Dingley’s Promise Team Day 2022
At the beginning of September early years practitioners, management, central and leadership staff and volunteers from across Dingley’s Promise came together for our annual Team Day! Kindly hosted by the Hilton Hotel in Reading, our wonderful team were treated throughout the day to wine and cheese tasting, personalised goodie bags, while Anne-Marie from Unlock Your Wellbeing presented an informative session on caring for yourself and improving your mindset.
Working together to support children with SEND
CEO Catherine McLeod shared updates about the organisation and how Dingley’s Promise is working towards expanding its Early Years specialist centres and family support offer. She also detailed the responses being made to staff feedback, ensuring that the voices of our skilled early years educators are heard and valued. Operations Manager Karen Vockins gave a refresher presentation with a focus on safeguarding children with SEND and their families, demonstrating the importance of communication and trust within our teams. Updates on our reach and plans for the range of training courses offered by Dingley’s Promise were provided by Training Programme Manager Amanda Brown. Our early years inclusive practice training aims to provide early years staff across the country with the skills to support children with SEND in mainstream settings, improving outcomes and building confidence in practitioners working with disabled children. As an organisation working towards the best start for every child with SEND, we’re excited to offer more local authorities and early years staff the opportunity to support inclusion in all settings. In the afternoon, Fundraising Manager Jo Evans hosted a 40th Anniversary planning session, with the centre teams working together to develop fundraising events for the charity’s birthday next year. Having to raise over £500,000 every year to sustain our work can be daunting, so it was wonderful to see the enthusiasm from our staff during the session. Keep your eyes peeled for our birthday fundraising events throughout 2023!
Celebrating excellence in early years SEND provision
Finally, our team awards recognized the hard work and long service of individuals within the charity.
Award for Excellence – Shakila
Award for Care – Zoe
Award for Development – Louise
Award for Integrity – Tanya
Award for Empowerment – Sam
Award for Volunteering – Ruth
Parent Choice Awards – Jess, Sarah, Carly
25 Years Long Service Award – Pauline
5 Years Long Service Award – Tanya, April, Sarah
2 Years Long Service Award – Deborah, Nicola, Emma, Georgia
Our annual Team Days are a fantastic opportunity for our staff to meet, share triumphs, challenges and ideas, and build relationships. We are lucky to have so many dedicated, skilled individuals working hard towards creating a bright future for children with SEND!
