Category: Training

Part 2: Invest in Your Staff for a Strong Start

Why Early Planning for Pre-Service Training Sets the Tone for a Successful Head Start Year

Previously we mentioned the importance and the impact of structuring a quality pre-service plan with attention paid to benefits of planning early and the support that quality training can have on the outcomes of a program. Now, let’s take a look at what happens intentional planning is not done and how this affects staff on a day today basis.

Common Pitfalls from Program Records

If your program keeps internal records, you’ve likely noticed a few patterns:

  • New staff are often overwhelmed by the volume of information shared during a single week of pre-service.
  • Returning staff tune out when training is too repetitive or disconnected from their daily work.
  • Managers and specialists report spending the first month re-teaching policies or practices that were unclear during onboarding.
  • Family service staff often receive the least targeted training, though their role is central to Head Start’s two-generational model.

These are not signs of failure—they are signs of opportunity.

When programs step back and treat pre-service as leadership strategy, the ripple effect is powerful. Staff feel seen, supported, and prepared. Managers become more aligned. And children and families benefit from a team that starts the year united and ready.

Make Pre-Service a Strategic Investment. Early planning allows you to:

  • Customize training content by role (classroom, family services, health, admin)
  • Incorporate team-building and culture-setting activities to improve retention
  • Address high-need areas like trauma-informed care, mental health, or inclusive practices
  • Include reflective supervision or coaching-style leadership training for managers
  • Balance federal requirements with your program’s specific goals

 

And perhaps most importantly—it lets you bring in expert support that lightens your leadership load.

Support is Available—And Worth It. Planning pre-service training doesn’t mean doing it all yourself. A skilled training consultant can work with you to:

  • Review past training outcomes and develop a customized pre-service schedule
  • Deliver high-quality sessions on priority topics aligned with HSPPS and CLASS
  • Equip managers with coaching tools to sustain momentum beyond the training week
  • Create a training experience that energizes rather than exhausts your staff

If you’ve ever wished your team could hit the ground running on day one—or that you didn’t have to “re-train the training” by October—now is the time to rethink how you approach pre-service.

Let’s Talk. No matter the need for your program, a half-day session, one day with a specific focus, a week of cohesive events, you will receive professional development that is purposeful and carefully constructed. Pre-service is more than a start-of-year task—it’s an investment in your people, your program quality, and your long-term success. When you connect with Essential Elements to create the plan that is most appropriate for your program, you will find that there is:

  • a strong focus on adult learning principles
  • a brain friendly design of the training sessions
  • a connection between ideas, information and practice
  • a relationship-centered approach to the participants
  • a structured plan with specific outcomes and expectations for results

 

Partner with Essential Elements to create a purposeful, high-quality pre-service plan that sets your staff—and your families—up for a successful year.

Part 1: Invest in Your Staff for a Strong Start

Why Early Planning for Pre-Service Training Sets the Tone for a Successful Head Start Year

As a Head Start director, you know that the start of a new program year is more than a date on the calendar—it’s a strategic opportunity. Among the most critical pieces of that strategy is pre-service training. It’s not just a compliance requirement—it’s the foundation for the culture, quality, and consistency your team will carry forward all year long. And it is a measure of the care and importance that you place on each staff member and the role they play in your program.

Too often pre-service becomes a rushed checklist instead of a meaningful launch. When training is planned late, squeezed in, or treated as a one-size-fits-all event, we see the results in the data: lower staff engagement, inconsistent implementation of Head Start Program Performance Standards (HSPPS), and increased turnover within the first 90 days.

The good news? You can shift that outcome with one key move: plan your pre-service training early—and with purpose.

Why Pre-Service Matters More Than Ever
Head Start and Early Head Start programs are complex systems, offering comprehensive services to children and families with diverse and often high-need backgrounds. Staff members are asked to do deeply meaningful and emotionally intense work—often without formal training in all the areas they’re expected to manage.

Research and program data consistently show that staff who receive clear, intentional, and high-quality pre-service training are:

  • 40% more likely to remain past the first 6 months
  • Significantly more confident in implementing curriculum and child assessment tools
  • Better equipped to support family engagement from the start
  • More compliant with HSPPS and CLASS expectations in the first quarter

But quality pre-service training doesn’t happen overnight. The best programs begin planning months in advance, building a training schedule that reflects the actual needs of their staff—and the strategic goals of the agency.

Let’s Talk. Whether you’re looking for full support or just want help refining your plan, now is the right time to connect. Pre-service is more than a start-of-year task—it’s an investment in your people, your program quality, and your long-term success. Help your staff experience success every day and feel validated and supported in their routine tasks. Make sure that the outcomes you expect are those that you invest in.

Let Essential Elements help you craft a pre-service plan that matches your program’s vision and supports strong outcomes for children and families.

The Art of Intentional Center Time: Balancing Freedom and Focus

Center time in preschool is a crucial part of a child’s development. It is a period where young learners engage in self-directed, hands-on activities designed to promote social, cognitive, and emotional growth. The concept of intentionality in this context refers to the purposeful design and guidance provided by teachers to ensure that activities align with your curriculum and children’s developmental goals, fostering meaningful learning experiences for each child.

Intentionality during center time involves carefully planning the learning environment, selecting appropriate materials, and offering structured yet flexible opportunities for exploration. Teachers are intentional not only in how they set up the space, but also in how they observe, support, and interact with children. This might involve encouraging problem-solving skills, supporting social interactions, or extending learning through thoughtful questions and guidance.

For example, in a dramatic play center, a teacher might intentionally introduce props or scenarios that promote role-playing and social negotiation, while also observing how children interact with each other and step in to guide them toward deeper learning when necessary. In the block center, the teacher may provide diverse materials that encourage spatial reasoning and collaboration, fostering both cognitive and social development.

Ultimately, intentionality in center time ensures that children are not just playing but engaging in purposeful activities that promote their growth across a variety of domains. It allows teachers to meet each child’s individual needs, fostering a rich, dynamic learning environment where exploration and discovery are at the forefront of early childhood education.

For more information on intentional center time, training and coaching for your program please contact Susan at (704)277-7473 (susanwitek@hsessentials.com or Kristine at (704)451-3255 (kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.)

New Head Start Performance Standards and the Importance of Self-Care

Head Start has recently updated its Performance Standards to better support the holistic development of young children and strengthen the workforce delivering these critical services. These updates reflect the evolving needs of children, families, and staff and emphasize the importance of a supportive, inclusive, and well-balanced approach to early childhood education.

Key Update in the New Head Start Performance Standards
The revised Performance Standards include a stronger emphasis staff well-being.

The standards highlight the importance of creating a supportive workplace for Head Start staff, recognizing that educators and caregivers need access to well-being programs to perform at their best.

  • The Role of Self-Care in Head Start Programs
    Self-care for educators and staff is increasingly recognized as an essential component of effective early childhood education. The challenges of working in high-stress environments, particularly in programs like Head Start that serve vulnerable populations, can lead to burnout and reduced effectiveness. To counter this, the new standards emphasize:
  • Wellness Initiatives: Encouraging staff to engage in self-care practices such as mindfulness, physical activity, and stress management to prevent burnout and promote long-term health.
  • Workplace Flexibility: Providing a balance between professional responsibilities and personal needs by implementing flexible schedules, paid leave, and access to counseling services.
  • Supportive Leadership: Ensuring that administrators are trained to recognize the signs of burnout and support their teams through regular check-ins, peer support networks, and ongoing professional development opportunities.

Ultimately, the new Head Start Performance Standards reflect a more holistic, child-centered approach to early education while recognizing the need to nurture the well-being of the adults who are instrumental in children’s learning and development. By prioritizing self-care, Head Start programs can create an environment where both children and staff thrive.

Essential Elements offers trainings in Self-Care and Staff Well-Being. We would love the opportunity to help you support your staff. Please contact Susan at (704)277-7473 (susanwitek@hsessentials.com or Kristine at (704)451-3255 (kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.)

Promoting Self-Care For Your Staff

Now more than ever, as Head Start professionals, we are at high risk for experiencing stress, compassion fatigue, and burnout. Exposure to children and families experiencing trauma, ensuring every child’s (or family’s) basic needs are met, rising administrative demands, limited time, and competing priorities are daily realities. Still, as professionals, we show up, deliver high-quality services, day after day. But at what cost?

While we support families’ goals for better health, well-being, and education, we often neglect our plans in these areas, sending the “do as I say, not as I do” message despite our best intentions.

We have developed customized trainings, based on your program’s staff needs, that take a deep-dive into identifying areas for your professional and personal growth using sections of the Head Start Relationship-Based Competencies tool and research-based strategies to transform your health and well-being. These trainings will spark hope and give participants a real-life game-plan to be their best selves at work and at home. These training can be delivered on-site or virtually; whichever best meets the needs of your program.

As outlined in ACF-PI-HS-21-03 FY 2021 American Rescue Plan Funding Increase for Head Start Programs, ARP funds can be used for staff wellness and mental health support.

You can learn more about these and other support services online.

Please call us at (704) 277-7473 or email us at susanwitek@hsessentials.com to discuss how we can support you.

On The Road Again

We are so excited to be back on the road offering in-person training.  So many of our clients have expressed the desire for in-person training and we are happy to be able to provide it.  While live virtual trainings and webinars have filled a necessary void during the pandemic there are many advantages to in-person training.

  • Your trainer has the opportunity to read nonverbal cues. They can read the audience and adapt the training to best meet your program’s needs.
  • Trainings can be more interactive. Participants have a more active role.  They can practice the content that they are learning during the training.
  • Virtual trainings can be prone to distraction. The phone may ring; someone may stop by the office, causing the participant to lose focus.
  • Team building. In-person training allows your team to come together, building comradery. They can share experiences and learn from each other.
  • Trainings should have content that is customized to the specific needs of your program. Webinars are not customized, and the information can be outdated.

 

We recognize that many of our clients are not yet in the position to have in-person trainings or have found that they fill a need for their program, so we will continue offering our synchronous virtual trainings.

We are currently scheduling training for both in-service and pre-service as well as live CLASS™ Observations.  For information on our training topics please contact Susan Witek at (704)277-7473 or view our services.

New Year, New Training Opportunities with Essential Elements

The New Year is a great time to assess your program’s strengths and areas where there are opportunities for improvement. While it is a new calendar year, your Teaching staff, Policy Council, Governing Board, Family Service Workers, Management Staff and Support staff are halfway through the program year. This is the perfect time to take stock and “fine tune.”

If you have identified a need to strengthen family partnerships, assist teaching staff with challenging behaviors, create more effective transitions, increase Classroom Organization or Instructional Support scores, or strengthen your staff’s ability to interpret data to drive instruction, the second half of the program year is the perfect time for an in-service training. Implementing trainings to address identified areas for improvement as they are occurring is far more effective than waiting for the next year’s pre-service trainings.

Don’t wait, schedule your training while the year’s challenges are current and fresh in the minds of staff.

Our most requested in-service training topics amidst this year’s unique challenges are:

  • How to Have Hard Conversations (with families or staff).
  • Working with Challenging Families.
  • Change Your Questions, Change Your Life.
  • Self-Care and Team Building.
  • The “Well Oiled” Machine” (CLASS™-based Classroom Organization training).
  • Asking the Juicy Questions (CLASS™-based Instructional Support training).
  • Building Successful Relationships with Families-(navigating making connections during a pandemic).
  • Recognizing and Addressing Compassion Fatigue
  • CLASS™ The Heart of Teaching

You can learn more about our full list of training topics and services online.

How CLASSY Is Your Staff?

As you plan to reopen and welcome your children and staff back, it is a good time to assess how aware your staff is regarding CLASS™.  For those of you who will be welcoming many new staff members, it may be time to introduce them to the domains and dimensions.  If you have a tenured staff returning, it may be the perfect time to take a deeper dive into CLASS™.  All of the dimensions are braided together to support children’s learning and development and are equally important.  Recognizing the relationships among the dimensions and domains is important when working to increase scores.

Just as no two staff’s requirements are the same, no two CLASS™ trainings should be the same. Our highly interactive and practice-based trainings are custom designed to meet the specific needs of your teaching staff.  Your training can cover the basics of all of the domains or dimensions – or it can focus on specific domains or dimensions.  Perhaps you want to focus on implementing CLASS™ across the classroom day, or maybe you want to look at what CLASS™ looks like in small groups or a whole group.  With our training you get to choose the lens through which you look at CLASS™.

We are excited to once again offer on-site CLASS™ based trainings and continue to offer virtual trainings. Our CLASS™ trainings show what high scoring (and low scoring) classrooms look like.  Hands-on activities may include small-group activities; pair and share; role plays; interactive activities.  All trainings include plenty of opportunity for question and answers.

For more information on our CLASS™ based trainings, or any of our other trainings and services, contact Susan Witek at (704)277-7473 or email susanwitek@hsessentials.com.

Jump Start Your In-Service Training With A Virtual Boost

training topicsFor most of our clients, providing services to our Head Start and Early Head Start children and families has taken on a very different look than in the past. Some programs are operating on a solely virtual basis, others have reduced size classrooms while other have re-opened with a hybrid schedule. Many programs have re-opened only to have to shut down again due to COVID 19. All of our interactions with children and families have been impacted.

There are measurable benefits of in-service training and consistent professional development opportunities throughout the year. As new challenges arise during the year and new areas for growth are identified, virtual training sessions can help staff to tackle these challenges and address potential growth areas as they are occurring, instead of waiting for the pre-service season. People take in new information a little at a time.  While pre-service is a good time to provide staff with training, it is just a few days of the year. Consider instead of presenting a lot of information at once, creating multiple training opportunities for staff.  Creating a multi-layered plan to provide training to staff throughout the year, will lay a foundation of learning that can be built upon, while addressing current struggles as they are happening.

Our trainings are customized to your program’s current needs and available in a virtual format. We have added some training topics to address the needs of our clients and the struggles resulting from COVID 19 restrictions. Below are some of our most requested topics from clients after reopening:

  • Facilitating Small Group Instruction – With social distancing requirements, much of classroom time is spent in small groups. This training focuses on the shift from whole group instruction to small groups and how to maximize teacher/child interactions while facilitating learning.
  • Helping Children Feel Safe in Today’s Society: Covid 19 and Racism – This training generates in-depth discussion while taking an honest look at systemic racism and its impact on children and families.
  • Increasing Instructional Support Scores Within a More Restrictive Environment – This training focuses on strategies to capitalize on opportunities that are available throughout the day, (even amid restrictions), to promote children’s higher-order thinking skills and increase learning, with facilitation of conversation and exploration of ideas, (asking those juicy questions!)
  • Change Your Questions Change Your Life – Examine your work relationships and communications with a new perspective. Do you approach interactions from a Learner or a Judger approach? Dig deeper to understand motivations, plan for difficult discussions, and create agendas based on goals that will open up communication, build collaboration and increase problem-solving.  (Certified Trainer).

 

See the training area of our website for more information on topics.

 

Is There Value in Conducting Virtual CLASS Observations?

CLASS observationsThe answer is yes! While most of us would prefer live observations, for many of our clients, this is not possible due to COVID 19 restrictions. Forgoing CLASS observations until such time that restrictions are lifted can have a cumulative negative impact on CLASS scores. Without the data that comes from comprehensive CLASS observations, data driven decision making is impacted. Teaching staff can drift from best teaching practices and the goals set forth from previous observations and coaching. Virtual CLASS observations will not only guard against drift; our clients have found the following additional benefits to virtual observations while operating during COVID 19:

  • Having access to uploaded video-taped teaching cycles adds an additional tool for Education Managers and Coaches to use when working with teaching staff on professional development.
  • More time to work with teaching staff using the classroom summaries, recommendations for improvement and video segments we provide, due to reduced class sizes and hours of operation.
  • The ability to target an underscoring content area of the day and obtain objective feedback from outside observers without bias. Meals are a prime example of a challenge directly related to new guidelines. For most, family style meals have been eliminated and teaching staff are struggling with how to implement meaningful teacher/child interactions as they pertain to CLASS during this time. We can provide feedback and recommendations on how to increase scores in this area within current restrictions.

 

Whether you are looking for program-wide observations inclusive of all activities during the day or want to focus observations and feedback on times and activities that are proving the most challenging for teachers, by nature of the virtual format, we can customize your observations to fit your program needs.

We are currently conducting comprehensive CLASS observations, remotely.  Programs can videotape 20-minute cycles of their classrooms and upload the videos to a secure drive, specific to your program.  Our Certified CLASS observers with extensive live observation experience and consistent reliability using the CLASS tool, will then observe and score your videos.  We will provide you with:

  • A debrief with the Head Start Director (and your Management team if you wish) to discuss the results of the observations.
  • We will provide you with CLASS scores for each classroom observed, a written summary of individual classrooms, highlighting strengths and recommendations for improvements that can be used by your staff for professional development, and a list of program-wide issues that are causing lower CLASS scores, as well as recommendations to address and correct those issues.

We are also available to conduct live, in-person observations for those programs that are able to invite observers into their classrooms.

To learn more or schedule your CLASS observation, contact Kristine Cortina at (704) 451-3255 or kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.  You can learn more about our other services at www.HSEssentials.com.