Welcome to May News - connecting you locally Hello to you all and welcome to the North of England Hub Newsletter. We know how important it is to keep in touch with you all during the current health crisis so we will be providing you with monthly newsletters with the latest information, good news stories and practice from local providers. If you have anything you would like to share with us please get in touch! For up-to-date information and advice please visit: www.eyalliance.org.uk/coronavirus. For up-to-date local events see: North of England Service Hub Team Local authority update We have been busy contacting all local authorities across the country to find out how they are supporting you during this unsettling time with resources, funding and information through their websites. We have found that the majority of local authorities are providing the full early years funding entitlement to providers. Some local authorities are also providing resources to support you with what you can claim through the Job Retention Scheme. We would encourage you to continue to contact your local authority with any questions you have in relation to funding. For more information about early entitlement funding and the Job Retention Scheme, please see our FAQs. The full government guidance is available here. Join us at our next online Alliance Connect meetings The focus for our May meetings will explore our new resource Maintaining your provision and staying open and how this can support you. You can find out more information about our Alliance Connect meetings here We will be holding several more sessions in May and you can choose from the following dates and times:
BOOK NOW: Click on the date and time that you are interested in above. NEW! Wellbeing during the Coronavirus outbreak The Alliance and EduCare are working together to offer even more practical support to providers in this difficult time. It contains FIVE CPD-recognised courses. These specially selected courses give practical advice on ways to understand and manage anxiety, low mood and depression over the coming months. It also includes guidance on online safety. This bundle is (normally worth £84.00) completely FREE to ALL PROVIDERS and their teams until 30 June 2020. Please do make the make the most of this unique opportunity. It’s easy, simply sign into your account first and find out more here NEW! FREE Resources in the members' area
Spotlight on local providers Philippa Graham from Adel Pre-school in Leeds: "We sadly closed our doors on Monday 23rd March, and then set about ensuring we stayed connected to our families. We started with a daily story time, our Early Years Practitioners would take it in turns to read a story that we posted on our parents private Facebook page and Tapestry. The response was wonderful. The children began requesting some of the stories themselves and sent video messages of thanks. This is still done on a daily basis. "Our dedicated team then sent each of their key children a card telling them they were thinking of them and missing them. As Manager I set about writing a personalised postcard to every family decorating them and writing messages letting them know we were thinking of them. "At the start of the summer term we have posted suggested activities with the help of tapestry, these will be posted every Monday that we remain closed, then daily we look at an area of learning and suggest an activity that would help the children learn though play, i.e. sharing a story, making playdough, exercising their fingers with dough disco. "If we see any fun online activities that would engage the children, we share them, our latest challenge was to find teddy bears displayed in the windows on their daily walks. "Parents have been brilliant at sharing home experiences with us posting on Facebook and putting observations on tapestry." Feedback from Faryal - Parent at Adel Pre-school LS2Y Nurseries in Huddersfield - Claire McGlynn "Like many other nurseries, we have had to completely change how we operate in a very short space of time, not only to protect our staff and services but also to ensure we can help those in our community who need it. "We made the decision to keep all our nurseries open so that we could support those vulnerable children and key workers that need childcare the most. Although this has meant each nursery sometimes only has a few children in, we decided this was best to prevent the mixing of children and it was more convenient for parents. We have committed to opening on a bank holiday as currently shift patterns for some key workers are changing at short notice and we want to help enable them to do their vital jobs. "We are providing a helpline to parents if they need a listening ear or advice whilst at home if they are struggling and we have organised Zoom calls with children and parents daily. We have also provided lunch packs to the children that would normally access their lunch at nursery and parents are struggling to get out. " Quotes from Parents "Thank you so much! I can't wait for Oliver to wake up and see this activity basket. You are all amazing and should be proud of the work you do" Family Time Tips Family Time Tips is an innovative new digital service for families and is FREE to join! It offers fun, practical tips and advice to promote children’s learning and development direct to your mobile. Daily topics include language and learning through play activities, health and wellbeing tips plus nutritional advice. We've had lots of positive feedback from providers who have been forwarding the messages onto parents whilst their setting is shut. This is a great way of helping them keep in touch with families in a fun and engaging way. Under 5 – new issue available now! In these challenging times, we are finding new ways to share information with you. This means that the next few issues of Under 5 are only available to read online with no printed copies mailed for the next three months. We want to make it easier for you and your teams to access the magazine, wherever you are working from. It also helps us to ensure content is as up-to-date as possible in a rapidly changing situation. You can also access an archive of the last 10 issues in the members' area, giving you plenty of reading material over the coming weeks. NCFE CACHE Level 2 Award in an Introduction to Neuroscience in Early YearsThe Early Years Alliance is excited to be offering this new NCFE CACHE qualification - Level 2 Award in an Introduction to Neuroscience in Early Years This online course will provide an introduction to the early development of the brain in babies and young children from birth to 7 years of age. |