Thanks to everyone who came to the MAD Academy Conference on Sunday. It was another packed day and we hope you got lots out of it.

 

• View the Business Presentation and Class Training Conference 2014 Presentation.pptx
• View the Conference 2014 top tips handouts.docx

We will be uploading the videos from the day shortly.

We kicked off the day with a business review from Sedge counting down our top 10 highlights of 2014. Then Helen introduced us to the theory of the aggregation of marginal gains. Although it had a big title, it was actually about how small changes, repeated again and again over time, can accumulate to give us big rewards. It was a theory that the British Cycling Team had used to such great affect over the past decade and is now being applied in many different fields.

 

Helen and Rebecca then took us through some areas of our own businesses where the theory could be applied in order to identify small changes that could lead to improvements. Then you all took part in a brainstorming session to identify other possible improvements in the areas of customer experience, time and resource management, and nursery retention. We compiled a top 10 list of ideas in each of these 6 areas, which you can download here; Conference 2014 top tips handouts.docx

 

We then enjoyed hearing from an eternal motivational speaker, Lis Allen, who inspired us with her story climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

In the afternoon Trish took us through 3 new units:

• To learn about water – Discovering the World
• To respond to facial communication – Listening and Communication

To identify basic positions – Numeracy

We were delighted to present our annual awards. Sophie Hill was recognised for the second time as Franchisee of the Year whilst Lucy Norfolk was awarded the title of Newcomer of the Year. We were also able to celebrate some anniversaries – Maggie and Sophie had reached their 6 year milestones and Kate had reached her third. Finally Trish was given an award for completing 10 years with MAD Academy.

We then wrapped up with a little birthday celebration – MAD Academy is 10 years old! We will be announcing our birthday to the general public in the new year and we will be running a video competition involving our parents and children – more details to come in the following months. We will all be celebrating MAD Academy’s official birthday next May in the week before half term and hope you will all join in the celebrations with parties of your own.