Norland Consultancy

Norland College is delighted to be working with Mothercare, Britain's number one specialist retailer for parents-to-be and parents of pre-school children.

The lecturers at Norland College have been working with the buyers and designers to support and increase Mothercare's knowledge of child development and specific aspects of childcare. This puts Mothercare in the best position to develop innovative products to meet the needs of children and their parents.

Mothercare is known for the quality of its products and the care it takes with its customers - an ethos which matches the college's.The initiative was set up by Liz Day, Mothercare's Health and Parenting Advisor, to support Mothercare's commitment to develop the highest quality products for parents and children. Liz Day commented,

"Norland College has worked with us to increase our technologists', designers' and buyers' understanding of child development and how it relates to every day usage of baby products e.g. toys, nursery items, pushchairs and clothing.

We can then use this knowledge to increase our expertise by producing excellent, yet functional and suitable products for parents, babies and children. This relationship has proved very helpful and educational to my colleagues."

Shakespeare's Globe

Norland College has been working with Globe Education, Shakespeare's Globe, London, collaborating to develop their work with foundation stage children from Nurseries in the borough of Southwark. The Globe Education Practitioners have been using elements from the Tempest as a Framework for encouraging children to engage with the feelings, choices and worlds of Shakespeare's characters through active games, imaginative role-play and group discussion. Practical activities focus on key social skills such as taking into account the feelings of others and sharing as well as promoting key communication and numeracy skills.

Johanna Elworthy, Southwark Community Projects Manger comments, ‘Globe Education works with nursery teachers and children to create magical journeys. Using role-play, interactive storytelling, games and play, the 6 week in-school module encourages creative and emotional engagement with the characters, physical surroundings and dilemmas that they face and addresses important skills like sharing respecting each other's ideas and feelings and speaking and listening'.