‘All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today.’
Just under 10 years ago, I co-trained a 2 day Foundation course in Protective Behaviours with Fiona Benjamin in a place called Over which, for those of you who don’t know, is in Cambridgeshire. I had recently moved to the county and couldn’t work out why no one seemed to have heard of PBs. I didn’t want the county I now lived in not to know about it, so some PB seeds were sown…BUT….no one appeared to nurture them despite numerous efforts to build a PB network.
Then, a few months ago I was contacted by someone also, coincidentally, called Fiona and a new Cambridgeshire PB adventure began. So far Fiona and I have met to talk about how PBs fits beautifully with the Early Years Foundation Stage, Safeguarding and when taught, empowers pre-school children to keep themselves feeling safe. Fiona also joined me on my Dublin adventure and completed Foundation Stage training. She helped me identify the people within Cambridgeshire County Council whose job it is to provide workforce development training. So, for me the fantastic news is that almost 10 years after the first PB course in Over, two new courses are already booked, and on top of that I was invited to give the keynote address at this year’s Early Years Safeguarding Conference. This took place on Thursday 29th January 2015, and I would like to thank all those who attended for their enthusiastic feedback.
It looks as though the seeds that were planted last week stand a far greater chance of thriving, flowering and helping young children learn the skills they need to keep themselves feeling safe. It also confirms to me that the PB strategies of Persistence, Risking on Purpose and Network Review work beautifully whatever the climate and that people really do make a difference – thank you Fionas!
