Join us to celebrate the success of our first year as a Stronger Practice Hub.
The conference is free to attend for all, with priority places going to to early years settings and childminders in North and West Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Leicester, Rutland and Lincolnshire.
This day will also offers an Open Day Visit to Charnwood Nursery & Pre-school to support your continuous professional development with a tour of the spaces led by knowledgeable members of staff.
Conference Programme
- Arrive from 9.30
- Introduction and presentation from Charnwood Nursery and Pre School Group
- Pennie Akehurst – Managing a changing workforce
- Lunch & Networking
- Ben Kingston Hughes – The power of play
- Reflection time
- Setting visits – sessional preschool and a full day nursery
Pennie Akehurst is an author and leadership specialist with over 30 years’ experience in the early years sector. Pennie has worked in the private, voluntary, maintained and public sector, and spent 17 years delivering strategic early years and childcare priorities within two local authorities. During this time, she developed and implemented challenge and intervention programmes designed to support leadership teams to improve outcomes for children (aged 0-5) and to manage changes to legislation.
As a head of quality improvement services and then a large early years and childcare service, Pennie has a proven track record of delivering successful quality improvement strategies and services across the early years sector.
In 2017, Pennie established Early Years Fundamentals Ltd, a research, training and consultancy company that focuses on identifying and managing issues that may affect outcomes for children and inspection outcomes. Her research and insight has garnered attention from national periodicals such as Nursery World leading to many articles and commentaries on inspection issues and the implementation of the new inspection framework.
Ben Kingston-Hughes is an international keynote speaker, writer and multi award-winning trainer. He is also the Managing Director of Inspired Children and has worked with vulnerable children across the UK for over 30 years. He has appeared on television several times working on a variety of children’s projects and his distinctive blend of humour, neuroscience and real-life practical experiences have made his training invaluable for anyone working with children. His finest moment though, was when a group of reception children named their class frog after him.