The West Sussex approach puts the child first. We work with children, families, communities, our partners and schools in a restorative, strength based way. Strong relationships are at the heart of what we do.
Broadcast for Early Years and childcare providers in West Sussex from West Sussex County Council
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Wednesday 1 March 2023
Meeting the needs of International New Arrivals
The Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS) have developed new resources to support schools who have children attending and recently arrived from another country. Although this guidance is written for primary schools, it also contains information that would be useful for early years and childcare settings.
The guidance for Primary Schools contains the following:
Part one -
- Who are international new arrivals?
- Stages of second language acquisition.
- What to consider when preparing for the pupil’s arrival?
- Admissions and induction processes to enable the child and the family to feel welcome.
- Welcome Profiles (early years and primary school age) - a tool for gathering essential background information.
Part two -
- Helping the pupil to settle in during their first week.
- Cultural differences that might affect pupil behaviour.
- The importance of buddies.
- Supporting the pupil in the first few weeks and months.
- Core vocabulary and key language structures the pupil needs to learn and how to embed them.
- Teaching and learning strategies.
- Scaffolding and differentiation examples.
- Information for parents.
You may also find the document Early Help Service - Helping Children Thrive contains useful information when signposting families to further support.
Green Business Newsletter
Local small and medium sized business owners are invited to sign up to receive West Sussex County Council's Green Business Newsletter. You can keep up to date on all things low carbon and receive information of new funding grants.
Early Years Training
Sound and Secure - Essential early phonics for 3 and 4 year olds (Webinar) is for practitioners working with 3 and 4 year olds in the early years sector. The aim of this course is to provide a secure understanding of effective teaching of Phase One of the recommended Letters and Sounds programme. You will explore and embed the principles and practices which underpin children’s early phonological development. The cost of this is £26 per place.
- Thursday 9 March – 9.30am to 3.30pm - EYT 23/275
Nurturing Self-Regulation (Webinar) is an introductory level course. You will learn how to support young children to regulate their emotions and recognise when to apply calming strategies. The cost of this is £26 per place.
- Monday 13 March – 9.30am to 12.30pm - EYT 23/617
To book, search for the course code on the Learning and Development Gateway. If you have any questions, please email early.years.training@westsussex.gov.uk.
- 6-20 Mar - Portal opens for Summer Estimates
- 31 Mar - Spring term Sufficiency deadline (all providers)
- 4 May - Summer Term Headcount Day
To allow our Early Years and Childcare Advisors to focus their support to where it is most needed, we ask that you check for information online before you contact us.
COVID-19 guidance
Other information and guidance (WSCC)
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Practice support (EYFS, Diversity and Inclusion, health and wellbeing, transitions, legislation, regulation and safeguarding)
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Supporting families in your childcare setting (includes CLaWBA, integrated reviews)
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Tools for schools and settings (supporting the inclusion of all children in early years)
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Business support (Free Entitlement, marketing, finance, recruitment, advertising)
- Training and qualifications
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Network meetings/events (Learning and development, INCO SENCO, business and welfare)
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Online Provider Portal (submission dates, help guides)
For help to access information
To request additional support for your setting
Please inform the Family Information Service if your setting needs to close or is re-opening. Email family.info.service@westsussex.gov.uk and include your setting name, Ofsted URN, the date you intend to close/open, and any changes to your operating hours. If you inform us of re-opening, you will be reinstated on the public list and appear on our website www.westsussex.gov.uk/fis.
If closing due to COVID-19, please consult the guidance to check when to inform Ofsted.
In the event of your setting having a confirmed COVID-19 case, if Public Health or the Department for Education have stated you must close for any period of time you must inform the Family Information Service. However, if Public Heath have not explicitly stated in correspondence to you that the setting must close, we would expect you to make contact with your Early Years and Childcare Adviser (EYCA) to talk through your circumstances, where possible, before making the decision to close the setting. If you are not able to make immediate contact with your EYCA then please email your nearest EYCA team using the following email addresses:
Where there are not clearly evidenced reasons why the setting had no option to close, there could be implications for funding received as per the government guidance.
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#253 (Notice of planned downtime, Additional Bank Holiday, Ofsted update, Early years child development training, Government Education Committee review, Portage home visiting service, music training course)
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#252 (Advanced notice of planned downtime; financial planning for 2023/24;updated Ofsted web pages; DfE COVID-19 recovery childminder mentor programme; DfE funded webinars from NASEN; guidelines for management of Scarlet Fever outbreaks; SEND and inclusion newsletter)
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#251 (Information from DfE regarding school strikes; business opportunity in East Grinstead; helping young children to think about race; employment allowance; open letter from the Princess of Wales; improve your learning environments)
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#250 (Safeguarding focus - Martyn's law and learning from safeguarding reviews. FE funding rates for 2023/24; spring term headcount and Census deadline approaching; current high call volumes; support for early years providers; Ofsted release new research and guide; early years professional development programme; training for INCO/SENCOs)
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#249 (Important changes to the inclusion funding process; business planning; DfE free leadership training; EYPDP places for February '23; training to support children with hearing impairments; EYFS leaders networks)
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