Celebrating Dimension 8

The day as captured by Michelle Smith

Along with the Development Day, the Bristol Standard Conference is one of the best days in the Bristol Standard calendar. There is always an amazing line-up of inspirational and topical speakers, activities, networking and fun.  This year certainly was no exception, but it was approached with somewhat of a heavy heart as it was Nicky Bale’s last conference before her retirement at the end of the year.  With this in mind, everyone was determined to make it a conference to remember and that it definitely was.

This year the conference was a celebration of Dimension 8 – Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Nicky opened proceedings by welcoming us in Welsh.  There were lead teachers, the Bristol Standard team, Childminding Support, Local Specialist Leads, BAND, the Inclusion Team, Early Years Consultants, Public Health, the wider Bristol Standard family from South Glos, Wiltshire and Plymouth and Penny Sparrow, our agent in the field in London.  Nicky reminded us that the Bristol Standard is all about nurturing people and that we are all a family and she talked about having shared values and vision and gave some updates by way of ‘looking back to look forward’, looking back to celebrate and looking forward to where we want to go.  

It was then time for the Keynote speaker – Dr Sharon Colilles, Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Studies, Bath Spa University – who spoke about ‘Participatory Pedagogies & its role in developing children’s mixed ethnic identity’.  Sharon has previously owned her own day nursery, has worked in policy, is now an academic and above all is a children’s advocate.  She has carried out extensive research, which comes from a positionality of play and giving rights to children.  She spoke passionately about the importance of giving children a voice and enabling them to explore identity through play and she kindly said we are all on a journey of discovery and its ok to not know everything. 

With Sharon’s words as food for thought, we all sat down for a delicious lunch.  It was then time for the annual BAND activity. A very dodgy beard, some silver hairspray and an outrageous necklace and pair of glasses, saw Paul and Michelle from BAND became ‘Paul and Pru’ and everyone found themselves as contestants on ‘The Great Bristol Standard Fake Off’.  Groups were quickly organised and the task was to create a cake stand complete with afternoon tea goodies, made entirely from scrap.  Soggy bottoms were banned, there was a gingham altar to display the finished products on and a ‘Star Faker’ apron and Hollywood handshake for the winners.   There was even a star appearance from former Bake Off contestant Bryony May Williams, who Facetimed in to judge.

After much hilarity, it was time for a more serious but lighthearted Bristol Standard activity – Pat and Carol’s ‘Target Task Tussle.’ This was all about looking at the difference between targets and tasks, something which is often tussled with at validation.   There were lots of in-depth conversations as everyone had to identify which of the cards they’d been given were targets and which were tasks.  As with everything, there were a number of grey areas, but we definitely finished the activity with greater clarity.

Following the tussle were the afternoon guest speakers – Lucy Jefferies, Director, and Izzy Ruddick, Centre Manager, from Easton Community Children’s Centre.  They gave a presentation all about bringing dimension 8 to life: Providing mirrors to reflect children’s own experiences and windows with a view into difference.  They gave some wonderful examples of what they do in practice to celebrate diversity so that children see themselves represented and also learn about the cultures of others.  They highlighted the need for providing authentic experiences of the world to avoid tokenism and explained that their curriculum deliberately covers social justice.  They obviously care deeply about their staff team and have empowered them to share their diversity and diverse skills.  For example, one member of staff spoke to the children about wearing a hijab and took in lots of different fabrics for them to enjoy.   They also have an outreach program that goes hand in hand with what they do at the setting; they invite different people in and visit their local community, which they try to immerse themselves in.  Alongside this, they explained they have developed an Anti-Discriminatory Incident Policy so that staff are supported in dealing with any incidents that might occur.  They finished with some powerful comments: ‘As early years practitioners we have the power to make changes for children.’  And then ‘We see you.  You are included.’

All too soon, the day was coming to an end.  Beth Osborne, Early Years Consultant for Birth to Three, and Paul Dielhenn, Chief Executive Officer for BAND, gave the concluding comments and everyone agreed it was the best conference ever (which we agree every year).