Sightlines Initiative South East Network
Invitation to join Sightlines Initiative Network South East
For educators committed to creative and reflective practice in early years education in the South East
We are very pleased to share our plans for a new Sightlines Initiative regional network in the South East, which have emerged following networking activity hosted by Little Barn Owls Nursery, Horsham. We hope you may be interested in joining the network to engage and participate in professional dialogue, professional development opportunities and action-research projects.
Network aims and values
The aim is to bring together educators from around the South East of England with a shared commitment to creative and reflective practice in early years education. We have a strong vision and drive to create a learning group of those with interest and experience in developing a listening pedagogy in their settings and schools, who share a passion for creative enquiry-based learning approaches. This network is for those who seek to engage more regularly in professional dialogue and development with other like-minded educators, having particular reference to the work of the Preschools of Reggio Emilia.
In short, we aim to:
- promote creative and reflective approaches to early years education
- develop a creative learning community which maintains a continuous supportive dialogue
- enable connections between SE early years professionals and projects
- organise professional development opportunities for the South East for and with those in the network
- offer advice and support for South East based UK early years professionals
- share work created by the network to the network
Hosting, managing and running the network
The South East Network will be part of the national Sightlines Network (www.sightlines-initiative.com). Sightlines Initiative is a national organisation promoting creative, reflective practice in early childhood education. Since 1999 it has been the UK reference point for Reggio Children. Sightlines aims to connect and support educators regionally, nationally and internationally, through its network, study visits, conferences and other CPD opportunities in the UK and abroad.
Hayley Peacock, Manager of Little Barn Owls Nursery, is instigating the South East Network: "As a growing nursery and farm school for early years children, we are continually training our educators, however there are limited professional development opportunities available outside of county council run training days, which don't give attention to our special set of shared values. These are often also expensive to send several team members to! There is some fantastic work going on in the South East, but what lacks is a forum in which to connect and share it regularly.
We hope to change that, and encourage you to be part of changing it with us. We are looking for enthusiastic and committed individuals / settings to form a steering group which will help manage and run the network. The steering group would meet periodically to review the progress of the network and generate ideas for future. Please contact me:
Related recent activity
Here are some recent activities which have demonstrated that there is enthusiasm for development and connection, and have further prompted us with this network proposal.
An open networking event was hosted by Little Barn Owls Nursery on the 21st May where 42 educators came together from all over the South East to discuss networking opportunities. Participants were asked which ways of working together as a network group they would be most interested in. The most favourable ideas were:
- Workshops/skill sessions run by network participants to the rest of the network at meet ups
- Pooling funds to hold professional development days for cross-setting staff teams
- Creating unique resource boxes to exchange
- Reciprocal visits to each other's schools/settings for inspiration
A screening of Project Wild Thing was hosted by Little Barn Owls Nursery at Horsham Capitol Theatre on the 15th July 2014 with a question and answer session afterwards with Filmmaker, David Bond.
The screening of this moving and important film about reconnecting children with nature was attended by 90 educators, teachers and parents from all over Sussex and Surrey and some lively debate about children re-connecting with nature occurred in the Q&A with David Bond afterwards. From this debate, an interest in closing local streets to traffic to enable children to play more freely through 'PlayStreet' initiative has emerged. The network is working with interested parents and educators to be involved in this scheme from September.
Developing Environments of Enquiry course: Little Barn Owls has teamed up with Little Jungle Nursery in Peckham, London to embark on a six month CPD project with Sightlines Initiative to deepen and develop their listening pedagogy and enquiry based learning environment with children. The first joint CPD day was held on 3rd July.
Resource Pods: A first Sightlines Network SE Invitation
Our event in October is a great opportunity to get involved with the network: an introductory morning workshop on working with intelligent recycled materials on Saturday October 4th (Please see the poster below). We will be proposing a first ongoing SE network project 'resource pods', at this workshop, in which network members will form a group exploring and developing resource banks of open-ended materials, during the coming year.
Thank you for reading, we hope we have raised your interest in joining the network. Please visit www.sightlines-initiative.com and click on 'membership' to find out how to join, and contact
Yours sincerely,
Hayley Peacock, Director, Little Barn Owls Nursery & Farm School
Catherine Reding, Co-Director, Sightlines Initiative
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