School Readiness Report - June 2023
We would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who participated in our school readiness survey, we could not have written and published our first ever official report from Growing Together Developing Early Years…
We would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who participated in our school readiness survey, we could not have written and published our first ever official report from Growing Together Developing Early Years. As a company we feel that it is important that we give back to the early year’s community, but also that we ground what we do in research, developmental theory and lessons from high-quality practice.
Our school readiness report had 3 aims:
· What are early years practitioner’s perspectives of what school readiness is?
· How many children in early years settings are perceived to be school ready?
· What challenges do children face in the area of school readiness?
Over the coming days and weeks, we will be sharing snippets of our findings from the school readiness report via blog posts and our social media channels. Also, raising interesting comments and thoughts about where to go next with the recommendations and what does the early years sector need. You can access and download the full report for free.
Abstract
This is a piece of explorative research of early years practitioner’s perspectives on school readiness with England. The research found that nearly half of all practitioners felt that 50-74% of their cohort starting school in 2023 are ready to start school. Practitioners discuss that children’s school readiness is impacted by a factor of developmental issues such as delayed speech and language, increase in screen time and the covid-19 pandemic. There are increasing concerns that children’s communication and language development and personal, social, and emotional skills are below the expected level to be school ready; and this has had a detrimental effect on the children who are starting reception class in September 2023.
National Insect Week 2023
National Insect Week 2023 is a fantastic week to celebrate in early years settings. Children are often curious, mystified and very interested in our creepy crawlies that we can find outside in our outdoor provisions. There are many ways that we can support and build upon children’s interests in everything insect related.
19th June - 26th June 2023
National Insect Week 2023 is a fantastic week to celebrate in early years settings. Children are often curious, mystified and very interested in our creepy crawlies that we can find outside in our outdoor provisions. There are many ways that we can support and build upon children’s interests in everything insect related. This blog posts shares lots of ideas and inspiration for anyone who is participating in National Insect Week 2023 or just have insect loving children!
Bug Box Carrier
The Carrier Contains
bug books
bug pots
identification cards
clipboards
notepads
pens
pencils
magnifying glasses
rulers
mini microscope
multilink for non-standard unit measuring
paintbrushes (to be gentle when moving insects)
This is a great resource to create for children on the go, to take wherever they find their creepy crawlies. It also keeps everything together and in the same place so you can easily find things in the moment to follow on children’s interests.
Nursery Rhymes and Songs
Rhymes and songs are fantastic for children’s learning and development and there are lots of insect themed songs out there. Here are one of my favourite nursery rhymes for an insect topic. It is a fantastic song that can incorporate finger play for young children, supporting their physical development, as well as their proprioception and vestibular sense.
Here is the beehive.
But where are all the bees?
Hiding away where nobody sees.
Here they come flying out of their hive.
One, two, three, four, five!
Here is the beehive.
But where are all the bees?
Hiding away where nobody sees.
Here they come flying out of their hive.
One, two, three, four, five!
Buzz up high. Buzz down low.
Buzzing fast. Buzzing slow.
Buzz to the left. Buzz to the right.
Buzz all day but sleep at night.
Here is the beehive.
But where are all the bees?
Hiding away where nobody sees.
Here they come flying out of their hive.
One, two, three, four, five!
Insect and Bug Books
Sharing books with children has a variety of benefits from supporting their communication and language development, extending their vocabulary. Developing attachment and relationships as you share books together. To developing early literacy skills and a love for reading. They can also be a great source of information gathering for young children.
These are five of my favourite bug related books to share with children under five years old.
Insect Tuff Trays
(Photo credits: Images 1-3 from Growing Together Developing Early Years, Images 4 and 5 Happy Feet Nursery Watton, Image 6 My Environment Family Day Care on Facebook 30.09.2021, Image 7 Bear Hugs Nursery, Image 8 Active Learning Childcare).
Tuff trays like the images above can support children’s learning through tactile experiences, promoting sensory placed learning. They can also help to develop their communication and language skills and imaginations as they play and explore in the different trays.
Feed Slugs and Snails
Pop out some cucumber or lettuce out and sit back and observe how snails and slugs eat. You can look closely using a magnifying glass and have bug books close to hand for information. A top tip for when moving bugs/insects is to move them gently using a paintbrush to avoid squishing or hurting them,
Science Experiment - Hovering Butterflies
What do you need:
tissue paper,
scissors,
cotton,
tape,
stapler or paperclips,
magnetic wand.
Instructions:
Cut out small butterflies using tissue paper.
Staple or paperclip one end of the butterfly to the piece of cotton and stick the second end using tape to the table.
Use a magnetic wand above the butterflies. You should be able to get the butterfly to hover below in the magnetic field.
Insects and Clay
Push toy insects into clay, so that you get a nice print of the different insects. You can then leave them to dry before painting and decorating how you wish.
Movement Game
Support children’s physical development and listening attention and understanding through a simple adult-led instruction based game. Ask the children to move like different insects for example, scuttle like a beetle, flap like a butterfly, march like ants and so on. You can also differentiate the game up encourage children to move like an insect in response to different music or instruments. Thinking about what insect does it sound like?
School Readiness Series: How Can We Support Children to be School Ready?
So, the big question is what does this look like in reality? What is the support we give our children, so that we help them to be ready with the very best start through our early year’s provisions. We are going to break down the understanding of school readiness into areas, allowing us to discuss practical examples for each one.
Our last blog that you can find here, discussed what is school readiness regarding supporting our children to be ready to start reception class. This blog is going to consider how early years practitioners, from childminders to nurseries or preschools can support children within their care to become school ready. When we are thinking about school readiness, we want children to be confident, resilient, independent and to be managing their own self-care when they start school and children who have a good level of development in the prime areas of development.
So, the big question is what does this look like in reality? What is the support we give our children, so that we help them to be ready with the very best start through our early year’s provisions. We are going to break down the understanding of school readiness into areas, allowing us to discuss practical examples for each one.
Supporting Self-Care
When we think about self-care in the early years we are thinking about those physical skills or actions children develop to look after their bodies. For example, being able to dress themselves, feed themselves or brush their teeth. These everyday life activities that crucial to a healthy body and mind. Self-care is also about learning to look after our emotional well-being to be kind to ourselves and learn to regulate or behaviour and respond to our emotions and what we might do (we discuss supporting emotional well-being later in the blog when we look at supporting PSED).
Ideas to support children with their physical skills to support their self-care:
1. Busy fastening boards – that include a range of different cloth fastenings for children to practise.
2. Practise using knife and forks in playdough.
3. Self-service snack and encouraging children to pour their own drinks.
4. Sticker shoe trick to help children put their own shoes on. Cut a sticker in half and stick half inside each shoe, the children have to match it up to put their shoes in the right feet.
5. Cooking activities with children that encourage them to use tools and knifes.
6. Finger gym and fine motor activities, developing the muscles and coordination in those hands.
7. Water play to develop children’s all important hand eye coordination.
8. School uniform dress up – (great for also supporting children’s emotional well-being, as well as giving them the opportunity to practise)
Ideas for supporting children to learn about their hygiene needs:
1. Nose wiping stations.
2. Visuals in bathrooms showing children when they might need to wash their hands and how to wash hands.
3. A curriculum that promotes oral health (see our previous blog here).
4. Role-play, e.g. washing, dressing and looking after the baby dolls.
Supporting Physical Development
When children start school we often have a societal view of wanting them to be able to hold a pencil correctly to form letters. But what we want for our children goes far beyond this, because actually there is so many skills that children need before they are ready to write. For example, we need to have developed our gross motor skills, our shoulder pivots, elbow pivots and wrists pivots. Before we then go on to strengthen the muscles in our hands and fine motor skills. We need to have developed our core-body strength and stability so that we can sit and write. We need to have hand-eye coordination, and developed our vestibular and proprioception sense.
Therefore before we challenge children to form letters and hold a pencil we need to be working on those skills through encourage active play, climbing running, dancing, parachute games. We need to give children the opportunity to explore large scale mark-making such as mop painting, painting with rollers using those gross motor skills. As well as mark-making at different angles in order to develop elbow pivots. We need to roll down hills, squat and listen as we look at bugs and have endless opportunities to be physical within our enabling environments.
Building Children’s Confidence, Resilience and Independence
Starting school is a big transition for most children and they are likely to be feeling a variety of emotions, big and small, good and bad. All emotions are okay and what we want is for our children to be resilient and be able to bounce back from different and difficult situations and show autonomy over their learning. For example, it is okay if I have to wait for my turn on the red bike; because I can apply the skills I have learnt in preschool, such as I can ask someone when they finish to let me know. Or we could use a timer to help us take turns. Also, when children are independent in their learning we see higher levels of motivation and learning, as they take ownership over what they are doing.
So we want to work on building children’s confidence, so that they are willing to have a go, see what happens and develop their own curiosity. This can be fostered through a curriculum and pedagogical approach that is open-ended, child-initiated and that promotes curiosity and enquiry based learning. For example, Harry found a ladybird in the garden and was talking to his friends about it. He looked closely at the dots and wings. This led onto a discussion about where we should put the ladybird and the children use non-fiction texts alongside a member of staff to find out about where ladybirds live and to make a home for it. The children also went on to do more bug hunts and insect related activities.
Personal Social and Emotional Development
By the time children start school we want them to be able to begin to take turns with others. Remember this is a hard skill and sometimes, especially if it is something very important to us, we still may need a little bit of support with sharing. But we want to to be able to share those resources, take turns in games and also in conversations, understanding that is a two way flow of information. There are many games or activities out there that we can do to support children with turn-taking throughout our continuous provision and adult-led activities:
Orchard toys games - orchard toys have a variety of games designed for this age range that are great for promoting simple turn taking.
Taking it in turns to be helpers - for example, snack helpers.
Using timers with popular toys as a resource to help children take turns.
Games such as sound lotto.
Puzzles that children have to work collaboratively together to achieve.
We also want children to be able to express their emotions and share how they are feeling with others, and to be able to self-regulate their behaviour. For example, I know that I am feeling cross, I cannot control this feeling, but I can take a break from my friend or do something physical to help me manage this feeling. This is also, going back to self-care helping children to learn to respond to their emotional needs and to take care of themselves.
Communication and Language Development
When children start school we want them to have the basic communication and language skills to be able to communicate effectively with adults and peers. To be able to listen and follow simple 2 part instructions, to enjoy listening to books and rhymes and join in retelling stories and singing nursery rhymes. We want them to be able to listen and focus on a conversation, staying on topic and following it and to be confident to communicate their wants and interests to others.
There are many ways that we can support children’s communication and language skills, through sharing a range of books or singing nursery rhymes. To making sure that we have language rich environment and communication friendly spaces. For children we have concerns about we can use intervention tools such as WellComm to support their communication and language development. High quality interactions between staff and children are also crucial in supporting early communication and language development. As well as offering a variety of phase one phonics activities that is going to help children to begin to listen, tune in and talk about different sounds that they hear.
School Readiness Series: What is School Readiness?
With last week being the day that expectant parents across the UK find out what primary school their children had been accepted into the term ‘school readiness’ has come back into focus. ..
With last week being the day that expectant parents across the UK find out what primary school their children had been accepted into the term ‘school readiness’ has come back into focus. As schools, nurseries, childminders, preschools, and families get ready for those all-important transitions into reception in September 2023. And teachers in primary schools and families across the UK are helping children to prepare and become ready for their transition into Key Stage One.
School readiness has been a term that has been widely used in the past several years, particularly alongside the focus of concerns that more and more children across the UK are not ready to start school. For example, Watkins (2018) from Save the Children discussed how the UK government claims that 1 in 4 children are not meeting the expected level of development before starting school and how we are already letting them down. This has shockingly increased in the covid-19 pandemic where reception class teachers reported in a government survey that more then half their children were not ready to start reception and 88% of teachers and teaching assistants were having to spend more of their time with children who were not reaching their developmental milestones (Lawler 2022).
So, this leaves us with the question of what does school readiness actually look like? PHE (2015, p.4) defines “School readiness is a measure of how prepared a child is to succeed in school cognitively, socially and emotionally.” Although, it is worth noting that there is no national definition of school readiness and is somewhat a debate of what age group school readiness applies to; is these children starting school in reception or is it getting them ready to begin their journey into the national curriculum and key stage one? (Ofsted 2014). This is before the then criteria differ from setting to setting as to our own pedagogical beliefs, curriculum and what we view as being school ready.
For the sake of this blog series, we are considering what school readiness looks like for those children that are going into reception class in September. Below is an image of page 6 from the document Improving School Readiness Creating a Better Start for London by Public Health England (PHE) (2015). Highlighting their views of what school readiness at the age of 4 looks like and the skills, development, and experiences we are expecting our 4-year-olds to have.
This document is also a very useful document for highlighting the why (intent) behind focusing on school readiness in the UK and the benefits of investing in school readiness to support children’s development, learning and the impact on future outcomes.
Another, popular poster that is commonly used with early years settings is The Road to School poster by Nursery Resources. This poster shares similar skills and attributes that as an early year’s community we are looking for children to be able to do to be school ready. As well as the steps to starting school from PACEY.
Find a downloadable version of this here from PACEY.
To me as an early year’s consultant being school ready is having a good level of development in the prime areas, communication and language, physical development, and personal, social and emotional development. As well as having begun to develop a lifelong love for learning, based in being curious and inquisitive. It is being able to talk about your own emotions and coregulating alongside experienced teachers. It is being independent for example, dressing yourself, feeding yourself, being able to make choices, having confidence to talk to others that are in your class. It is having the basic communication and language needs to listen and pay attention, to communicate their needs and to share ideas and make friends. It is also about have good gross motor and fine motor skills ready for learning. Everything else will come at the time that is right for the children. Because these3 areas of learning are going to underpin everything, so being school ready is making sure children are strong and confident in these areas of learning!
References:
Lawler (2022) Half of all children are not ready for school [accessed online 28.04.2023]
PACEY (year unknow) Steps to Starting School, [accessed online 28.04.2023]
https://www.pacey.org.uk/Pacey/media/Website-files/PACEY%20general/Steps-to-starting-school.pdf
Public Health England (2015) Improving School Readiness Creating a Better Start for London [accessed online 28.04.2023] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/459828/School_readiness_10_Sep_15.pdf
Watkins (2018) Mind the Gap Getting Our Children Ready for School [accessed online 28.04.2023]
British Science Week 2023
Connections
10th to 19th March 2023
Blog 4 - Where to start with developing a STEM curriculum in the early years?
In the early years at the moment there is an exciting buzz (although sometimes daunting) about what is your curriculum and developing your own curriculum. This has been the increasing emphasis since the introduction of the revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) in 2021. Compiled with the ever demanding pressure of Ofsted who want to see early yeas settings delivering an ambitious curriculum, which is regularly referred to in the Early Years Inspection Framework 2021.
After what feels like many years of a potentially interpreted system of you must do x-y-z as you curriculum, the power has been returned now to early years practitioners. Highlighting in particular that the focus is not solely on the EYFS development matters statements, or indeed that learning happens only with the designated areas of learning in the EYFS. Rather we know see the EYFS educational programs (areas of learning) as the bare bones and our job is to put the meat on the bones. But also remembering that settings curriculum’s that are ambitious are unique, tailored to the individual children’s interests, motivations and learning.
This is a fantastic opportunity to reflect on your settings curriculum and incorporate or focus on STEM education as part of your unique and ambitious curriculum that you offer your children. That builds upon the seven areas of development and the characteristics of effective learning and teaching. We appreciate that this power might feel daunting and you may be unsure of where to start, so we are sharing with you three tips to developing your STEM curriculum to get you started.
Tip One - Develop Curriculum Outcomes
My first recommendation is to think of curriculum outcomes in relation to STEM skills and knowledge, that you would like to see children develop by the time they leave your setting. When we think about what curriculum is in it’s simplest definition curriculum is what we want children to learn in the time that they are with us.
STEM skills are those foundational skills that children need to develop in order to be able to reach their full potential or engage in STEM education. Such as learning to problem-solve, test ideas, observe, talk and share their ideas with others, hypothesize, work in collaboration, resilience, to be able to think of ideas, be innovative, being curious, being methodical and so on.
STEM knowledge is specific information we want children to gain in relation to STEM. For example, this might be developing an understanding of growth, change and decay. Learning the life cycle of a butterfly. Or about capacity, gravity, magnitude, electricity and so on.
A STEM curriculum goal example
To be able to talk and share their observations with their peers and adults about what happens to plants over a period of time; demonstrating an understanding of plant life cycles, growth, decay and change.
Tip Two - Outline the Steps Children Take to Reach Curriculum Outcomes
When we think about children’s learning, it is often a journey where children go through different stages before they get to the end goal of our curriculum. So it is really helpful to think about what are those stages that children go through in order to meet that goal. Take some time as a team to discuss child development, your knowledge of your children and how you can break the learning down into smaller steps to get to the end goal.
Steps to consider when breaking down curriculum goals
Physical development.
Personal, social and emotional development.
Communication and language.
What prior knowledge do the need to reach the end goal?
Curriculum Goal Example: To be able to talk and share their observations with their peers and adults about what happens to plants over a period of time; demonstrating an understanding of plant life cycles, growth, decay and change.
Under twos - to develop their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination to enable them to help plant plants and water them. To use key words relating to life cycle e.g. small, big, grow, seed, plant.
Two to threes - to be able to look after their plants with support and help e.g. watering plants. To use simple sentences to relay their observations about plants and seeds. E.g. “It got bigger!” To develop their observational skills through a variety of sensory play and activities (to support their knowledge understanding and language development for talking about what they observe).
Three to Four Year olds -Talk about and retell the life cycle of a plant to peers/adults. To show care and concern for their plants and begin to understanding what they need. e.g. sunshine, water etc. To listen and respond appropriately to others as they share ideas.
*Please note that this is not inclusive of all the skills that children might need to learn the overall curriculum goal outlined and that this is based in a curriculum that already offers a firm foundation of learning opportunities across the 3 prime areas of development. These are communication and language development, personal, social and emotional development and physical development, that will underpin and lay the foundations for a well-rounded STEM curriculum.
Tip Three - Develop a Bank of Ideas
For each of your curriculum goals and steps that children will go through on their journey to reaching the mail goal , it can be really helpful to develop a bank of ideas. This is because especially when starting something new we might need to look for ideas and inspirations, it might not come naturally to us in the moment. Or if you are anything like I was we can easily full into the habit of doing the same thing, because it worked before and by having a bank of ideas it encourages us to try new ideas and offer more of a breadth of experiences.
Example bank of ideas to support curriculum goal
Vegetable patch,
Cress monsters,
Activities to develop observational skills, - e.g. gloop, dancing raisins experiment, colour mixing activities,
Life cycle books and activities,
Observational still life painting/drawing.
“The best learning comes through experience, play and hands on opportunities. If we want to learn about how a seed turns into a tomato, let’s explore the seeds, plant the seeds, nurture them and watch them grow. I strongly believe children are not passive in their learning, they are active involved and making meaningful connections through doing.”
Want to find out more or join our upcoming training, ‘Developing Your STEM Curriculum in the Early Years? We would love for you to join us and have more information below.
Guest blog - Five tips for marketing your nursery or pre-school
n this guest blog, Natasha Milsted, Chartered Marketer shares five tips for marketing your nursery or pre-school. Find out more today.
In this guest blog, I will be sharing my five tips for marketing your nursery and pre-school. I know from experience of supporting my sister over the years that often settings do not have a dedicated marketing resource and fall to nursery or pre-school managers to take this on alongside your other responsibilities. Therefore, my suggestions below are easy to implement ideas and tips that shouldn’t take too much of your time up, but have good results.
Tip 1 - Know your audience
Spend a little bit time thinking about who you are trying to reach with your marketing activity and what barriers and motivations they have when looking for a nursery. You can then tap into addressing any barriers in your key messages for campaigns. For example, if they are worried about funding, have content that talks about how the funding works and what support you can provide with getting it set up.
Some key things to know about your audience are:
What is your geographic target audience?
What age group children are you looking for? This can help you with running more targeted campaigns across Meta (Facebook products) or Google.
Are they likely to be funded places? Or non-funded
What time of year do parents look at nurseries or pre-schools? This will give you insight into when to up your marketing activity.
Tip 2 - Make the most of the meta-verse (beyond Facebook)
Paid adverts are a great way to extend your reach to new audiences. Since Facebook became Meta, they are really focusing on how advertising campaigns can be across multiple social platforms they own and this gives you a chance to go to where your audience is.
I quite often see people do boosted posts, but my top tip is to take the time and set it up in ad manager, as this gives you the opportunity to do different placements (e.g. also have it in Instagram stories or affiliate sites) and also more detailed targeting to ensure you are reaching the right people. Start small, test what works and then build it up over time.
Tip 3 - Balance your social media asks
I was always taught really early on in my career I was taught the 70/30 rule and I think it really still applies today. The rule is that 70% of your content should be focused on community building and 30% should be focused on your sales messages. This makes sure that you have balance in terms of the mixture of messages you have going out and makes it more interesting for your target audience.
Your audience will love anything that gives them an insight into what your nursery or pre-school is like and the experience their child would get.
Tip 4 - Strengthen your website
Your website is your shop window for prospective parents, so think about what would reassure them and make them feel better about sending their child to nursery. For example, could you have content about transitions, the approach you take in your nursery and testimonials. Testimonials are a great way to reinforce the quality of your service and mean more than anything you could say yourself about the quality.
Tip 5 - Google adwords - find the people that are already looking
Search adverts are a great way to reach people that are “in-market”. By this I mean people that are actively searching for nursery or pre-schools in your geographic area. Making them a great audience to go after. These are loads of guides available from google adwords to get you started and they will even give you recommendations on how to optimise your adverts once they are running.
Natasha Milsted, Chartered Marketer
Natasha Milsted is a Chartered Marketer with a first-class degree in marketing, a professional diploma in marketing and is currently completing my MBA with the Open University. She is an experienced marketing leader with over 15 years’ experience in delivering high performing marketing campaigns and strategies.
Buy a template marketing plan
Start planning for September by purchasing Growing Togethers template marketing plan and decide what your marketing focus will be for the next year.
Festival Celebrations Verse Tokenism
Addressing the elephant in the room about festivals and celebrations or are we just indulging in tokenism. This is something I wanted to address as I have seen so much flying around online recently, but have also been questioned by people as I have put up activity ideas for celebrating Chinese New Year or Shoves Tuesday.
So firstly, I guess I want to say we support a wide range of practitioners in all different walks of life, spaces on the journey of working in early years (which is a journey), who will all have different children, interests, cultures and experiences within their setting. The sharing of ideas does not go out with the expectation that every one will make pancakes or celebrate valentine’s day and so on; but rather as inspiration for those who do choose to celebrate.
I remember a very young me, who was eager to please and worked for a company where we had to devise a celebration festivals planner that we shared with head office and our seniors. I remember the eagerness of wanting to please everyone and starting out in my first managerial post and making sure that I ticked all the boxes and did everything possible to make sure I was being the best manager. With the fatigue and exhaustion as we seemed to move from one festival to another without even taking a breath, bonfire night, Diwali, Christmas, New Year, Chinese New Year, Valentines Day, Shoves Tuesday, Easter, Ramadan. The list went on. And I am afraid to say we probably did engage in tokenism around some of these celebrations we were focusing on.
Although, I always tried to talk about the meaning the reason behind the festival what do people believe and so on. But I guess this is where we say our professional life is a journey, because I look back at the young manager eager to please and it makes me cringe. I learnt very quickly as I progressed into my role as a manager that actually this just wasn’t working! I didn’t feel like we were being honest, true or reflective of our community our special cultures that we had within our setting.
So, what would I tell a young me, think about your children, move beyond the tokenism by reflecting on what you know about your community, staff, families and children you are working with in your setting. For example, my Brakey Woods parent group (currently running online), we meet once a week. We didn’t celebrate Chinese New Year, not because I don’t accept that festival or enjoy celebrating it; but because none of my families or children had mentioned it. It is not a festival that means anything to them, it is not following the children’s interests and knowledge they have of the world around them.
However, we are celebrating Shoves Tuesday this week. Why? We are celebrating shoves Tuesday, because it is something our children and families celebrate. We are building on their interests and what they will be doing as a family on Tuesday. We understand also though that to some of our families Shoves Tuesday, is a Christian festival that celebrates to them the recognition of using up food before 40 nights and days in the desert. Although, to other members of our group pancake day is about just that a tradition of eating as many pancakes as you can while spending time with your family and that is okay to! We can also work with that, personally I have already planned out my pancakes for me it has to be the traditional lemon and sugar…
So, here’s a question, if we only focus on celebrations appropriate to our communities then are, we teaching children cultural intolerance, should we be teaching more festivals to increase children’s cultural capital?
I know what a question right, probably a little bit heavy for a relaxing Sunday, but here is my perspective. Cultural Capital is about expanding children’s experiences and knowledge and skills and expanding those experiences we offer and children’s horizons. However, we know the importance of starting where children are to begin with and building on the view of the world that they have. As this is how they make sense of the world. And if we look at our little communities, even from my time as a manager of a small setting in a fairly rural area, we had many diverse believes, festivals and experiences and places to start.
By just focusing on the ones that applied to us and our current families that we had within our community, we weren’t teaching intolerance because we live in a diverse culture. But instead, we were able to delve deeper into those children’s cultures and experiences and share them, learn about festivals that different people celebrated. It goes beyond a token appreciation at Diwali or Ramadan, but into a cultural believe and understanding of children’s experiences all year round. There certainly wasn’t less broadening of children’s cultural capital through starting with our own community and it didn’t mean we were teaching intolerance of other cultures. We fully embraced our culture and those around us that made our little community, meaning that this connection, understanding and appreciation; was developing a community of learners who as they progress through life are going to connect, appreciate and understand other cultures.
So here is my challenge to you, do you know what festivals and celebrations your families celebrate? Do you know the why? And how do you bring your individual children’s, families and staffs experiences and believes in to your setting, so it isn’t tokenism but rather embedded within your culture of your setting?
Written by Pauline Milsted (Director of Growing Together)
Sensory Play in Early Years Settings and Covid-19
Sensory play is an important part of children’s exploration and learning and this blog shares some ideas of supporting sensory play in the current pandemic.
Our latest blog is going to explore the importance of sensory play in the early years and the impact of Covid-19. With increasing concerns around the transmitting and sharing of Covid-19 many settings have abandoned sensory play, or limited it’s use within settings. However, we know that embracing all 8 senses within play is crucial to high quality childcare and learning opportunities for children.
Sensory play and experiences are beneficial to supporting how children make sense of the world around them, children learn through all of the senses and through the stimulation that they receive from their senses being aroused. When children’s senses are being stimulated, we know that this is promoting children’s brain development and schematic learning (the process of amending and adding new information to our understandings of the world around us). Additionally, research has suggested that sensory play and experiences helps to develop the neural pathways and connections within the brain. Also, sensory play supports children’s language and cognitive development, problem-solving, gross and fine motor skills and so much more.
Tips for providing sensory experiences and play in early years settings, while trying to minimise children and staff from being exposed to Covid-19:
· Keeping group sizes small and where possible operating in bubbles.
· Promoting plenty of handwashing in between activities.
· Rather then having large group tuff trays, have individual trays (for example, using tea trays – which can be picked up at places such as b and m or the range) with different experiences in them and individual resources. For example, children can still explore mark-making in coloured sand in their own tray, or scooping gloop (cornflour and water), or making individual trays of mood sand (baby oil and flour).
· Cleaning and disinfecting all resources between children.
· Ensure children don’t share aprons and they are disinfected or cleaned appropriately between use.
· Perhaps you could consider tying a photo or name on the smocks with string, so children can access their own apron throughout a session.
· Individual sensory bins for children, instead of sand trays or water trays. For example, each child has a plastic storage box with things in for them to use. You don’t need to bin the sand at the end of the day, you can leave it to isolate for so many hours, so if the virus is present it will die off.
· Have risk benefit assessments and risk assessments for environment to show how you have taking relevant measures to stop the spread of covid-19. This will also help for example, if you decide to not remove soft furnishings because it is calming to touch and an important sensory experience and part of your pedagogical approach and you can highlight how the benefits of providing this outweighs any potential risks or harm to children and adults.
· Individual named playdough tubs, with photos if needed.
· Making a work zone or area on the table for children to stick to either using masking tape or a tray.
· Dancing with ribbons and viols – ensure that children have their own space and their own ribbons or pieces of materials that can be washed in the washing machine afterwards.
· Dressing up – think about having individual bags of materials, scarfs, sheets, hats etc that can all be easily cleaned afterwards. Or using pillow cases that the children can mark-make on with washable markers and then pop in the washing machine.
· Using a bubble machine over individual bubble wands with children, unless you can ensure that they can have their own wand and not share them.
· Making their own instruments that they can have labelled so they are not passing instruments around.
Getting the Christmas Balance Right in Your Setting
In the early years Christmas is an exciting time, we get to see the world through the eyes of the children filled with wonder, curiosity and joy. As Christmas approaches it can become a very stressful time for practitioners working in early years. So many things to think about, are we doing a Christmas play, or a sing along, has every child made a Christmas card, a present for their parents and joined in the craft ‘production line’. Oh, and then there is end of term parent meetings, deep cleaning, Christmas fayres and copious amounts of chocolate consumption.
This year I am sure is even more challenging then ever as practitioners are working out how to do nativities, via zoom or Microsoft teams. We are all using different ways of communicating and engaging with parents, which has meant as a sector we have had to learn new skills, new ways of working. All whilst smiling and being there for our children, meeting their needs and being child-centred. Even though we have the financial worries of a sector that is burdened already with the issue of under funding and now we are wondering, how else can we get the money we would have had from donations at our Christmas fayre, nativity or parental events.
Each day though we go in and make wonderful learning opportunities for the children, we make Christmas fun and exciting doing things like elf on the shelf or having Santa’s workshop as our role-play area. Sometimes however, I always felt I lost the magic of Christmas in all of the stress of cards, making presents, crafts, parent meetings, and parent activities. Often as a manager leaving me feeling exhausted and worn down.
When I look back on my many years of working in the early years, I don’t remember the hundred cards we made using footprints and handprints. I am not saying there is not any value to these they create wonderful memories for parents of how small their child was and is always appreciated. However, in my opinion it is a balance, sometimes we do adult-led activities or crafts, and that is fine children are learning skills such as following instructions, listening and learning different skills. But my memories are of the crafts that children took in their own direction the ones that were often spontaneous and the children led with their interests. For example, the year we spent hours and hours making snowflakes after we had seen snow through the nursery window and been out to explore it. We made snowflakes with paper, loose parts, printing on paper, we learnt about symmetry, weather, seasons.
You know I don’t even remember the numerous numbers of crafts we did as part of the production line. I remember the smiles on children’s faces, the time I saw children fully engaged in an activity, their uniqueness coming through. Or the time I saw a child achieve a new skill for the first time. Like when a child made a number Christmas tree, cutting her triangle up into strips and labeling each one with carefully written numbers before counting out the right number of jewels and sparkles and gems. The sense of pride and achievement, the first time they ever wrote numbers independently that we had been working on matching numbers to amount and they just took it to the next level.
So, I guess this is my challenge to everyone in the early years, have you got your balance right? Between making those perfect crafts for parents that will create keepsakes for grateful parents for years to come. And being child-centred and just enjoying the magic of Christmas alongside your children and forgetting the stress of the tick list of everything to do. It is a tricky one, and I know that Covid-19 has probably added to this stress this year; but I want to encourage you all to think about your balance, your motivations and why you are doing what you are doing this Christmas in your setting. But most importantly I want you to try and see the magic of Christmas through the eyes of a child! Relax and enjoy the moment.
Merry Christmas!
By Pauline Milsted
Director of Growing Together
Understanding the Role of a Pre-School Committee
Nurseries and preschools come in all different shapes and sizes, and we are not always aware of how the governance that sits behind the setting can really affect our children. Some settings are part of a wider school or academy structure; some are profitable companies; and then there are pre-schools that are governed by committees.
In this blog, we consider pre-schools run by committee and how important it is for managers to help their committee members understand the duties and responsibilities of their role, so that together, they can achieve the best they possibly can for the children within their care.
What is a pre-school committee?
A pre-school run by committee is effectively a charitable trust – this is a legal structure that means that committee members are “charity trustees” with “fiduciary duties”.
What is a charity trustee?
Charity trustees are people who share the ultimate legal responsibility for the running of the charity, or in this case, the pre-school. Trustees are known as many different things – the Board, Council, Committee, the list goes on, but crucially, they are the same thing.
The legal position for trustees is mainly enshrined in the Trustee Act 2000 as applicable to England and Wales. All trustees “volunteer” their role – that is to say, unless they are a qualified professional, such as an Accountant or Solicitor, they are not legally allowed to charge for their time and are only entitled to reasonable expenses as stated in section 95 Trustee Act 2000. So, when parents are asked to volunteer to sit on a pre-school committee, they may not necessarily understand the legal reality of what they are being asked to take on. They may innocently think that to be asked to volunteer means helping out occasionally or signing the odd document. In short, there is a real danger for uneducated committee members to think that these fiduciary duties are mere formalities.
What are fiduciary duties?
Fiduciary duties are two-fold – they are both legal and ethical duties, where a person takes on the legal responsibility to act in the best interests of another. It requires a relationship of trust and confidence, and trustees are liable for life for the period they serve in their role.
As recent scandals warn, this role must be taken seriously. We have all probably heard of how in 2015 the charity Kidscape folded amid allegations of child abuse and misspent public money and as pre-school settings, we are sure we don’t want the same to happen to us.
How to help your committee members (and ultimately you!)
As with every charity or pre-school committee, you are ideally looking for trustees who will give you as managers the strategic support and advice you need to ensure your setting continues to progress and to help you achieve your vision. So, what can you do? Below are our 5 suggested steps to building the right committee.
1. Carry out a skills audit of your committee
A good first step would be to carry out an audit of the committee you have as to highlight skills gaps that you need help with – do you need someone with legal expertise? Do you need someone with an HR or education background? Or perhaps a parent who simply has the right attitude to take on the training you need?
Having a diversity of people and skills is crucial to effective decision-making and avoids the traps of “groupthink”. You want to approach your volunteers carefully, as to surround yourself with good creative thinkers who challenge each other constructively and healthily for the benefit of the children, and who have your and the children’s best interests at heart.
2. Do your research – network!
Finding people who know how to balance giving you the support you need, but without becoming overly involved in the day-to-day requires careful planning. So, get to know your parents, network and think carefully about who you approach for your committee before you ask. Do your homework before you ask!
3. Education
So, you think you have found your person. Before you approach them, make sure you understand for yourselves what the key duties are for a trustee. This will help you work out if the person is truly suitable for the committee.
The charity commission has some great guidance that both you and your committee can use – CC3 is probably the most relevant with the six key duties outlined here:
1. Ensure your charity is carrying out its purposes for the public benefit
2. Comply with your charity’s governing document and the law
3. Act in your charity’s best interests
4. Ensure your charity is accountable
5. Manage your charity’s resources responsibly
6. Act with reasonable care and skill
4. Draw up an agreement at the outset
It would be worth drawing up a committee member agreement at the start of the relationship outlining your expectations of their level of commitment and providing some pointers on how they can best help you. Making the boundaries clear between what strategic and operational support you need from them could really help manage the committee’s expectations and it’s good to fall back on when it has been clearly written at the outset.
It is good practice to build in a time limit on how long someone can serve or even a termination clause just in case circumstances change and so no one person has too much control.
5. Communication and training
As with everything, being in regular communication is important, but be balanced about what is shared. Regular training sessions for trustees is also crucial – charity regulations are ever-changing and there are many free events and resources out there for committee members and managers to access, so we would encourage everyone to look out for those opportunities.
In summary, the role of the pre-school committee is to govern the setting; provide strategic advice and support to managers; and to act in the best interests of the children. It is both a legal and ethical role, and managers would do well to educate themselves in what the trustee duties are. Managers should get to know prospective members before making an approach, so they can best recruit the committee that will in turn support them.
If you are interested in any training for your setting or committee in terms of what’s required of them, then please contact pauline@growingtogetherearlyyears.co.uk.
Written by Susan Hughes
Company Director