Dr Alison Moore was appointed to the role of Early Years Childhood Studies (EYCS) Professional Practice Placement Manager in August 2019. Prior to taking up the role she was leading a group of Sure Start Children’s Centres in Birmingham, UK, managing multidisciplinary teams and delivering support to children under 5 and their families, including early years care and education, family support and health services. In 2006, Alison was one of the first cohorts of students in the UK to undertake the National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL) a bespoke qualification for leaders of Children’s Centres. Her research considered the Leadership Journey and Leading a Community of Practice through an Extended Schools Cluster Model. Alison’s subsequent M.A. in Early Childhood (2009) enabled her to conduct research on the quality of the support services for children and families accessing the services. In 2011 and 2014 the Children’s Centre were acknowledged for their quality support services and awarded Outstanding by Ofsted.

Alison’s roots lie within early years and she has over 40 years’ experience in the sector and is an advocate for Children’s Rights. Alison has recently been awarded her Doctorate by Birmingham City University as part of a combined programme at the Centre for Research in Early Childhood (CREC). Her thesis explored Parents’ and Practitioners’ Perspectives on How an Open-Listening Climate in Early Years Settings can Facilitate Child Voice.

Alison is currently leading on a small-scale project with the EYCS team, funded by The National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching & Learning. The project is exploring the fusion of theory and practice and the team are conducting a series of four Community of Practice (CoP) sessions (2021 – 2022) with a focus on Student Wellbeing and Student Success, reflecting on the importance of developing relationships between the college, the students and their professional practice placement mentors. It is an ambition that the CoP will be sustained to offer support and a space for sharing good practice, both within Ireland and further afield that leads onto further research in this area of interest.

Alison is one of the Lead Investigators on ‘Nurture through nature: fostering early childhood students’ understanding of outdoor learning spaces’ which is funded by the Froebel Trust, UK. Phase one, commencing in February 2022, will be conducted with 1st Year EYCS Students and will take place in the outdoor space speicifically designed for the EYCS degree programme. Phase two of the research project, due to commence in January 2023 will explore the students’ reflections on the use of outdoor learning spaces while on their first professional practice placement. This phase will enable the students to fuse theory and practice using a Froebelian lens to further develop their understanding of outdoor learning spaces.