Our Stronger Practice Hub Autumn Conference Recap

We held our St Edmund's Early Years Stronger Practice Hub Conference on the 12th October! 

Our third Stronger Practice Hub Conference was held last week, where we saw the room filled with new and familiar faces to learn and network about early literacy and oracy. Held at Cedar Court in Huddersfield, we brought together Early Years staff from West and South Yorkshire. We were pleased to have members of our hub from across Wakefield, Kirklees and Calderdale join the conference. 

We had a really good spread from across our different sectors

The conference had a focus on oracy and early literacy, where we saw our guest speakers Dea Nielsen (Better Start Bradford) and Kay Pinto (NDNA) talk about early language development and the power of storytelling.

The first speaker, Dea Nielsen, shared her knowledge about language development in the early years. She championed the importance of considering the needs of multilingual families when working in the early years space. Dea talked about how to support EAL children, and strategies for early years intervention to help their development of oracy and literacy.  As well as sharing current data relating to EAL and deprivation in West Yorkshire and strategies to encourage children to communicate, she highlighted the importance of play and story telling, which linked really well with our other speakers. 

Rebecca Oberg, Director: Institute for the Early Years, who works across both the Stronger Practice Hub and 50 Things to Do made sure that playfulness was a key theme, leading  everyone in a dance break, shaking out the long week and embracing having fun. It was a highlight of the entire conference seeing the room dancing! She then shared the links between children engaging in playful family experiences as a tool to support language and communication, reiterating Dea’s message that when children have engaged in fun experiences they have something want to share with their peers and reminding us that “The most important thing to remember is that you are creating an opportunity for your child to do or say something” Speech and Language UK: Help for Parents. 

The last speaker of the day was Kay Pinto, who shared how children can experience the power of storytelling without needing physical books. Kay emphasised how storytelling is within everyday life, from gossiping with friends to reminiscing about old memories. Kay talked about how creating opportunities for storytelling will help to develop children’s language and conversational skills from a young age. She shared the evidence that demonstrates the importance of storytelling, as well as tips and we had the opportunity to create our own story too! 

We used the opportunity to ask practitioners what they would want from us over the next twelve months. This feedback has shaped our plans from now to April.  

Christian Bunting, CEO at Birth to 19 who oversees our Stronger Practice Hub said: “It was a privilege to be able to meet such a range of skilled and highly committed early years professionals drawn from right across the West Yorkshire region. I continue to be so impressed by the commitment of the early years workforce to making such a big difference to children, helping them have a great start to life.” 

Rebecca Heald, Partnerships Manager within Birth to 19’s Institute for Early Years said, ‘I felt the conference was a great success, it's always great to see so many representatives from the Early Years workforce coming together to increase their knowledge and skills. The energy in the room showed how much people were getting from the presentations and opportunities to network.

Even on a Saturday morning everyone was eager to share knowledge and meet other professionals within the early years sector. One of our attendees said, “Dr Dea Nielsen was very knowledgeable and fantastic, loved her passion and how she delivered her presentation. Kay Pinto was also great, she made it relevant and interesting. Also came back with a great enthusiasm for introducing 50 Things to our parents.”                                                                                       

The day was packed full of knowledge, fun, and most importantly communication! As always, our conferences are an example of the commitment of early years workers and how they are always wanting to improve and develop to ensure the best for children!

We hope to see you at our next conference! 

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