A guide to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework for parents
The EYFS framework:
- sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well
- ensures children are kept healthy and safe
- ensures that children have the knowledge and skills they need to start school
The full document that we use for your children can be found here.
What to expect in the EYFS
DfE has published a new guide for parents – ‘What to expect in the Early Years Foundation Stage’ (formerly ‘What to expect when’) which guides parents through what to expect in their child’s development. It aligns with the new Development Matters to help practitioners engage with parents about their child’s development.
A Celebratory Approach to Working with Children with SEND
DfE has also published a new guide – ‘A Celebratory Approach to Working with Children with SEND – Giving additional support in the Early Years’ (formerly ‘A Celebratory Approach to SEND assessment in the Early Years’) to help practitioners who may be supporting children who require additional help or children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.
Health guidance for parents
Please see attached a guidance on infection control for schools and other childcare settings. This is the guidance that we follow if your child has an illness and may need to have time off due to a risk of infection for other children. Guidance_on_infection_control_in_schools. If you would like any other information please do not hesitate to contact us.
East Sussex Safeguarding Children Partnership
The East Sussex Safeguarding Children Partnership (ESSCP) replaces the Local Safeguarding Children board under new requirements from ‘Working together 2018’
This is the link you need for any Safeguarding concerns or information you may need.
East Sussex Safeguarding Children Partnership
Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing for parents/carers and the community
Open for Parents can provide advice and information for parents and carers. Call 01424 725 800 or email info@openforparents.org.
Anna Freud: self-care for parents and carers
NHS advice: talking to your children about feelings
Dragonflies bereavement support for children aged 0-18. Covering Hastings, Rother, Eastbourne, and all surrounding areas.
‘Speak out, Stay safe’ from the NSPCC
This is a safeguarding programme, aimed primarily at children ages 5-11. It is designed to help them understand about abuse and about how it is never their fault.
Brook traffic light tool
This is a handy document designed to help us distinguish the difference between healthy and unhealthy sexual behaviours.
By identifying sexual behaviours as green, amber or red, professionals across different agencies can work to the same criteria when making decisions, and protect children and young people with a unified approach.
Oral health
Dr Ranj has included some great tips about your child’s oral health, which have been broken down to two age groups to give you supportive guidance:
3-6 with Dr Ranj and Supertooth!
ICON
* C –Comforting methods can help
* O – It’s OK to walk away
* N – Never, ever shake a baby
The ICON website has a range of resources to help support you at home.
Help your little ones stay safe in the home
Families can keep young children safer in the home by staying aware of potential risks and taking steps to help prevent accidents. Friendly advice and support for more families is now available from the East Sussex Child Home Safety Advice and Equipment Service.
Did you know that accidents in and around the home are a leading cause of preventable death for children under five, and a major cause of ill health and serious disability? Many of these accidents could be avoided. For example, an average of 10 children under five attended an East Sussex A&E every month in 2021 because of accidental poisoning involving a cleaning product or medicine.
To help prevent accidents in the home, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service can offer a FREE home safety and fire prevention visit for any family with a child under five living in East Sussex.
The service can also provide and fit FREE home safety equipment for families in receipt of certain income-related benefits. Equipment can include safety gates, bathmats, cupboard locks and fireguards.
Families with young children are encouraged to access this service by contacting their health vising team, community nursery nurse, early help keyworker or social worker.
If you don’t have contact with any of these services you can now also apply directly using a short online contact form or by getting in touch with East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service on 0800 177 7069.
Activities for home
Keeping young pre-schoolers occupied can be quite a challenge at times. We are here to help! These preschool activities are sure to bring a smile to your child’s face, and provide her with the opportunity to learn at the same time. The wide variety of activities include number scavenger hunts, baking shape cookies, color spy, breakfast maths and so much more! With so many different options, we make finding activities for pre-schoolers a breeze. These games and activities are more than just fun for a pre-schooler — they also help with physical development and early learning.
Please see these links for some ideas:
This early years booklet from TTS is currently free to download, featuring lots of great ideas on keeping your child entertained. TTS early years booklet
Here are some fantastic ideas, covering all 7 areas of the EYFS.
Safe use of the internet, games and apps etc
The internet is amazing. Children can play, learn, create and connect – opening up a whole world of exciting possibilities. But with the digital world changing all the time, how can you make sure your child’s staying safe? The NSPCC have got several pages to help to make sure your child keeps safe when they’re using the internet, social networks, apps, games and more. https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/
A further link can be found here from Internet Matters which gives a wealth of tips to help you keep your child safe online with specific links to different commonly used websites, which as you will see is so useful. The following link will give you an overview of what is on the website Internet-Matters-Age-Guide-0-5s-Jan23
Please also find attached a document about how to keep your under fives safe online with some really important key messages. Keeping-Under-Fives-Safe-Online
50 things to do before you are 5!
East Sussex Early Years Improvement Team have launched a brilliant new app that gives you a lovely range of activities to do with your little ones with no, or little cost: https://eastsussex.50thingstodo.org/app/os#!/whats-it-all-about. The team have asked us to trial it with you and give them some feedback on how it is going, so if you have the chance to have a look at it please feel free to let us know what you think. We will also make references to any activities that we do at the setting that will help you tick some off (like going to the post box at the end of last term!) in observations on Tapestry.
The team have also launched a 50 Things Facebook page and an Instagram account:
https://www.facebook.com/50ThingsEastSussex/
https://www.instagram.com/east_sussex_parents/
There is not a huge amount on there at the moment but parents can use the Facebook account to share photos of what you have been up to. However, please note that East Sussex have asked us to remind you to be mindful of what you post to protect your privacy and personal details.
Some extra information from the ‘50 things’ team, can be seen here detailing how you can use this tool during the current global pandemic.
Winter Toolkit 2022-2023
The Alliance has launched a new free Winter Toolkit for early years providers containing a series of useful resources to help navigate the unique difficulties you may face in the winter months.
We know that cold weather presents challenges for keeping children and staff safe and healthy, and this year, with the addition of the financial pressures caused by the cost-of-living crisis, it is likely that the winter season will be particularly challenging for both early years providers and parents.
The Winter Toolkit includes the following guidance:
- Free and low-cost fun activities for children
- How to reduce food costs this winter
- Are you eligible for tax-free childcare?
- Are your child’s vaccinations up to date?
- Flu vaccinations and your child