TLC ep#1 - Is Early Years early enough?

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello and welcome to TheLearning Collective, a brand new
podcast from the MaritimeAcademy Trust.
My name's Mike Gardner and I'mthe teaching and learning lead
at Maritime.
Join me as we explore pedagogyand practice with a range of
expert guests.
I'm delighted to welcomeChristian Markham and Sarah Ryan
onto our first podcast todiscuss the importance of the

(00:23):
zero to three age range.
And how we are innovating ourpractice here at Maritime.
Christian is head teacher atBligh Primary School, where he's
been in charge for over sevenyears.
Prior to this, Christian hasserved as head teacher in both
primary and secondary schoolsfor over 15 years.
Sarah is deputy head at Blighand is Maritime's early

(00:45):
education lead.
She has a wealth of experiencein early years pedagogy and is
responsible for our zero to sixyear olds.
So if you're ready, let's jumpstraight in.

mike_1_01-13-2025_13422 (01:01):
welcome to you both to our first
podcast.
it's really good to see youhere.

squadcaster-6f5j_1_ (01:05):
Absolutely.
Well, thank you, Mike, forinviting us as well.
Hi, Mike.

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (01:09):
Well, thank you for coming on.
And this episode is looking atimportance around that nought to
free age group and the work thatwe're doing specifically in your
school at Blythe around that agegroup.
So we shared a report beforethis podcast from the National
Literacy Trust, it's calledCreating Confident
Communicators.

(01:29):
And as I was reading through it.
I was just looking at it, ithighlights that impact, doesn't
it, of that support that a childneeds at home in those early
years for their cognitive, theirlinguistic, their personal
development.
And also that sort of languagerich home environment, that
parent child interaction.
What's your take on this reportand what it told you, about the

(01:51):
nook to free age range?

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13-202 (01:54):
Is it all right, Mike, just to take
it back just a little step fromthe report and come on to that
shortly.
Just I think, hopefully Sarahwon't mind me saying this we're
both Medway born and bred and Ithink some of our desire to to
make the zero to three such a,an important part of what we do
is because we believe in ourcommunity and we believe in what

(02:15):
we're trying to achieve here.
At Bly primary school, I thinkboth myself and Sarah have came
to the realization about 18months ago that there is only so
much we can do when the Childrenhave started with us and
recognizing the importance ofengaging our community from,
When the children are born,really because we kind of

(02:36):
figured that the more work we dothere the more successful our
Children will be when they leaveus at the at the age of 11 and
move on to their secondaryschool.
So I think there was a really Ithink between us a really strong
mindset around beingunderstanding our community,
being compassionate to ourcommunities needs.
And when I say understanding, Imean, really have a deep

(02:58):
understanding for what ourchallenges, what our barriers
are, what our successes are, whoour key players are within our
local community.
And also, and Sarah is much moreversed in, much more
knowledgeable and skilled atzero to three.
But I think my part in it, whichwas relatively small was
basically saying, yeah, Ibelieve in it as well.

(03:18):
I don't know, as much about itas Sarah, but I suppose having
that kind of leadership betweenus, that leadership experience
to recognize that it works forour community and it's important
to us here.
I don't know what you feel.
So that's, I think how we endedup.
That's how we ended.
It's part of, it's part of ajigsaw puzzle because it's not
the only piece of community workthat we're involved in, but it's

(03:41):
a really vital part.
I think that pins it, doesn'tit?
And then when the trust decidedas a BHAG that it was a really
part of their 10 year plan.
It all just began to cometogether.
And then, as you said, theresearch, the one we're looking
at is the National LiteracyTrust research, but it's huge

(04:01):
out there.
The research pointing to theimportance of communication and
language and the home learningenvironment that our children
come from is just, we could havelooked, we could have put many
reports for that.
So all of those together.
Just drove us in the directionthat we've got to do something.
Otherwise, nothing's going tochange.

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (04:21):
is a bit

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13-2025 (04:21):
I think

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (04:22):
isn't it?
To look at, I was googlingaround the research to see if
there was wider stuff andobviously the National Literacy
Trust stands out as a sort ofreally well recognized body.
But the amount of researchthat's out there around this and
saying how important it is.
Doesn't quite correlate to theamount of time and effort that's
given to it.
Nationally as well.
And just for people listeningthe BHAG is our maritime big,

(04:45):
hairy, audacious goal.
So that's looking at how we aregoing to disrupt positively
education over the next five to10 years.
And this is one aspect of it.
Sorry, Kristen, did you want toadd on to that?

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13- (04:58):
Yeah, I was only just to say that
anecdotally for years we've beensaying that our community isn't
being served in terms of widersupport outside of, outside of
school, especially in thatpreschool zero to three space.
That space that used to be heldand really successfully in lots

(05:19):
of areas by Sure Start and SureStart centers.
And it wasn't until I think itwas in it was earlier on or
later on last year.
Now, I'm talking now in Januarythe Institute for Fiscal
Studies.
I think that's right.
I think that's the rightacronym.
They did a big piece of researchabout the Sure Start centers and

(05:40):
the impact that they had on GCSEoutcomes.
And that really just playedinto, it helped provide evidence
and rationale for, around ourthought process, because it had
been it felt to me as I was justanecdotal.
Well, where are the services?
How are we supporting our, ourparents in those really
formative years of theirchildren's development?

(06:00):
But that piece of researchshowing the impact that Sure
Start Centre's had on GCSEoutcomes, obviously, given that
time is now and now Sure StartCentre's no longer being part of
kind of the offer.
to to our families just againgave it a bit more kind of
strength that actually this isthe right direction and this is
what we should as a school bedoing if we want to really, move

(06:25):
yeah, if we really want toenable our children to be
successful when they leave us at11.
So yeah, that report was alsoreally important to us.

mike_1_01-13-2025_134 (06:34):
Answering my next question, really, which
is why a focus on the nought tothrees?
And what were the key drivers?
So if you had a elevatorconversation at 30 seconds with
someone, and I'd like to hearSarah from your perspective as a
sort of early educationspecialist, what are the keys or
two or three things that yousaid yes to?
This is the reason why we needto do this now.

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-1 (06:57):
Because when you look at all the data
from that we measure children atthe end of reception on the
early learning goals and theirgood level of development, which
shows us whether they'reexpected where they should be
for a child of that age.
The gap was just not closing forthose families that come from,
those children from moredisadvantaged areas and
disadvantaged families.
In fact, it was getting bigger.

(07:19):
And our boys and girls, that gapwas getting bigger.
So we can do, to a certainextent, in school our schools do
a really good job, as much asthey can.
But that's from children attheir earliest, from three.
And some of our children, wedon't see them until they're
four or five.
And to make a difference fortheir life choices and for them

(07:39):
to thrive, we needed to getthere earlier to support those
children, which in turn meanssupport their parents.

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (07:46):
with, you mentioned that disadvantage
gap.
So I know you both said you wereborn and bred in Medway, and I
think that's really important toowning and understanding the
needs of your community.
Christian, how.
How do you see that disadvantagegap for your children in Belia?
How does that come into schoolwhen they're three years old?
Do you notice it quite clearly?

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13- (08:07):
Yeah, you do.
Yeah, you need to be reallycareful, obviously, because
you're not prejudging anythingand you're you're being open
minded.
I think COVID taught us a lotwhen we visited some of our
families, the struggles thatthey have with relative and
actual poverty.
So, yeah, we do.
We do notice it.
Yeah, we, some of our yeargroups are 40 percent free
school meals.

(08:27):
So, yeah, you do notice it.
And we are just really mindfulof Strewd West, the ward in
which we support.
And we see us, our role beyond,just our children being it, the
children coming to our school.
And that's really an importantpart of all we're doing here as
well.
So yeah, we do see it.
Absolutely.

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (08:44):
And that, obviously it sounds like
you see that bigger purpose.
And you were talking about theGCC results, that part of a
journey, but you want to handthose children on to

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13- (08:54):
Yeah,

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (08:54):
in a better place so that they're not
further behind than what theywere when they came into school.

squadcaster-6f5j_1_ (09:00):
absolutely.
I mean, our overall vision isall about giving our Children
choice and opportunity.
And we work really closely withus.
Our main feeder secondary schoolto the point now that we are
actually starting to backtrackGCSE J data for our own cohorts
of Children.
Obviously there I left fiveyears ago now.
So some of the things that we'redoing now and have done over the
last few years will take yearsto feed through.

(09:22):
But we saw that with sure start.
That data is coming through now,but short start has finished, so
he didn't realise how successfulit was until it was pulled and
was no longer there.
So we are doing a lot of worknow with our secondary schools
looking at their year 11 dataand backtracking that to our
cohort to see if we're actuallydoing the things that is
required to make our children orgive our children the, the life

(09:43):
choices that they need anddeserve.
But Michael,

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (09:46):
sorry, go on, Sarah.

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13 (09:46):
sorry.
I think we need to make itclear, the 0 3s, it doesn't mean
these children will necessarilybe coming to Bly.
This is for the children andfamilies of our community, so
they could go to one of theother schools.
Local schools here.
Yeah.
To us that doesn't matter.
It's holistically for our ward.
It doesn't matter whether they,whether the children, come here

(10:08):
or not.
Because actually and some of theresearch from around the Shore
Start Center showed this.
Just having access to thosefacilities benefits, the whole
community in.
GCSE outcomes, obviously GCSEoutcomes on everything, but they
are a measure and they're ameasure that all 16 year olds
do.
So it is a pretty goodbenchmark.
So it is about offering ourcommunity that because we know

(10:31):
that by default, our Childrenwill benefit and our community
will, and our families willbenefit.

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (10:36):
Wow.
Great.
So, so talk me through then theearly days of this program.
When did it start and how did itstart?
What were the main strategies orthings that you put into place
to get the ball rolling?

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13- (10:49):
Well, at Blythive there's already two
things in place.
We take two year olds into thenursery.
And that's a very deliberatedecision so that we can work
with those younger children andthey are those that will get
funding.
And then we already had a timeto play, which our nursery
teacher ran, which was fromnought to four.

(11:10):
So we already had a bit of afinger in the community and an
offer out there for it.
But from that, we have grown.
Lots of different offers andwhat has blown me away is how
many different services are outthere offering bits and pieces,
all working from this researchabout how important

(11:30):
communication and languages orpersonal social development, all
with pots of money from thegovernment, because it's come
out of the COVID pot.
That has just not all beenlinked up.
So starting to think about thispiece of work and then starting
to talk to our stakeholders andnetworking in Medway has just

(11:52):
blown me away how much isactually out there and how we
can almost be opportunistic anduse their pots of money to
support our families here.

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (12:00):
is that your school acting as the
hub for that, as the sort of thecentral point for bringing all
these things together, or is itvery much a network of a web of
different providers andcoordinated that way?

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13 (12:15):
Really good question.
It is a good question.

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (12:17):
I'm making you think.

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13-2025 (12:19):
I don't know why Sarah hesitated.
The reason I hesitated is.
We see ourselves very much so asan equal partner.
And that is really important tous, that this isn't just school
activity, that we see ourselvesas an equal partner.
That's certainly why Ihesitated.
Do we use the school's and theschool's facilities?

(12:40):
Yes, because that's what a lotof a lot of the groups do.
The services and groups thatSarah is talking about, that's
what they need.
And I think, certainly speakingto health and well being
professionals, schools are abit, it's easier to push the
services through schools.
and go into parents directly forwhatever reasons, whether it's

(13:02):
logistics or skepticism orwhatever it might be.
So we definitely see ourselvesas an equal partner, but we're
one that benefits, quitesignificantly from some of these
relationships.
I think your answer to your webor hub, I think so the building
acts as a hub.
And at the moment I'm The mark,the common denominator in the

(13:26):
network for

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (13:28):
You're the spider

squadcaster-6f5j (13:29):
collaboration,

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (13:29):
web, holding it all together

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13-20 (13:31):
But over time, I think that will
change.
It will become, there'll be morebits to the web and it won't
need the one person in themiddle to be the central point.
The building will be, but at themoment it's, we're at the
beginning of something of a muchbigger picture that's going to

(13:52):
come.

mike_1_01-13-2025_1 (13:53):
sustainable model that doesn't rely upon one
person driving it.

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13- (13:57):
Would you like me to talk about the
offer that is about to startthis time?

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (14:01):
on, hold fire on that because that's
going to come at the end whenwe're going to look at what the
journey is and what I'd beinterested to know is it sounds
really positive and there arelots of things happening.
But as we know, in educationwith any sort of new initiative
or fads and all the pressuresthat come into school with
funding and resource and time.
What have the barriers been?
What obstacles have you comeacross and how have you tried to

(14:24):
overcome them in the process?

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-1 (14:28):
Getting to meet the right people has
been a barrier and it's takentime and working, working
through who you meet, who's theright connection in which
service or which charity.
Okay.
that's been a barrier.
Working out how to reach thetarget, the families that we
want to reach, that's not easyat all because these are the

(14:52):
families that probably don't gointo services.
And at the moment, I don't knowhow much you know about health
and education and all theservices, how well they, and
social services, how well theycommunicate with each other.
Health is quite a hard serviceto get to share their
information because of GDPR.

(15:13):
And there aren't a lot of healthvisitors out there.
So, families are falling throughthe net and then the health
can't necessarily tell us,signpost, who are the families
that need support.
So that is a barrier at themoment that we're trying to work
through with all the services.
And everybody's as frustrated aseach other.

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (15:32):
And you said one of the barriers was
trying to get to know the rightpeople.
So how have you managed to tryand get around that obstacle and
speak to the people that are inthe know or have those pots of
money or are doing differentthings that can help?

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01- (15:47):
Spending a lot of time emailing, ringing
up, having hangouts.
just getting to know people andchatting our story.
And as, as we talk the story,various ones of us, then we, it
grows.
And we've got a couple of peoplethat we were fortunate really
early on in Medway Council whochampioned our cause.

(16:12):
They are, they've been reallykey to our journey because
they've opened up so many doors.
And from that, we've been ableto access services.
Or third sexter.
It's not specifically related tozero to three because this is
quite a complicated picture interms of what we're trying to do
here.
But we're part of the StroodWest convening group.
Say part of it started from,from Sarah's work and my work as

(16:36):
well.
And that is where all of thoseplayers in the from the local
authority charities, et cetera,that's where where those links
have been made.
And I think having the rightleaders.
Involved certainly at the schooland, having Sarah, who's
passionate about the localcommunity, passionate about zero
to three and child, children'sdevelopment and the work she

(16:56):
does in early years and having areal understanding and
knowledge.
It goes beyond just passion,although that, that is the thing
that probably.
Keeps us motivated.
So the, yeah, the Strude Westconvening group has been really
quite important in this becausethat's where the relationships
are have been formed outside ofeducation.

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (17:14):
it sounds to me that.
This isn't something you canjust passively let happen.
It required a lot of pragmatism,proactive and a lot of energy in
that effort to build thoserelationships.
But obviously the need is quiteshared out there in the area
that you're in and in many areasacross the country.
So it's, once you find the rightpeople you'll find a common.

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13- (17:36):
Yeah.

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (17:36):
and a goal

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13-202 (17:38):
We were given was about being
opportunistic and that isexactly what Sarah's been
because there are people who arealso trying to be opportunistic
as well because they havecertain ratios to me in terms of
whether it be immunizations,obesity, they have targets as
well.
And it's about using thoserelationships and seeing, how

(17:59):
you can support and help otherpeople.
Ultimately, everyone, everyonebenefits.
It might not be your turn thefirst turn, but you'll get your
turn.
And I think that Myself andSarah are in this for the long
run as well.
It's not a short term.
You use the word fad and Iabsolutely agree.
But you know, myself and Sarahspoke about this.
This is, 10 years.
This is going to be a long time,but we have made quite rapid

(18:21):
kind of gains for our school andour community in a relatively
short period
So as part of this Stude Westconvening group, we now have
Vicky Broom joining us on thepodcast.
Vicky is the whole systemsobesity officer for Medway
public health.
And she has been workingalongside our schools and others
within this network to help ouryoung families.

(18:45):
So hi Vicky, thank you forjoining us on our podcast.
Thank you for inviting me.
So I've taken a deeper look intothe ward profile for Streward
West that you sent me, which isa summary of the area and the
people that live there.
What stands out to me is there'sclearly a need for our families
in this location.
Um, there's higher levels ofdeprivation, not only financial,

(19:08):
but in terms of employment,health, living environments.
And this sort of serves toreinforce the importance of this
convening group that we have.
What I'd love to hear from youis.
Can you tell me about yourspecific role in the convening
group so far, please?
Yes, absolutely.
In the beginning, we were,myself and a colleague were
invited to join from the MetroPublic Health Team and we

(19:31):
presented with the award profileat that very first meeting.
We considered it was a goodstarting point to give an
overview of the picture of theStrewd Rest Area.
Since joining, I look afterwhat's called the Medway Healthy
Weight Network.
So I'm connected to a lot ofstakeholders and partners across
Medway from all differentsectors.

(19:53):
I'm in contact with and couldsort of invite into the group.
There's a case of sitting andlooking at, with the group and,
and, and with, with the topicswe wanted to cover, who else
could we invite to join us andcome on board?
So there are not all of them,but there's a number of members
that have come into the groupfrom that sort of, those initial

(20:15):
discussions that can add thatvalue and that knowledge and
experience and connections with,with the local community.
Brilliant.
Thank you.
And I think that's one sort ofkey aspect of the group, isn't
it?
Is that there's so manydifferent people and linking
them together so they can helpeach other in those ways is
really important.
And in terms of our, on thispodcast, we're looking at our

(20:37):
young families with childrenunder the age of three.
What sort of signposting haveyou been able to provide for
those support services for thesefamilies and their young
children?
So under our public healthumbrella, we have a number of
healthy weight interventions.
They also link into the sort ofthe best start for life and that

(20:58):
and those younger years.
Obviously my role as a wholesystems obesity officer, I sort
of specializing looking atobesity reduction and that whole
systems approach to who can havean involvement in that.
What we do under a public healthumbrella is we have a number of
services such as a bump club,which is, it covers that from
pregnancy onwards.

(21:19):
So I think the criteria aroundit is a BMI of under 18 or a BMI
of over 25.
So it's quite a wide window.
And it teaches, it's a six weekcourse that teaches expecting
mums about food, nutrition,exercise, what to expect when
baby comes.
It's a real sort of, itcomplements a lot of the other
services run by Patak, perhapsmaternity around antenatal.

(21:44):
We feed into our Beside You,which is our breastfeeding
support in Medway.
That's a one stop sort ofwebsite and then leads you onto.
Anything from online support ora text chat when a baby's first
born to help with that feedingexperience, to looking up to see
where there's a cafe in, in thearea that will welcome a new mum

(22:06):
who wants to feed and reducethat stigma and that, and that,
you know, that, that fear ofgoing out, which, which many do
have.
We've got fussy eating courses,cookery courses.
There's, there's lots of thingswe have under our umbrella that
we can signpost to.
Brilliant.
And as a teacher myself, it'salways fascinating to hear.
Of the things that are on offerand the impacts that early

(22:27):
health and those really goodhabits for life can have on the
children before they enterschool, because we always see
the impact of tiredness andhunger and fitness impacting on
children as they go into school.
So it's, it's really lovely tohear what yourself and the group
are doing to try and have thatimpact earlier, even from birth.

(22:49):
So thank you.
We could speak for ages aboutthis and maybe we will in
another podcast, but.
Thank you for sharing on thatand I really hope that your work
with the convening groupcontinues and continues to grow
and flourish.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (23:07):
segued into my next question,
Christian, which was around theimpact, but it would be really
good to break this down into twoaspects in terms of what have
you seen so far in terms of if Iclasses.
academic impact, but learning,teaching and learning impact of
how the Children you're seeingare picking up on that.
And then also, I guess the otherside, which is the community,

(23:28):
the family, the personaldevelopment side of a child.
So have you got any sort ofmaybe metrics or soft feedback
that's showing that this ishaving an impact already or
otherwise?

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13- (23:41):
time.
I don't think we're at the pointof that.
to be able to, because we're tooearly days in the program.
And we're actually writing inthe process of writing some
metrics, but we're doing that ina really interesting way.
I'm creating a network of ourlocal early years providers.
In this part of Strude West,we're coming together and the

(24:02):
purpose of that will be to writethe metrics of what, how we're
going to measure, because ourwhole point is that we want
these children to be ready fornursery.
We talk about school ready andchildren coming into reception
and being ready for reception inyear one, but we're talking
about foundation ready.
and putting some metrics inabout what we expect children to
be able to do and how we canmeasure the impact of these

(24:25):
groups and opportunities we'reoffering.
So it's too early to give youany hard data, but that in
itself is an exciting thing.
So we're getting groups ofchildminders and nursery leaders
together in a room who've notbeen together in a room before.
with a purpose to make adifference.

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (24:41):
think you've hit a nail on the head,
Sarah, there with it.
You need other people to agreethe metrics and left up to one
person.
It might just be that comes downto the very academic metrics,
which don't account for thepurpose of this program.
We're not trying to get an autofreeze to be great
mathematicians and writers andreaders solely.
It's about the whole child andthat, that development, which

(25:01):
opens many doors for them.
Anything from your side,Christine, in terms of initial
impact or buds of positive.

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13-202 (25:09):
it fits in with our school
structure, which is all aboutour children being ready for the
next phase of their education,whether it be early years to Key
Stage 1 to 2 and 2 to 3 intosecondary school.
And we talk about, our childrenbeing ready at ready stages, so
it fits in really nicely withour strategy.
Which, as you said, certainlyisn't solely academic.
It's about all of those skillsthat are required to make, a

(25:31):
child and give the child theopportunity to make the very
best of, what they have.
No, I'm not seeing any hardmetrics, but I am seeing an
enthusiasm with staff.
I am seeing an interest in the,in the community.
So there is definitely anenthusiasm.
an impact on people andrelationships.

(25:53):
And relationships is absolutelykey in so many things that we're
trying to do here.
So I can see that I can see anenthusiasm with, within our
early years and nursery staff.
It's been really good for theirdevelopment because it's given
them a different way of thinkingabout things.
So yeah, no firm metrics as yet,and I'm not even sure what

(26:14):
they'd look like anyway, Mike,to be honest, just, from that
IFS work it took, it's takenyears for sure, to have, an
actual firm metric around theimpact of that.
So it's difficult.
And I,

mike_1_01-13-2025_1342 (26:29):
research is there is it's clear that
these things do a child longterm.
So we know that if you're doingthe right things, then you're
going to make

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13-20 (26:38):
and then money

mike_1_01-13-2025_1342 (26:38):
headway.

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13-202 (26:39):
as well.
That's the thing.
They're good value for moneybecause of the, the improvement
in, in economic yeah, in in,yeah, the amount of money raised
by the economy of, young people.

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (26:51):
read some research recently, which
said something like a poundspent in early years.
Or in that early stageintervening then is going to
cost you, five, six, sevenpounds to do the same sort of
level of impact further up theline.
So getting there early and notto free is, earlier than most
schools can even get there.
So what's the looking ahead tothe year seeing as we're in

(27:13):
January for what's the plan foryour school and for this
program?
What have you got in thepipeline?
I know, Sarah, you were.
Mentioning some interestingthings coming up.

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13-202 (27:24):
So from now on, from January, it
starts.
We have a whole offer for ourcommunity of something every day
a week.
What we haven't mentioned, it'stied to Strong Foundations.
So it will roll out across theTrust under that banner of
Strong Foundations, becausethat's what we want these
children to have.

(27:44):
And one of the barriers, but itisn't a barrier, but it is a
barrier, Mike, was that we couldhave done anything because the
world is huge.
So we've decided to focus itreally down on communication and
language, personal, socialskills, and physical development
of these youngest children.
So that's what the offer istackling.
So we're opening up.

(28:05):
Time to play will continue,which is personal and social.
We are starting something calledLittle Chefs for young children
that Medway Council are actuallythe ones that are the deliverers
on it.
So

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (28:18):
then to service motorway stations
with little chef

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13 (28:22):
that's why we're not Little Chef.
We're not starting Little Chefthe cafe.
We're creating Little Chefs allabout healthy lifestyles and
living.
We have HomeStart coming in tolive something called Tiny
Talkers.
We have Family Action coming into deliver some work.
Another charity on understandingyour baby and understanding your
toddler.
They're parenting courses tosupport parents to know how to

(28:43):
help their children.
And out of Bly we're starting atoddler toy and book library.
Because our families just don'thave lots of resources at home
and you can come in, borrow,swap.
So there's something every weekthat's going to be on offer out
of here.

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (28:57):
sounds very

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13-202 (28:57):
So our big challenge is getting
that marketed at the moment.
So thank goodness for the greatmarketing team at Maritime who
are creating our publicity andsign up.

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (29:06):
and hopefully this podcast for
anyone listening that wants toto get involved.
That sounds amazing.
Christian, did you want tofinish on any, anything that
you're hoping for from thisprogram for the coming year?
Or even into the longer term.

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13-202 (29:19):
As with anything that we try to do
here apply, it's about it beingsustainable.
And that's what myself and Sarahreally want to work on because I
mean, you kind of said, in 10years time and, going forward.
So we, I just want anything thatwe're doing here to be, to be
sustainable.
And we're learning all the timeas well.
Mike, we're learning with theconvening, What works?
What doesn't work?
We're learning to manage our ownexpectations because education

(29:43):
works different to to health andpolicing and things like that,
which is fine.
You just, we work slightlydifferently.
So it's managing that.
And yeah, just keeping thatforward momentum.
But yeah, it is really excitingand we're just driven always.
We come back to that one thingwe're driven by Strood West and
the needs of our community andgiving our Children the best
choices possible.

(30:04):
Okay.
So we have one question thatwe're asking all the guests that
come onto our podcast.
And it's this.
If you could teach every peoplein the world, just one thing,
what would it be?
And why?
And I'll throw it over to Sarahfirst.
I would teach them an attitudeto life.
I want them to be people whohave a can do attitude and self

(30:27):
belief so that they'll tryanything that they want to do.
Brilliant.
Very original thought.
Thank you very much.
And Christian, what about you?
Mine's relative, it's quitesimilar actually to Sarah's.
Probably because we work in thesame school and we have quite in
lined kind of thoughts.
mine is, it's probably a skillrather than to teach them

(30:49):
something.
But it is to make the most ofevery day.
So to make the most of everyopportunity.
And realize that every day is agift to them.
And that they should make themost of every opportunity and
challenge Lovely.
Two really nice, slightlydifferent, but quiet, you're
right, Christian, quite aligned,views on that question.

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (31:07):
Super.
Well, I've really enjoyed this.
Thank you very much for joiningus on our very first podcast.
And what we've been talkingaround the National Literacy
Trust report, we'll make podcastonline as well.
So people can look into moredetail on that.
And obviously they can get touchwith Maritime Academy Trust.
If they.
If they're interested to findout more, but thank you both for

(31:29):
coming on to our podcast.

squadcaster-6f5j_1_01-13 (31:33):
You're welcome.
Thanks Mike.

mike_1_01-13-2025_134220 (31:34):
you.