What's New

Buy One Get One Free - Selected Early Years Resource Products:

First Steps to the Early Years Foundation Stage
Learning Outside in the Early Years Foundation Stage

£30 plus VAT & P&P for two double disc packs with a CD and DVD in each pack showing best practice. This provides EXCELLENT value for money (usually £30 each).

Helpful products where new practitioners need a quick and easy induction to EYFS. All settings are required to provide stimulating learning environments outdoors.

If you would like to order, please complete the First Steps order form (page 2 of the attached flyer) and return this by fax or by post. To take advantage of this special deal, please clearly mark your order B.O.G.O.F. offer.

Click here to download the flyer »

Special Events with John West-Burnham - Leading Through Trust

• This prestigious whole day conference is led by John West-Burnham who passionately presents the case for how critically important trust is for developing some of the best aspects in school leadership.

• 3rd November 2011 White Hart Lane, Tottenham Hotspur FC,London

• 28th November 2011 Missenden Abbey Conference Centre, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire

• 2nd December 2011 Old Trafford, Manchester United FC, Manchester

• 5th December 2011 The Ricoh Arena, Coventry City FC, Coventry

• For further details, click here

EYFS is being reviewed and will cover main areas:

• Scope of regulation – whether there should be one single framework for all Early Years providers

• Learning and development – looking at the latest evidence about children’s development and what is needed to give them the best start at school

• Assessment – whether young children’s development should be formally assessed at a certain age, and what this should cover

• Welfare – the minimum standards to keep children safe and support their healthy development.

 

Dame Clare Tickell will provide a final report on the EYFS review in spring 2011. The Government will then consult on any proposed changes before they take effect from September 2012.

White Paper – big news for changes to Ofsted inspections – main points summarised

• Ofsted will return to return to focusing its attention on the core of teaching and learning, observing more lessons and taking a more proportionate approach – devoting more time and attention to weaker schools and less to stronger.

• The current Ofsted framework inspects schools against 27 headings – many reflecting previous government initiatives. In place of this framework, Ofsted will consult on a new framework with a clear focus on just four things – pupil achievement, the quality of teaching, leadership and management, and the behaviour and safety of pupils.

• This new framework will come into force in Autumn 2011, subject to legislation.

• Ofsted will cease routine inspection of schools and sixth form colleges previously judged to be outstanding. Subject to legislation, we will exempt primary schools, secondary schools and sixth form colleges which have been judged to be outstanding from routine inspection from Autumn 2011 and re-inspect only if there is evidence of decline or widening attainment gaps.

• The weaker the school, the more frequent the monitoring: schools judged to be inadequate will receive termly monitoring visits to assess improvement. In order to help with this proportional approach, Ofsted will differentiate within the broad ‘satisfactory’ category, between schools which are improving and have good capacity to improve further, and schools which are stuck. Schools which are satisfactory but making little progress will be more likely to receive a monitoring visit from Ofsted within the next year, and may be judged inadequate if they have not improved.

• Ofsted are also removing the expectation on every school to complete a centrally designed self evaluation form. We strongly support the view that good schools evaluate themselves rigorously. But we do not believe that imposing a very long form in a standard format, which requires consideration of many issues which may be of limited importance to a particular school, helps schools to evaluate themselves in a focused way against their priorities.

• Inspectors will be given more time to look for evidence of how well pupils behave, by observing lessons and pupils’ conduct around the school.

• They will also expect schools to demonstrate that the standards of behaviour seen during the inspection are maintained at all times. Inspection will consider whether pupils are and feel safe in school. It is particularly important that pupils are protected and feel safe from bullying in the playground and corridors as well as in the classroom. Inspectors will look for evidence of how much bullying there is in school and how well it is dealt with. Evidence from pupils and parents will be considered alongside evidence from teachers.

• Despite the efforts of dedicated teachers, one in five 11 year-olds still leaves primary school struggling to read and write at the standard expected of them. This figure is much higher for deprived pupils – more than one in three.

• The evidence is clear that the teaching of systematic synthetic phonics is the most effective way of teaching young children to read, particularly for those at risk of having problems with reading. Unless children have learned to read, the rest of the curriculum is a secret garden to which they will never enjoy access. As this is an area of such fundamental importance, we will go further than in any other area in actively supporting best practice. We will provide the resources to support the teaching of systematic synthetic phonics in primary schools. We will support all schools with key stage one pupils to implement this approach by providing funding for high-quality training and classroom teaching resources.



New Product “ Bridging the Childcare Gap”

• For Local Authorities and other Children’s Organisations

• A toolkit for developing an effective community childminding network for children with disabilities, vulnerable children and families in crisis.

Read More »

Product Information
A very full product of over 200 pages that can form a complete management system for creating a childminding network in your community.

• • It has full instructions and guidance for setting up the network with all the policies and procedures laid out in a user friendly way that are easy to adapt.

• • The recruitment section has checklists and all the necessary paperwork: forms, interview guidance, safeguarding procedures and all that is needed for new specialist childminders and their training needs.

• • There is a huge amount of guidance for childminders, risk assessment procedures and several case studies to guide further.

• • A useful finance section.

• • Reporting and recording systems – all the paperwork needed.

• • Feedback and evaluation systems for children, parents, professionals and the overall network evaluation.

• • Publicity and marketing – some model leaflets, advertising guidelines and so on.

• • Bridging the Childcare Gap comes on a CD. It can be downloaded and copied to your team for converting all documentation to the needs of your local authority.

• • Bridging the Childcare gap is priced at £1,000 + VAT. This is the equivalent of just 2 days of consultancy and provides excellent value for money. This product is sold on licence to organisations for their exclusive use. This fee entitles all those in your organisation to use the product and adapt it to suit your childminding network.

• If you are interested in receiving further information and an evaluation pack for Bridging the Childcare Gap just let us know and we would be happy to send this to you. If you would like to go ahead and order Bridging the Childcare Gap product there is an order form below for this purpose.