We believe in empowering educators to inspire children and provide every child with the opportunities they need for a brighter future.
At SEEDS we believe that all children deserve the best possible start to their education. We know that a good start will provide children with better opportunities in life and help them towards a positive future.
As the name SEEDS suggests, we believe that all children deserve the opportunity to strengthen their roots, to develop green shoots of learning, and to thrive in an educationally rich environment.
By working collaboratively with schools, nurseries, childminders and other early years settings, we help to raise aspirations and inspire and empower staff to provide the very best educational experience for every child.
Please don’t wait for a disappointing Ofsted grade or put off dealing with a potential issue in your school, nursery or early years setting. Get in touch today to see how SEEDS can help.
“Life is like
riding a bicycle.
To keep your balance
you must keep moving”
– Albert Einstein
Every setting must embrace change
The ever-changing landscape of education means you must keep developing and growing. This is true for all settings.
Just as Albert Einstein advised his son, Eduard, you must keep moving if you want to achieve a balanced education for the children you teach.
About Suzanne Dunn
As someone who has worked both in and alongside schools and settings for more than fifteen years, I am completely committed to:
– Facilitating a good education for all the children I work with, and
– Creating a positive experience for those working with children.
In the ten years I spent working as a teacher and leading the early years, I was (and still am) completely dedicated to raising standards and accelerating children’s progress. I provided an inspirational curriculum and regularly introduced new initiatives, which paid off as children progressed from low starting points to both reach and go beyond their expected level of development.
Later, in a local authority role, I supported improvement in children’s centres, nursery, primary and special schools including pupil referral units. My support secured rapid improvements for schools and settings who had been judged requires improvement or inadequate, and the vast majority attained an improved grade.
I also worked with good and outstanding schools and settings to ensure they worked dynamically to retain their higher ratings and outcomes.
I have written and delivered a range of early years training at various levels from single schools and settings to regional conferences. I have a special interest in PE and have led cross-school training in PE as well as training across an entire region.
To complement my early years education consultancy work, I also provide regular supply teaching in schools, to ensure my knowledge is current and I’m better equipped to support schools and early years settings with the challenges they face today.
I work with schools and settings across Worcestershire and the West Midlands, including those in Kidderminster, Bromsgrove, Worcester, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Shropshire and the Wyre Forest.
My interest and involvement with the assessment of the Early Years Foundation Stage has led me to work in this area at national agency level, with both the Department for Education and the Standards and Testing Agency.
Who works with SEEDS?
A wide range of people within early years education can benefit from working with SEEDS.
We work with:
- Headteachers, bursars and school governors
- Early years co-ordinators and teachers
- Early years practitioners
- Nursery owners and managers
- Childminders
- Local authority inspectors
Why work with SEEDS?
Our work is always tailored to individual circumstances, and there are numerous reasons that we would be commissioned to come into a school or early years setting.
Here are some examples to give you a good idea of the work we do within early years and key stage one:
- Consulting with a school or setting who want to prepare for an imminent Ofsted inspection.
- Working with a headteacher or early years coordinator who is aware of problems within early years but can’t quite identify what the issues are or is unsure of how to tackle them
- Collaborating with experienced headteachers who have a strong background in key stage two, but need assistance and support with the Early Years Foundation Stage.
- Collaborating with a headteacher or nursery manager who is in need of a sounding board to help regain clarity and focus.
- Working in partnership to ensure staff at all levels maintain a balance of teaching, learning and clerical duties (paperwork) within the school or setting.
- Working with a senior member of staff who is feeling out of their depth or needs some support in their role.
- Working alongside an NQT who needs help and assistance to fulfil their potential.
Please don’t wait for a disappointing Ofsted grade or put off dealing with a potential issue in your school, nursery or early years setting. Get in touch today to see how SEEDS can help.
SEEDS Services
We can provide a wide range of bespoke services, but the work we do fits broadly into one or more of the five service areas below:
- Creating and Developing Enabling Environments
- Making Good Use of Assessment and Ensuring a Broad and Balanced Curriculum
- Nurturing Emotional Wellbeing and Resilience
- The Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning
- Positive Leadership and Management
If you can’t see a service that you need, please do get in touch, as we are adept at tailoring our services to suit individual schools, nurseries, childminders and other early years settings.
We aim to enhance learning opportunities for children both indoors and outside, and can help you to create and develop your physical environment in order to promote learning.
We can offer forest school support and help to develop practical and fun ways to engage children in outdoor learning.
In the past we have introduced concepts such as “Welly Wednesday” or “Fresh Air Friday” to capture children’s imagination and give them a rhythm to their week.
We can work with you to design a bespoke tracking system across early years and beyond. Our focus will be on ensuring the data and information regarding key stage one and early years are presentable, and also “talkable” so that you’re able to discuss the data easily with inspectors, advisors, governors and Ofsted.
- Our subject specific support includes:
- Physical education for early years and across the primary school age range
- Musical opportunities for learning for non-specialists within the early years
- Storytelling and reading opportunities within the early years
- Maximising reading and writing opportunities in the early years
- Maximising communication opportunities within the early years
- Maximising personal, social and emotional development opportunities within the early years
- Maximising physical development opportunities within the early years classroom
- Maximising mathematical opportunities within the early years
- Maximising understanding of the world opportunities within the early years
- Maximising expressive arts and design opportunities within the early years
We work in a range of areas including:
- School readiness ideas and measures for parents, settings and schools
- Engagement of parents in their child’s learning. Ideas or sessions to work with parents and carers to support home learning
- Smooth transition into school, through school and beyond – including the child, parents and curriculum
- Support and guidance for nurturing pupils with English as an additional language.
We offer supportive guidance and training on the application of the characteristics of learning in the EYFS and beyond. We can provide staff training on bespoke topics as needed.
We offer subject specific support and encourage learners to:
Play and Explore
- Discover and investigate new ideas and thoughts
- Have a go
- Demonstrate their knowledge and understanding
Undertake Active Learning
- Become engaged in their learning
- Take pride in their accomplishments
- Demonstrate resilience/buoyancy when working
Create and Think Critically
- Produce their own notions and concepts
- Identify connections in their learning
- Develop and refine their own methods for learning
- Become lifelong learners
We can assist in the following areas:
- Whole school, staff and governor training regarding early years and key stage one
- Ofsted preparation regarding early years phase leaders and the learning environment
- Governor support regarding utilisation of data including challenging questions for the school leadership team
- Advice and support in creation and development of evidence and profile collection for EYFS, KS1 and KS2
- Quality assurance of assessment techniques and processes within school to ensure the collection of robust data.
- Support and guidance for providers working with two-year-olds in their settings and schools
- Ensuring schools meet their statutory requirements regarding fundamental British values and the prevent strategy
- Support and guidance on how to utilise the early years pupil premiumResearch and impact projects within the school e.g. case studies of pupil premium, the PE funding, early years pupil premium
- Termly or half termly updates for schools and other settings regarding important amendments and developments that may influence their everyday practice, including DfE, Ofsted and other agencies which support the education system within the UK.