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December 2021

• Covid Updates
• News from the front… the Early Years Professional Development Programme (EYPDP) in Derbyshire.
• Staff Development: Language and Literacy (EYPDP)
• Get ready, get set, read! - training course
• Helping parent and carers to feel confident that 'Maths is Everywhere' (EYPDP) 
• Get ready, get set, count! - training course
• Physical Development : Reflexes
• Movement - training course
• SEND Corner
• Ofsted inspection - our experience by Heanor Pre-School
• School Admissions
• FREE Cyber Security Training
• Leaders and Managers Briefings: January 2022
• Training Courses
• Contacts

Dear Colleagues,

We are delighted to share our December 2021 Newsletter with you.

In this edition we hear from our Early Years Professional Development practitioners who are delivering training to clusters of early years providers across Derbyshire. They also share their hints and tips for parent partnership in relation to embedding communication and language skills through maths concepts.

We bid a sad farewell to Karen Waring, Head of the Derbyshire EYSEN Service who will be retiring in December. Those of you who have worked with Karen in the last five years will be aware of her passion and commitment to supporting children with SEND in Derbyshire, and I’m sure you will join us in wishing her well as she starts this next phase of her life. We would also like to take this opportunity to welcome Rebecca Jones as Head of EYSEN Service from January 2022.

We continue to thank you for all your hard work and dedication to children and families in Derbyshire.

As we begin to look forward to Christmas, please remember to continue to be kind to yourself and keep safe and well.

Best wishes from the Early Years Team

Sarah, Rhiannon, Amanda

Covid Updates

You will be aware that there are new temporary measures following the emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in the UK.

On Sunday 28th November, the Department for Education announced the measures as they apply to education and childcare. The DfE have updated the information on contact tracing and isolation, travel and quarantine, face coverings and vaccination of under 18 year olds in the following guidance to reflect the new measures:

Actions for schools during the coronavirus outbreak

Actions for early years and childcare providers during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

You will also have received on 29th  November an email from us containing the letter from Dean Wallace, Director of Public Health for Derbyshire. His letter outlines the key actions that you should take at this time, including informing Derbyshire Test and Trace.

Please be assured that we will keep you informed as and when DfE guidance changes.

STOP PRESS! released 30/1/21:

Arrangements for COVID-19 testing during the holidays and on return in January for early years settings in England 

When settings close for Christmas, all staff should test over the holidays in line with national guidance. This means that they should test if they will be in a high-risk situation that day, and before visiting people who are at higher risk of severe illness if they get COVID-19. 

For settings remaining open over the Christmas period, staff (including students of secondary age and older) should continue to test at home twice per week. 

Staff in all early years settings should take one self-test at home either the evening or morning before they return in January. They should then continue to test in line with government guidelines. Settings are advised to check their test kit stock levels and make an order of test kits so that staff are able to test over the holiday period if required and for the first week of January. 

News from the front… the Early Years Professional Development Programme (EYPDP) in Derbyshire.

A hearty welcome from some of the EYPDP practitioners... Zoe, Jo, Sarah, Rose, Sam, Fran, Laura, Leanne, Marie, Joanna, Sarah, Nicole, Stacie, Laura, Gemma, Ali, Karla, Debbie, Sam, Alison, Louise, Sarah, Faye, Megan, Helen, Donna, Becky, Cara, Gill, Courtney and Charlotte. These practitioners working at the front of this DfE funded programme have created Communities of Practice (CoP) and meet each half term to discuss topics of interest, share resources and ideas and encourage continued embedding of key programme principles.  This is the first in a series of articles in which they share their words of wisdom, insights to learning and tips to all early years practitioners and providers. If you are interested in Early Years Communication, Language and Literacy and wish to join one of the EYPDP Communities of Practice meetings, please make a request through cs.eys@derbsyhire.gov.uk.  Please indicate that your email is for the attention of Ruth Crofts and include your name, role and setting.

Staff Development: Language and Literacy (EYPDP)

The final strand of EYPDP brings staff development and team efforts into a collaborative conclusion through the ‘communication counts’ workshops.  This involves the trained practitioners delivering 5 set workshops to their whole EYFS team along with challenges to embed the implementation of research-backed strategies. 

These are some highlights so far:

An increased awareness and appreciation of the impact of books and incorporating them in all areas has proven to be really useful in helping children to have more opportunities to explore visual prompts instead of just at 'book time' or 'circle time'.

This course has helped us to develop our reflective practice and make small and manageable changes when necessary. For example: we reflected and realised we needed a revised visual timeline for some of our pre-school children to know what is coming next. This has helped to calm some anxieties in some of our pre-school children as they are now more in control and knowledgeable about the schedule for their day. really embracing the involvement of staff has brought our teams together to work collaboratively in improving children's communication and language experiences. helping know when to intervene and support a child during play. This has helped staff show increased understanding of how to pitch their level of interaction with the children, so they gain the most communication. It has also given the children the chance to interact with their peers uninterrupted which has helped the children to build confidence with their communication skills. (Comments from First Steps Nursery) developing staff members knowledge on specific approaches e.g. the Blank Language Scheme. Although this was a timely task, the benefits have been great in helping to pitch questions and communication appropriately with the age and needs of the child. (Comments from West Hallam Village Preschool) If you are interesting in learning more about Literacy please see the training below:

Get ready, get set, read! - training course

Learn more about how to support children's early reading skills on this 2-part virtual course. Working with 3 & 4 year olds? -  book via Eventbrite Working with reception children?  - book via S4S

Helping parent and carers to feel confident that 'Maths is Everywhere' (EYPDP) 

Our recent parent partnership focus is maths and language

The following comments and ideas are from your Derbyshire EYPDP practitioners:

Communication and language skills are embedded in maths concepts. Many children arrive in our settings with some knowledge of what numbers are and what counting is. We often have parents who will say to us that their child is really good at counting and they know their numbers. As we get to know the child we find that they may be really good at rote counting or they can even count a few objects, which is a great foundation, but their actual deeper understanding of what number is, is not so strong.  Their knowledge of a broad spectrum of maths topics might also have been overlooked.

Knowing the significant impact that parental engagement has on overall attainment we thought it would be great to help parents see that maths is everywhere.  Many of our settings have now done away with a ‘maths area’ as we know opportunities to use maths and use mathematical vocabulary in everyday life are abundant. Parents are well placed to help their children learn maths in everyday interactions and activities.  We wanted to provide practitioners with a range of activity ideas which can be shared with parents to both broaden their understanding of what maths is and help children experience a range of maths activities at home.  If settings shared a weekly challenge for parents to do at home, it would get everyone doing more maths! 

Maths includes patterns Looking for patterns around the house and learning words to talk about patterns, e.g. spotty, stripy, zig-zag, chequered, wavy, next, after. Matching socks by pattern: spots, zigzags, stripes. Making repeating patterns with natural objects, e.g. stick/leaf/stick/leaf.

Maths includes sequences and direction Talking about days of the week / daily routines and the order they happen. Use positional language by putting teddy in different places (on top, behind, in front, next to). Can the children understand the language and begin to use it themselves? Use directional language to talk about routes such as routes to school or the route a car or doll takes in the small world toys.

Maths includes time Measure time doing everyday things e.g. brushing teeth, washing hands. Use the stopwatch on the phone or a sand timer to help measure the time. Talk about times of the day and year.

Maths includes shape and size Point out the shapes at home or out on the street. Take a walk outside and talk about all the size and shapes in nature,  e.g. autumn leaves: rounded, pointed, larger, tiny. Find a stick and look for things which are longer/shorter or taller/shorter than the stick.

Get ready, get set, count! - training course

A two-part virtual Maths training course Book via Eventbrite for the  3 & 4 year olds course: Wednesdays 2nd & 16th February 2022, 13:30 - 14:45 Book via S4S for the course relating to Reception-aged children:   01 & 14 March 2022; 13:15 - 14:30

Physical Development : Reflexes

Have you ever wondered why some children (& adults) stick out their tongue when concentrating on fine motor activities?

What about the child whose toes curl up when your trying to put their shoe on?

Well often the answer is that these children have a retained reflex and are experiencing neuromotor immaturity.

What is a reflex? A reflex, is an automatic action or involuntary movement made in response to a specific stimulus, they happen without the brain having to think about it.  As adults we have many reflexes that last into adulthood e.g. blinking, coughing, sneezing and yawning.

Neuromotor readiness for learning!

 If neuromotor immaturity occurs or early reflexes are retained it can cause a delay in higher order brain functioning, e.g. a child may display poor gross and fine motor muscle coordination, perception and social skills.

Thinking about those children who stick out their tongue when concentrating on fine motor activities... these children have most probably retained the Palmomental and/or Plantomental Reflex where the muscles around the mouth contract when the thumb (Palmomental) or big toe (Plantomental) is stimulated causing difficulties with facial expression and tension of the tongue, mouth and jaw.

What about the child whose toes curl up when you’re trying to put their shoe on? These children have most probably retained the Plantar Reflex where when pressure is applied to the base of the foot, the toes curl up and ‘grasp’ causing difficulty learning to walk and run or inefficient walking and running movement, including the toes may curl under when putting on shoes.

Giving children plenty of opportunities and experiences to participate in physical activity and movement helps to both inhibit and prevent the retention of these reflexes.  Physical development is therefore is an essential part of a baby’s and the older child’s development.  

Want to know more about how to support children who have retained reflexes and neuromotor immaturity then why not book onto the following course:

Movement - training course

Movement: how it develops and how to support children at risk of delay Mon, 14 Feb 2022;  18:30-19:30    book via Eventbrite For staff working with all ages of Early Years children. (This is a follow-on course to the ‘Introduction to ECaM and the PDMT' course - which is also available on Eventbrite)

SEND Corner

'Enabling potential and celebrating success; together we help children learn.'

SEND Review You may have read that the government has announced that a new steering group has been created to help deliver its long-awaited SEND Review "at pace". The Department for Education says it will conclude the review and advise on proposals to be published in a SEND Green Paper in the "first three months of next year". It comes as Will Quince, the children and families minister, told parents that the Government's plan would need to reduce the local variation in services and improve early intervention for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. In an open letter to parents and carers of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, Mr Quince said the proposals would need to make clear the support and services everyone should be able to expect and have funding in place to support this. You can read this letter online: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2021/11/10/an-open-letter-to-parents-and-carers-of-children-and-young-people-with-special-educational-needs-and-disabilities-from-children-and-families-minister-will-quince/

Farewell! We are sad to announce that Karen Waring, Head of the Derbyshire EYSEN Service will be retiring in December. Many of you will have met Karen and know that she possesses a passion for ensuring child-centred inclusive practice in early years settings. Karen has led the service for the last 5 years and her knowledge, experience and care will be missed by all of us. The photo shows Karen (far right) at County Hall with the proud SENCOs who gained their Level 3 SENCO qualification last year. Rebecca Jones will be taking over as Head of Service from January 2022.

SEND Training

Our core training offer continues to be available to book onto through Eventbrite and our Spring term courses are being added at the moment.

Find us online at  Derbyshire EY SEND courses on Eventbrite

Don’t forget that we also offer bespoke training to meet your specific individual or setting needs.  If you are interested in bespoke training then please either speak to your specialist teacher or email an enquiry to our helpline: earlyyears.senhelpline@derbyshire.gov.uk

Spring term training dates:

Strategies: An introduction to teaching strategies for young children with SEN; 27^th January, 10am-1pm.

Foundation Stage Inclusion Leads and SENCO training: 15^th and 16^th February, 9am-12 noon.

Reducing Sensory Processing barriers to learning: 2^nd and 8^th March, 1.30-4.30pm.

Including children with ASD in Early Years setting: 9^th March, 9:00am-12 noon.

Addressing Inclusion for young children with complex needs: 25^th March, 9.30am-12.30pm

We will also be hosting free online SENCO briefings in the second half of the Spring term – more details to follow.

Ofsted inspection - our experience by Heanor Pre-School

We were inspected at the end of September which was not quite 6 years since our previous inspection.

Covid

The inspector asked a lot about Covid: how long we closed for; who did we stay open for; how we supported those who didn't attend?  She also wanted to know what impact the pandemic has had on the children and how we planned to move them forward.

Teaching and learning

We were asked about children's cultural capital, their knowledge, what they brought to the setting and then what we offer.

There were lots of questions about our curriculum and how we make it work for our current cohort of children. Is it ambitious and is it challenging?  We currently use both an 'in the moment'  and 'objective-led' approach which she seemed happy with how this was working. We also have intervention group activities as well as daily letter and sounds support.  She didn't ask for any evidence (paperwork/data) although I did see her have a quick look at a child's learning journal which are displayed for parents to grab easily.

There was a big on curriculum intent and the inspector kept asking all staff 'What do you intend to get from your activity?', even when the activity was spontaneous. She wanted to know where we were taking children in their learning.

The 2 children she chose to follow she really dug deep to see if their keyperson knew them,  where their development was when they came to us and where they are now. How we support them and the kind of opportunities we plan to achieve this. 

The Inspector looked at a 2 year progress check and asked about parental and health professional involvement with it.

The learning walk really helped me to sell our curriculum and intention of what we want our children to achieve. For us, everything I said the children did do. 

The joint observation we chose was an intervention for physical development. The inspector questioned the manager's intent and then the staff member's intention.

Staff

We had to talk through the recruitment procedure and  staff induction process for the latest member of our staff.

She looked at our paediatric first-aid certificates and DBS records as well as wanting to know about safeguarding training for all staff.   

The inspector spent 10-15 mins with each staff member discussing safeguarding scenarios- quite tricky ones about money laundering, drug dealers, FGM, neglect and if staff were accused of abusing a child. (Important for her to hear about LADO re the staff abusing a child)

She asked me (as the manager) about recent walk the floor/staff observations and what I've noted for improvement. She then asked the staff what feedback I had given them following my recent observations. 

(A big thank you to Heanor Pre-School for sharing their experience with us and congratulations on your 'Good' outcome)

If you work in a school and wish to share your recent experience of Ofsted Inspection in a future edition of our newsletter please get in touch with us: CS.EYS@Derbyshire.gov.uk

School Admissions

If you have children in your provision who were born between 01 September 2017 and 31 August 2018 parents and carers will now be applying for a primary/infant school place. Applications opened on 08 November 2021 and the closing date is 15 January 2022 for children to start in the 2022-23 academic year.   Parents should have received information about this, but if they haven’t please direct them to the information available on the DCC website: Parents' guide to primary admissions - Derbyshire County Council

Deferring entry to school

You may be aware that a parent of a child at your setting is considering deferring entry to school. If this is the case, you may want to direct them to the following advice to help inform their decision:

Summer born children - advice for parents (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Education outside the normal year group - Derbyshire County Council

Parents should also be aware that a child is only entitled to early year’s funding up to and including the term in which they have their 5^th birthday.

Also, If parents wish to make an application for their child to be educated outside their normal cohort they should email admissions.transport@derbyshire.gov.uk to request a form.

FREE Cyber Security Training

The Derbyshire Data Hub are currently advertising a free one day conference on cyber security, created with schools, academies, and early years providers in mind.

Cyber Security on a Shoestring

Tue, 7 December 2021, 09:00 – 15:30 GMT

FREE Tickets available via Eventbrite

Cyber security is probably the hottest topic in education right now. Once the realm of science fiction movies, cyber-attacks are sadly, fast becoming a common news item. Too often schools and early years providers fail to take steps to secure and safeguard their settings, but you don’t need a big budget to make a big impact on security.

Join this free virtual event, dedicated to cyber security, online safety, and digital safeguarding dedicated to cyber security, online safety, and digital safeguarding.

Leaders and Managers Briefings: January 2022

These continue to be Virtual Events so please save the dates: Wednesday 19th January, 10:00 - 11:30 Thursday 20th January, 13:30 - 15:00 Thursday 20th January, 18:00 - 19:30 TEAMS meeting links will be shared via email in the New Year

Training Courses

Courses are regularly added so please visit: Derbyshire Early Years on Eventbrite Save the page as a 'Favourite' or 'Bookmark' for ease of finding us again! Click to 'follow' us to receive notifications of new courses. Training & Events | Derbyshire Services for Schools typing  'Early Years' into the Keyword box.

Contacts

Finance, business support, early years entitlement funding, contracts & funding audit

please contact via the appropriate email below:

• Childminders: cs.enquiries.childminders@derbyshire.gov.uk
• Pre-school, Day Nursery and Out of School club providers: cs.enquiries.groupcare@derbyshire.gov.uk
• Schools and maintained nursery schools: cs.enquiries.schools@derbyshire.gov.uk

The Early Years Quality Team

Email: CS.EYS@derbyshire.gov.uk

OR Telephone: 01629 532876 leave your name, setting, contact details plus a short message and we will get back to you

Our Twitter account provides the latest news and updates from the Derbyshire County Council Early Years Team. Follow us on Twitter: @DerbyshireEYFS