#15/2026 - Wednesday 15 April 2026
This week's newsletter includes:
- Good Level of Development Focus - Physical activity and children's development
- Summer term 2026 census and actuals claims - action required
- Transition events 2026
- Supporting families - Starting Reception website
- Month of the Military Child - activities for settings
- Early Years Training
Difficulty viewing this bulletin? Click here to view in your browser.
Latest Ofsted news and updates here.
Physical development is one of the prime areas of learning within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). The importance of physical activity goes beyond the development of physical skills.
Movement is essential in early years because it is the primary way young children explore, learn, and build brain connections. Active play strengthens muscles and bones, enhances cognitive development, fosters emotional regulation, and improves social skills, while forming healthy lifelong habits. Physical development needs to be planned in the same way as other curriculum areas and all learning should be planned to give children as many opportunities to be active and to move as possible.
The Chief Medical Officers’ physical activity for early years guidance states that children aged 1 to 5 years should be active for at least 180 minutes a day. Children under the age of 1 should have at least 30 minutes of physical activity across the day. For 3 to 4 year olds, this should include 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity. This means activities that increase the person’s heart and breathing rate.
There is a range of support available to early years educators to help with planning and delivering physical development and including physical activity in their setting. This includes:
Physical activity can take place outside or inside but there are significant benefits for spending time outside. It is often said "there's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing" and early years educators will be aware of the many benefits of high quality outdoor play. The following article Rain as a Living Classroom explores the benefits of children being outside in the rain and the learning opportunities this presents which will be worth bearing in mind as we enjoy April showers.
|
The Online Provider Portal (OPP) is now open for you to submit your census and your Early Years Funded Entitlement claims for the 9 month plus, 2 year old and 3 and 4 year old age groups.
Key dates:
-
Headcount day – Thursday 30 April 2026
-
Deadline for submissions - Friday 8 May 2026 at 11.59pm
The census is now required termly and is found in the new My Details section of your OPP account. You will be unable to submit your actuals until you have completed your census.
We have created new video guides to help you complete the termly census and your actuals:
These video guides can also be found on our How to claim child-level funding (actuals) web page, along with the following guidance documents:
- Introductory guide and census - how to access and complete the census form, how to access the OPP actuals, and how to remove child records for children you will no longer claim for
- Existing children - how to claim for existing children
- New children - how to add children to your headcount
- Post-submission guidance - information on queries you may receive from the Early Years Funding Team following your submission, and how to view a summary of your funding claims for the term
When completing actuals for children who have a SEN COP Stage set to ‘SEN Support’ or anything other than ‘No Special Educational Need’, you will need to specify a 'SEN Primary Special Need', and there is also the option to add a secondary special need. This new requirement was introduced in spring term.
If there are any outstanding queries, we will contact you to resolve them.
We are looking forward to seeing you at the upcoming transition events. If you have not yet booked your place, please visit the West Sussex Services for Education booking portal to book onto the relevant events in your area. You can search using the key words “transition event”.
School place offers will be sent to families on Thursday 16 April and this information will be used to timetable the events. Booking before this date will help make the process more manageable and efficient.
When booking, please consider how many children you need to discuss. If this is a large number, it can be helpful to send more than one practitioner. If you are attending as part of a group of settings, please clearly state which setting(s) you are representing in the booking notes. If you are unsure which events you need to attend, we recommend booking now and cancelling later if needed.
Before attending a Transition Event, please:
- complete the Transition Event Record template and bring it with you to support conversations. We recommend completing a separate form for each school and leaving a copy with the school once discussed.
- complete the Info gathering form for events and share a copy with a member of West Sussex County Council staff at the event. You can also email a copy to your setting support mailbox before or after this event. Completing this form enables us to share the information with the relevant schools team to make sure appropriate support can be put in place.
The above forms can also be found on the Early years transition web page.
Transition Events are a universal opportunity to share a brief overview of each child moving to school in September. You will also be able to highlight children who will need a more supported transition and arrange further conversations and visits.
Please encourage families to visit the Starting Reception website which includes information about how parents can support children to be ready for starting in their Reception class in school as well as The Potty Training Guide and The Children's Toothbrushing Guide. The website is helpful for all families, not just those with children starting school in September.
The Starting Reception and Potty Training pages are available in multiple languages, and all of the pages have a "text to read" function so parents can listen to the information.
Early years and childcare settings can participate in Month of the Military Child in simple, meaningful ways. These ideas are based on UK Month of the Military Child resources and Never Such Innocence, who offer free resources for Month of the Military Child.
Purple Up Day:
- Invite children and staff to wear purple on 25 April.
- Use purple resources as part of your activities and display boards.
Dandelion art:
- Offer open‑ended materials such as paint, sponges, cotton buds, natural items or collage loose parts for children to explore freely.
- Provide images or real dandelions as inspiration, then let children represent them (or not) in their own way. The dandelion symbol links to resilience and adaptability.
- Encourage children to talk about their creations if they choose. They may share ideas about feeling strong, brave or ready for new adventures.
- If children choose to talk about their artwork, you can gently explore ideas like “What helps you feel strong?” or “What helps you try new things?”, linking back to the dandelion’s resilience.
Story choices:
Look at stories about:
- moving home
- making new friends
- being brave
- family diversity
- military families
You can find a collection of recommended reads for military families on Little Troopers website.
Children are defined as having reached a Good Level of Development (GLD) at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage, if they have achieved the expected level for the early learning goals in the prime areas of learning: communication and language, personal, social and emotional development and physical development as well as the specific areas of mathematics and literacy.
With this in mind, we have focused on the courses that are under the umbrella of communication and language. We have 3 shorter courses, under the suite of courses titled 'Communication Club'. These have been introduced based on Ofsted’s recommendations on setting’s reports over the past year.
To book, click the course name below. You can also visit our booking portal West Sussex Services for Education and select your required course.
At the start of April, the new early years training programme for 2026/27 was released, with all courses now available to view and book. This week we are focusing on the behaviour related courses that will be taking place over the next few months.
To book, click the course name below. You can also visit our booking portal West Sussex Services for Education and select your required course.
If you experience any issues when booking your course, please email early.years.training@westsussex.gov.uk.
Useful information
- 30 April - Headcount day for summer term
- 8 May - Portal closes for settings to submit actuals for summer term
We have a range of online training available for you to access for your staff to ensure they have the most up to date information to support them in their role:
It is important you follow the correct steps and notify the relevant teams and professionals if your setting needs to close.
Contact your local setting support team and visit our closing your early years and childcare setting web page for step by step support.
We share a weekly Jobs in Early Years and Childcare bulletin with members of the public. You can find guidance and a template for submitting your job adverts to this bulletin on our advertise early years and childcare jobs web page. You will also find useful guidance on advertising your job vacancies on other platforms.
Early Years and Childcare newsletter web page.
|
