An MTPT Project Coffee Morning ‘How To’

by | Apr 7, 2017 | Parental Leave CPD

Emma Sheppard (@Comment_Ed) writes about yesterday’s first MTPT Project regional coffee morning and offers handy tips to organising a meet up in your region. The importance of community, support and a feeling of connectivity whilst on parental leave has been feedback that I have heard again and again since the inception of The MTPT Project and it has been so rewarding to hear how individuals have felt empowered to make decisions that are right for them and their families simply by being connected to the project and its community members through social media.  It is always a delight to hear about coaching relationships, sponsorship, recommendations, tips and support systems that have sprung up because of a Tweet from the @maternityCPD account, or because of an encounter between babies, bumps and an appropriately timed MTPT Project business card. Since September 2016, we have been experimenting with EdTech as a way of increasing this sense of connectivity, as the majority of our community were spread out across the country and have childcare commitments to contend with, which sometimes act as a barrier to physical meet ups.  Over the last few months, however, as word of The MTPT Project has spread, our community has grown.  We now have little pockets of MaternityTeachers, PaternityTeachers and our advocates across the country and meeting up in person at an accessible location is now a far more feasible possibility. Although I’m now back at work, I was curious to know how realistic an informal coffee morning would be to organise for a parent on leave – tired, in need of flexibility, short of cash, with buggies, bottles and a potentially grizzly baby – but keen to connect with like-minded individuals to discuss parenthood and CPD.

There are two things to say to preface this ‘how to’ guide: the first is that social events in general scare me (I like a good book and ‘me’ time), and the second is that I am highly neurotic and constantly seeking challenges over which I can obsess and worry about.  I’m therefore constantly organising birthday parties to which I am convinced that no-one will come, baby showers I don’tt have enough chairs for, and national projects that aim to connect complete strangers.  Otherwise, upon what would I expend all my anxious energy?

This MTPT Coffee Morning, however, let me down in its simplicity to organise.  The hardest bit about it was figuring out which lift lead to the floor with the best sofas, so if you’re interested in organising an MTPT Project coffee morning in your region, this ‘how to’ should hopefully show you how easy it is:

  1. Drop me an email to let me know that you are intending to organise the meet up.
  2. Choose a location that you know is baby-friendly and has coffee.
  3. Create an Eventbrite account and an invitation for your coffee morning (remarkably easy, and I will send you The MTPT Project image).
  4. Emphasise our ‘no guilt, no pressure’ policy and ensure you pick a venue that you will be happy to spend an hour or so in with your baby if people have to cancel at the last minute (we understand that this happens with small babies and broken nights!)
  5. Let us know so that we can Tweet about the event from @maternityCPD.  Also Tweet about it from your Twitter if you use it, or on Facebook or any other social media platform.
  6. Make contact with the attendees the day or so before if you like – Eventbrite actually send out a reminder email for you, but I had to have that lift/ floor conversation.
  7. Raid the fridge for snack offerings (I managed to offload a whole load of Mr. Kipling cakes that otherwise wouldn’t have gotten eaten and some chocolate eggs which otherwise would have done…!)
  8. Bring a book, baby, toys, something to keep you occupied in case of delays or cancellations.
  9. Chat about CPD, babies, hijack someone else’s child for a bit of variety in your cuddle routine, change some nappies, take some photos, Tweet about it.
  10. Go home and sleep, blog about it, design a resource – whatever!
  11. Organise the next meet up if you had fun!
It was really lovely to meet up with four other members of our community and be reminded that there is a really healthy balance between baby-talk and teacher-talk.  Our chats were wide-ranging: from childcare costs to parent representatives as part of schools HR structures; from weaning to approaches to whole school CPD, and of course, we talked about sleep – sleep is a great topic to obsess over. An MTPT Project Coffee Morning therefore served as a sort of Teachers NCT group, providing the like-minded community that many parents need (for their own sanity) whilst on leave, as well as building new professional networks that understand each others’ new needs as professionals with children.  It was really empowering to be able to offer tips and reassurance to teachers about to return to work; to inspire others to new levels of engagement with their parental leave CPD, and to be challenged by colleagues to continue to seek a balance between my teacher self, parent self and simply ‘self’ that was right for me and my family.

I’m not free again during the day until the May half term, so will save my involvement in the next Coffee Morning until then, but if you’re currently on leave and fancy organising a meet up in your area – go for it!