quality 4 Early Years, says, 'We want to remove the label 'terrible twos' and start understanding the world through the eyes of a two-year-old, reflecting on our approaches.'
