PURPLE POST August 2021

A warm welcome to the August edition of Purple Post

We hope you have all enjoyed the lovely long bank holiday weekend, and despite the short summer weather, are looking forward to the new academic year starting.

In this month's Purple Post, a last reminder that mandatory CPD courses must be completed by the end of the month; and an annual leave reminder message from the People team. We have new information from the IT team about recent software improvements in line with the new EYFS changes and lots of new resources added to our staff intranet.

A final reminder that all CPD mandatory training needs to be completed!

If you haven't submitted your CPD courses yet then please do so by 30th September. 

Mandatory CPD Courses:
 

• Safeguarding Children (Level 2)
• Equality and Diversity
• Prevent Duty
• GDPR EU: Essentials
• Health and Safety Essentials
• Modern Slavery
• + the addition of ‘Safer Recruitment in Education’ for Managers.

All certificates must be submitted to hrsupport@parenta.com by the end of the month.

Annual leave carry over

Just a reminder to all colleagues that you will need to take the remainder of any carried over annual leave from 2020 by 31^st October 2021.

A reminder that all Parenta resources to help ourselves, our learners and settings can be found here on our 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 new additions to the staff intranet:

• TAG - what happens next
• End-point assessment (EPA) guide for employers
• How To Guide: The importance of holistic development in early years
• 10 ways to build children’s self-esteem
• Apprenticeships: Responsibilities and Benefits

Update from the IT Team

Over the last couple of months we have:

• Implemented EYFS 2021 changes to Footsteps 2. We are following the Development Matters guidance and these changes are now live with some customers having gained early access to give us their feedback. 
• We also implemented some improvements to Footsteps 2 as part of the EYFS 2021 project to improve the user journey.
• We have made enhancements to Dayshare and Abacus - to improve recording of absences by settings.
• We are continuing our work on Project Titan - focusing on finance data, pricing and cancellations review.

David Miller, who has been part of the team for 8 years left us; and we have recruited his replacement. We welcome Ildo as part of the team in September.

This month, we caught up with Yvonne who was the Kudos winner for July!

"My name is Yvonne, I have worked at Parenta since April 2018. I have 20 years’ experience within the childcare sector starting out as a teenager 16, straight from school to college completing my level 3 NNEB. Yes I’m that old! 

Originally from London, I moved to Essex at the age of 19 where I joined a nursery and completed various qualifications, settling on completing a SEND level 3 qualification where I supported children with additional needs for 2 years. I completed my level 5 management in childcare 2015/16 where I then met an assessor who guided me into completing my assessor qualification. In 2018 I joined Parenta as a newbie assessor and I haven’t looked back. 

 I am very passionate about being an assessor, every day is different. Sometimes challenging but mostly rewarding. I like to meet new people and use my experiences and qualifications to support learners through. I like to always encourage learners to think outside the box and to always think that they can go on to do bigger and better things with their qualification. This gives learners the confidence to move forward work harder in their knowledge, skills and behaviours within the childcare sector."

Yvonne Pickin

Extract from learner Aimee Cooper’s exit survey

"Great isn’t a strong enough word for Yvonne (Pickin) actually. Yvonne is passionate, vastly knowledgeable, patient, caring, supportive, understanding, enthusiastic, thorough and a genuine joy to work with!”

…”Yvonne has worked tirelessly, including using her own personal time, to enable me to complete this course and is an absolute credit to Parenta.”

…”I have been so inspired by Yvonne and her role in my experience with Parenta that I would like to consider a role as an assessor in the future. I would like to have a positive impact in others’ lives and education as Yvonne has in mine and I would like to use my negative experiences from previous tutors to shape myself into a positive influence in learners’ journey.” 

Testimonial from Mansi Brahmbhatt - Two Mile Ash Preschool

Yvonne Pickin

First of all, thank you very much for your positive feedback; it means a lot to me. Your feedbacks are the way for me to know that what I am learning, and understanding is correct, and I am on the right path.

Secondly, I want to say Thank you one more time for all your support and help. I very much appreciate your time and effort. I am fortunate to have you as my assessor. You have provided me with many knowledgeable and informative resources and platforms for me to learn and do my research in detail; that way, I can understand my assignments and the subject in-depth before putting it in theory. Thank you for being patient with me and giving me enough time to complete my tasks.

You are a brilliant teacher and a fantastic person with a kind heart.

Thank you, kind regards

Mansi.

Thanks to all those who have been giving kudos throughout the month – please keep it going, it’s important now more than ever to give each other a deserved ‘pat on the back’. Our winner for August is Anca Asavei! Congratulations Anca!

Don't forget you can start voting for our September employee of the month already. Keep that Kudos coming and please give recognition for all the hard work our colleagues are doing.

Welcome to:

• Amber Rundle
• Sameena Ansar
• Salman Anwar
• Melissa Tap
• Layla MacFadyen
• Jackie Adey
• Alex Gibson
• Amelia Nathan
• James Spindler
• Christopher Dale



Goodbye to:

• Nicola Blewett
• Shelley Taylor
• Dawn Fryer
• Mark Little
• Pauline Williams

Wednesday 22nd September marks the start of Autumn

This event is also known as an Equinox - meaning the rotation of the Earth's axis.

It feels as though we have had a very short lived summer but as the Autumn change come we always see the amazing colours in nature and the start of cosy nights.