 Don't forget to submit your vote and recognise an early years and childcare superstar!
Early years and childcare professionals in Portsmouth will be celebrated at the prestigious Teach Portsmouth Awards 2025. Nominations for the early years and childcare category, proudly sponsored by Home-Start, are now open. Teach Portsmouth is inviting early years settings to recognise outstanding staff for this category, along with 10 other award categories where applicable.
This award highlights the exceptional contributions of early years professionals in Portsmouth who consistently go above and beyond in their roles. From childminders to nursery practitioners, the award shines a spotlight on the city’s finest talent in early years and childcare. The shortlisting panel will be looking for clear examples of early years and childcare professionals who have delivered outstanding service for children, beyond just everyday practice.
Nominations close on Wednesday 12 February at 4pm. To streamline the process, the Teach Portsmouth team recommends designating a staff member to manage and coordinate nominations. Please note that members of the public are not eligible to submit nominations.
 If you would like to nominate members of your team to attend PEEP training to be trained as a PEEP Practitioner, please complete this booking form and send to the Business Support Manager at Home-Start Portsmouth: hannahc@hsportsmouth.org.uk.
Training will take place on 22 and 23 April 2025 at Home-Start Portsmouth HQ, PO1 4HA. Training is typically 9.30am - 4.30pm and delegates will be required to attend both days. More information, including confirmation of times will be given to delegates nearer to the training date. The deadline to submit the booking form is Friday 28 March 2025.
The PEEP Learning Together programme is about practitioners running sessions for parents to learn how to play and support their child in a range of areas supporting the EYFS. We have a number of trained PEEP practitioners in Portsmouth who will be running PEEP or PEEP informed groups in Family Hubs and through 1:1 work in family homes, e.g. Home-Start Portsmouth.
As an Early Years setting, why not join our Portsmouth PEEP community and access free 2 day training and then have the license to run your own family sessions within your setting? Take a look at the website for more information.
Once trained as a PEEP Practitioner, you will be able to access ongoing support through a Portsmouth PEEP forum and members of the Early Years team who have also been trained will be able to answer questions about how you can deliver PEEP to your families. So if one of your setting priorities is to support families to understand how to play and learn together with their children, this is the training and opportunity for you!
 Air kisses only please
Babies have immature immune systems. It's really important to try and stop them catching infections, particularly in the first few weeks of life. There are some key things we can all do to reduce the risk of serious infection in babies. These are:
 It can feel awkward asking people not to kiss your baby or to wash their hands before touching or holding them. So why not try saying something like:
- "My midwife told me that only people in our household should kiss him, so we're trying to stick to that".
- "It's now recommended that visitors wash their hands before touching new babies".
- "Yes, you can hold her, but do you mind not giving her a kiss - apparently babies' immune systems aren't ready for that yet".
Safer sleep advice is life-saving but only when it reaches families.This Safer Sleep Week (10 - 16 March), be a safer sleep champion for your local families. Choose from the activities below and get resources to share with families today.
 This year, Safer Sleep Week will focus on what baby sleep should look like, such as how frequently babies may naturally wake and why that’s important. The Lullaby Trust will also bust the common myths seen online surrounding baby sleep, and support with ways to help parents and carers with sleep deprivation.
How you can be a safer sleep champion...
Hold a Pyjama Day in your local early years setting
Have fun and raise money to help ensure that The Lullaby Trust's advice can remain free and accessible to families. Sign up for your digital pack which contains a lesson plan and activities, plus a letter template to parents to share why the week is so important.
Create a safer sleep display
Download and print key safer sleep resources to display on a noticeboard.
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Sleep patterns poster - explains baby sleep patterns from birth through to 12-months-old.
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Airways card - explains how sleeping positions can affect a baby’s ability to breathe.
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Safer Sleep card - summarises the basics of safer sleep – a must-know for every parent and carer.
Sign up for SIDS and safer sleep training
If you care for babies as part of your profession, or manage staff who do, sign up for a safer sleep training session to ensure that you feel confident in practising safer sleep and sharing advice with the families you work with. The Lullaby Trust has a course especially designed for early years settings.
 Beep Beep! Day 2025 will take place on Wednesday 19 March.
Join schools, nurseries, playgroups and youth groups across the UK taking part to learn about road safety with children aged 2-7. This is a fantastic opportunity to engage with children and their parents and carers about how to stay safe on our roads.
Brake will once again provide a free action pack, full of ideas and fun activities that focus on three important road safety topics:
- Holding hands with a grown-up when walking near roads
- Crossing roads at safe places with a grown-up
- Using a child seat when travelling by car
 The free action pack resources include activities, colouring sheets, postcards and letters home, certificates, social media toolkits and more. The action pack is illustrated with characters from Aardman’s beloved Timmy Time, adding fun to the learning.
 Join Portsmouth Mental Health Support Team in celebrating Children's Mental Health Week from Monday 3 February 2025. This week is an ideal opportunity to celebrate and raise awareness around mental health and wellbeing within your education setting. The theme this year that is being explored is ‘Know Yourself, Grow Yourself’.
 Invitation from Debra Barton, Early Years Specialist Lead at the Ministry of Defence, to find out more about the Early Childhood Armed Forces Champion Role...
I am really excited about promoting this role to you, and feel that it has many benefits for young Service children and their families. It can also benefit the setting and staff team, and by the AF Champion having a network of peers who meet termly, we can share ideas and solutions to common challenges in a safe and protected environment, our first meeting will be Wednesday 26 Feb at 09.00am - 10.00am.
I would like to encourage you to consider promoting an Early Childhood Armed Forces Champion role within your setting, which can be undertaken alongside other roles within your setting much the same as a first aider role.
I’d be delighted to speak with you about what the role might look like in practice, and your thoughts or challenges settings might face, so please get in touch. I can send a diary invite for a Teams meeting for our first meeting of the Armed Forces Champion Early Years Professional network, on Wednesday 26 Feb at 09.00am - 10.00am, if you’d like come along.
Kind regards,
Debra Barton | Early Years Specialist Lead, SEO/C1
 Using the toilet is a new skill that children need to learn. You can play an important role in supporting children and their parents with toilet training.
The Department for Education has published new toilet training guidance on the Help for Early Years Providers website. This will help you understand how to support babies and young children with toilet training in your settings. The guidance includes information and resources on:
- When to start toilet training
- How to toilet train
- Common toilet training challenges
- Supporting children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
- Working in partnership with parents and carers
 While washing pods and capsules can make doing the laundry much easier, they can do serious damage to children’s insides, skin and eyes if they burst them or bite into them. Child Accident Prevention Trust have created a brand-new information page explaining the risks and the simple things we can all do to keep children safe. Please read and share with your communities to help raise awareness.
Free resources to help spread the word
Their short animation illustrates the dangers of laundry capsules and why small children find them so appealing. Break the ice at any group event with a Bitrex Taste Test. It’s a chance for parents to taste the bitterest substance on earth, then eat milk chocolate, all in aid of poisoning prevention. Share their bite-sized facts and safety tips. Their cleaning products session plan supports you to run engaging group discussions with parents. Their helpful fact sheet has been translated into five community languages (Arabic, Bengali, Polish, Punjabi and Urdu).
 Bookings are now live for the next round of Get Set Go courses!
Starting from W/C 24 February, these 6-week PEEP courses are perfect for families with a little one starting school this September. Parents can go along to learn about different ways to support their child at home with those essential development skills.
It's also a great opportunity for them to talk through any concerns, worries or challenges they may have around their child starting school.
Groups are available to book at the following days/times:
- Mondays, 1.30pm - 2.30pm, Milton Family Hub
- Wednesdays, 10.00am - 11.00am, Paulsgrove (local venue TBC)
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Thursdays, 1.30pm - 2.30pm, Buckland Family Hub
If you have any questions regarding Get Set Go, please feel free to get in contact with Project Coordinators, Nicola Drummond: nicola.drummond@theparentingnetwork.co.uk or Zoe Williams: zoe@theparentingnetwork.co.uk.
 In PSCPs Learning from Children and Practice Committee they recently considered the experience of a family where the children experienced chronic neglect. The reflective learning review at the button below contains a summary of what they learnt from talking to those who had worked with the family and it is important to acknowledge that it was evident that these practitioners had worked really hard to support them.
Unfortunately neglect remains the form of maltreatment most frequently experienced by children. Often the child may be too young, too scared or feel ashamed to tell anyone what is happening to them and, despite our best efforts, adults may not fully appreciate the impact that neglect is having upon them.
Working with chronic neglect is complex and challenging, however it is important to focus on the impact on children and to keep asking ourselves “what is life like for a child in this family?” To support you with this, PSCP have a page dedicated to responding to child neglect on their website which has practice guidance that should be used in conjunction with the Thresholds Document to consider the appropriate response. This page also hosts the Day in the Life tools, that can help you to work with children and families to make sense of an individual’s lived experience.
 As part of the Start for Life infant feeding initiatives to promote and support breast feeding, safe formula feeding and introducing solid foods, a new training session is being offered for all agencies and professionals working with families within the first 1001 days. No matter what your role, we can all have a part to play in supporting families with their feeding journey.
Topics include exploring the practical, emotional and cultural barriers, public health benefits, supporting families to get breastfeeding off to a good start and safe formula feeding.
The training will take place on Friday 7 February 2025, 9am - 12.30pm at St Mary's Community Health Campus.
To book a place, please email Joe.Sippits@solent.nhs.uk.
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