Ms Deirdre Grogan

Personal statement

As a principal knowledge exchange fellow I lead the development of play within a range of early years settings from ages 3-8, across a variety of Local Authorities delivering Continual Professional Development to teachers and educators to enable them to be confident in delivering child led learning.  I have been very successful in securing a range of funding to improve impact of the following : 

• Creating effective learning environments for young children
• Engagement and Interaction
• Documenting young children's learning
• Literacy and the young child
• Pushing Play into P2
• Reflections and Developments 

My focus in Knowledge Exchange has its foundations in strong, active and innovative networks that operate in local, regional and national contexts. This character is a strength and essential to the pedagogic, collaborative and research aims that underpin it.  Within these contexts, I have a strong and recognised track record specifically in the field of early years education. This has resulted in successfully securing a range of contracts, including in this academic year, which are clearly set to development further across Local Authorities in Scotland. My reputation is as an academic who develops new knowledge exchange programmes driven by robust research methodologies and innovative techniques. Over the last 3 years (2016-2019) I have worked closely with a research assistant to ensure that key findings are embedded in my training. 

I have tracked different methods of documenting young children's learning within the nursery sector and early primary to establish the effect on children's thinking. I work with educators to continually develop new creative ways of documenting learning - successful examples include learning walls, documentation stories, profiles.

I have been commissioned by various Local Authorities to deliver key note presentations focussing on my research into play based learning.  

My training and research combines to impact early years education in Scotland.