International Early Years Partnership: Birmingham and Frankfurt

Partnership History

The partnership between Birmingham Maintained Nursery Schools and the Berta Jordan Vocational School in Frankfurt has developed over several years.

Initially, two Early Years Educator students undertook a six-month placement in Birmingham Maintained Nursery Schools funded through the ERASMUS project.  In the following two years, three more students completed placements. The developing partnership was then paused due to the pandemic.

Subsequently, under the umbrella of the Birmingham Nursery Schools Collaboration Trust (BNSCT), the partnership has evolved with many more nursery schools taking part and an increased number of students from Frankfurt taking up the opportunity to spend time in Birmingham schools as part of their studies. 

Earlier this year, 11 students took part in the programme based at nursery schools across the city. The students, from the Vocational School for Education and Social Pedagogy in Frankfurt, were in their first year of training to become state-approved education nurses or state-approved nursery teachers.

They completed their first five-week block placement in nursery schools in Birmingham as part of the ERASMUS programme. They also had opportunities to visit primary schools, undertake seminars, visit other early years settings and get to know the city of Birmingham.

During this time a group of five teachers from Berta Jourdan Vocational School had the opportunity to travel to Birmingham to visit students in their placements.

Susanne Mayer and her colleagues from Frankfurt share reflections on their Birmingham visit

Our week in Birmingham included numerous meetings and appointments, which gave us an intensive insight into the educational work and the training structure of the educational professionals. 

During the week, we carried out visits to our students - usually in teams of two teachers.

Overall, we all noticed a very high level of commitment from the staff during our visits to the nursery schools and we were given a very warm welcome throughout.

Safeguarding

The ‘safeguarding concept’, which is taken extremely seriously, was a new experience for us. This meant that we had to formally register as visitors when we arrived at each facility, which was additionally secured by showing our ID cards. We were then given a visitors pass and only then was it possible to enter the centre. However, these formal processes did not detract from the friendliness we were shown.

As we know from Germany, the nursery schools are all very different in size and equipped differently. Nevertheless, there are typical elements and structures that we encountered throughout.

Free play and Forest Schools

The ‘freeflow concept’ is very popular and the children decide for themselves where they want to be active. There are usually at least two sessions of around 15 minutes in a small circle with a specialist leading an activity. There are ‘studios’ everywhere, corners where the children can experience literacy, messy play etc.

We also encountered so-called ‘forest schools’ in every centre. These are not forest kindergartens, as one might initially think based on our experiences in Germany, but separate areas on the outdoor grounds of the respective centre, which are intended to enable experiences with natural materials and outdoor activities such as making fires, growing plants, etc. These areas are always not accessible as part of the free flow but are used specifically for programmes and projects.

Inclusion and SEND

In all facilities - both in the nursery schools and in the primary school we visited - we experienced a great deal of interest and endeavour to actively live inclusion and to address the needs of children with special educational needs enabling them to participate. The head of the primary school commented; “There are a lot of children with special needs and we feel we can meet their needs.”

In the school's large outdoor area there is a smaller building where children with special needs are supported on a more individual basis if, for example, they are finding it difficult to manage in a class environment.

Sign language (Makaton) is also used everywhere, and each practitioner regularly has a small ring binder with pictograms to visualise and facilitate communication.

Documentation

The comprehensive documentation of numerous activities and methods using talking walls was striking. In addition, the goals pursued, the ways in which the children's development is stimulated, the structures of the centre are made visible everywhere.

This information is intended to make the educational processes visible and comprehensible and is aimed at everyone who visits the facility. We found the professionals to be very attentive to the children's family situation. They want to be an important support for their upbringing. 

The documentation also appears to be a declaration to the inspectors from Ofsted, the state inspection authority. These inspections are very present in the centres and sometimes lead to pressure and concern about not being rated good enough as an institution.

Leadership and specialist staff

It was remarkable how willing the centres were to allow a comprehensive insight into their work.

The leadership and specialist staff seem to see themselves as responsible for our students, wanting to give them lots of experience and provide the best possible support.

It was also our impression that our students had already, after the first week of their internship, familiarised themselves surprisingly well with the new structures, some of which differ from our familiar structures.

One special feature, for example, is in some centres almost all children, only receive part-time care. This means that they are either only at the centre for two or three days or even that there is a change within one morning and the next group of children arrives after three hours. 

We found it interesting and constructive that although all children are usually picked up by 3 PM, staff usually stay at the facility until 4 PM for preparation and follow-up work. This also benefits our students, as they can hold discussions and also follow up.

Additional visits and development opportunities

We were also able to spend Wednesday morning at Nelson Primary School in Ladywood, close to the city centre.

There was also the opportunity for our students to take part in three seminars with a small group of local students who are training to become teachers at the University of Wolverhampton. This participation was a special experience for us, as we had the opportunity to take part in the seminars ourselves in the role of students, which was both linguistically challenging and extremely informative.

The week concluded with a visit to Allens Croft Nursery School where all students and teachers had an opportunity to look around the nursery and observe practice. In addition, there was time for discussion with one of the Birmingham Early Years Networks Co-ordinators about policy and practice in the UK.

Overall, the week was very informative and enriching for us five teachers, both professionally and personally. We found it very exciting to be able to get to know a foreign city in such a short space of time through this professional social, socio-educational and curative focus from a perspective that is usually closed to us.

Looking ahead

Planning is underway for a further cohort of up to 15 students to spend time in the Birmingham Maintained Nursery Schools next year, as well as visiting other provision in the city.