Resources for Services - NPA Conference 2015 - Seminars and Interviews
Thanks to all parents, Portage Home Visitors, professional and practitioners who gave us their feedback about Conference 2015!
Thanks to all parents, Portage Home Visitors, professional and practitioners who gave us their feedback about Conference 2015!
We were delighted to welcome Hayley Goleniowska as our keynote speaker at the NPA Conference, 2015.
Hayley Goleniowska (50 mins 18secs)
This inspiring and emotive keynote takes us on a family’s journey and highlights the importance of Portage from a parent perspective.
17 mins, 16 secs
Magdi Kovacs – Cerebral Palsy Life Coach
Magdi introduces the ‘Dreaded Drama Triangle’ (DDT) concept through the story of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’.
Family members/practitioners are often taking on different roles. The ‘Dreaded Drama Triangle’ is based on anxiety and focuses on the problem.
The Empowerment Dynamics (TED) is the antidote to DDT.
TED is based on passion and focuses on the outcome, solution and empowers everyone to make positive changes in their lives.
This is an edited extract from the full seminar, which included practical exercises given to attendees during the session.
Jane Howe (Portage Supervisor, East Riding)
20 mins, 39 secs
The East Riding of Yorkshire Service is supporting a number of settings, including Children’s Centres, to achieve the Stamp of Approval.
The Portage Team have developed a checklist (that compliments the Stamp of Approval Guidance Notes) to help Portage Representatives and practitioners provide evidence that demonstrates a setting can fulfil all required criteria.
There is a particular emphasis on how Portage Principles are incorporated into practice.
During the Seminar, Jane talks about challenges considered by their service in supporting settings to attain the Stamp of Approval but also the benefit they have seen for children, parents, practitioners and Portage Workers.
John Parry and Jonty Rix (The Open University)
John Parry was a Portage Coordinator in West Sussex for many years and Jonty Rix is a parent who received Portage for his son and was an advisor on the recent Pathfinder project for the DfE.
‘In the Picture’ is an innovative approach supporting communication between adults and children. This approach was recently developed by researchers at the Open University in their studies of very young children with learning difficulties.
It involves taking photographs of the child’s focus during play alongside the making of first-person narrative observations of their activities.
The photographs are shared with the children after the observation sessions and also discussed with the family and other practitioners.
‘In the Picture’ has been used in studies of home based early intervention programmes with young children labelled with SEND; children’s friendships in early years settings; and the Bookstart corner programme. In interviews practitioners who used the approach highlighted how it improved their communication with children, sharpened their focus and made them more aware of the children’s relationships.
In this session, John and Jonty give a flavour of the approach and discuss how it might be used as part of Portage practice, particularly to support transition into settings.
This seminar stimulated a lot of discussion and debate, however Q&A’s are not included in the recording. References to further research are given at the end of the Powerpoint.
Interviews with Practitioners from Settings, East Riding of Yorkshire
We interviewed practitioners from settings in East Yorkshire who talked about attending Portage Training and how their setting worked towards the NPA Stamp of Approval award.
Thanks to Victoria and Alison from Kiddycare Day Nursery, Hull, Nicola from Withernsea Day Nursery and Karen from Rainbow Preschool, Goole. All settings are in the East Riding of Yorkshire.