Nicola Burke is an experienced trainer, coach, and education consultant specialising in leadership development, workplace communication, reflective practice, and the development of high-quality music provision in early childhood settings. With over 25 years’ experience, Nicola works with early years leaders, managers, and teams to strengthen leadership capability, communication, and organisational culture. Her approach is evidence-informed, relational, and practical, underpinned by values of kindness, reflection, and professional curiosity. Alongside her leadership work, Nicola brings specialist expertise in music and creative learning. She is the author of Musical Development Matters in the Early Years and creator of the award-winning Tune into Listening research, using creative approaches to deepen listening, presence and connection across both leadership and everyday practice.
This one-day course is accompanied by Musical Development Matters, a free guidance that is available to download from Early Education. The course not only introduces participants to the guidance but also demonstrates how easily music can be incorporated into any early childhood setting without practitioners needing any previous musical knowledge or experience. This course will be workshop style, fun and informative, exploring ways in which music compliments and contributes to all areas of learning and development.
In this session participants will be introduced to a free self-evaluation tool that enables practitioners to self-evaluate the music provision and practice in their setting. Participants will be offered lots of practical ideas and suggestions to support them to create a rich musical setting that nurtures all areas of children’s learning and development. The session will include planning for music in continuous provision and planning for adult led music sessions.
In this course participants will be encouraged to reflect on music making and music listening opportunities within their continuous provision. Participants will be offered lots of practical ideas and suggestions to support them to create enabling musical environments including the auditory environment. Throughout the session we will consider the unique child and the musical interests, preferences, and identities of children and how educators can connect with and nurture this.
In this ever-increasing world of technological advances and the hyperconnectivity this enables, how are we ‘speaking’ with colleagues, children and with people in our individual worlds? This session involves delving into the 3 ‘types’ of conversation and codes / ‘rules’ around the different forms of communication from the written word to the voice note.
How much time do we spend listening and how much time have we spent being taught ‘how’ to listen? This session will explore listening, what this means and how we can develop this crucial skill. Participants will be invited to consider and reflect on their own listening styles, and their perspectives of listening within the workplace to children and colleagues and within everyday life.
What do we mean by emotional intelligence and how can we harness and develop our EI further? In this session participants will be invited to consider and discuss emotions such as empathy, compassion and develop our understanding of our own feelings and those of others, to create better relationships with other people.
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