Childminder popularity: Full circle time

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"I find the evolution of the childminder remarkable. From very informal beginnings, there is now a competent, highly qualified and relevant workforce."  Full article by Valerie Jackson


Call all childminders in Nottingham and the UK

You are indeed a 'relevant workforce' with a story worth telling. That's why ProCEEd is waiting to promote you and your setting here on www.proceedc.com entirely free of cost. All you have to do is write a short story entitled 'All in a Day's work'  and send it to proceed@proceedc.com with full details of your childminding services.

Click here to tell your story and promote your setting at the same time! 
  

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6^th Annual Extravaganza on Rufford Abbey Country Park
National Childminding Week 2011

Every year, all over the country, childminders gather to celebrate their week; childminders in Nottinghamshire are no exception.  I joined the 6^th Annual Extravaganza on Rufford Abbey Country Park, along with 120 childminders and approximately 250 young children invited by Nottingham and County Childminding Association*.  

In its early years the Extravaganza was held in Newark and at Nottingham Castle, but Rufford Abbey County Park has become the firm favourite due to its central location, under cover facility and accessibility for childminders from all over the county.

The National Childminding Week theme ‘Aspirations’ was interwoven with ‘communication’ and  picked up on the day by contributing partners and stall holders such as the Speech and Language Team, Library Services and Communication Friendly Spaces.

At the event Christine Emery, East Midlands Organising Committee Chair, told me she had become a childminder because her son missed his big sister when she started school.  Now, as well as her being proud of her own children, Christine can be proud of 20 years worth of ‘minded’ children - and her NVQ Level 3.  

Increasingly parents are looking for qualified childminders. Both Christine and Sarah Edwards, NCMA’s Volunteer Officer, perceived an increase in the number of qualified professionals becoming childminders, including Teaching Assistants and Teachers.

Colleagues Jean Howard, Cheryl Epperstone, Kelly Ryles and Helen Loveridge, in promoting the work of Nottinghamshire Family Information Service (FIS) to support childminders locally, informed me of the extent of their remit. It is to offer advice and guidance to people who want to become childminders or who are interested in setting up their own daycare business; to provide up-to-date information for parents on other types of registered childcare, including day nurseries, out-of-school schools clubs and pre-schools; families looking for local toddler groups, activities for under 5s and information on a whole range of family issues are also invited to contact FIS. FIS are keen to raise childcare providers’ awareness of the new system for updating their own details on line. Another ‘e-ssential’ resource provided by the FIS is the Nottinghamshire Family Services Directory which is an on-line guide to local and national support, information and services.

Nottingham Playworks experienced an endless flow of childminders bagging up free recycled craft material. There Feng Jie and Ellen Smith (Scrapstore Manager) told me that for only £2 month (see www.playwork.org.uk for more details) childminders and other early years practitioners, individual families, artists, prisons, residential homes – in fact ANYONE - can join Nottingham Playworks’ Scrapstore to grab goodies galore from recycled trade waste to use as art materials.  Playworks is also be seen out and about on the streets of Nottingham organising play projects and games for children of all ages.

Important message from ProCEEd Consultancy to businesses and organisations that throw away ‘STUFF’

Talk about transformers! Nottingham Playworks take your stuff and transform it into incredible hulks of creativity that dangle and perch from pillar to post in their inspirational Scrapstore.  Excited adults do the ‘supermarket sweep’ and the ‘basket browse’ in this treasure trove of recycled waste. The imaginations of children all over Nottingham are stirred by stuff that would otherwise have been thrown away. Please, give the skip the slip and le’ go of the landfill. Want to know more? Call Ellen Smith on 0115 9589199.

 

 

Well done Nottingham and County Childminding Association (NCCMA). A great day – even the sun had got his hat on!

*Nottingham and County Childminding Association is supported by the National Childminding Association (NCMA) Sure Start, Children and Young People’s (CYP) Partnership Board and the Pre-school Learning Alliance (PLA).

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