Nine nursery practitioners and one member of Busy Bees National support staff have travelled across the globe to spend three weeks immersed in practice on placements in our Singapore and Malaysian nurseries. The purpose of the experience is to share good practice and see what we can learn from our colleagues around the world to influence practice in both countries. Sharing high quality practice worldwide ensures that only the best experiences are offered to children within Busy Bees settings around the globe.

This blog will include posts from each of the participants sharing their experiences both from within the settings, from the Singapore head office and their personal experiences of the country. The participants went through a stringent application process to find the best possible candidates and were selected from the hundreds of applications received. They bring a wealth of existing and varied experiences and are eager to learn as much as they can while partaking in the programme. Our participants, the majority of whom had never met before meeting at the airport, have come from all over the UK; as far north as Dundee in Scotland and as far south as Basingstoke in England. Each participant has selected an area of interest to research while at their placement. These include inquiry-based learning, communicating with parents and environments.

We hope this blog will give an insight into the Teacher Exchange Programme and also contain some reflections on how the participants feel they can use the experiences they have had to influence practice within the UK. This is the second TEP; the first being when teachers from Singapore and Malaysia spent time in UK settings this time last year. Who knows which country next year’s TEP will be in and which practitioners could be involved?

(Right: The TEP participants meet for the first time at the airport)