Hollies Day Nurseries has become the first business in the UK to have all its nursery staff trained in the Marte Meo approach.
The group’s nursery leaders have qualified as Marte Meo colleague trainers, while all 30 nursery practitioners across its five settings have become trained Marte Meo practitioners.
Marte Meo, meaning ‘on one’s own strength’, was developed in the 1970s and 1980s by Dutch educational counsellor Maria Aarts. It is a video-based ‘supportive interaction’ programme that focuses on daily ‘interaction moments’ to help parents and professionals support a child’s social, emotional and communication development.
The programme currently works with practitioners and families in 52 countries.
Hollies Day Nurseries, which has five settings in Nottingham offering 356 places in total, began its training in 2018, with 30 senior team members attending a six-day course over six months with Marte Meo Ireland to become Marte Meo practitioners.
Course content included video analysis of practitioners’ own interactions with children during free play, while working with children who need more support, and during group activities.
In Autumn 2019, four nursery leaders and one nursery group leader began monthly training sessions to become Marte Meo colleague trainers, analysing short videos of daily interactions between colleagues and children in their care, and giving feedback to staff by identifying and confirming ‘supportive interactions’. The leaders qualified as colleague trainers in May 2022.
All staff members are now registered with the Marte Meo International Network.
Lizzy Clyde, nursery group leader, said, ‘Marte Meo can be used in several ways in the setting going forward. For team members that have completed the practitioners’ training, Marte Meo films will become part of our supervision process each term.
‘The five leaders in the setting that are colleague trainers can deliver practitioner training to groups of staff members in-house, to ensure the Marte Meo approach is embedded with all staff members.
‘We can also use this approach with families by sharing films with them on how we support development or challenging behaviour in the setting. This can help us to work in a consistent way at home and nursery.’
The group invested £30,000 in the training, and will continue to pay around £6,000 a year to maintain supervisions for the nursery leaders with Marte Meo trainers.
Director of Hollies Day Nurseries, Becky Pike, said, ‘Our settings have all benefited incredibly from the Marte Meo approach. We have invested just over £30,000 so far in the training and it's the most expensive we have committed to ever, but so worth it.’
Colette O’Donovan, Marte Meo supervisor and trainer at Marte Meo Ireland, who provided the training to the group, commented, ‘Hollies Day Nurseries have embraced the Marte Meo method as a way to ensure quality in the day-to-day interactions between their nursery practitioners and the children attending their service.
‘Gifting children with supportive interactions that supports their development in daily life moments helps the child to build self-confidence, develop a good self-picture and be strong and ready for the world of tomorrow.’
