User:ProCEEdwiki

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Margaret Simms is Head of Consultancy at ProCEED - the Early Years Consultants.

Special career moments

Conference examples Initiated, planned and hosted the first Bishop Grosseteste University College BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies Student-led conference. May 2009.

6th. International S-Step Conference, Herstmonceux, July/August 2006. Special Visual presentation of “Defining workspaces, defining ourselves” a piece of collaborative research carried out with Professor M. Griffiths, Dr. K. Poursanidou and Joseph Windle that stimulated discussion amongst international teacher educators.

British Education Research Student Conference, September 2006. Presentation and publication “Retention of Early Years & Childcare Practitioners in Private Day Nurseries: Is Love enough?”

Learning from Sure Start: National Conference on Local Evaluations 2006, Nottingham “The Longer Term Impact on Families of Involvement with Sure Start: Unexpected outcomes”. Included a strategy for relationship building through the amalgamation of a multiplicity of inter-professional  knowledge, experience and skills.

Publication examples

EYE Early Years Educator Volume 9 No 5 September 2007: Building Professional Working Relationships. Inter-professional working relationships are formed between people serious about working with colleagues in other professions – more serious than just keeping up appearances.

ESCalate Social Justice in Workspaces Issue 7 Spring 2007: Strengthening links within & outside the Education Community http://escalate.ac.uk/3330

Training, Advancement and Co-operation in Teaching Young Children (TACTYC) Recruitment and Retention of Early Years and Childcare Practitioners in Private Day Nurseries (Conclusions drawn from findings of fieldwork carried out as part of a Ph.D. research)

Parents – Partners in Evaluation http://ci2eye.co.uk/

Evaluation with Children and Families http://ci2eye.co.uk/

Working Partnerships that Really Work http://ci2eye.co.uk/

Working Together – Job Centres, Children’s Centres and Parents: Different perspectives on a common goal http://www.childrenwebmag.com

Community Involvement http://www.childrenwebmag.com/

“Academic and support staff: Images of three working lives in teacher education. ‘That’s what I am here for’ in Self-study & Diversity (2006) Tidwell, D. & Fitzgerald, L. (Eds.) Rotterdam: Sense Publishers Ltd.

“Academic and support staff: Images of three working lives in teacher education. ‘That’s what I am here for’ in Fitzgerald, L., Heston, M.L., & Tidwell, D.L. (Eds.) (2006). Collaboration and community; pushing the boundaries through self-study pp. 288-89. (Proceedings of the sixth annual international conference on self-study of teacher education practices). Herstmonceux Castle, East Sussex, U.K., July 2006. Most recently completed ProCEEd consultancy commitments

User Satisfaction Evaluation for Sure Start Children’s Centres Buckinghamshire

Conference envisioning with the Regional Learning Project for their forthcoming event ‘Integrated Working in and around Schools: Building Resilience in children and young people and families.’

Conference planning for Family Action (formerly Family Welfare Association) - regional voluntary sector conference to celebrate ‘specialists’, promote professional relationship building and share best practice across the Children’s Workforce.

Examples of earlier work

A range of evaluation and research projects for Sure Start Children’s Centre Chilwell and Sure Start Children’s Centre Eastwood including: User-satisfaction surveys; Non-use of services; Father engagement review; Impact of the Family Support Social Worker role; Longer term impact of involvement in Sure Start Children’s Centres; Parental Involvement and Volunteering; Partnership Board Evaluation: Evaluations of services provided under Service Level Agreements; Messy Play, Toy Library Rhyme, Rattle and Roll Evaluation

Encouraging inter-professional relationship building across the Early Years and Children's Services; working collaboratively to enhance the Early Years:

5th International S-Step Conference, Herstmonceux 2004 “Academic and support staff: Images of three working lives in teacher education. ‘That’s what I am here for’ innovative and interactive visual presentation of a collaborative piece of research carried out with Professor Morwenna Griffiths and Joseph Windle at Nottingham Trent University.

Scottish Educational Research Association Conference, 2004: "From Dizzy heights to Dozy Lows: An appreciation of the Challenges Overcome by Women Researchers in Mid life." A study of teachers and PhD. students from China, Botswana, Malawi, America and England being and becoming researchers. Accolade: “An entertaining and sensible presentation...that rang some bells.”

--Margaret Simms ProCEEd Early Years and Childcare Consultant (talk) 14:15, 17 September 2009 (UTC)

Freshional Approach

Once upon a time Margaret was a member of the Pre-school Playgroup Association (PPA), now the Pre=school Learning Alliance (formerly PLA) and the National Childminding Association (NCMA).