 Christmas is a special time of year especially for the children and with all the activities taking place, it’s important to continue promoting healthy messages during the holiday period.
Creating festive scenes, shapes and faces is a great way to encourage children to eat fruit and vegetables and it can be a great way for children to try new food.
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Bagel, soft cheese and peppers.
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Home made pizza, spinach, peppers and cheese.
- Cut fruit in trees or other festive shapes.
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Decorate a piece of fruit.
A huge welcome to Ruth Corney who is joining the Caerphilly Early Years and Childcare service as a Childcare Development Officer! Ruth is a fluent Welsh speaker bringing a range of skills to the team having previously worked as a leader in a Cylch Meithrin. Ruth will be working alongside our existing Childcare Development officers, developing new childcare and supporting the sustainability of existing childcare provision across the borough.
Caerphilly Early Years are still working with childcare providers to deliver funded childcare places including Flying Start, Early Years Education, and Assisted Places and Supported Places. As part of the Flying Start Expansion, a staggering 68 Childcare providers across the borough are now delivering Flying Start funded placements. If you are interested in providing funded childcare placements the Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) is still open. Please speak to your Childcare Officer and for further information follow the link:
How to become an approved Childcare Provider for funded childcare placements - Caerphilly Early Years Caerphilly Early Years
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The Caerphilly Early Years and Childcare Service are busy encouraging more people to choose childcare as a career to help ease the recruitment and retention issue that the sector is still currently experiencing.
The team are currently working alongside Careers Wales and employment programmes and are busy delivering workshops and information sessions to students and Individuals seeking new career opportunities. Impressively, the team have engaged with nearly 300 students and young people in secondary schools and Careers Fayre's across the borough this term alone!
This session is aimed at Flying Start Leads and is following on from the session held a while ago which looked at the New Curriculum Assessment Arrangements. This session will revisit the Assessment Arrangements document and share information around the ‘Initial Assessment’ that replaces the FPP baseline assessments. You will be invited to discuss how this is going for you and share your good practice. This session will take place via Microsoft Teams and the link will be shared with all Flying Start Contracted settings.
Childminders information sharing session- Thursday 23rd November 6.30-7.30pm
During this session the Childcare Advisors plan to share information around the Curriculum for Wales, Assessment Arrangements, and any important updates around the ALN process within Caerphilly Early Years. If you are a Childminder and would like to participate in this Microsoft Teams event, please join on 23rd November at 6.30pm following the link: Click here to join the meeting
Christmas is the perfect time to model a range of words to improve children’s vocabulary. The Hanen Centre discuss the importance of modelling to children a variety of word types. It is tempting to focus on colours and shapes but children benefit from hearing different words that serve a function. Here is the Hanen article: Tips to Build Vocabulary: Repeat Words That Match Your Child's Interests (hanen.org)
Here are some examples of Christmas themed vocabulary.
Names: Santa Claus, Rudolph
Words that describe: big, all gone, cold
Action Words: open presents, sleep, eating
Words for feelings: excited, full
Location words (where things are): under the tree, down the chimney
Social words: night, bye bye
Words that express belonging: my presents, your dinner
Question words: what, where
For more information on interacting with young children, visit https://gov.wales/talk-with-me
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All children aged 2 and 3 years (age on 31 August 2023) are eligible for a free flu vaccination in the form of a LAIV nasal spray. However, not all parents are aware of this or take up the offer.
Flu can be very serious for children. Please help to raise awareness of the importance of flu vaccination by talking to the parents you work with. Parents can talk to their Health Visitor, GP or practice nurse for information.
You can print our poster to display at your setting or hand out to parents.
More info: https://phw.nhs.wales/fluvaccine
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