L A T E S T N E W S
PURPLE POST February 2023
Welcome to the February edition of Purple Post
We’ve had such a busy start to 2023 and the year ahead looks promising. In this month’s issue, we have an article which uses the forthcoming International Women’s Day to illustrate the difference between equality and equity, some great ideas for World Book Day this week, our software pricing restructure, more fantastic testimonials and reviews, and we welcome back Rosie Burns, who returns to the People Team after maternity leave!
Update from the People team
2nd March is World Book Day!
Those of us with children in school currently will be panicking about finding a costume last minute because the kids forgot to tell you and everyone in school must dress up as a character from their favourite book. There’ll be panicked conversations ranging from “we have an Iron Man costume from Halloween! Does he count as a book character?!” to “no you can’t dress up as Sid the sloth from Ice Age! Why? Because that’s a film!”
Here's a bit of background on World Book Day and how it came about:
The concept of World Book Day was created by UNESCO on 23rd April 1995. It’s a worldwide celebration of books and reading and is now recognised in over 100 countries around the world. The first World Book Day to take place in the UK was in 1997 and encouraged young people to read for pleasure. The mission of World Book Day is to promote reading for pleasure and offer young people the opportunity to have their own books.
According to a report by the National Literacy Trust, published in 2018, there is a strong correlation between regular reading for pleasure and mental well-being which is separate from other predictors.
According to their study:
- In 2017/18, children rated their overall mental well-being, on average, as 7.25 out of 10. However, 1 in 10 (9.5%) pupils scored below the mid-point on the mental well-being index.
- Nearly 2 in 5 (37.4%) of those who have low literacy engagement also report low mental well-being, while only 1 in 9 (11.8%) of those who have low literacy engagement have high levels of mental well-being. Conversely, 2 in 5 (39.4%) of those who have high levels of literacy engagement also have high scores in their mental well-being.
Not only is reading good for your well-being but reading books with your children can help you connect. Ten minutes of reading together each day can help them develop crucial skills in reading and if you choose a good book, you can make it fun along the way!
If your child has received book tokens from their school, you can redeem these at participating retailers, please see the website for more details on this: https://www.worldbookday.com/participating-retailers/
Happy Reading!
Whilst annual International Women’s Day events incorporate different mission statements, the focus for 2023 is to ‘Embrace Equity’.
We are all familiar with equality and the drive for this in terms of equal rights, pay equality, etc. but how does Equality compare with Equity? Although frequently used interchangeably they represent very different concepts. So, what is the difference and why is it important?
Starting with the basic definition of each word:
Equality - means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities.
Equity - recognises that each person has different circumstances, and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.
To expand on these terms, Equity can be defined as giving everyone what they need to be successful. In other words, it’s not giving everyone the exact same thing. If you are thinking ‘but that’s not fair’, consider that if we give everyone the exact same thing, it assumes everyone is at the same starting point - this can be vastly inaccurate because everyone isn't the same. To consider this visually:
Why is it important?
When considering equality this focus is based on impartiality, that there should be no difference in service delivery and policies, etc. However, an equity-based focus takes into account the diversity of experiences of individuals and adapts what is delivered according to these differences.
“Imagine that you are babysitting two children, and they are hungry. You go to the fruit bowl, and you start to pick up two apples to give to each child. However, you remember at the last moment that one of the children is allergic to apples. Instead, you reach for one apple and one banana, and that way you're being fair," explains Tamara. "You still give one piece of fruit to each child, but you're also being equitable because you're giving each child a legitimate way of satisfying their hunger. If you had gone for two apples, the child who's allergic to the apple would on the surface have a way to satisfy their hunger, but they couldn't do that without getting ill. In this way you're being fair," says Tamara. "You're giving each child a piece of fruit but, you're also giving them something that is in line with their individual needs so they can be successful."
Tamara Markoni
Founder, Kazuri Consulting
Equity is a long-term and sustainable solution and is a process for addressing imbalance and leading towards total inclusion.
The continuing adventures of Parenta Bear
Parenta Bear has been on some new adventures as well as living the life of luxury of late – eating some delicious pancakes and celebrating Valentine’s too, by the looks of it!
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 Parenta Webinars are gaining a reputation within the industry as an event you will want to firm up in your diary each month. They have grown from strength to strength since they began in April 2020 and cover a wide variety of hot industry topics. Please register and attend, for your own professional development.
Here is the link to February’s if you missed it which focused on coping with stress – and the March event is definitely one not to be missed:
New Software Pricing!
We have reduced our software prices to support the industry during these challenging times! Our software products (Abacus, Footsteps 2, Dayshare and Parent Portal) are all part of our ‘all-in-one software solution’ and are no longer offered separately. Our software pricing has been restructured and customers are now in ‘tiers’ (seedling, sapling or tree), based on how many registered children they have in their setting. Our existing customers still enjoy a 10% discount on other Parenta solutions. Read the full news on our blog here and more information on our all-in-one software and its new pricing structure here.
Update from the Functional Skills team
Our new timetabled sessions will begin in April and the new 5-week maths course for Out of Funders begins next week. We are in the process of signing learners up for that now and invitations will be sent soon.
David and Nour's 10-week course is still running, although as David is on leave at present, learners will be attending Nour's sessions for which they have the details.
Our English revision sessions are also still running and extra slots have been added - Andreea Luncan has taken over Amelia Nathan’s learners.
Skillsfirst has a new platform, and to access your learners’ results you now need to use this link: https://linx2.vtct.org.uk
Just a reminder of our contact email addresses: fs@parenta.com and als@parenta.com
Keep those high-fives coming!
We have a Kudos winner for February – Training Sales Executive, Billy McConville – well done, Billy!
What have our customers said this month?
“As a new nursery we have tried multiple apprentice providers and local colleges, one shone through to all our Parenta learners! and didn’t appear to look after the wellbeing of my apprentices. Parenta from the get-go has been amazing.
My apprentices' assessors Charlotte and Gill have been brilliant and Jesse has been super helpful over the phone in booking inductions.
Parenta understands the difficulties early years are facing and no challenge is too great. Really really appreciate the support from Parenta towards my apprentices and all my apprentices are having a positive learning experience and enjoying their courses. Would recommend to anybody.”
Nurture Team Diary
I had an excellent experience with Parenta. My assessor, Tonni, was very helpful and always answered any queries I had during my course. She guided me very well and was always super friendly. I have now completed my course and I am very thankful to my assessor.”
Julia Gowthaman
"My assessor Tonni Linton-Williams is amazing she helped and supported me through so much and I’m really grateful for everything that she had done for me through out the year"
Katie Robinson
Requesting Creative Work from the Marketing Team -
* New Information *
We are excited to have launched the marketing ticketing system in Zoho Desk. 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:
We welcomed Back in February:
Rosie Burns, who returns to the People Team after maternity leave. Here she is with her beautiful son, Jacob, and partner Mitchell.
We said Goodbye to:
- Daniel Cooper
- Tatia Singleton
- Amelia Nathan
- Lyn Kennerson
Parenta Magazine
100th Edition!
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.