Leadership And Management In Early Years Essays Text

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In this report i will discuss the relationship between management and leadership in an early childhood setting. I will do this by making reference to the integrated inspection report from the named nursery, government expectations and my findings from other sources. Hm inspectors of schools have responsibilities which include raising and improving standards and quality of the service offered by settings through self evaluation, and they do this by inspection of premises and the service these premises provide. They work within the national care standards, scottish executive 2006 which is underpinned by the child at the centre, hmie 2007 and the performance indicators within. Part of their inspection includes looking at the overall leadership in the nursery setting and using government advice to rate the standards of leadership within the setting. In the named integrated inspection report, the opening statement comments: the headteacher provided excellent leadership. Hmie, 2008 and this shows how this early years establishment has followed government expectations to build on good practice and deliver a professional, caring, quality service of education to children and parents who use this setting.

Hmie's comments towards the headteacher's leadership reflect the performance indicators laid down in the child at the centre hmie 2007 and these indicators expect settings to have standards of: our writers can help get your essay back on track, take a look at our services to learn more about how we can help. Hmie 2007 hay 1997 believes the successful running of a nursery setting relies on someone who portrays a combination of both management and leadership skills. Leadership qualities include being able to influence others to meet goals, not because the leader has asked them to do so but because they want to do it whereas management qualities would include the necessity to get things done constantly and routinely. Hodgkinson 1991 cited by hay 1997 i agree with hay 1997 that a combination of skills are required for the efficient running of a nursery and in order for settings to reach the government expectations whilst carrying on with the daily routines, they would need to secure the help and shared focus from colleagues and this can be accomplished by effective leadership and teamwork. Effective teamwork can have a positive impact on the routines of daily life in the setting and if everyone in the team have the same shared focus and they are all engaging in professional reflection and self evaluation of the quality of service they are providing, the quality of service will not be compromised.

Rodd 2006 believes good teamwork is important for meeting the requirements of early education settings and cites ebbeck and waniganayake 2003 comments of building effective teams is fundamental to early childhood practice. The headteacher in the report has shown how effective her leadership is by receiving positive comments of her leadership skills. I believe she has been able to achieve effective leadership through building and nurturing a high standard of teamwork within the practice. This was done by using her interpersonal skills of communication, motivation and inspiration, rodd 2006 and by empowering her team to work with her with the same high standards and aim for the same objective she has succeeded in achieving high quality teamwork. Hmie 2008 rodd 2006 believes that this human resource management is typical of an early childhood leader and she cites taylor's 2005 argument that a leader's own behaviour, their actions, beliefs and values, will determine how they are seen by their colleagues and how this behaviour will be rewarded. Leaders can determine whether or not their team will work with them or work against them and being a positive role model can help bring your team together and reach the objective.

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It is clear in this report that this leader's direction allows her team to work alongside her as they all have the same commitment to the continuous improvement of their setting. This includes their own personal professional development and also relates to the performance indicator 9.3 developing people and partnerships hmie 2007 the report comments on how the staff in this setting have the opportunities to continue in their own development through training courses, leadership support and self evaluation. Another key element of effective leadership is having the ability to allow the personal development of others and use this ability to improve the quality of the team and the service they provide. Rodd 2006 performance indicator 9.3, hmie 2007 states how an important feature of effective leadership is to develop positive working relationships with others and to have the ability to delegate roles and responsibilities within the setting. This can be done through continuous development of staff and relates to the national care standards, standard 12, confidence in staff, scottish executive 2006 where it states a setting has an effective system for identifying and monitoring staff development needs. Hay lists another of hodgkinson's views of differences between manager and leader as managers being more concerned with material resources rather than human resources.

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The leader in this setting is highly involved with her team showing excellent human resource management by allowing each member of the team to develop through on going training and personal development without impacting on daily routines and allowing team members to use their own individual abilities and talents to benefit the group. Through effective teamwork, leaders can share with her team knowledge and skills, provide support and helpful feedback and in return gain the trust and support of the group and continue to produce a high standard of service. Who wrote this essay request removal example essays hmie 2008 report that the staff in this setting were fully involved in systematically reviewing, evaluating and improving the nursery. This positive involvement helps to produce the high quality service that this setting provides and also relates to standard 14 of the national care standards, well managed service. Scottish executive 2006 effective leaders will work with the team, examine their setting and holistically reflect with a view to change or improvement.

This reflection will include analysing individual actions, actions of the group or individuals, routines or policies and most importantly analysing if the children's learning experiences are adequate and can help an early years setting to move forward in terms of the quality of service provided. This setting does this through staff, children and parent involvement and they have received positive comments from hmie. Reflective practice also relates to the child at the centre, 9.4 leadership and improvement and change and the codes of practice for social service workers and employers. Staff in this setting are all registered with scottish social services council and work within the codes of practice, a list of statements describing professional conduct and practice expected within any setting. I agree with rodd and hay that effective leadership requires individuals to be equipped with both management and leadership skills and qualities.

The successful, efficient running of an early years setting requires leaders to be able to balance factors of work, legislation and quality in the setting with the commitment to look after the people they need and work with. Introduction leadership and management assignment an effective leader is critically important to motivate the team and provide authority. A leader will also provide strategic drive and vision along with breadth of vision to ensure that all aspects of interagency teamwork are delivered. The evidence that demonstrates that having a trained teacher as a leader/manager and a good proportion of trained teachers on staff are key indicators of quality. Eleys, 2006 pedagogy? intensive support to managers pays off: providing leadership and management training and intensive mentoring that supported the accreditation process led to significant improvements in quality eisenberg and rafanello, 1998.

Cited in mooney, the effectiveness of quality improvement programmes for early childhood education and childcare, ncb, 2007 leadership definition is reported in the literature to be problematic osgood, 2004 rodd, 2005 in terms of leadership in the early years due to the diversity of this workforce making a particularly complex field. The early years workforce comprises a wide range of personnel, each with different experience, training and qualifications as solly 2003 highlights the number of young and inexperienced staff working in the sector and emphasises that the specific leadership context is multi professional and primarily female. Additionally there is a serious lack of leadership training for early childhood managers: it is likely that many are significantly under prepared for this role. Research based on and drawing from the work of early childhood practitioners suggests that too often positions of leadership in early childhood settings tend to be held by accidental leaders with minimal training to carry out their responsibilities ebbeck and waniganayake, 2003 rodd, 2005. Ebbeck and waniganayake call for clear definitions of roles and lines of responsibility, and in turn explore ways in which obstacles to effective leadership and management can be identified and overcome. Leadership and gender in the early years leadership in early years services very often though not exclusively .

All of the case study settings in this study were found to have sound leadership, good communications, and shared and consistent ways of working amongst the staff. Where parents became involved in educational leadership and worked with children s learning at home, child outcomes were strong. The eppe project found a strong relationship between the qualifications of the centre manager and quality of service provision in early childhood settings. Whalley, m 2002 , early years leaders involving parents in their children s learning, creative waves. Discussion paper on future schools, national college for school leadership, presented at bera, 2002 it is crucial for leaders and staff to be reflective and willing to develop their own practice. Improved co operation of early childhood professionals with parents as part of that will mean a big step forward for children s learning and development.

Whalley, m, whitaker, p, wyles, g, and harris, p 2005 , an enquiry into the impact of a leadership development programme on leaders of integrated early years centres, derby: pen green pen green research centre, under the leadership of margy whalley, developed a leadership programme. This study investigates the effects that the programme had on those integrated centre leaders who took part. Further, the study sought to establish the impact of their learning on the centres they lead.