How one nursery designed a professional development programme to support early communication skills

The Newham Communication Project (NCP)

Based on a previous project ‘Manor Park Talks ’Manor Park Talks: Effective Strategies Review - UCL Discovery, the Newham Communication Project (NCP) is a sustained programme of PD that aims to support both private and community nursery settings.

It was built upon robust evidence, designed to support early communication for children aged between two and three. The aim of the PD was to improve practitioner’s teaching ability – offering strategies that practitioners could use with all children in everyday practice.

Our hypothesis was that a carefully designed programme would result in high engagement and buy-in. We hoped this would provide a motivational force to push through challenges that engaging in a sustained programme would represent for practitioners.

NCP was delivered to setting managers or early years leads and involved two elements:

1. A series of blended modules that built professional knowledge over time.
2. Support from a mentor who provided bespoke advice and hub meetings that enabled behaviour change and adoption of techniques.

It was crucial that the programme had a ‘balanced approach.’

Evidence highlights the importance of professional development incorporating elements from all four of the following key areas:

• Build knowledge;
• Motivate educators;
• Develop teaching techniques; and
• Embed practice.

NCP had building blocks or mechanisms from each of these four areas.

Building knowledge in a sustained way, across multiple modules, enabled us to drip-feed information, allowing time to revisit prior learning and embed new knowledge. This also supported participants’ cognitive load. Modules were recorded and uploaded to a Padlet, allowing participants to catch-up or re-watch.

Motivation amongst participants was high. Key mechanisms here were ensuring that participants felt that the strategies were worthwhile and could impact children’s outcomes.

To achieve this, we spent time talking though the evidence base on which NCP was built and linking it to credible sources like the EEF’s Early Years Toolkit. Supporting this mechanism were the relationships we built with participants, and a feeling that adopting the strategies was feasible in their specific context.

Our evaluation showed that the programme scored highly on acceptability, and these mechanisms played an important part in that.

The acceptability we built though the course did indeed prove to be a strong motivational force. This was important when things began to get messy!

Delivery started in Autumn 2021, during which the COVID-19 pandemic was still creating significant challenges for settings, especially in terms of staff absence and stability. These challenges were layered on top of complex staff rota systems and timetables, challenging cohorts and financial strain.

Despite this, we were able to support change in all settings, although it did require us to be flexible. We had to adapt the programme as we went along and really listen to participants. It became a co-constructed programme, which further increased motivation and buy-in. Our dropout rate was remarkably low with 95% of settings completing the programme.

Finally, we mustn’t forget that the content of PD matters too. The overarching strategy was ‘listening to children and having conversations with them’. This resonated with the participant’s professional expertise. Not only did it make sense, but it was a wonderful thing to be encouraged to do, The ShREC Approach felt like a gift.

The programme will be scaled up as a larger efficacy trial called the Early Years Conversation Project starting in Sept 2023.

Fliss James, Julian Grenier and Melissa Prendergast. Helping children in the Early Years to improve their communication: The impact of an eight-month programme of professional development. Impact  Spring 2023.

EEF’s Guide to Effective Professional Development in the Early Years