 We hope your Christmas was fantastic, and you were able to have a well deserved rest and celebrations with family and friends.
As we get ready for another busy year, we want to express our sincere appreciation for your ongoing commitment. Your dedication continues to drive our service forward, and we're confident that, together, we'll make further improvements.
If you have any questions or need support, our Childcare Team are here for you. Don't hesitate to reach out to our Early Years Hub Team as well.
We're looking forward to working with you over the next 12 months.
Please Join us for The Splendour of Spring on Saturday 3 February, 9am - 3.30pm at St James Primary School where we will be hosting a spring Healthy Early Years Network Event.
During the day there will be opportunities to network with colleagues from other settings and attend a range of workshops relevant to the HEY Scheme. We are hoping it will be a relaxing and inspiring day where you will gain lots of ideas which can be implemented in your settings.
Click here for further details and to book
In our December bulletin, we told you about an upcoming borough-wide initiative set to launch this month, aimed at improving attendance both in schools and funded childcare placements. Keep a look out for this on social media!
We firmly believe that the education starts in the Early Years, and children who consistently attend a funded childcare placement are more likely to establish strong attendance habits in school.
By now, you should have received a Teams Meeting invite scheduled for Tuesday, 20th February at 6pm. During this session, we will explain more about our new Admissions, Attendance, and Transitions Policy. We'll also outline our strategies for improving attendance in funded childcare, and your crucial role in supporting these efforts.
Please make every effort to attend as there will also be opportunities for you to ask questions and fully understand the new policy and procedures. Your active participation will contribute significantly to the success of this initiative.
We need your help!!!
To run alongside the corporate attendance campaign, we have development our own set of campaign messages targeted specifically toward attendance at funded childcare settings.
Rather than use stock images, we feel the campaign will have more impact if the images we use are of children in one of our own childcare settings. All we would need is your permission for a photographer to attend your setting at a time convenient to you for about 30 mins.
If you can help, please drop an email to Louise at saddll@caerphilly.gov.uk.
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In case you missed it, in our December bulletin, we told you about the new grants offering funding for Training Attendance Allowance and completion of the Childminder Assistant Qualification.
Find out more here >>
The closing date for applications is Friday 22nd March 2024.
Applications submitted after this date cannot be considered.
For any enquiries or support please contact your Childcare Officer.
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 Before Christmas we asked for expressions of interest from settings interested in providing Play Inc placements throughout the February Half Term.
Thank you to those who have replied so far. There's still time to get involved so please click the link to find out more.
Please note that we have opened applications for Flying Start childcare for eligible children with a date of birth 01/01/2022 to 31/03/2022.
The preferred application window is 8 January to 26 January but applications can be made after this period.
Please encourage any eligible parents you are working with to apply.
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The spring Caerphilly Early Years and Childcare training timetable is now available to view on our website. Click the link below for details and to access the training request form.
Book now
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What about creating your own ‘Calennig’ to celebrate Diwnrnod Calan? Watch the video below for some inspiration:
Sut i wneud addurn Calennig – Sut i Wneud (wordpress.com)
What about reading the Story of Santes Dwynwen during Story Time? You can watch the English version here: Stori Santes Dwynwen - YouTube or the Welsh version here: The Story of Saint Dwynwen - YouTube.
As well as making a card, what about eating heart shaped foods for example cutting toast or sandwiches into a heart shape during Snack Time, or making heart shaped Welsh cakes as a cooking activity?
Welsh phrases of the month:
- Dydd Calan Hapus – Happy New Year’s Day
- Blwyddyn Newydd Dda – Happy New Year
- Cariad – Love
- Calon – Heart
- Caru ti – Love you
- Nun – Lleian
- Rhewi – Freeze
- Eglwys – Church
- Ynys - Island
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Selective mutism is an anxiety disorder where children may talk in certain situations but not others.
It can be difficult to identify whether a child has selective mutism, and a Speech and Language Therapist may support with this. Children with selective mutism are not choosing not to talk, and they aren’t just shy – they are physically unable to talk in certain situations. It’s important to not put these children under pressure to speak and give them plenty of opportunities to join in with activities and conversations without talking, and then speak when they are ready.
As part of the Welsh Government Talk With Me delivery plan, a number of factsheets have been created. You can find one for selective mutism here: Selective mutism factsheet: help for parents | GOV.WALES
For more information on interacting with young children, visit https://gov.wales/talk-with-me
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It’s vital that early years settings have robust data protection practices in place to keep children’s information safe.
The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) have created five practical data protection top tips for nurseries, pre-schools, childminders and other early years settings. If you need to refresh your data protection practices or you’re just at the start of your data protection journey, they can help you get that right.
The five tips cover the topics most commonly asked about by the early years sector, including:
- what ‘personal data’ is;
- how to deal with a request for personal information;
- what to do with your CCTV footage;
- sharing information when needed; and
- keeping information secure.
By following our advice, you’ll not only be keeping the children in your care and their families safe, but you’ll also be keeping your business safe too. Head over to the advice for small organisations section of their website to read the tips.
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 The "Family Information Service Caerphilly" Facebook page has now been renamed to the "Caerphilly Early Years & Childcare Service".
To coincide with this, we have launched our brand new animation which showcases what we do and the support we offer to families.
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