L A T E S T N E W S
PURPLE POST April 2023
Welcome to the April edition of Purple Post – the year is flying by!
Many people have commented on how great it is that the regular company updates have returned - and we will be posting the video recording of them here in Purple Post each time we have one.
This month…“cracking completions”, success with disengaged learners and some more Remarkable reviews and testimonials – what a good start to Q2!
Reminder from the People team
Don’t forget to join us on “A Morning with Khaleda and Usman about Ramadan and Eid” on Friday 5th May at 10.00 am! An invitation was sent out via Teams so it will be in your calendar.
We’ll be asking our Functional Skills Tutors, Khaleda Begum and Usman Qasim to share their culture and experiences with us on Ramadan and what Eid means to them.
Please send any questions you would like to ask them to
hrsupport@parenta.com by Thursday 4th May at 4.00 pm. Thank you and we look forward to seeing you then!
'Collaboration and Team Work' makes the Dream Work – update from Richelle Sparks
The Customer Experience team has had some success with our new initiative to assist tutors with disengaged learners. Tutors are reaching out to the team who are then able to pick up and help learners engage with any outstanding work/exams that need to be done. Here are a couple of examples of the fantastic work going on…
Emma Taylor who reached out to ask for help with a learner who was behind with her work and both the learner and manager were avoiding Emma's calls. The Manager was reminded of her responsibility to the learner and that they were in breach of government funding, she immediately apologised and the learner had completed 5 out of 6 outstanding tasks by the next day. The CX team are happy to support so please feel free to ask for help. We have a drop-in session on 3rd May.
Another success story with a disengaged learner: Katie Maclean reached out to ask for help with a learner who only had Maths and ICT FS left to complete, her setting had closed down and she was not responding to emails or calls. After some intervention, the learner has now spoken to Katie and will hopefully be an achiever shortly. Thank you Katie for asking for support and good luck with gaining the completion.
"Cracking Completions" – month-end update from
Lisa Roper
Week ending 28th April - another great week at clearing our target of 248 completions. Well Done to all teams but a special mention to the entire team in the North/Central regions who have absolutely raised the bar this week with a total of 17 completions for the week - what a REMARKABLE achievement!! Let's keep this momentum going everyone - we've got this!
All-Company Update
It was great to see so many people on the recent company update and as promised, we shall be posting the video here each time we have one. Here it is:
Please note: this video will expire on August 18th 2023
The continuing adventures of Parenta Bear
Our lovely Parenta Bear has certainly been eating well this month! The highlight of the month, we are told, was going out for Afternoon Tea, closely followed by a slice of Lemon Drizzle cake one afternoon!
Please don’t forget to send to marketing@parenta.com your Parenta bear pictures – it’s such a great way for us to stay connected when so far apart from each other!
Free industry webinars from Parenta
The monthly Parenta Webinars are gaining a reputation within the industry as events you do not want to miss! They have grown from strength to strength since they began in April 2020 (three years!) and cover a wide variety of hot industry topics. Please register and attend, for your own professional development.
Here is the link to April’s if you missed it – you will want to watch it back! It was a great success and we had a record 600 people register for this event. His Majesty’s Ofsted Inspectors Wendy Ratcliff and Phil Minns took a deep dive into the Ofsted Strategy 2022-27, SEND Framework and took us through a typical inspection.
Don’t miss May’s webinar!
We are now on TikTok!
We are thrilled to announce our launch on TikTok, a platform that provides a unique opportunity for us to connect with our target audience whilst showcasing the fun and creative side of Parenta!
Through engaging videos, we aim to provide invaluable information and insight into our solutions, who we are, whilst also entertaining our followers.
Our TikTok account is an exciting addition to our social media presence and we look forward to the opportunities it will bring!
We encourage all Parenta People to check it out and share with your learners and settings!
You can find us on TikTok at @parenta_
Update from the Functional Skills team
- Usman’s 5-week maths course will be finishing the week commencing 8th May, so please ensure your learners are attending.
- We have had a mass exam-booking exercise, so again, please encourage learners to attend their exams.
- The English sessions are still running, the link for the timetable is https://www.parenta.com/english-timetable/
- Amber Rundle has now left Parenta, and we are in the process of recruiting her replacement.
- David Remon left in April, and we are currently advertising for his replacement.
Issues with exams on the day
If a learner has an issue with a SkillsFirst exam, they need to phone SkillsFirst directly on 0121 270 5100. Unfortunately, The Functional Skills team cannot provide technical support as the exams are run by SkillsFirst.
If there is an issue with a City & Guilds exam, please contact Megan Cooke megan.cooke@parenta.com
A reminder of email addresses:
All FS queries: fs@parenta.com
All ALS queries and referrals: als@parenta.com
SF XAMS new platform:
https://vtct-admin.xams.co.uk/user/login/
Keep those high-fives coming!
We have a Kudos winner for April – it’s tutor Darryll Jones, well done, Darryll!
We caught up with last month’s winner, Lisa Gooding and this is what she had to say about working in the Parenta family – watch her video here:
What have our customers said this month?
“Charlotte was very helpful and clear as she showed me what went wrong. Thank you!”
Treehouse Nursery
“When I rang the support team they were so helpful and happy to help. Thank you so much, Parenta has such a good team.”
Pushpa Patel
“The presentation provided was thorough and very useful.
The range of products and services was good and we felt we would be well supported.”
Triangle Day Nursery
“The process of obtaining logins for an additional user was very swiftly processed.”
Caroline Rawnsley
"This provider is fantastic, the support they offer is amazing which helps
make the course feel easy to do."
Christopher Bravender
Requesting Creative work from the Marketing Team – please read
We are excited to have launched the marketing ticketing system in Zoho Desk and thank you so much to all those who are using it. All managers have access to this and have been sent instructions on how to submit a ticket with the relevant information you need the team to produce, brand or create for you.
It’s been agreed that only managers should be sending approved work to marketing to avoid everyone pulling in different directions.
Resources to help us, our learners, and our settings
A reminder that all Parenta resources can be found here on our staff intranet, all in one handy place.
We publish additional industry expert advice, news articles and crafts in our free
magazine and on our
blog.
Here are this month’s How to Guides and documents that have been added to the staff intranet:
In April, we welcomed:
Oksana Anikiejeva – Early Years Tutor – 17th
Kelly Ames – Sales Executive – 24th
We said goodbye to:
Nozipho Moyo – 11th
Amanda Gobell – 14th
Anastasia Taylor – 20th
David Remon – 21st
Jennifer De Jesus – 25th
Jennie Brown – 27th
Cheyenne Vessey – 30th
Parenta Magazine
Our free monthly magazine is packed with news articles and advice pieces - all of which are written to help nursery managers with the efficient running of their settings and to promote the health, happiness and well-being of the children in their care. Please do read it and send the magazine link to your contacts.