Hello and welcome to the Early Years Blog, As the winter holidays approach schools will be thinking about planning for the New Year. The Early Years Foundation Stage is non-prescriptive in terms of how this planning is carried out, so settings are free to develop their own methods. However, planning must be effective and completed […]
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Last month, we looked at how practitioners can prepare children for the big transition from the early years setting to the school classroom. With that accomplished, settings will now be focussing on how to help their new cohort of children settle into their own busy early years environments. Preparing to receive a new child […]
Read moreCurrently, many early years settings will be helping their oldest children prepare for their upcoming transition to school. While focussed on those all-important preparation activities – such as visits to the new setting, reading books about starting school and playing making friends games – it’s easy to forget about providing equally important opportunities for children […]
Read moreHi and welcome to the new home of the early years blog. Over the coming months, I’ll be keeping you up-to-date with early years developments, as well as providing plenty of activity ideas and guidance on meeting the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. I’ll also be adding to our range of free factsheets […]
Read moreHi and welcome to the child care blog There are some interesting developments taking place in the early years sector at the moment, and as always, it’s important for all practitioners to stay up to date. Firstly, the government is currently taking action to remove the current legislative requirement for schools to register their early […]
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Welcome to the child care blog, With out-of-school clubs open once again, many practitioners will be looking for fresh ideas to suit a mixed age group. And with fun on everyone’s agenda, we have some great games for you to try! TAILS Each player has a “tail” – a piece of wide ribbon or a […]
Read moreThe 0-25 SEND Code of Practice comes into force the autumn (SEND stands for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities), in response to reforms in the Children and Families Act 2014. The 0-25 SEND Code of Practice replaces the previous SEN Code of Practice, as it was felt that the old system was not working for […]
Read moreResearchers found that attending any pre-school, compared to none, predicted better results at GCSE overall, and higher grades in GCSE maths and English, as well as the likelihood of achieving five or more GCSEs at grade A* to C. The benefit of attending pre-school equate to 41 more points at GCSE, the equivalent to gaining […]
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When the Prime Minister reshuffled the ministerial pack back in July, the sector was initially left wondering about the scope of the childcare role. While Sam Gyimah, the Conservative MP for East Surrey, claimed the childcare job on Twitter, further clarification of his responsibilities from the Department for Education (DfE) was not immediately forthcoming. So […]
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The independent childminder agency evaluation of the trials was commissioned by the DfE and carried out by Ipsos MORO and Ecorys. The report sets out the findings of the childminder agency trials, and aims to help organisations who wish to set up a childminder agency. The research was carried out with the 20 pilot agencies […]
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