Author: Lizzy Jones

Getting early years active

by Lizzy Jones

Try our top 3 Early Years exercise activities in your setting

A child’s early years are a critical time for establishing healthy lifestyles and promoting exercise, that’s why it’s important to provide children with the right tools to do this. Providing good resources, relevant activities and positive attitudes is essential in laying the foundations for healthy lifestyles. We’ve compiled our top 3 early years exercise ideas for you to try in your school or nursery:

1. Playing catch

Children of all ages love to catch, roll and throw a ball. Make sure you have a variety of balls available in your setting; these can be soft, small or larger balls, like a football. From rolling a ball for babies to throwing a ball though a hoop for pre-schoolers, this is a perfect way to exercise and a really social activity too.

2. Building with blocks

Babies and ‘pre-walkers’ can use various sized blocks to help with grasping and improve their fine motor skills. As they get a little older they can start making smaller towers, build a den or a bridge with soft blocks that can be used during roleplay.

3. Counting games

Counting is a great activity to promote exercise and incorporate into children’s daily routines. For example, counting their steps to different destinations or counting the number of carrots on their plate at lunch time. Children can also throw a number of bean bags at a cone or in a hoop; a fun activity to use at sports day and play with parents!

Discover more way to promote Early Years exercise activities in your setting and at home for all ages with our free eGuide, here.

Why not incorporate exercise and healthy eating in your day? Our healthy eating blog is a perfect way to not only encourage early years children to exercise and build those little muscles, but to also learn about the food their eating.

Check out further information about early years exercising and physical activities:

 

Get children interested in food and healthy eating

by Lizzy Jones

Introducing EYFS Healthy Eating and Food Activities

In early years it’s important to encourage children to learn more about food as well as expand their tastes. Embracing healthy living and eating in your early years setting can be lots of fun as well as important for growth and development in the vital early years. Involve everyone – all staff or assistants as well as parents and children. This will give you a pot of new ideas as well as a feeling of teamwork.

Here are a few EYFS healthy eating activties to help encourage children to talk about, try and understand the food they eat.

1.Make bread

Help children of all ages weigh, mix and knead their ingredients. Allow them to see how the dough has risen and doubled in size!

Bonus: This not only helps to grow children’s interest in their food, kneading helps develop their small muscles (PD). In additio, it gived them an opportunity to talk about what the think healthy food means (PSED).

2.Plant seeds

By planting seeds in window boxes or outside you can help children understand where their foods come from and how they grow in different ways. Why not try tomatoes, cress or herbs?

Bonus: Take children to a farm to pick fruit, like strawberries. This will help children see a wider variety and will keep them engaged.

3.Try foods from around the world

Have an around the world or festival theme with lots of pick ‘n’ mix bowls. For example, try mangos (from India) or hummus (from Egypt) etc. This will help children try different foods and expand their tastes.

Bonus: Invite families to join in and bring food from different countries, this will help children see all of their role models together promoting and encouraging healthy eating and new foods.

Discover more way to create EYFS healthy eating activities in your setting, and boose parental paticipation at home with our free eGuide, here.

Bonfire Night

by Lizzy Jones

Bonfire Night is a great time to celebrate a tradition in the UK and enjoy a firework and bonfire display in your local area. It is something that is celebrated by all ages and by lots of families at the beginning of November. Bonfire Night, or Guy Fawkes Night as it’s also known, is a perfect opportunity to create exciting activities in your early years setting and get children expressing themselves through bright colours and fun activities. It’s also a great time to teach children how to keep themselves safe if they attend an event.

There are lots of activities on the internet but to give you a helping hand we’ve created this blog of our top Bonfire Night EYFS activities to get your children in the mood for Guy Fawkes Night, as well as some helpful tips from firework and bonfire safety websites.

Bonfire Night – EYFS Activities

1. Simple Mark Making

Mark making activities can be adapted for all age groups from babies to preschool.

You can ask children to use different material to make bright fireworks and bonfires. Younger children could use cotton buds or their little finger on chalk boards and copy firework style shapes and patterns. Or children can use their imaginations to make their own shapes and swirls with pencils, felt-tips, glitter pens or paint!

[Physical Development – Moving & Handling; Mathematics – Shape, space and measure; Expressive Arts and Design – Exploring and using media and materials & Being imaginative]

2. Fireworks in a Jar

This activity combines bonfire night, fireworks and science. Fill jars with water and set them out on an activity table. Mix together each food colouring colour with oil and use pipettes or pour the mixtures into the jar and watch the fireworks come to life!

Make sure you don’t miss the step where you mix oil to food colouring as this will make sure most of the colouring floats.

[Understanding the World- The World; Expressive Arts & Design – Exploring and using media & materials, Being imaginative]

3. Painting with Straws

Another great way to create fireworks in your setting is painting with straws!

Gather together some straws, at least one per child, as well as black card or paper and some bright coloured paint. Add some water to the paint so they become a little runnier and drop enough paint on the paper to create a small puddle. Then get your children to take their straw and blow through it to spread the puddle you made.

This may take a little practice, so you could always let the children have a few practice goes on scrap paper or newspaper.

Don’t forget to use lots of different colours to brighten up your night sky! This activity is perfect for toddlers and older children too.

[Physical Development – Moving & Handling; Expressive Arts & Design – Exploring and using media & materials, Being imaginative]

4. Bonfire Night Sky

A great way to get all children involved and celebrate their beautiful artwork is to create a bonfire night sky display board with a fun and messy twist.

Tape together lots of black card or paper, or use individual pieces, and pour the paints into trays and give the children paint brushes. Dip the brush into the paint and flick the paint onto the black paper. This is the messy bit so make sure you put some newspaper or covering down! Flick a range of colours onto the paper to create a bright picture.

You can add painting and other activities you’ve done to the board too!

[Physical Development – Moving & Handling; Expressive Arts & Design – Exploring and using media & materials, Being imaginative]

Safety

Of course Bonfire Night EYFS Activities are a great way for ealry years children to get involved in the festivities. However, wn important part of any firework celebrations, such as bonfire night, is the prevention of accidents. Fireworks and bonfires can be great fun but it is important to remember and pass on safety tips to parents, families and begin teaching children how to stay safe from an early age.

Here are a number of important tips to remember:

  • Make sure you plan your firework display to make it safe and enjoyable;
  • Read and follow the instructions on each firework packaging prior to the evening or use a torch if necessary;
  • Light the fireworks at arm’s length and have others stand well back;
  • Never return to a firework once it has been lit even if it fails to go off;
  • Direct fireworks away from spectators;
  • It is recommended that sparklers are not given to children under-5 years of age;
  • Make sure everyone handling sparklers wears gloves;
  • Never hold a baby in your arms while you are holding a sparkler;
  • When using sparklers avoid wearing loose clothing and tie back long hair.

Check out these websites for more information:

Royal Society of the Prevention of Accidents 

Fire Service

BBC Newsround 

Halloween EYFS Activites

by Lizzy Jones

Halloween is a great opportunity to celebrate the arrival of Autumn and gives you the opportunity to involve lots of Halloween EYFS activities in your setting throughout the week building up to children trick or treating.

There are lots of activities out there on the internet but to give you a helping hand our team at LearningBook have compiled our favourite Halloween EYFS activities to get your children in the mood for Halloween, whilst also incorporating meaningful areas of the curriculum of course.

1. Halloween Sensory Bin

Instead of the usual Halloween craft, why not try a sensory bin?

This is great sensory activity and keeps children engaged. Simply fill a tub or tray with your favourite materials, this can be water beads (to give that slightly slimey addition) or even black dried beans or dyed rice. Then on top of this include some creepy crawlies and other Halloween themed smaller pieces. To add additional elements to the activity, ask the children to describe what they’re feeling to encourage them to explore their senses.

You can also ask the children to name the different pieced they find from the bin and even group them based on colour or size.

[Expressive Arts and Design – Exploring and using media and materials; Mathematics – Shape, space and measure and Numbers]

2. Monster/Pumpkin Slime

This activity is perfect for encouraging young children and babies to experience new senses; an added bonus is that it’s edible!

Using melted marshmallows, cornflower, water and food colouring (we recommend green, orange, purple and black) to make the slime, ask children to pull and push the slime to work those little muscles.

[Physical Development – Moving and Handling; Expressive Arts and Design – Exploring and using media and materials]

3. Ice Cube Play

This one takes some pre-prep! Fill ice cube trays with water and pop in a spider, bugs or other Halloween themed pieced. Be aware that this activity is suitable for children over two years as the bugs can be very small!

Once the ice cubes are frozen place them on tray or onto the table for the children to play with. As the cubes melt the children can play with the bugs hidden inside.

Encourage the children to talk about what appears once the ice has melted or, if the children are capable, ask them to sort the small pieces in to different types, colours or count them.

[Expressive Arts and Design – Exploring and using media and materials; Mathematics – Shape, space and measure and Numbers; Communication and Language – Speaking]

4. Spooky Stories

A simple but effective activity is reading. There’s plenty of Halloween themed books that you can read to your children or ask them to try and read.

A classic, and no doubt somewhere on your book shelf, is “Room on a Broom” by Julia Donaldson. The story of a witch, a group of animals who help her, good manners, friendship and cooperation is fun to read aloud because of its rhythm and rhyme.

[Literacy – Reading; Communication and Language – Listening, Speaking]

5. Spider Hand Prints

Spider hand prints are great start to begin decorating your room ready for Halloween. It’s quite simple, requires few resources and can be done with children of any age.

Firstly, help paint the children’s hands with the black paint and press onto the paper. Once the handprints have dried cut them out and have the children glue on two googly eyes in the centre. You can use these on display boards or attach them to some string and hang from the ceiling.

[Expressive Arts and Design – Exploring and using media and materials & Begin imaginative]

6. Visit to a Pumpkin Patch

At Halloween nothing can beat visiting a pumpkin patch or going out to buy your pumpkins ready to decorate the setting.

Gather the children together and visit your local farm who you know grow pumpkins and pick some out. This visit will allow the children to experience a day out of the nursery or preschool and gives them some independence in choosing their favourite pumpkin to take away.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a pumpkin patch near by just pop down to your local supermarket to pick out a pumpkin or two!

[Understanding the World – The world & People and communities]

Don’t forget to search for more Halloween EYFS activities on the internet and on social media, including:

LearningBook joins forces with Just Childcare

by Lizzy Jones

Nursery group Just Childcare is teaming up with leading education technology company LearningBook to deliver a top spec recording and development tracking system across its sites.

The award-winning chain of over 30 nurseries will use LearningBook’s safeguarding-aware digital learning journey in a rolling multi-year contract, enabling staff to perform observation recording and tracking in half the time*.

Dr James Huntington, founder of LearningBook, comments; “We’re delighted to be joining forces with Just Childcare. Our system will help Just Childcare deliver a more comprehensive and efficient level of data collection, ensuring they continue to meet national and Ofsted standards, while having more time to help develop the children and engage parents.”

Liz Carroll, Nursery Operations Director at Just Childcare, adds: “Our team have found the system so simple to use, while allowing for a real depth of information to inform staff of children’s progress – and parents and carers really appreciate the unique safeguarding element and having the ability to view and contribute to their child’s education at home. We knew quite soon into our trial that we would be looking to roll the technology out across all our nurseries.”

 

LearningBook is based in Manchester and Macclesfield and is run by Dr James Huntington. The company was started when James’ family, who own Ofsted Outstanding nurseries, spotted a need for a more streamlined, safe and simple system for staff to track children’s early years development. James, a cloud computing company owner, combined his IT knowledge with ex-head teachers and nursery owners to create the system, launching it in 2014. It is the only company in the UK to offer the technology to clients on tablets which are stripped of all other applications, delivering a higher level of safeguarding than other companies. LearningBook now works with over 1,000 schools, preschools, nurseries and childminders all over the UK and further afield.

Liz concludes: “Thanks to LearningBook, we can spend more time improving the development of the children in our care, and communicating it really effectively to their parents and carers, who love the safeguarding element.”

Getting to Grips with the GDPR

by Lizzy Jones

GDPR in Early Years

You may not think that the GDPR will impact early years setting but it does. It’s important to get to grips with what it all means and what steps your establishment should take to be compliant.

What is GDPR?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a directive by which the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information of individuals within the European Union (EU). The GDPR will replace the current Data Protection Act.

The GDPR aims primarily to give control back to individuals over their personal data and covers all companies that deal with the data of EU citizens. The EU definition of “personal data” is “any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person”. Above all, the GDPR is intended to create a uniformity of rules to enforce across the continent.

On 25th May 2018 the GDPR will be enforced across Europe.

Think that the GDPR will not be enforced after Brexit? Wrong. To clarify, it has been confirmed GDPR will form part of UK law following the country’s withdrawal from the EU. Therefore, companies including nurseries and other childcare establishments are advised to begin making appropriate steps to make their setting GDPR compliant.

How will it impact the Early Years Sector, including your setting?

For your nursery, preschool, school etc. personal data will likely be information on children, parents and your staff. For instance, names, dates of birth, addresses, allergies, medical information, photos, bank details, national insurance numbers and qualifications. All of which are personally identifiable and therefore concerned under the GDPR in early years settings.

Under the GDPR there are certain key areas to consider:

Awareness

Key people within your school or nursery aware of the changes in law to the GDPR. These people may include managers, owner, directors, or governing body. Importantly, they should also understand the impact this will have.

Information

You should hold a record of what personal data you hold, where it came from and who you share it with. Something to bear in mind is who in your setting has access to what. By limiting how many individuals can access information and what information will, consequently, reduce risk.

Consent and Privacy Information

Firstly, you should review how you seek, record and manage consent. Secondly, find out whether you need to make any changes to your current procedures. Review and renew existing consent forms now if they don’t meet the GDPR standard. For children, who are not able to give consent of their own data until they are 16, you should think about your current system for obtaining consent from parents or guardians. Furthermore, this consent should also cover privacy policies or notices to give individuals your identity. It also means they know how you plan to use their information.

Individual Rights

This includes the right to be informed, to access, to rectification, to erasure, to restrict processing, to object, and to not be subject automated decision-making and profiling.

A nursery or school should check the policies and procedures in place to ensure they cover the rights individuals have under the GDPR. This can include how you would delete individuals’ personal data or provide them with their data if requested. LearningBook allows you to download and export data in formats suchs as PDF, CSV etc, so this is something to consider when it comes to GDPR in your early years setting.

Penalties for Non-Compliance

If you don’t comply with GDPR then the Information Commission’s Office (ICO) has the right to fine your company an amount up to £20million or a 4% global turnover. The level of the fine depends on which is greater. The ICO will likely only audit you if there has been a breach.

Find out more:

Impressing prospective nursery parents

by Lizzy Jones

As you know the first aim for a nursery is to encourage parents to entrust you with their children. It’s important to consider the impression you give parents online, in the community, during a visit and beyond. For most parents looking for childcare, this is the first time they will have to leave their child. They may be feeling guilty and nervous, and maybe experiencing separation anxiety.

As a childcare provider it is important to not only give a good impression in regards to looking after their child but also that you have the capbailities and the willingness to offer support to families as a whole. This will further assure parents they are making the right decision.

No doubt parents will consider more than one nursery visit so it’s important that you make a strong first impression.

Here’s out top 5 tips on how to impress your prospective nursery parents:

1. Online Presence

In today’s society a first impression is normally made online; this can be through your website, social media, or recommendation sites. Parents are likely to search for nurseries in their local area through a search engine or other childcare directories and forums. Therefore, it’s important to get this bit right. You can get inspiration from other nurseries in your area or even nurseries who have won awards for their online presence (Try looking at NMT Awards or Nursery World Awards). This may be how they’ve built their website, what they post on Facebook or Twitter or even what imagery they share online. When creating content in these places makes sure the values you have in your early years setting are reflected widely.

It’s also important to make the route they take through your website as simple as possible. Make sure they are directed to online forms, email addresses and telephone numbers encouraging them to call, book a visit or simply to find out more information about your childcare setting. When parents do call or email in, make sure they are responded to in a timely and polite manner, and their questions are answered.

2. Timing is everything

As you know certain times in the nursery are better at showing of the different activities and resources that are available to children to help them grow and develop.

Try to encourage parents to visit during times where planned activities or free flow play is occurring. Avoid nap times or drop-off and pick-up times where either nothing is happening or it’s a little chaotic. At these time, staff have other priorities and can’t engage with the visitors.

3. Staff should be engaged with the prospective parents and children 

Well before the visit it’s important to hire staff that share the nurseries values and are passionate about childcare. Parents will feel more relaxed and will feel more positive about leaving their child at your nursery when they can trust those who are taking care of their children.

Encourage your staff to have smart and correct uniform, smile, say hello and ask questions. Staff should speak with the parents about their child’s health and wellbeing, as well as their likes and dislikes. They can ask things about the child and family’s routine and how they can help your child settle into their new environment. This may take some practice but the more staff do this the more comfortable they will become with talking to visitors.

It’s important to remember that staff should also show engagement with the child or children not just with the parents.

4. Show off your strengths

Show off the things you’re proud of! Have you been graded Good or Outstanding by Ofsted? If so, mention this any chance you get. Parents will also want to know what makes you different, so make sure you play to your strengths during your visit. These strengths may be your staff, the outdoor area, the resources, the additional activities such as Spanish, French, yoga and so on.

5. There’s always room for improvement

Even after the visit is over it is important to ensure that you have a process in place to gather feedback from parents and families who have visited your setting. Both those who have taken a place and those who haven’t.

Sometimes this can be a phone call from the manager or administrative staff, or even an email with a survey to help you gather information.

Its one thing collecting feedback but it’s another using it to make improvements and learn from mistakes or suggested improvements. Ensure that the feedback and/or survey results are collated and feedback to the necessary people.

3 questions you must ask your Digital Learning Journey provider

by Lizzy Jones

Why Digital Learning Journeys?

Some practitioners are spending as long as seven hours each week assembling paper learning journeys for the EYFS. Many practitioners are expected to complete these unpaid, after work hours. It’s not surprising when you consider the complicated processes that go into these learning journeys. Some practitioners write sticky notes and keep them in pockets before filing them in the correct scrapbook. Many nurseries tie a notebook to the play area, so practitioners can jot down observations, which then have to be copied out. Of course, these paper Learning Journeys are prone to damage and getting lost; yet they aren’t much use to parents sitting in a tray at school. That’s why Digital Learning Journeys were invented!

Digital Learning Journey observations are much easier. Using tablet computers, practitioners can:

  • Make photo, video, text or voice recording observations;
  • Save the details to a child, or even to a child’s specific learning outcome;
  • Receive parents’ comments and recordings of activities outside the home, for a more complete picture of each child’s progress.

Digital Learning Journey systems finally allow for the truly spontaneous observations practitioners have been long been expected to provide; instead of the reality of rushing to complete scrapbooks in time for Parent’s Evening.

Some practitioners using the old scrapbook learning journeys say they struggle to observe something for each child every term. Digital Learning Journeys make observations so quick and easy you can make observations whenever you choose.

Three questions you must ask before you choose Digital Learning Journey provider

The advantages of Digital Learning Journeys are clear. However, with new Digital Learning Journey systems added to the market every day, it can be difficult to know which to choose.

You must ask:

1. Is it secure?

Some early years settings restrict mobile devices and cameras due to fears around sharing images. It would be very easy to share an image of a child on a social network via a mobile phone. For this reason, concerned headteachers and managers should avoid Digital Learning Journey systems which are simply downloaded to open devices.

LearningBook’s locked down ‘SmartTablets’ are closed. The ‘SmartTablets’ cannot download other apps and software, such as Facebook, YouTube or email platforms. Data is protected from data loss and cybercrime because it is backed up and stored securely. Only accessible to staff and parents via secure logins. Practitioners enjoy all the benefits technology brings, with none of the fears.

2. Will parents use this?

The chief advantage of Digital Learning Journeys is their power to engage parents. When parents partner with practitioners, the effect on educational outcomes is immeasurable. Practitioners will already know how much easier it is to build relationships with parents who understand what goes on in their setting.

LearningBook has received much praise for its parent portal; which parents say is easy to use. LearningBook case studies show just how much parents enjoy finding out what their child is learning about.

3. How much is it?

LearningBook is the professional and secure choice. Although it is one of the most established systems on the market, it is priced competitively.

Safeguarding-aware tablets vs open devices

by Lizzy Jones

As you’re probably aware there are guidelines and policies in place to ensure that mobile devices are not used in early years settings. The reason for this is to prevent the intentional or unintentional distribution of children’s data.

It is a safeguarding best-practice for early years settings to restrict mobile devices and cameras due to fears around sharing images; it would be very easy to share an image of a child on a social network, such as Facebook, Twitter, email or other forms of online communications, via a mobile phone or tablet. To avoid this many managers implement policies to restrict the use of open devices in their settings, sometimes mobile phones have to be locked away during the day etc.

You may have heard fairly recently that a nursery that was previously rated as outstanding has been downgraded to inadequate after staff photographed children on their mobiles and sent the pictures to parents. Whilst there was a photo policy in place, signed by parents, meaning they only receive pictures of their own children, the use of open devices in the setting poses a risk to children’s information, data and images.

Furthermore, many settings begin using open devices, such as iPads and mobile phones in the rooms to record observations as part of children’s learning journeys to track their progression. These devices are likely to still have access to applications that allow sharing of images and videos making it easy for staff to do so, and therfore counteracting the nurseries priorties for children’s safety. It also allows the productivity of the staff to drop. With a range of applications available on open devices, staff may become distracted during quiet times or nap times where they access these application. This may be detrimental to the setting and could pose a risk to the children’s education and well-being, as well as staff motivations and role.

What options are available for my setting?

When it comes to online and digital learning journeys, motivating staff and engaging parents make sure you choose a provider that takes safeguarding seriously and is one of the company’s top priorities. LearningBook uses locked-down SmartTablets only, which cannot be used to access Internet browsers, social media, emails or other applications and ensures that no images can be taken outside of the learning journey or uploaded to anywhere outside of your control. All observations can only be uploaded to a secureAdministration Portal for staff and a password protected Parent Portal for parents to view and comment on.

Practitioners and managers enjoy all the benefits technology brings with none of the fears!

30 hours free childcare

by Lizzy Jones

In order to enable parents, where they wish, to return to work or to work additional hours the government is rolling out funding to support 30 hours free childcare.

In addition to the universal offer of 15 hours free early education entitlement most working parents of three and four year old children may be eligible for an additional 15 hours per week – totalling 30 hours free childcare.

Both entitlements can be delivered over 38 weeks (i.e. school term time) or the equivalent number of hours can be stretched across more weeks of the year.

Any childcare provider who is registered with Ofsted on the Early Years Register, including nurseries, pre-schools, playgroups, and some children’s centres may provide the places. It also means that Ofsted registered breakfast clubs; out of school; holiday clubs and childminders may be partners in providing free childcare places for working parents.

Am I eligible for 30 hours free childcare?

Not all parents are eligible for the extra 15 hours. However, everyone will still receive the 15 hours free childcare that is currently available.

To be eligible for 30 hours free childcare:

  • You  must live in England;
  • Your child is  3 or 4 years old;
  • Both parents must be working – or the sole parent is working in a single parent family;
  • Each parent earns, on average, a weekly minimum equivalent to 16 hours at National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage. The minimum amount will always reflect the lowest hourly rate that a person of your age can legally be paid. This information can be found online;
  • Each parent must have an annual income of less than £100,000.

Furthermore, parents can check their eligibility via the Childcare Choices website using its useful childcare calculator.

When does it start?

The scheme began nationwide in September 2017.

How do I apply?

You can now apply for 30-hour free childcare online via the Childcare Service.

When you apply, you’ll be asked to enter your name, address and National Insurance number, whether you expect to meet the income requirements over the next three months and whether you are in receipt of any benefits. Your partner will also need to fill in this information if necessary. This will enable HMRC to let you know whether your child is eligible for the 30 hours free childcare.

If you’re eligible, you’ll receive a code to take to your childcare provider and arrange your childcare place ahead of September 2017. You will also need your National Insurance Number and child’s date of birth. Your childcare provider or council will check the code is real and allocate your child a free childcare place.

Furthermore, if successful you will have to reconfirm their details quarterly – to ensure all information held is up to date.

Please be aware not all settings will offer the flexible 30 hours free childcare, it’s important to check with your local childcare providers. Also, some settings may charge for ‘extras’.

Useful Websites

Department of Education: Guidance

Childcare Choices

Pre-school Learning Alliance: 30 hours free childcare