NEWS

Stronger Practice Hubs are here to stay and early years is being seen as a priority by the Government! Helen Rush, St Edmund's Early Years Stronger Practice Hub Lead, shares some exciting news! Stronger Practice Hubs have confirmed funding for another three years. The future for early years is looking bright, hear what Helen has to say...

Supporting MLLs effectively starts with educators. We need to feel confident and brave enough to try different ways of communicating. Read the full blog to hear Sian Hudson's experiences and guidance for practitioners working with multilingual families.

As many children enter their final term before starting school, parents often worry about academic skills like writing names or counting to 20. But a new set of guidelines from leading early years organisations aims to shift the focus. Developed to support parents, educators, and primary staff, the initiative addresses the mismatch in expectations, highlighted by a Kindred Squared survey showing 90% of parents felt their child was ready for school, while only a third of teachers agreed. The goal? Clear, accessible guidance to help everyone support children’s development and ease the transition into Reception.

Currently in the UK 1.9 million children are struggling with talking and understanding words. Early identification and intervention is the key to closing the gap. Early Years Practitioners play a vital role in supporting children with speech, language and communication needs, however many practitioners report that they don't feel confident in being able to identify and support children.

As a response to our needs analysis, we delivered a very timely webinar, two days after the DfE guidance update, on “Supporting your families with toilet training." The DfE guidance is full of useful milestones and tips, with this one being particularly pertinent if we are to address the challenge of children starting reception in nappies. “Starting toilet training after 2 and a half to 3 years can make it harder for some children to learn this new skill.” To sit alongside our webinar, we developed a handout for practitioners, as requested by them.

Building cultural capital helps children develop the knowledge, experiences, confidence and communication skills that will prepare them for their future success. It is seen as a way to help children achieve goals, become successful in society, and rise up the social ladder (social mobility). The bottom line is, it is about giving children the best possible start to their early education.

As the Executive Headteacher of two outstanding nursery schools, who have employed apprentices for many years, Sian Hudson talks about the value they bring, developing the next generation of skilled early years educators.

EALC will work with the UK's leading social mobility start-up

Julia Revels, an independent consultant in the early years discusses self-regulation.

Julia Manning-Morton is an independent consultant, author, lecturer and trainer in early years care and education, whose writing and teaching is focused on enabling and enthusing early years educators to develop practice and provision that supports the wellbeing of children from birth to three years old.

Rebecca Oberg discusses how crucial the leaders role is in staff wellbeing.

On October 12th, Bradford Birth to 19's Stronger Practice Hub hosted a conference for early years workers focused on oracy and literacy. The conference also saw the launch of Friends of 50 Things, a new and exciting opportunity for partners and settings!

Kathryn Loftus is the Chair of a £289,000 NIHR research project

Kathryn was invited to speak about EALC and our Act Locally project on the 'Frank and Stan Chat'

Kathryn Solly, a former early childhood teacher discusses leadership outside.