Reflective practice has lately become a huge, influential part of my learning and development both in a professional and personal capacity. During the last 12 months whilst I have been studying the EYPS, a vast emphasis has been placed upon my skills as a reflective practitioner, exploring what reflective practitioners' do and the impact of reflection on personal and professional development.
Preparation for the EYPS has had a significant impact upon the thought processes and factors that I now consider when making decisions and planning for the future not only as a practitioner but also as a manager of an early years setting.
Becoming a reflective practitioner has also supported my understanding and misunderstanding of events that I have encountered over the past 12 months and has helped me recognise and consolidate these experiences using them as a purposeful learning tool enabling me to improve as a practitioner or to inform my leadership of others within the settings that I have managed whilst on the pathway to achieving the EYPS.
Recently I have been appointed as the new Manager of a pre-school and part of my role was to complete the SEF to ensure that it reflected the nursery at that moment in time. For this task I drew upon a lot of my experiences and knowledge that I have developed both as a graduate student and whilst studying the EYPS.
Throughout both of these learning pathways a huge emphasis has been on reflecting upon yourself, your actions and providing reasoning behind your decision making processes. By developing these skills I now have the confidence to reflect and evaluate all aspects of the setting and identify areas of improvement too.