Hannah Jennings, Nursery Manager at Tops Newport has become the first Manager within the company achieve this status.
Tops Teacher Status is awarded to practitioners that demonstrate the highest possible standards in their professional practice, knowledge and conduct. Tops Teachers have a strong early development knowledge, keep their knowledge and skills up to date and have an exceptional understanding of how to support children’s learning and development.
There are a set of 34 standards that must be met to gain Tops Teacher status, along with the requirement to attend 4 days of Tops Training.
The Tops Teacher Status criteria is very specific to the ethos, principles and practices that Tops Day Nurseries promotes. To gain the status practitioners must demonstrate a range of skills and knowledge to include some of the following:-
- In depth understanding of the EYFS, COEL & British values
- A secure knowledge of specific theorists including Bowlby, Respectful care, Curiosity approach, Forest School and Reggio
- Ability to demonstrate effective multi-agency working and parent partnership
- Knows, understands and implements all of Tops policies and procedures
- To reflect on and evaluate the effectiveness of provision
- Ability to implement a range of strategies to develop and extend children’s learning and development
- Employ practices that promote risk benefit, early reading and writing skills and positive behaviour of young children
- A clear understanding of the benefits of yoga, meditation, music and movement
To gain Tops Teacher Status, Hannah went through a formal assessment process. Over a period of time she gathered supporting evidence to confirm her knowledge and ability against each of the required standards. Hannah then had a professional discussion / assessment with the Operations Director, Amy Alderson, to confirm her knowledge was sound. Hannah was awarded Tops Teacher Status following the assessment and she will now be issued with a new name badge with the Tops Teacher logo on it and will be referred to as a Tops Teachers.
Hannah said –
“I thoroughly enjoyed completing my Tops Teacher Status, the process was really clear and smooth. The criteria that you have to meet is set out well so you know what you need to achieve. I gathered lots of evidence from training I had attended to past essays as well as teaching observations. The final assessment allowed me to talk through each criteria section to ensure I had sound knowledge in every area.
I felt like I learnt a lot on the Tops Teacher Status and feel it has definitely helped me with my professional development as well as my confidence. I am now excited to be able to support others in completing this course.“
We hope you will join us to celebrate this fantastic achievement, well done Hannah!
