If your life is anything like mine, you’re pretty much on the go from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed.
In the last two weeks alone I have: attended a mentoring course for my students; changed around 60 nappies; attended two meetings with SEN professionals; delivered 15 activities to preschool children and, all the while, dealt with the multiple challenges and headaches that managing a nursery brings.
This job is not for the faint of heart!
Somehow, I also found the time to attend a training course for a quality improvement scheme that we are soon to embark on at our nursery.
Quality trumps all
I have to admit, I initially wondered whether or not the course was something I had the time to pursue. However, experience has taught me that if you can crack quality, everything in your abundantly heavy schedule will become a lot easier – so, I persevered.
Within minutes of the start, I felt a sudden pang of guilt when I realised that I had (momentarily) been thinking about quality as merely a time-saving process. Quality is the most important thing of all!
When quality is at the forefront of your mind, it alters your whole perception of what you’re doing and why. For example, changing a nappy isn’t about the process, it’s about that five-minute engagement and interaction with an individual child – and what a privilege that is.
I gave myself a little kick in the shin and vowed never to fall into the trap again.
Alter your perception
Quality to me is not solely about setting an end result: it’s about changing your way of looking at situations. It’s about thinking “where can we go from here?”
Instead of thinking of your day as a list of tasks that need to be ticked off, think “how can I get the most out of my day?” Instead of thinking of meetings as time-consuming distractions, look at what can be attained from them that can bring about improvement. Stop seeing management headaches as inconveniences, but as reflection and learning experiences.
That way, quality becomes ingrained in everything you do.
The journey to highest quality is never ending, but you’ll get there quicker if you never let it leave your sight!
Get your team on board too
While I reflected on what I had learned in the classroom over two days, I thought about how fortunate I am to work with a great team of people: people who I can trust to deliver quality childcare when I’m not in the room.
A driving force at our nursery is the desire to encourage our team to think about quality of care in everything that they do. When practitioners do that, they begin to strive for quality practice themselves. It is because we place quality as a priority – and not a side-line – that our team have already started their improvement journey.
So, despite my current workload, I’m looking forward to the challenge of rolling out our new programme – and not just because it will make my life easier.
Heather Stallard
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