Philani recently arrived
from Zimbabwe 'tells' his story
to participants at our
Morning with a Difference Event

 

 

Our Mission Statement

We are committed to creating a society in which, as Aung San Suu Kyl the Burmese political leader
said, “men are truly confident of their own worth, women are not merely tolerated but valued”.

We believe that:

To bring about social change we need to be committed, persistent, courageous and to have a vision
of the kind of future we want.

All children have the right to grow up in a society that is free from racism and other forms of discrimination.

Anti-discriminatory practice IS good professional practice which should be developed and implemented throughout Britain and in the rest of Europe.

Implementing anti-discriminatory practice is a continuing process which involves everyone looking
at themselves and at all aspects of the curriculum.

Training empowers trainers and trainees and extends their knowledge base and range of skills.

Using Persona Dolls appropriately encourages children to respond to others with empathy,
respect and sensitivity, builds on their sense of identity, their self-esteem and their confidence.

Using Persona Dolls appropriately develops children’s ability to recognise the ways in which others
are similar to and different from them and to appreciate the hurt prejudiced attitudes and discriminatory behaviour cause.

Using Persona Dolls appropriately empowers children to stand up when they experience or witness discrimination.

Using Persona Dolls appropriately involves building a partnership with parents.

 

About our Staff

Persona Doll Training has been co-ordinated by Babette Brown since it was founded in 2000. Born in South Africa she left the country in 1963 with four young children
to become a political exile in Britain where she worked as a Nursery School teacher and then lectured on an NNEB course. From1986 to 1998 she co-ordinated and wrote the publications for EYTARN the Early Years Trainers Anti-Racist Network (now Early Years Equality) and for her charitable work received the Guardian Jerward award
in 1997. Trentham Books have published her three books, ‘Unlearning Discrimination
in the Early Years’; Combating Discrimination: Persona Dolls in action’; and more recently ‘Equality in Action: a way forward with Persona Dolls’.

Meeta Johnson is our Training Administrator. She has been teaching
in Multicultural/Ethnic settings for 18 years, the past 11 years, in the early years.
She has been Deputy Head of a large Early Years Centre for the past 8 years in a
very deprived part of Slough. She has been involved is delivering a range of training
to practitioners in maintained, private, voluntary and independent sectors.
This has included “Equality in Early Years Childcare and Playwork” and “Involving parents in their children’s learning” based on the Pen Green model. Meeta has also worked for the authority as a moderator for the Foundation Stage profile. She has
been trained in the Laevers’ “well being and involvement” programme which she implemented in her own setting. She has also trained other practitioners in such observations of children and developed a very successful family learning
programme at the Early Years Centre.

About our Trainers

Who’s who:

Jane Louth trained as a Nursery Nurse in the 1960s and as an early years teacher
in the early 70s. She then worked as an early years teacher and later as a lecturer
on Child Care and Education courses in further education colleges. Her present job
as a community teacher with Sheffield Young Children's Service includes supporting private, voluntary, community and maintained sector providers with curriculum development and enabling good quality play provision. She encourages and enables parents/carers to support their children's learning.

Jane Slater has been teaching for over 30 years with most of her experience being
in early years. She has taught in school nurseries and reception classes, led
a playgroup and been the senior teacher at a children's centre - now a centre
of excellence. Her present post which she started in 1999 is as an Early years Trainer. This involves leading a wide variety of training both in the foundation stage and for practitioners working with 0-3year old children. She also supports private and voluntary settings to help them further develop an appropriate environment for the children with whom they work, suggest developmentally appropriate activities,
and help with planning, assessment and observation. She has for the last 2 years been involved in developing "Persona Doll" training in the Bradford district where a support network for the practitioners who have been involved in the initial training
is being developed.

Marie Spencer trained as a secondary English teacher in 1991, taught English in a large comprehensive, then moved to Portsmouth Ethnic Minority Achievement Service in 1998. Her present post as Asylum Seeker & Refugee Support Teacher is cross phase. She provides training for Swindon schools in meeting the specific needs of asylum seekers and refugees, ensures that the children from newly arrived families access school places as quickly as possible and works as part of a multi-agency team to enable families to feel settled and welcome.She has recently been involved in
a Mobile Media Club project with some of her pupils working alongside monolingual peers. The project provided experience of using creative writing, visual art, and a range of digital technologies to produce web pages which allowed pupils to explore
and reflect on the theme of ‘past present future’.

Meredith Wilson has for many years lived and worked in Leicester, always in multi-cultural/ethnic schools and most recently as head of a large foundation stage department. Since taking early retirement she's worked with Nursery Education Support Team in Leicester, training and supporting private and voluntary settings
in using the Foundation Stage curriculum. With the multi-cultural advisory service,
PLA and an experienced teacher, she helped develop a Persona Doll training package. She delivers training sessions attended by staff from private & voluntary sector and state schools.

Grenadian born Meryl Shepherd’s background is in nursery nursing where she has worked in three local authorities across health, education and care disciplines in London boroughs. Having previously worked in a further education college supporting nursery nursing students, she is currently employed as a visiting lecturer at Roehampton University. Here she teaches on the early childhood undergraduate programme, as well as on continuing professional development early childhood programmes. As an early years consultant with a particular interest in ethnicity,
Meryl works for and with The National Children’s Bureau and other agencies researching and exploring the nuances of ethnicity for individuals.

For 23 years Ruth Moran was an Early Years teacher. From January 2001 she has been an Advisory Teacher/Early Years trainer supporting non-maintained settings.
She is one of the founder members of Bradford's Anti/Sexist First and Nursery Group and has facilitated workshops on Gender Issues and "Girl Only Groups". She trained
as an Assertion Trainer and is an Equal Opportunities/Inclusion Co-Coordinator.

Sue Sheppy is an independent educational consultant for ethnic minority achievement, who specialises in the Early Years. She has been a mainstream teacher in London, and a language support teacher and adviser for Lancashire County Council. Sue has a Master of Education degree in English Language Teaching and is currently a regional tutor for the University of Birmingham's Bilingualism in Education course. For a number of years now she has provided professional development for teachers and assistants dealing with a variety of issues around ethnic minority achievement, cultural diversity and equal opportunities.