My chosen career path has always been strongly centered towards people and education. Having been a graduate of Norland College myself, I appreciate the whole life cycle of learning and training, and how the skills set can translate into the wider world of work and careers. I took my studies further with an Early Years Care and Education degree and was delighted to mentor other candidates seeking assessment in tandem with my own professional development.I set up my own nursery in 2001, and am delighted that Ofsted have continually rated it "Outstanding", in addition to achieving "Flying Higher" and Investors in People status. In recent years, I have also been involved in a pilot project to disseminate good practice in Early Years across Somerset as a Lead Practitioner. This has involved practitioners visiting the nursery and delivering training across the country. Additionally I delivered training on a variety of subjects for Bath and North East Somerset Council, and acted as a "trouble shooter" in a consultancy capacity for failing Children’s Centre nurseries in the UK. Through this work, I have worked very closely with Ofsted, and gained an excellent knowledge of sustainability and leadership issues. In my most recent post at Norland College as Head of Consultancy and Training I take responsibility for all consultancy and training opportunities for external organisations both within the UK and internationally. I also manage the Continuing Professional Development programme for Norland trained professionals, and design and deliver a range of tailored courses. What I love most about working at Norland is the deliberate intent to maintain standards and traditions whilst pushing continual learning and up to the minute understanding of early years education. We know that brains have rapid growth spurts in the first two years of life, and that "play" is a childs' work - very much how they learn. A 2-year-old's brain is about 20% smaller than an adult brain but has 50% more synapses. Development and neuro science plays a huge part in informing and educating our teaching and forward facing expertise.