Our trainers

Josie Allen

Before taking a career break to look after my children, I worked in local government. I have extensive experience of the early years sector. I have been involved in pre-schools at a supervisory level and as a development worker. I tutored for several years – a range of courses such as the Diploma in Pre-school Practice and Working with Children with Special Needs. As a Regional Training Officer I have been extensively involved with Quality Assurance of the charity’s training programme and the training of tutors.

I am passionate about the difference that Every Child Matters and Early Support could make to families. I would love to see a variety of practitioners undertaking Early Support courses as I can see that these offer real potential for positive change.

Mary Barna

My name is Mary Barna and I am a Regional Training officer for the Alliance, based in the South West Region. I have been in post now for over 5 years and my areas of responsibility are: Devon, Plymouth, Torbay, Swindon and Gloucestershire.

Before I started working for the Alliance I was a Lecturer at both City of Bristol College and Weston College, teaching on Health and Social Care and Early Years programmes. By profession I am a Registered Nurse, midwife and specialised in Neonatal nursing. The last year of my career within the NHS was combining working on a busy surgical neonatal unit with a contract with Lifetime to care for a long-term ventilated child. She was 3 months old when I started working with her and she went home with a support team to care for her at 13 months. During this time I had to liaise with many professionals and built up trust and good communication systems. My relationship with the family was vitally important, and I know from this very rewarding experience the importance of good communication and co-ordination.

I am so pleased and proud to have been part of Early Support training and hope I can help to disseminate a very valuable programme.

Sally Brown

Hi my name is Sally Brown and I’m a Regional Training Officer for the Pre-school Learning Alliance in the North East Region. I cover North, South and West Yorkshire areas and have been in post for the last 5 years.

Before joining the Alliance I worked as a Registered Nurse, primarily with people with learning disabilities, and most recently as a Liaison Nurse supporting people with an enduring mental illness to live in the community. I firmly believe that good communication and co-ordination between those involved in the care of these people helps to achieve a better quality of life, not only for them but also for their family and friends. This is one of the reasons why I am fully supportive of the Early Support training programme, and proud to be a trainer on what I believe is a vital tool for young disabled children and their families.

Glynis Chaplin

Hi my name is Glynis Chaplin, I am a Regional Training Officer for the Pre-school Learning Alliance in the Eastern Region, and I cover Essex, Southend, Thurrock and Hertfordshire.

I started working in Early Years 23 years ago as a parent helper and have run my own pre school, where we had, children with varying needs. I then progressed to become a tutor, teaching childcare to students ranging from teenagers to the more mature.

Supporting inclusion is a passion of mine and I feel that it is important for all of those working with disabled children to have as much knowledge on this subject that we can give them, so that they can all work confidently with the children, the parents and other professionals.

Trudy Donachie

I have worked for the Pre-school Learning Alliance for many years as a volunteer, development worker, tutor and now Regional Training Officer in the South East region. Prior to my employment with the Pre-school Learning I worked for various London Authorities and a children’s charity in residential children’s homes.

My role of training officer covers East Sussex, Berkshire, Brighton and Hove, and Portsmouth. Throughout my career I have supported the inclusion of disabled children and those with special educational needs into mainstream settings this obviously includes working with other professionals to ensure that the needs of individual children are met.

The Early Support programme is a key factor in ensuring that all professionals work together to support the needs of some of the most vulnerable children in our society.

Jackie Gerrard

My name is Jackie Gerrard and I work as Regional Training Officer for the Pre-school Learning Alliance in the Midlands Region. I cover Birmingham Metropolitan, Solihull, Sandwell, Herefordshire and Worcestershire areas.

I have been in post for the last 6 years. Before joining the Alliance I worked as a tutor delivering a range of Special Needs and Equality/Diversity courses for the Alliance and adult education providers in the Eastern and Midlands regions. I also worked as a NVQ assessor for Early Years and Childcare and Education at Levels 2 and 3, and worked for a short time with adults with acute specific needs as a 1:1 worker.

As a childcare practitioner I worked closely with local authorities integrating children with special needs and their families in a range of settings, delivering training and supporting the family as they worked with health and social service professionals.

I am pleased to be part of the Early Support as it follows my own philosophy with regard to providing the best experiences possible within a framework that is co-ordinated and responsive to individual need.

Judith Jones

Hi, My name is Judith. I am Special Needs Support Officer for the Pre-school Learning Alliance.

I initially started my career at a Nursery School in Brent, where I later became Deputy Head. When my children were young I stayed at home and helped out at their nursery or playgroup. Later I became a nursery teacher at a small parent/ teacher co-operative school. Whilst there I also worked on a Play scheme and at a Special School and discovered how much I liked working with children with Special Needs. I went on to work as a Pre-school Specialist Support teacher, an Under Eights Adviser, and Ofsted Inspector before joining the Alliance.

I was delighted to be able to attend three courses run by Early Support, thanks to the encouragement and assistance of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Pre-school Learning Alliance (for whom I work as a Special Needs Support Officer), Eastern Region (for whom I do some Tutoring) and the Inclusion Manager at National Centre, Nicky Young.

The courses were for training Early Support trainers and the first one was on using the Monitoring Protocol for Deaf Babies and Children. Many of those on the course were specialists who had been using the protocol for some time and were knowledgeable and enthusiastic about it, as was the Parent/Trainer. The other courses were on the use of the Developmental Journals for children with Down syndrome and for those with a Visual Impairment. It was interesting to see the different stages, with the same underlying philosophy, as the latter training days were still in draft but they had built on and adapted the first protocol to make it suitable for their use.

All courses took place at specialist centres so I visited the Mary Hare Centre at Newbury, The Sarah Duffen Centre in Portsmouth, and the Wolfson Centre at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Although this involved quite a bit of travelling in December, it was well worth the effort.

I felt privileged to be able to attend these excellent courses as the expertise on hand and the enthusiasm generated made me more determined to spread the word about Early Support.