 You should have now received an email containing the NEW digital transfer record for your pre-school children who are going into Year R in September 2026 along with guidance on how to complete this. This pre-populated cohort transfer record should be completed and returned to us by Friday 17 April. This year we are asking that you return to eyinclusion@portsmouthcc.gov.uk and we will complete the task of matching children to schools and send each school a collated list of children in their Year R cohort.
Please can you share the statement below with parents before returning the spreadsheet to us:
We will be sending educational information about your child to Portsmouth City Council (PCC) to support them make the best start into school. This information will then be passed by PCC to the school allocated to your child. If you choose for your child to go to a different school, the original school will delete this information and Portsmouth City Council will pass the information to the new school. You do not need to sign to give consent, and you can find more information about our privacy notice on the PCC website.
If you have any queries or have not received your transfer record, please do get in touch at eyinclusion@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.
 You should have received termly review forms via email for those children who are in receipt of SENDIF emerging and SENDIF+. Please complete and return one form for your setting and return to eyinclusion@portsmouthcc.gov.uk by Monday 20 April.
 In hopeful anticipation of a sunny Easter holiday for us all, we are promoting #50 from our 50 things to do before you're 5 project. You could try this experience with your children and share with your parents, so they can take part.
So #50 is all about sea and sand. Our new 50 things model from the Early Years Team is Ella, Susan Cooke's 3 year old daughter and she has been exploring playing safely in the sand and sea!
There are also a range of things happening over the Easter holidays which you could signpost your parents to:
Waves of Music Orchestra - Visit Portsmouth - free for those with museum ticket
Sea Sound Explorers - Visit Portsmouth - free for those with museum ticket
Vintage Bus Tour - Visit Portsmouth
Easter Fun at Fort Nelson - Visit Portsmouth
My Dog Sighs Treasure Hunt
 Click the button below to see the training that the neurodiversity team are are offering in the Summer term.
 Explore how to make the most of outdoor spaces for early years maths, sharing practical ideas to inspire you and tips for parents to continue the journey of discovery at home. It’s about making maths meaningful, playful, and fun! The natural environment is packed with opportunities for children to explore maths in real, meaningful ways. Whether it’s counting petals and stones, comparing the size of puddles, or finding patterns in the bark of trees or measuring worms, the outdoors offers endless chances for children to develop their mathematical thinking while they play and explore.
 Last FREE spaces available!
Thames Valley and South Central Hub currently have a limited number of FREE places available on the Maths Champions Programme (normally £1,205 per setting), funded through NDNA and the Department for Education.
This programme supports practitioners to build confidence in early maths and strengthen everyday practice, helping children develop strong mathematical foundations through play and daily routines.
What is Maths Champions? A practical, supportive programme designed to help practitioners embed meaningful maths into everyday routines and provision — without adding workload or requiring expensive resources.
What settings will gain? Practical, easy-to-implement maths strategies ✓ Increased confidence in supporting children’s mathematical thinking ✓ Ideas using everyday, low-cost resources ✓ Improvements to provision and outcomes for children
Who can take part? To be eligible, settings must be a PVI nursery, maintained nursery school or children’s centre, or state-funded school-based nursery • Supporting children accessing 3- and 4-year-old places for at least 15 hours per week
 Top 10 actions for your climate action plan
Early Years settings are leading in way with climate action! Small actions can create a snowball effect and evidence shows climate action delivers wider benefits too: from financial savings through energy efficiency, to improved wellbeing through outdoor learning.
Join the movement and build a meaningful, high impact climate action plan with the help of Sustainability Support for Education — the DfE’s sustainability platform. The platform is your one-stop shop for free, expert recommended actions. Every action comes with quality-assured resources, practical guidance and clear next steps to help you move from ideas to impact as quickly as possible.
Make sure you’ve got these top 10 actions in your plan. Create an account to save these actions to your list to start developing your plan. Keep returning to the site as a tool to develop and implement your climate action journey; it’s built to support you at every stage.
 It's back! Healthy Body, Happy Me returns on 23 March and we can't wait!
Your free resources are available to download now so you can prepare. This year's theme is 'Healthy Heroes', exploring everything that helps our bodies and minds feel their best: moving, eating well, resting, drinking water and connecting with others. We have a home learning pack, sponsored by Lidl Foodies, so you can support parents.
Download your resources so you can be prepared in your setting.
Healthy Body, Happy Me, is proudly sponsored by Hope and Lidl Foodies.
 A new post, “Scam text messages claiming to be from Ofsted” has just been published on the Ofsted: early years blog.
 Early years providers are required to meet the safer sleep requirements set out in the EYFS statutory framework, which currently links to the NHS safer sleep guidance. To make the existing requirements to follow the NHS guidance clearer, we will update the wording in the EYFS framework so that more detail on safer sleep is set out directly within the framework itself. We intend to introduce this for September 2026, subject to the parliamentary and legislative process.
See the following links for more advice on safer sleep:
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) - NHS
Safer Sleeping Practices for Early Years Educators - Foundation Years
Home | The Lullaby Trust
 Click the button below to view the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) one minute guide.
 You will have seen recent media reports about an invasive meningococcal disease outbreak in Kent and Medway.
We want to reassure you that while meningococcal disease can affect all ages, recent outbreaks have shown that older children, teenagers and young adults are more likely to be affected, and the individuals affected so far in this outbreak have been older teenagers and young adults. Meningococcal disease does not spread easily, and most children in primary age groups will have had access to the national infant vaccination programme. Vaccination coverage is above 90%.
Children can and should continue to attend their early education setting as normal unless their parents or carers have been directly advised otherwise by the local health protection team. Outbreaks of this size are rare. If parents have not been contacted directly by the UK Health Security Agency, the risk to them/their child is low.
It is always important for parents and carers to make sure that children stay up to date with all their routine vaccinations, as these offer important protection against infectious disease outbreaks.
Parents and carers should also be aware and alert to the signs and symptoms of invasive meningococcal disease.
For more information, visit the NHS website or see the information available from two charities who offer free support via their websites and helplines:
The Meningitis Research Foundation
www.meningitis.org
Helpline UK 080 8800 3344
Meningitis Now
www.meningitisnow.org
Helpline 0808 80 10 388
or helpline@meningitisnow.org
UKHSA blog post
Meningitis B outbreak: what you need to know – UK Health Security Agency
 HMRC has published guidance for childminders on how they can continue to claim household expenses, including wear and tear costs deductions, whether they use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax or not. The new guidance and the updated Business Income Manual guidance can be found on GOV.UK.
Key points from the guidance:
- All childminders can claim a deduction for costs of buying, repairing or replacing household items used for their business, including wear and tear of household items and furniture, household costs and food and drink, whether they use Making Tax Digital or the alternative rules for the sector.
- Only those with qualifying income above £50,000 will begin using Making Tax Digital from 6 April 2026. In 2027 the qualifying income threshold will drop to £30,000 and then in 2028 to £20,000.
- If childminders use Making Tax Digital they will record and claim their actual expenditure on buying, repairing or replacing household items and furniture, which can be higher than 10% in some instances. If they are still using the alternative method, they will continue to claim for ‘wear and tear’ using the flat 10% estimate.
The government will actively engage with childminders and stakeholders to review the impacts of moving from the 10% deduction to actual costs for wear and tear expense claims.
You can find out more information about Making Tax Digital for Income Tax on HMRC’s campaign page.
 Go To Grow, is our early years attendance campaign highlighting something simple yet powerful: when young children attend their early years provision regularly, they thrive.
The early years are a time of rapid brain development, curiosity, and learning. Every day in an early years setting offers children opportunities to build social skills, develop language, explore new experiences, and form strong foundations for future learning. Consistent attendance ensures they benefit fully from all these moments that help them grow.
Take a look at the social media videos at the buttons below. Please share with families via your social media platforms.
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