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Foundation Years August 2024 Bulletin | |
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DfE are running a series of roadshow events for Early Education and Childcare providers across the regions in England to the end of 2024. These events offer a unique opportunity to engage with DfE directly and to share views on the entitlements expansion and other areas of early education and childcare policy. The next events will be held at: 12th September – Plymouth (click here to register)
10th October – Liverpool (registration will open shortly) 07th November - Newcastle (registration will open shortly)
The event is targeted at group-based setting managers who have, or will have, a role or interest in providing additional places as a result of the government’s childcare expansion. Registration details for October and November roadshows will be made available via your local authority, membership organisations and in future editions of this newsletter. | |
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Government funded childcare offer for 9 month olds goes live | |
Sunday 1st September marks an exciting landmark as hundreds of thousands of eligible working parents of children from 9-months-old will begin to access 15 hours of government-funded early education per week, and new wraparound childcare places are now available for primary aged children before and after school, with more expected from January 2025. The expansion in government funded hours is just one step towards the Education Secretary’s vision of an early education and childcare system that supports children to build on strong foundations and start school ready to learn. | |
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SEND training and assessment guidance | |
In September 2024 we are publishing additional resources for early years educators aimed at supporting children with developmental differences and special educational needs and disabilities. These resources are a new free online module that will be added to DfE’s Early years child development training and Early Years SEND assessment guidance and resources which will be available on the Help for Early Years Providers platform. This will enable early years educators to better identify, assess and support children with developmental differences and additional needs. Look out for further information on these new resources soon. | |
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Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs extended | |
Today we also announced that we are extending the Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs programme until at least March 2025. The programme supports nurseries and childminders by bringing groups together across local areas to share evidence-informed practice and advice, and build lasting local networks. You can find your nearest Stronger Practice Hub at www.strongerpracticehubs.org.uk/hubs. | |
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Early years FAQs for providers and practitioners | |
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Early Intervention and Learning Conference 24- 25 September | Trent Vineyard, Nottingham
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Small Steps Big Changes (SSBC), Nottingham’s A Better Start programme invite you to their final two day Early Intervention and Learning Conference. This conference will share and celebrate the impact of the programme to the lives of over 16,000 children since 2015. Jean Gross CBE will deliver the opening keynote lecture on Tuesday morning on the theme of Early Speech Language and Communication. She will be joined on the programme by a host of expert speakers, see the full speaker list, conference themes and register for free. | | | |
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Sharing evidence-informed practice to support early years education and childcare | |
The Stronger Practice Hub website provides support to regional networks of early years educators in England to share knowledge, effective practice, and evidence-based approaches. The site enables you, as an early years educator, to find your local Hub and to access the latest information from the Hub on upcoming events, programmes and resources.
The site also features information about the programme itself as well as access to other DfE-related programmes and the Early Years Evidence Store created by the DfE’s evidence partner on this project, the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF).
The outputs include Blogs such as the following: Mindful Maths: Nurturing Childminders with Jacqui Lewis | Stronger Practice Hubs which supports educators to include maths in their setting. | |
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EEF launches new resource to support physical development in young children | |
The Education Endowment Foundation has launched a new resource to support young children’s physical development. The latest theme of the Early Years Evidence Store – developed to support the Stronger Practice Hubs programme – is designed to help early years professionals put evidence-informed approaches into practice. EEF | Physical Development (educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk) The latest theme summarises three evidence-informed approaches – teaching the skills needed for movement and handling, promoting physical activity, teaching the skills for mark-making and letter formation. The information included on the Store provides guidance to early years staff on how to practically apply these in their settings, including videos of the approaches in action. | | | |
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Sign up for Early Years SEND training and their upcoming regional event
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The Early Years SEND Partnership is a DfE-funded programme that aims to improve access and inclusion in the early years. We offer a whole host of FREE training on a wide range of SEND-related topics for practitioners and parents/carers such as: · Supporting young children with anxiety · The Equality Act in the early years · Ordinarily available provision in the early years · Support for speech and language needs · Support for social communication needs · Supporting children with SEND in the Home Learning Environment · Meeting the needs of every child You can find details of all the training provided, including where to sign-up, on our training calendar, which is regularly updated.
We are also hosting an online EYSEND conference on Tuesday, 12th November, focusing on some of the best practice in the Northeast of England. If you are interested in finding out more and attending, sign up here. | |
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All Early Years settings know about the value storybooks bring to their day-to-day practice, and most already use some of the principles of interactive book reading.
But how much of an impact does this have on oral language skills? The Education Endowment Foundation have funded a trial called ‘Story Choices’ investigating potential relationship between the two. They are looking for more early years settings to take part in the trial in Local Authority areas such as the West Midlands, East Midlands, and Greater Manchester. This is a fully funded opportunity so will come at no cost to settings taking part. To find out more about the trial, a full list of areas where settings are needed and to register your interest, please visit the project webpage. | | | |
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Maths Champions is a professional development programme delivered by National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) to increase early years practitioner skills, knowledge, awareness and confidence in supporting early mathematics. Previous evaluation by Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) found that on average children on the Maths Champions programme made an additional three months’ progress in both maths and language development. Evidence suggested that this could be as high as six months for children from disadvantaged backgrounds and could help close the attainment gap Latest findings by EEF suggest that initial progress children on the Maths Champions programme made have longer-lasting effects, extending at least until the end of reception year. Stella Ziolkowski, NDNA’s Director of Training and Quality said: “The new Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson announced Labour’s priority to improve maths attainment in early years and our Maths Champions programme has evidence to show it can make a real difference to young children.” | |
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As the new provider of Foundation Years, Begin Bright would love to hear your thoughts! Your feedback helps us to improve and bring you the best possible service. Could you please take a few minutes to complete our survey? Your input truly makes a difference. Thanks for being part of the Foundation Years community. | |
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Foundation Years is funded by the Department for Education and brought to you by Begin Bright. |
Our mailing address is: foundationyears@beginbright.com | | | |
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