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Children and young people

Tessa Winters

My name is Tessa Winters and I am an Equity and Excellence Lead (EEL) with the Moray Council based in the Buckie Area. I am registered with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) on the Practitioners of Day Care of Children Services.

I am based out of a local authority nursery in Buckie and work closely with families in the local community. At the nursery I support with child plan meetings, training sessions, signposting families to services and general support to nursery staff, children, and families, as well as small group work and directed support within the nursery.

I run a variety of Peep groups for families in the local area working in collaboration with a multi-agency of professionals, including Health Visitors, Speech and Language Therapists, Community Nursery Nurses, Early Intervention Teachers, Third Sector and volunteers. I find doing Peep very rewarding as it brings families together; I draw from my own personal experiences, professional training and use a multi-agency approach to support families. I love it, communicating with families, building relationships and supporting their needs. I adjust to families on an individual basis providing opportunities to boost parents’ confidence in singing songs, reading stories and easy-to-do at home activities that are affordable, manageable, and accessible in a relaxed and comfortable environment.

Originally, I didn’t know what I wanted to do and left school to work in a factory. However, when I was growing up, my mum worked in a residential home for children with complex health needs and I would attend the fun day sessions and help. I decided to follow in her footsteps and gained my NNEB (National Nursery Examination Board) qualification in1998 in my early 20’s and gained my first job in a nursery setting, which was previously one of my placement settings. I worked in nurseries and as a live-in nanny before taking some time out to travel. Then, while my children were young, I worked in a bookshop for 13 years, advancing to assistant manager, before returning to early years in an outdoor nursery. I progressed from an early years’ practitioner (EYP) to a senior EYP and was proud to win the Nursery World Childcare Practitioner of the Year Award 2019 after being put forward by my team. I then went on to work in the NHS as an Associate Practitioner with the complex needs team in speech and language therapy before gaining the EEL post.

Due to having a wide and varied career, this has helped me draw from a variety of life and career experiences to be better able to engage and help the families I work with. My time as a nursery nurse the late 90’s feels very different to how I practice now, and that is due to my own life experiences and new information around child development. Due to my time in an outdoor nursery, I see how much these benefit children, so I aim to always get them outside as much as possible. Whatever the weather!

I use my hobbies and interests within my work including drama and love of reading to support with Peep and Bookbug sessions, as well as incorporating my speech and language background to enhance children’s language and literacy skills in partnership with parents. I love being outside, and enjoy creating spaces, the children learn a lot from this too – about taking care of our environment. I also enjoy crafting so anything requiring paper, glue and mess which not only the children enjoy, but parents often have fun doing it too, and it gives them ideas for activities at home. We even create a black and white baby mobile during our Antenatal Peep. You can see the parents’ hesitation prior to starting but they really relax into it.

I am now doing my BA Childhood Practice with the University of Highlands and Islands. I enjoy studying, and I have not only learnt loads and find it interesting, but it has been beneficial to my role. I definitely recommend online learning.

The thing I enjoy the most about my role is working with a range of people, families, other agencies and obviously the children and the fact that no one day is the same. One of my strengths is building relationships and getting to know the families well, and I am lucky I get to do that every day. The EEL role can be a different in different areas, however, I feel it has taken time for people to understand the role and its value across the sector.

Best words of advice I would give someone considering a job in the early years sector is that it is never too late, so go for it!

The job is rewarding in so many ways, being a part of the development of children and supporting families is a great privilege.

Tessa Winters

The thing I enjoy the most about my role is working with a range of people, families, other agencies and obviously the children and the fact that no one day is the same.

Tessa Winters Equity and excellence lead

Learn more about the role of equity and excellence lead in this video by the Scottish Government

Closed Caption subtitles can be switched on by clicking on the 'cc' button on the video.

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