Mindy Butler - Early Years Quality and Sufficiency Co-ordinator
I am delighted to be working with the Early Years team at the Civic following many years in various roles in Childcare and Social care. I owned my own Nurseries for over ten years which ran from village halls in Hampshire, and I gained a lot of experience during this time about business planning and sufficiency in the Early Years. The past three years I have been the Manager of Bramble Nursery in the city which is a 140 place local authority Day Nursery where I learned a lot about the city and trying to be sustainable in these testing financial times for our industry.
I am looking forward to bringing my experience into a different role and being able to support my team in helping to maintain great quality across the city and ensuring Portsmouth has sufficient childcare places to meet demand.
Hannah Povey - Inclusion Outreach Officer
Hannah has worked in the city in a variety of early year's roles, most recently at Cottage Grove Primary School. Part of her role as Early Years Inclusion Outreach Officer will be to provide support, guidance and advice to early year's settings that extends and enhances their inclusive practice and provision for children with SEND.
Natalie Oliver - Project Administrator
Natalie has joined us after her recent post at The Elizabeth Foundation, she brings her knowledge of social media, photography and event planning. Natalie will support the development of our engagement with parents and providers, alongside providing project support across the team.
Facebook - Portsmouth Early Years Professionals
Instagram - PortmsouthEYProfessionals
We also have Family Information Service social media, which includes information from Early Years and Childcare, Early Help and Preventions and what's on across the city in our 6 family hubs -
Facebook - Family Information Service
Instagram - @FisPortsmouth
Twitter @FisPortsmouth
Please feel free to e-mail Natalie.oliver@portsmouthcc.gov.uk with any information you would like to share on these platforms.
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Alison Jones has left the Early Years and Childcare Service. Alison has supported many families to access their funded Early Education. I know she has enjoyed working with you all and has said that she will miss working in Portsmouth but is planning to move to Cornwall to start a new life. We wish her well in her new adventures. We will be recruiting to fill the post in the near future but due to workload will not be carrying out any progress visits to providers this term. However, please still contact us at 2yroldfunding@portsmouthcc.gov.uk if you have a family and child that needs additional support, or any attendance issues. |
There will be Area SENCo support at drop-ins over the next academic year. If you are a childminder and have concerns about the progress of a child in your care one of the inclusion team will be available at the following sessions:
Tuesday 3rd December - Buckland FH
Thursday 6th February - Landport FH
Tuesday 19th May - Buckland FH
The forecast task will be available on the provider portal from 11th November 2019. In order to avoid late submissions please make sure that your current log in details are working, contact us at eyfunding@portsmouthcc.gov.uk if you have password issues that need resolving. The deadline for submission is 15th November 2019.
All providers will need to complete the task to claim early education funding for their two, three and four year olds who are registered to attend in the Spring term. Payment will be made to providers in the first week of January based on the information you submit to us.
Please remember:
• Parents must have completed and signed the parent declaration forms before you add children to the forecast task. You may want to consider issuing this form to parents as part of your registration process?
You can still claim funding for children who start after the submission date by adding them to the headcount actual task which will be issued in January 2020.
The Department for Education has today launched a public consultation seeking views on changes to the statutory framework for the early years foundation stage (EYFS). The goal of the reforms is to improve outcomes for all children and reduce workload. Visit the Foundation Years website for a summary of the consultation.
The consultation includes proposed changes to the educational programmes, the early learning goals and the EYFS profile assessment. It also seeks views on one change to the safeguarding and welfare section of the framework to promote good oral health.
The consultation is available here and will run until 31 January 2020
 If you’re worried that a child may not be ready for school next September and you feel the family might benefit from someone visiting them at home please consider referring them to Home-Start Portsmouth’s Big Hopes Big Future project.
Big Hopes Big Future (BHBF) is a ‘school readiness’ programme which aims to support some of the most disadvantaged children prepare for the transition to school.
Specially trained Home-Start BHBF volunteers support children in becoming ‘school ready’ by helping them to develop early literacy skills (e.g. mark making, looking at books, singing nursery rhymes), improve learning behaviour (e.g. playing games, taking turns, sitting still) and increase self-confidence (e.g. encouraging them to talk about their week, initiating activities), as well as supporting the parents to recognise the importance and value of a positive home learning environment.
Volunteers offer a 12 week intervention, visiting families in their own home, once a week, for up to two hours.
The project has been running since April 2017 and feedback from parents, nurseries, schools and volunteers has been extremely positive. Suzy Gage at Home-Start Portsmouth is the project co-ordinator and meets every family that is referred.
Please consider children who start school in September 2020 and could benefit from this intervention. If you would like to discuss a potential referral or have any queries please contact Suzy Gage on 023 9273 4400 or email office@hsportsmouth.org.uk.
Completed referrals (with parental signature) can be scanned and emailed securely to snhs.homestartportsmouth@nhs.net or sent to Home-Start Portsmouth, 17 Lake Road, Portsmouth PO1 4HA. Further information can be found on the Home-Start website.
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