Jennifer Childminding best practice

Good (and terrible) ways to use themes

When planning your curriculum it is important to think about how you are going to introduce children to new ideas and experiences.

‘It is important that children have access to a highly ambitious, broad and rich curriculum.’ (Paragraph 171 Early Years Inspection Handbook 2022)

Ofsted want to see that you are providing a broad and rich curriculum and if you only ever follow children’s interests, you are a risk of not doing this. After all children can only be interested in things they know about. (They cannot be expected to be interested in pangolin’s if they don’t even know they exist!)

Using themes can help expose children to different ideas and vocabulary, to different ways of life and important subjects such as oral hygiene. So, what is the best way to use themes?

Some childminders love planning around a theme, others like to plan in the moment and extend children’s learning based on interests the children show. It is fine to use either method but if you are struggling a balanced approach is the best way forward.

Good ways to make use of themes:

An activity from a Childminding Best Practice Club toolkit to go with a Black History Month (or space!) theme
  1. Using themes to introduce children to new ideas, vocabulary and concepts. This increases their ‘cultural capital.’
  2. Using specific themes to cover important topics which are a concern in your local area, for example oral health if there is a large rate of tooth decay in your area.
  3. To help fill in a ‘lull’. If you are feeling a ‘bit flat’ and the children are listlessly playing the same old games without much engagement, introducing a theme, even just for a while may just give you the boost you need and spark some new lines of play.
  4. To cover important areas of learning that the children may not explore naturally on their own. For example topics covering things like healthy eating.
  5. To help you feel part of a community or national event. Childminding can be lonely but sometimes having a theme based on a national event can help you and your children join in with a wider community of people. (Think of annual events like Mother’s Day, Pancake Day, etc.)
  6. Use themes sometimes but also provide times for children to explore their own interests without having to follow a theme. This will help provide balance to your curriculum.
  7. Not restricting yourself to the length of time you spend on a theme. A theme can last for a single day or, if the children are getting lots from it, last as long as you like.

Terrible ways to make use of themes:

  1. Using themes so strictly that EVERYTHING the children do has to be related to the theme. This is exhausting for both you and the children! Use the theme where it makes sense and where it doesn’t, do something else.
  2. Insisting on carrying on with a theme even if the children are showing zero interest. If the children are engaged, then great but if they are not getting anything from it don’t continue.
  3. Being too rigid with your theme. Instead when you introduce a theme wait see where it takes you. The children might surprise you with ideas that you hadn’t thought of.
  4. Using themes all the time and not giving children chance to explore their own ideas and interests.
  5. Using themes with very young children and babies. For the most part themes do not really work for children under two years old. The occasional very simple theme, like farm animals is okay but be careful not to overdo it.
Ideas and resources from recent and upcoming Childminding Best Practice Club Toolkits based around Nursery Rhymes

Tips for planning themes:

A well thought out set of themes to explore with children over a period of time will help give you the structure you need and ensure that you are covering everything that you want to.

When planning using themes first think about what you want children to learn and achieve. (Your curriculum intent.) Then make sure you use a balance of different themes, for example including some to do with the seasons, some to do with nursery rhymes or stories, some to do with the world around us, etc.

Some Teddy Bears Picnic resources from a Childminding Best Practice Club toolkit

Planning in the moment using themes requires even more organisation. A good way to follow children’s interests and enable them to get the most out of every learning opportunity is by having a collection of resources based around themes that you can literally pull out at a moment’s notice. This is where childminders truly have the edge on other larger settings that may have to plan when to get resources out or have set curriculums. If you have a ‘kit of themes’ you can quickly grab, then if a child shows interest in something you can quickly act to make the most of the moment. Make sure you take brief notes (even if they are just mental ones!) so that you can make sure you are offering a broad and rich range of experiences.

Useful basic themes to start your ‘kit’:

Themes based on the changing year are a good start. (Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter)

Themes based on ‘classic’ early years interests such as dinosaurs, nursery rhymes, traditional tales, etc.

Themes based on things you really want the children to know such as oral health and healthy eating.

There is a list of themes on our website to help you get started:

Early Years Themes

Nice things to include in your ‘theme’ kit:

Ideas and templates for crafts

Songs or nursery rhymes that fit with your theme

A sheet with ideas jotted on it that you can grab in a hurry

Games or jigsaws

More useful information and Kids To Go Products

Childminding Best Practice Club

Want a hand getting started? Our Childminding Best Practice Toolkits have a special theme section each month containing craft activities and printable templates, a themed colouring sheet, themed invitation to play ideas and a complete set of themed planning covering all areas of learning. We feature a wide variety of themes from seasonal ones, classic early years interests like dinosaurs, princesses and cars; current events like the Platinum Jubilee and themes you maybe wouldn’t think of (but the children might!)

There is also a special feature every month, for example training features and resources to help you evaluate and consider your curriculum intent – a helpful task to complete when planning your activities.

Find out about the Childminding Best Practice Club

Here is a handy free downloadable ‘Lunar New Year’ diversity activity to add to your topic kit:

Free Downloadable Lunar New Year Activity

Diversity Mega Pack

Our Diversity Pack Mega Pack is a collection of 20 mini printable packs with resources to help childminders teach 20 different diversity and British Values topics.

Each mini pack is designed to offer clear messages on 20 important diversity and British values themes for 2-5 year old children giving you all the tools you need to explore many ‘difficult’ topics at a level that is right for very young children. Altogether the Mega Pack contains 50 original art projects with templates plus over 100 suggested activities including printable activity sheets and cooking projects.

Get loads of Diversity topic ideas and resources

Here is another free downloadable activity that you can add to a Nursery Rhymes kit:

Make a Wheels on the Bus Game

Be Safe Be Healthy Mega Pack

As a childminder you have a choice about what activities you do with the children you look after so why not do some topics that could really make a difference to their lives? Taking the time to explore topics like healthy eating, making friends, sun safety, oral health, fire and road safety will not only really help the children, but it will make you feel that you are doing something truly valuable with the time you are spending with them.

This pack is a collection of 14 mini printable packs with resources to help childminders to teach 14 health and safety topics to 2-5 year old children.

Get started with lots of useful health and safety topics

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Jennifer Business tips for childminders, Childminding best practice, Communication with parents

Supporting children with transitions at their childminders

One important role a childminder or other early years practitioner, performs is to support children through transition periods in their life. There are many transitions a child may go through. For example, starting at a new childminder’s, moving house, the birth of a sibling or starting school.

All transitions have an effect on children. It is useful to share information with parents about what the potential effects can be so that they are not too alarmed if any of the following happen:

Physical Effects

The body’s immune system is affected by stress which might mean, that a child catches illnesses more easily in the first weeks of starting with their childminder.  They may have more disturbed sleep or not want to go to bed and may become fussier with their eating habits. (I know that children starting at my setting often eat more when they are happily settled than they do at the start of their placement when everything is new and strange.)

Emotional Effects

Children may not be able to regulate their emotions as well as normal during periods of transition. They may be more tearful or angry than normal and will require extra support from an understanding adult. Some children may withdraw, becoming quieter and they may become upset more easily than normal. Children may regress as they work out changes in their life. Some may start having toileting accidents or show undesirable behaviour such as hitting other children. Their speech may seem to regress as they may talk in a more babyish style, or they may become more clingy and want to spend more time with the parent or the practitioner.

Long-term effects of not supporting children with transitions

It is important to support children as much as possible through transition points in their life as there can be long term effects if not getting it right. A child’s self-confidence and trust in adults can be badly knocked, meaning that they are less well able to cope with future challenges, underachieve in school, struggle making friends or form relationships later in life, develop anger, leading to unwanted behaviour, or, later in life depression, anxiety and self-harm.

How to support children starting in your setting       

Starting at their new childminders is a major event in a child’s life. It will often be the first time they have been away from home for any considerable period of time and may be the first time they have had to properly interact with other children and adults other than their parents. This is especially true for children who have been isolating due to Covid related issues.

Starting at a new childminder’s should, wherever possible, not be a sudden event. This gives the childminder time to prepare both the child and the parents for this change. A child may have mixed emotions about starting at a childminders, excitement and anticipation combined with anxiety about the change. Younger children and babies may not understand what is going on but will react to the separation of their primary attachment figure. The child may be very quiet and withdrawn at first and may not eat well for the first few days. The transition to staring in a new setting is a long one and the process does not begin and end on the child’s first day at the setting.

Ways to help children and parents with the process of starting with a new childminder

Meet the parents to gather information on the child, their likes, dislikes, routines at home, medical requirements (if any) religion, food likes, allergies, their stage of development at home, etc. Parents can be given ‘all about me’ forms to complete but do this together if possible as I find that at least initially parents feel more confident and supported if you go through this information in person.

  • Acknowledge that both the child and the parents need to settle into this new routine and that it takes different amounts of time depending on each child/family. Some children may settle in very quickly, others may take more time. The younger the child the longer it may take them to settle.
  • Give the parents pictures and basic information about the childminder and her family so the child is already familiar with some of the faces they may encounter.
  • Ask for the parents to supply photos of the child’s family for the childminder to make a ‘family book’ with so they child always has pictures of their family that they can look at and talk to the childminder about. For younger children the childminder can make these into lift the flap ‘peekabo’ books to encourage an understanding of object permanence.
  • Encourage parents to provide a comfort object if the child needs it for example a soft toy or a scarf belonging to Mummy which has a scent familiar to the child that the childminder can wear when holding the child.
  • Encourage the parents to use settling in sessions, the first of which where the parent can stay and then in subsequent sessions gradually spends less time staying with the child.
  • Where practical and safe to do so arrange a visit to the child’s home before they start. This way the child can first meet the new practitioner in an environment that is safe and familiar to them.
  • Be available for the parent(s), especially in the first few days (as the parent may be feeling more anxious than the child which the child will then pick up on, resulting in the child feeling anxious too and less likely to settle.) The parent may be put at ease with lots of texts to let them know how the child is doing, or photos of what the child is up to.
  • Make time to talk to the parent at drop off and pick up to facilitate the development of good and trusting relationships as well as to exchange any useful day to day information.
  • Be mindful and respectful of the child’s feelings. At first they may want to just cuddle you rather than joining in with any activities. Take time with older, verbal children for them to be able to talk about their feelings.

How childminders can help with ALL transitions:

  • Have a good understanding of child development and the importance and role of attachment.
  • Give older child time to talk about the transition and their feelings around it. However let the children take the lead in this and do not force them to talk if they do not want to. Support children by helping them understand and label their emotions. Children will often want to spend more time with you at times of transition.
  • Share information! Work with parents to agreed ways of supporting both the child and the parent. For children starting in your setting ‘All about me’ forms can be really useful and for children leaving to join a bigger setting or to start school sharing ‘transition forms’ is a helpful way of making the transition as smooth as possible.
  • Use resources such as books, dolls, social stories and role play toys to help the child explore the situation and their feelings towards it. This can prompt children to ask questions and talk about the events they are experiencing/will experience.
  • Children with additional needs may need more support with transitions. For example non-verbal children may benefit from visual prompt cards to facilitate communication or a child with a hearing impairment may need any new vocabulary they are introduced to supported with the correct Makaton or BSL signs, especially those concerning feelings.  Children with SEND may take longer to adapt to periods of change but as each child is different it is important to know your child and their needs so that you can best support them.

What about you?

Finally I want to mention possibly the most important person in the process – you! Transitions do not just affect the child and their parents; they will have an effect on you too.

It can be nerve wracking getting to know a new child and family and heart-breaking to say goodbye to a child leaving to start school. Be kind to yourself. Do not plan any big events or complicated activities when a new child is starting. Make sure you get plenty of sleep and make sure you have a healthy sandwich prepared the night before so that you have something to eat at lunch if things get hectic. Acknowledging the fact that this is a time of change for you too will hopefully make for a happier and smoother transition time for everyone.

You may find the following products helpful:

Share information to help support smooth transitions

Super Summative Assessment and Gap Tracker Kit £15

This kit contains all the tools you need to sum up a child’s development and achievements, right from when a child starts with you, all the way until they leave to go to nursery or school.  From ‘All about Me’ forms, starting points, transition and report templates as well as sample reports, tips and of course a gap tracker for when you need it.

Make information sharing easy and beneficial with the Super Summative Assessment and Gap Tracker kit

Build professional relationships with parents

Partnership with Partnership with Parents Pack

An essential tool to help you build and develop your partnership with parents. From help advertising and attracting new families, through to daily communication and letter templates to send to help deal with tricky situations in a professional manner, this pack has everything you need.

Create great partnerships with parents

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Jennifer Childminding best practice

A Childminder’s Guide to the new 2022 Progress Check requirements

Written 27/06/2022

It is a statutory (legal) requirement to write a progress check for every child in your setting between the ages of 2 and 3 years. If you are inspected Ofsted WILL want to see your progress checks for any children you have of this age.

The EYFS requirements were updated in September 2021 and so requirements for the progress check at age 2 have also been updated to follow suit. However, do not panic, you may find that you already do most, if not all, of what is now required.

Is the Progress Check the same thing as the Integrated Review?

You may also hear the term ‘integrated review’ when people talk about the progress check at age 2. This is when Early Years Professionals and Health Professionals complete their reports at the same time to give a more rounded ‘integrated’ view of the child. You should therefore consult with the child’s parents to try and do your progress check at the same time as the review that Health Visitors also do on children at this age.

Why should you write a progress check and what should you do?

1) ‘Partnership with Parents.’ This was also an aim of the progress checks before the updates but there is much more emphasis on this now. The new Guidance Document published by the Government in May 2022 states:

‘Knowledge of the importance of the early years is low in our society. For example, only three in ten parents recognise that the first five years are the most important for health and happiness in adulthood. The scientific evidence tells us that the period from birth to two years old is the fastest for brain development. However, one in three parents is unaware of this.’

Doing the progress check together with the parents is an essential opportunity to help parents understand how important this period of their child’s life is. However completing the progress check together should just be part of your continual communication with parents. Suddenly springing ‘Partnership work’ on parents just before the check needs completed is not a good idea. Working to build a constructive relationship with the parents throughout their child’s time with you is much more productive.

When you have completed the progress check together you should ask the parents to share the information with their child’s health visitor.

2) ‘Action for Every Child‘. The Covid Pandemic had a detrimental effect on many children. The Progress Check is meant to be used as a tool to help you support the child and their family and to help children catch up where necessary. DO NOT just write it then shove it in a folder and then forget about it. This would be missing the point entirely. Instead use the check to assess where the child has strengths and weaknesses and plan together how you are going to support the child with their next steps to catch up where necessary.

Don’t forget to include the child in the process. After all it is about them! They may be able to tell you what they like doing with words or pictures or if they are very young just by what you do when you observe them.

3) ‘Early Identification‘. The progress check should be used to identify gaps in learning or areas in which they child may need additional support.

(Remember that children may not necessarily have a developmental delay, they may just not have had the opportunity to ‘catch up’ after the effects of the Covid Pandemic.)

It is important that you gather as much information as you can if you have serious concerns about a child’s development in any area. However, it is NOT up to you to ‘diagnose’ a child and you should certainly NEVER tell a parent that you have diagnosed their child with something. That is up to the health professionals who should give you and the child’s parents useful strategies to use to help support the child.

(You may also find our ‘Super Summative Assessment and Gap Tracker Kit‘ useful as the gap tracker contains lots of information about places where you can find more advice and support if a child needs it.)

Other things to think about:

The new guidance makes clear that you should not do more paperwork than necessary. However you should take into account the following,

4) There is not a statutory form that you have to complete, so unless your local authority has one which they ask you to use, you are free to use whichever format suits you and your parents.

5) You can use whatever guidance document you prefer to complete the check. The Birth – 5 Matters and Development Matters Documents are both useful. (If you use our Super Summative Assessment pack contains details from both.)

In brief:

6) The progress check should focus of the prime areas of:

Personal, Social and Emotional Development,

Communication and Language

Physical Development.

(In our ‘Progress Check at Age 2’ Pack we also include the Characteristics of Learning as we believe these to be equally important and think it is a missed opportunity if these are not included.)

7) You must include information about:

What the child is doing well

What they may need a little of support with

Where there is a concern that the child may have a developmental delay

Other Useful Information

You can find links to the ‘Birth – 5 Matters’, ‘Development Matters’ and ‘Department for Education Progress Check at Age Two’ documents on our Useful Links Page here:

Official Documents Links

You may also find the following Kids To Go products useful:

Progress Check Age 2 Pack

This pack guides you through the whole process of completing the Progress Check at Age 2. It has been fully updated to fit in with the new EYFS standards and to bring the format into line with new Summative Assessment Kit which it complements. It contains:

  1. Introduction for the Childminder. This section fully guides you through a simple five step process for completing the progress check.
  2. Guidance Notes about what you might observe the children doing, examples of what you might write on the report in relation to this and ideas to include as next steps.
  3. Progress Check report template. This has been reformatted to complement the Super Summative Assessment Pack which it complements.
  4. Letter to parents. A template for you give to parents with background information on the report and arranging a meeting
Get Progress check at Age 2 Pack

Super Summative Assessment and Gap Tracker Kit

This kit contain all the tools you need to sum up a child’s development and achievements, right from when a child starts with you, all the way until they leave to go to nursery or school.  From ‘All about Me’ forms, starting points, transition and report templates as well as sample reports, tips and of course a gap tracker for when you need it.

Get Super Summative Assessment and Gap Tracker Kit

Partnership with Parents Pack

An essential tool to help you build and develop your partnership with parents. From help advertising and attracting new families, through to daily communication and letter templates to send to help deal with tricky situations in a professional manner, this pack has everything you need.

Get Partnership with Parents Pack

Find us on social media!

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Jennifer Childminding best practice

A Childminder’s Guide to Nature Deficit Disorder

By Guest Blogger Ruth Snowden 18/06/2022

Did you know – Forest Childcare can help to prevent Nature Deficit Disorder!

But what is Nature Deficit Disorder? It’s not an officially recognised medical condition – author Richard Louv came up with the idea in 2005, in his book ‘Last Child in the Woods’, in which he talks about the need for children to re-connect with the natural world. So what are the symptoms to look out for when children are suffering from a nature deficit?

Negative changes in behaviour

Most people who look after small children know that one brilliant way to calm overexcited or overwrought little ones is to release them out of doors. This allows them to shout and run about, generally letting off steam. It has recently been found that children with ADHD often benefit from out door play.

Sensory issues

Outside there are many different sounds, smells, things to look at and feel, changes in light and temperature – and the eyes and ears get used to noticing things much further away. Indoors it’s a different story – for example too much screen time can damage children’s eyesight.

Photo by Emily Grey. Find her on Instagram @emilycaitlanmedia

Loss of physical abilities and increased rate of physical illness

Outdoor play helps children to acquire strength, balance and coordination, not to mention keeping them slim! And contact with outdoor things, such as earth, plants and trees helps them to build up beneficial bacteria in their ‘gut flora’, which makes their immune system stronger. There are many other physical outdoor benefits too – for example our bodies need sunshine in order to make vitamin D.

Damage to mental and emotional health

There are probably lots of factors involved here – such as many of the ones mentioned above, plus social isolation and lack of interaction in the ‘real world’. It’s also possible that all the electrical gadgets and screens in our homes are affecting children negatively. We don’t yet know how much they may be affecting both physical and mental heath.

Inability to assess risks and figure stuff out for oneself.

In addition to all the outdoor benefits already mentioned, children need time for challenges, interests and physical activities that are not constantly structured and monitored by adults. This helps them to become independent and think for themselves. Unfortunately many children today spend far less free time outdoors than their parents would have done. TV and video games and social media are partly responsible for this trend. Yet, interestingly, many children say that they would like to spend more time outdoors if they were allowed.

Parents, childcare providers and society as a whole worry so much about safety issues such as traffic and strangers, that many children end up confined indoors, or in ‘safe’, restricted outdoor spaces, supervised by adults. Playing alone out of doors is often seen as dangerous. A generation ago, most children of junior school age walked to school, alone or with their friends. Nowadays many children get taken to school by car – ironically adding to the dangerous traffic on the roads.

The idea that people need contact with the natural world is not new – many parks and gardens were opened during Queen Victoria’s reign because she was concerned about conditions in the rapidly expanding towns and cities of the Industrial Revolution. This was a step in the right direction, but it was done in a way that reflected the ‘man controls nature’ attitude of the times. Lawns were mowed within an inch of their lives and ‘weeds’ had to be eliminated at all costs.

One of the positive effects of the Covid pandemic lockdowns is that people have begun to notice nature round about them more, and to realise how much being out of doors helps their mental and physical heath. This has contributed to the new trend towards rewilding, realising that ‘weeds’ are actually wild flowers and part of the ecosystem – and nature studies have recently become part of the National Curriculum.

Forest Childcare is about actively and purposely taking children to outdoor spaces. It is not possible to roll back the clock and send children out to play alone and unsupervised in wild spaces as they would have done in the past. But this doesn’t mean that you can’t have a real, positive effect on the children you look after by taking them on outdoor outings on a regular basis. You can give children the outings they need to counter nature deficit disorder and give them the opportunities to spend time appreciating the beauty, fun, danger and excitement of outdoor green places.

Children who are taken out of doors to play, and taught about the world of nature, are much more likely to grow up with an interest in the environment. We are not separate from the natural world – we are part of it – and we urgently need to remember this. So keep showing your children wild flowers and trees, birds and butterflies. Keep allowing them to run around, shout, climb, get wet and muddy, and generally figure stuff out for themselves. They need rewilding too – and you will be helping to save the planet as well as them!

Join the Forest Childcare Association

The Forest Childcare Association is a best practice initiative for childcare providers who want to demonstrate their commitment to taking small children outdoors on a regular basis. By making a commitment to regular outdoor outings you can make a discernible difference to your children AND your business. When you join you receive an introductory training booklet, as well as business tools, a certificate to display and a pack of 50 Crafts and Activities to get you started.

Forest Childcare can help to:

• Teach children to appreciate trees, fields, ponds and woods by spending time in the natural environment
• Improve emotional and physical wellbeing of children and the adults who look after them
• Improve children’s concentration, perseverance, cooperation and motivation skills
• Help children to stay fit and counter obesity because children move around naturally outdoors while they play
• Let off steam
• Provide opportunities for developing harmonious relationships with others, through negotiation, taking turns and cooperation
• Improve physical skills gained from opportunities to run and balance
• Build knowledge and understanding of the world
• Provide rich opportunities for imagination, inventiveness and resourcefulness

Join the Forest Childcare Association

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Jennifer Childminding humour

9 ways for childminders to fail your Ofsted inspection

Last Updated 21/03/2023

A bit of humour to lighten your day when you are bogged down with the Inspection Handbook  – here are nine guaranteed ways to fail your Ofsted inspection they forgot to include! (Download the photos – they will make you smile). 

1. Remember that Ofsted likes to see well-labelled toy shelves. Especially the ones you use to store the children during the day.

2. When calculating ‘usable floor space’ at your setting, it is not acceptable to count the inside of your fridge

3. Always serve diet fizzy drinks to any under 5s in your care to show Ofsted that you promote healthy eating.

4. Even if you regularly stack two babies directly on top of each other, they still count as two separate children for your childminding ratios.

5. Remember that according to the EYFS Statutory Framework you must have a teaching license from Hogwarts if you intend to encourage small children to speak Parseltongue so they can talk to snakes.

6. While very practical and great for the environment, this is not an Ofsted-approved potty training method.

7. While it is important to encourage independence in matters of self-care, babies should not be expected to change their own nappies.

8. If you decide to do a water play structured activity while the inspector is watching, it is considered good practice to buy a dedicated water table

9. This is not considered to be an acceptable ‘late collection procedure’. Even if the parents are really, really late you must not dump their child on the street outside of your house.

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Jennifer Childminding best practice

School readiness and the role of the childminder

An important part of a childminder’s role is to help ensure that children are ready for school. The skills that children need to learn to be ready for school are interwoven throughout the EYFS, but what are they, and what can childminders do to make sure the children they look after are ready for school?

What does the EYFS say about school readiness?

Ensuring a child is ready for school is not a process that only takes a few weeks. In fact as soon as a child starts attending your setting you should be helping provide them with the skills they need for school and for life.

The EYFS states:

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.’

By providing a broad and balanced curriculum for the children in your setting you will be cementing the foundations for their life in school (and beyond.) The EYFS details lots of different skills but there are some skills that are especially useful for a smooth start to school life:

Communication and Language skills

Communication and language skills are essential for children starting school. A child that can communicate will find it much easier to make friends, tell an adult their needs and ideas, and will be able to follow instructions. Think about if the child can:

  • Listen quietly to a story
  • Follow simple instructions
  • Communicate their needs and wants to others

Childminders, with their quieter settings and smaller group sizes, are in an ideal position to help children develop strong communication skills ready for school. Make sure you make plenty of time for things like listening to and telling stories, music and rhyme time, and activities covering listening, understanding and speaking skills.

Personal, Social and Emotional Skills

These prepare a child socially and emotionally for starting school. They are skills that enable children to get on with their peers and follow the rules and requirements of a setting. Children need to be confident to be able to learn, to ask for help and to communicate their needs. Can the child:

  • Separate happily from a grown up at drop off time
  • Do their own shoes up
  • Put on their coat
  • Attend to their own toileting needs
  • Wash their own hands effectively
  • Eat their lunch by themselves, using a knife and fork
  • Cooperate with others

Children need time and support to practice these skills, and this is where a childminder can stand out from busier settings with tighter schedules and less time. For example, give children plenty of time to practice core skills such as putting on their own shoes and coat. Time is something they will not have as much of at school, so a chance to try these things at a more relaxed pace is extremely valuable.

Encourage children to be self-sufficient at mealtimes by providing things like child-friendly cutlery and jugs for children to practice pouring from. Encourage children to open their own food packets, etc. They may not have as long for lunch at school and will have to share an adult helper with more children so the more they can do for themselves, the better.

Physical Skills

The physical skills children need, to be able to settle well into school, are not all about fine motor activities like writing. In order for children to be able to interact with their peers they need to be able to keep up – literally! A child that gets out of breath after a couple of minutes while their friends run and play is often, sadly, a child that gets left out. Obviously if a child has specific health needs it can be hard to prevent this, but childminders can help all children by providing lots of opportunities for children to develop their strength, stamina and gross motor skills. For example by taking them on plenty of outings to natural areas where they can run and walk long distances that they may not get the chance to otherwise.

There are lots of fine motor skills children will need in order to start learning to write, for example drawing lines and circles with gross motor movements, holding a pencil near the point with first two fingers and thumb, and starting to copy some letters, as well as skills such as being able to use one handed tools like scissors.

The Characteristics of Effective Learning

Being ready to explore all that school can offer must come hand-in-hand with a desire, ability and willingness to learn, (for without these no child is ready for school!) Think about how you help children develop the characteristics of:

  • Playing and Exploring
  • Active Learning
  • Creative and Critical Thinking

Working with Parents

It is important to work with a child’s parents to help them be school ready – firstly, by helping parents with activities that will help support all the skills mentioned above, and secondly by stopping well-meaning parents teaching their children to do the following:

  • Learn to write their name solely using capital letters
  • Use the names of the letters rather than the sounds
  • Use the wrong sounds for letters
  • Recite numbers to 100 without any real understanding of what they mean

These are all things children will have to unlearn. So, by signposting parents to resources such as videos on YouTube showing the correct way to phonetically pronounce the letter sounds, you are doing the child a great favour.

6 Tips to help with a smooth transition to school

  • Include some school uniforms in your dressing-up kit.
  • If you are close enough, plan some walks to the area around the school or maybe even along the route the child will take.
  • Incorporate pictures of the school into homemade books for the children to look at and talk about. Depending on the school they may even have some pictures of inside that they can share with you.
  • Read books about starting school.
  • It may be appropriate to invite the child’s teacher to visit them in your setting, especially if you are the child’s main setting.
  • Complete a transition report with the child’s parents.

Useful Resources to help you with school readiness tasks

Super Summative Assessment and Gap Tracker Kit

Our Super Summative Assessment and Gap Tracker Kit has everything you need to complete a transition report and contains information schools will ACTUALLY find useful! It includes a specially designed transition report template as well as written samples of the things you might like to write.

Like all the other tools in the kit, the transition form has been designed to be quick and easy to fill in. However, if you would like more guidance about what to include, there is also a completed sample with lots of ideas of the sorts of things you can write.

Get the Super Summative and Gap Tracker Kit

Characteristics of Effective Learning Pack

This pack contains information about the characteristics of effective learning (COEL), broken down in a way that is easy to absorb. There are plenty of ideas for you to try out to promote the COEL in your setting and to help you to improve understanding of them.

Using any of the ideas in this pack can help promote the COEL in your setting and give the children a boost into the start of their school life.

Get the Characteristics of Effective Learning Pack
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16 benefits of outdoor outings for childminders and carers of young children

By Jennifer Fishpool and Amanda Goode

What is the one thing that you can do as a childminder (or anyone caring for young children,) that is enormously beneficial for both yourself and the children in your care?

The answer is to regularly spend time in outdoor natural environments.

Physical health benefits:

Most people know that getting exercise is good for our health, but did you know it has been shown that exercising outside is especially beneficial?

1. Better energy levels: We can all feel a bit ‘meh’ at times, especially in the colder and darker winter months. However studies show that doing exercise outside can make us feel more energised and positive in ourselves.

2. Improved eyesight: Being short-sighted is becoming an increasingly common problem. Playing outdoors more can help reduce a child’s risk of becoming short sighted. It is thought that exposure to natural light helps eyes develop in a healthy way and being able to exercise our eyes by looking to things in the distance is also extremely beneficial.

3. Healthy sleep: Sleep is absolutely essential for both our physical and mental health. Spending time outside helps you sleep better. Children are much more likely to engage in vigorous exercise outside and a study by Liverpool John Moores University discovered that babies who are exposed to plenty of natural light in the afternoon sleep better and longer.

4. Better immune system: When our skin is exposed to sunlight, it produces vitamin D. This is important for many body processes, including our immune system.

5. Avoiding germs and viruses: We now should all know that a good way to avoid inhaling other people’s germs and viruses is to be outside and let them blow away!

Think big!

Think of all the things children are asked to keep contained when they are inside. They are told not to run, jump or shout but outside they can go big! This helps with:

6. Better cardiovascular health: Children should be given plenty of opportunities to run until they are out of breath. This is tricky if you only have a small, confined space. Make sure you take children places where they can really stretch their legs and run! This will have great benefits for their cardiovascular health.

7. Stronger bones: Being able to jump helps strengthen bones.

8. Better physical endurance: Going on nature walks means that children get used to walking for longer distances. However if they are having fun they will probably not notice and may surprise you how far they can walk if you give them time to build up their endurance.

9. Better sense of balance: When you go for a walk in nature you are much more likely to encounter different surfaces to walk and balance on. Inside or around town, surfaces tend to be flat and free of obstacles but in natural environments surfaces can be bumpy, sticky, muddy, unstable etc. Walking on these sorts of surfaces helps children build up their strength and sense of balance.

10. Stronger lungs: Shouting helps exercise our lungs. We have to take in bigger breaths to be able to shout!

Benefits for Mental Health

11. Reduced anxiety, stress and depression: Research has shown that spending time in a green environment like a forest can reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and anger. It has also been shown that exposure to natural light helps boost self-esteem and promote a better mood.

12. Increased resilience: If you teach children to look out for and love the little everyday occurrences in nature, for example the dandelion growing in a crack in the pavement or the friendly neighbourhood robin that sings from a tree, you are providing them with a wealth of ‘little joys’ to fall back on and that are always there when things are tough.

13. Less technological ‘overload’: Spending time outside in nature helps us ‘switch off’ from the modern bombardment of information.

Further Benefits

14. Aids cognitive development: Young children love being outside where there is so much to see and discover and when we spend time in nature ALL of our senses are being stimulated.

15. Greater attention span: Researchers at the University of Michigan found that spending just one hour interacting with nature helps increase attention spans by up to 20%.

16. Learning to love nature: David Attenborough is known (amongst other things!) for saying ‘No one will protect what they don’t care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced.’ In going outside and experiencing and making an effort to notice the natural world where we live – whether that be by visiting a woodland or a park, watching the birds, noticing the native plants growing in cracks in the pavement or simply by observing the weather – we can hopefully learn and encourage children to learn to love and help protect our natural world.

If you would like to start making more of the benefits that exploring nature with your children bring why not join the Forest Childcare Association?

Find out about the Forest Childcare Association

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Key Messages for Childminders from the Ofsted Big Conversation

02/10/2021

On Saturday the 2nd of October Ofsted held one of their ‘Big Conversation’ events for childminders and other early years providers. This was the first of such events in the North-West since the introduction of the new EYFS in September and Ofsted had some key messages for childminders:

Assessment is still vital

Ofsted emphasised that assessment is still vital as it can highlight if a child needs extra help and support and so reduces the likelihood of them falling behind. How you assess is up to you and Ofsted do not want to see reams of assessment that take you away from the children for long periods or become a task to do for its own sake. However they DO still want childminders to assess their children, the new EYFS has NOT removed this requirement.  You MUST still assess what children can do and what they cannot do in order to effectively plan your curriculum.

Importance of working in partnership with parents

Although Ofsted did not go into this in as much depth as other issues it was mentioned several times, showing that it is still one of Ofsted’s main areas of concern.  It was emphasised that it is important that you have a good working relationship with your parents so that they become an integral part of how you assess their child. As the people that know their child best, they must be made to feel comfortable in approaching you for support if they have concerns.

Stronger focus on curriculum: intent, implementation, and impact

The curriculum was one of the main discussion points of the meeting. Ofsted do not expect you to have your curriculum written down so if you are spending excess time writing up complicated curriculum maps then STOP! Instead Ofsted want you to be clear on:

  • INTENT: What is your curriculum? What do you want your children to learn? What knowledge/skills do you want them to gain? Is your curriculum ambitious for ALL children? (You can plan this by using your assessment of what they know and can do and what they need to know and be able to do.)
  • IMPLEMENTATION: How do you use your curriculum? How do you teach it? What methods do you use? What activities and opportunities do you provide children?
  • IMPACT: How is your curriculum making an impact for your children? Has it been planned and delivered in such a way that ALL children make progress, regardless of their starting points? You need to be able to show how you know children have progressed and learned. Over time Ofsted want to see that your children are LEARNING, REMEMBERING and DOING more.

The importance of proper sequencing in your curriculum

An issue that is starting to come up in recent Ofsted inspections is a lack of proper sequencing in activities or tasks provided to children. The Inspector in charge of the meeting gave the example of expecting a child to ride a bike before they can balance or pedal. You MUST think carefully about what it is a child NEEDS to know or do before they can successfully start on their next step so that you do not miss out essential building blocks of learning.  

Some childminders are focussing too much on the impact they want to make with their curriculum and are forgetting the implementation part of the process, providing activities that are too advanced for children.This means that children are missing out on vital pieces of knowledge. It is essential that you can explain what knowledge or skills the child needs to have before working on the activity or skill and where they might go next when they have mastered it.

Stronger focus on early communication

There has been a lot of information about this, and Ofsted seem happy that the message is getting through.  They reported that they have noticed that settings that are graded Outstanding are exceptional at helping children learn communication and language so if you are aiming at being outstanding make sure that you evaluate how you support children to learn these skills. It was also emphasised that it is vital to consider children’s vocabulary when planning and teaching your curriculum. What vocabulary do you plan to teach the children, and how?

Stronger focus on children’s health

With the attention given to the new inclusion of Oral Health in the EYFS the increased focus on children’s health has been overlooked. It is important to consider whether you are doing enough to promote and protect children’s health as Ofsted will be looking for this. For example, do you make sure that children under five years old get the recommended three hours of physical activity a day? Do you promote and teach healthy eating, and do you follow safer sleep guidelines? You must also make sure that you are working in partnership with parents by providing or signposting them to information and guidance about how to look after their child’s health.

An excellent product to help you ensure that you are you fulfilling the requirement to focus on children’s health is our ‘Be Safe, Be Healthy’ pack.

Other notes

Ofsted are no longer referring to ‘Inspection Cycles’. Instead they will inspect a childminder once in a six year ‘window’. If a childminder is graded ‘Requires Improvement’ or ‘Inadequate’ they will be inspected more often.

The percentages of providers rated good or outstanding since 2019 has stayed stable at around 94.9% (These are North-West figures although it was reported that these are reflected nationally.) and Ofsted report no signs that this is changing.Outstanding childminders work closely with other settings. For example working with the local school to learn about the phonics program they teach and ways in which the childminder can prepare their children for this program.

In conclusion

The biggest issue of the night certainly seemed to be how childminders plan, implement and assess their curriculum and how they can show they have a solid understanding of all the steps involved in a child learning a new skill or piece of knowledge. There were also other issues that have not been touched on much yet but I feel will become prominent as childminders settle into working with the new EYFS, such as the new renewed focus on promoting children’s health. However the most interesting subject of the night for me was Ofsted’s reminder that assessment is still vital to the work that childminders do so if you have thrown away all your assessment tools it is maybe time to reconsider.

Source of all information: The Ofsted Big Conversation North West meeting held on 02/10/2021

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    8 Things Ofsted wants childminders to STOP doing – by Jennifer Fishpool

    Change is upon childminders again! The new EYFS Framework becomes statutory on the 1st of September 2021 and with inspections up and running again and now potentially only once every 6 years, there is more pressure than ever on getting it right on the day. But what about the long stretch of time that falls between inspections? With a six year gap it would now be entirely possible to look after a child from when he was a baby until when he starts school without any paperwork you create for him ever being seen by an inspector. So should childminders stop doing all paperwork?

    There is a growing rumour that Ofsted have banned paperwork and some practitioners say that they are going to stop doing ANY except the statutory requirements. This represents a gross misunderstanding of the expectations on childminders. Before you throw the baby out with the bathwater let’s make sure we really understand what Ofsted is asking.

    1. Stop ticking boxes on ‘trackers’ and highlighting copies of Development Matters

    Trackers are the biggie which lots of people have been talking about. Ofsted have NEVER asked you to highlight copies of Development Matters or to spend hours colouring in boxes on individual trackers. Childminders should be focusing on providing a broad and balanced curriculum for children and one of the reasons Ofsted do NOT want you to use trackers in this way is because some settings were so focused on getting the children to achieve and exceed each one of the ‘statements’ that the children were getting a very narrow learning experience.

    However, all that being said, don’t throw away all those trackers just yet! Many practitioners find them very useful and if that applies to you there is no need to stop using them as long as you consider their limitations. If you find yourself using them as a curriculum, a list of goals or next steps for children, or worrying if children miss steps or do not develop in the exact order written on the paperwork then STOP! This is not how trackers should be used. If you use a simple tracker which is quick and easy to use and helps you spot any gaps in learning or key points that may raise concerns, then great, this is a useful way to use this type of assessment.

    2. Stop writing pages of meaningless observations

    childminding paperwork

    It is our job as childminders to constantly observe children to assess their development and needs. However, STOP making pointless observations that simply generate paperwork and don’t really add value for either the childminder or the child. If you know and the parents know that the child can use a spoon you don’t need a photo and accompanying write up to prove it. Think about what you really need to observe and whether writing it down will add value to what you already do. Let me be clear that you should not stop doing written observations altogether, as done properly and with clear purpose, they are extremely useful.

    (If you are new to observing children and how to get the most benefit from it without it taking too much time look out for our ‘Don’t Panic! Beginners Guide to Observations,’ coming soon.)

    3. Stop generating ‘data’ and ‘evidence’ in general

    The new EYFS and Development Matters are intended to give you an opportunity to refresh your setting’s curriculum to ensure that it focusses on your children’s needs. You should stop spending time unnecessarily gathering evidence and you should certainly spend less time generating ‘data’. Data includes photographs that serve no proper purpose and next steps that are not followed up. Instead spend time creating a broad and balanced curriculum.

    4. Stop assessing children unnecessarily

    Stop doing any assessments that are not beneficial to the children you are looking after. Pages and pages of ‘next steps’ in learning journeys are not helpful. Especially if they are not acted upon. If you instead ‘know’ inside of you from your knowledge of Development Matters what comes next, you don’t need to write this out anymore. You are allowed to use your ‘professional knowledge’ of child development and the child.

    5. Stop making learning journeys without asking yourself why you are making them?

    Please notice that I did not say to stop making learning journeys. This is another hot topic of debate on forum discussions and many childminders are overreacting and throwing away their learning journeys. Ofsted does not want you to do this as long as you are making them for the right reasons.

    So why make learning journeys?  Do not make learning journeys with photographs of observations and little circled areas of learning and development FOR the Ofsted inspector. They are not interested and may not even ask to see your learning journeys. These documents should only be generated for you and for the parents and only if you find that making them is helpful. Many families enjoy receiving them and you may secretly enjoy making them. However, many parents are perfectly happy with WhatsApp messages and you are allowed to use your ‘professional knowledge’ as long as you really do know where each child is at in his or her stage or development. Personally I think a balance is a good solution. I will still send my parents lots of photos as I love taking them and they love receiving them, but I will not be printing many out and will only include the occasional observation in a much shorter ‘learning story,’ to help me remember where each child is and to provide a lovely memento for the parents when the child eventually leaves my setting.

    6. Stop doing unnecessarily detailed written planning you then don’t stick to

    STOP doing any paperwork at all that has no use aside from the fact that you think Ofsted might want to look at it. For example horrifically detailed weekly plans that you don’t stick to. The new Development Matters makes it clear that it is up to childminders to use their professional judgment and knowledge to observe children and to plan for their next steps. Julian Grenier led on the revision of Development Matters for the Department for Education. He is clear that you should use Development Matters to help you use your knowledge of each child to facilitate holistic learning that helps children to make progress “without generating unnecessary paperwork.”

    This video is a nice overview of the new EYFS and how it links to Development Matters with its goal to “improve outcomes for all children, especially disadvantaged children, and to reduce teacher and practitioner workload.”

    7. Stop hitting the target and missing the point with the Early Learning Goals

    The Department for Education does not want you to feel restrained by the Early Learning Goals and actually they are primarily there for reception teachers to assess their children against at the end of their time in the Foundation Stage.

    The most important point is that a childminder should not write a curriculum plan around a learning goal because the ELGs are really narrow. For example, one of the ELGs under physical development is that children should be able to ‘move energetically, such as running, jumping, dancing, hopping, skipping and climbing’. A childminder could read that and decide that since jumping is obviously important that they would buy a trampoline, but not waste their time with ball skills since those are not specifically mentioned. That is pretty much what the Department of Education does not want you to do with the ELGs. Your physical development gross motor skills curriculum should not exclude spending time doing ball and other PE skills

    8. Stop doing anything ‘for Ofsted’

    They always say this, but nobody really believes them. With inspections now every 6 years, of course you are going to want to get the best grade you possibly can at your inspection because you will be stuck with whatever you get for a long time!  So, of course you should prepare carefully for your inspection as you always would by being mostly ready for inspection all the time, by being the best childminder you can be all the time, but by perhaps reading through a copy of our Ultimate Childminding Checklist before the big day to make sure you aren’t forgetting anything obvious.

    In conclusion, childminders need to think about what is really beneficial to support our practice (and this will be different for each practitioner depending on their needs.) It is about finding a sensible balance, not stopping all paperwork.  If you only have one child you may be able to retain all the information you need on their development without writing anything down but how will you share that information with the parents? You may have more children but have a fantastic memory and still not have to write down much in order to be able to confidently tell an Ofsted Inspector the ‘story’ of each child, but will you be able to spot gaps in learning quickly I think that most of us will still find keeping some sort of records beneficial so don’t burn those learning journeys and trackers just yet!

    References

    Burchall, J. (2021, May). Ofsted early education update . Retrieved from http://www.theofstedbigconversation.co.uk: https://theofstedbigconversation.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Ofsted-presentation-Ofsted-early-education-update-early-years-providers-Summer-2021.pdf

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    Jennifer Characteristics of Effective Learning (COEL), Childminding Inspection Tips, Inspection, Official document links, Planning for childminders

    What is new for childminders in the Sept 2021 EYFS Framework?

    Lots of childminders have been asking for a guide to the new September 2021 EYFS Statutory Framework. I have done my best in this article to pull out what I think are the most important points for childminders.

    The information in the Educational Programmes Section of the EYFS has been expanded

    The biggest change to the new EYFS is the expanded descriptions of what is included in the educational programmes descriptions (ie the Learning and Development areas). I don’t really think this information is in any way ‘new’ or a surprise. But the expanded areas are written explicitly into the EYFS so you should use it as your guide when planning your curriculum. As a childminder it is up to you how you design the curriculum for your setting but you MUST make sure that you are addressing each key point of each learning area. Development Matters and Birth to 5 Matters are designed to help you to do this so make sure you read them when you design your curriculum.

    Communication, Language and especially vocabulary have been identified as the most important learning areas

    Communication and language are vital and the EYFS states that ‘the development of children’s spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development’. The other thing that is really stressed is ‘extending vocabulary’ across each of the seven areas of learning.

     

    The Early Learning Goals have been rewritten – but MOST of their content remains the same

    The level of development that children are expected to have reached by the end of their reception year in school is defined by the early learning goals. As most childminders are not responsible for assessing the learning and development of reception aged children, the goals have always remained mainly in the realm of school reception teachers. Despite the EYFS making it clear that ‘the ELGs should not be used as a curriculum’, it is still useful for childminders to have in mind what the ultimate aim of some of the activities we do with children is heading towards.

    Some of the key changes are:

    • Communication and Language: provides more focus on extending vocabulary
    • PSED: self-regulation is included
    • Literacy: comprehension is included
    • Mathematics: a new focus on understanding patterns

     

    The role of self-regulation is recognised by making it an early learning goal

    Children at the end of reception year should be able to ‘show an understanding of their own feelings and those of others, and begin to regulate their behaviour accordingly.’ They should also be able to ‘control their immediate impulses when appropriate’ and ‘give focussed attention to what a teacher is saying’. These are all important parts of the characteristics of effective learning that you should have been teaching the children all along, but the fact that they have now been recognised in the ELGs shows the increased importance that is now being placed on the notion of self-regulation. It is truly vital that as childminders you are encouraging children to sit still and concentrate on tasks sometimes, especially on tasks that are not always of the child’s own choosing, so that they can practise a skill that is vital to their success in school.

    Balance is the key. Your curriculum and how you teach it is up to you but as children grow older the focus should change from the prime to specific areas of learning and development

    It is up to each childminder to plan their curriculum which is in a broad sense what you want the children to learn while they are with you from when they are babies until they start school. The new EYFS says ‘Practitioners need to decide what they want children to learn and the most effective way to teach it’. There are several key points here. Firstly, it is up to you to decide the right balance between adult led activities and free play time given to children. Secondly, as children grow older you should spend more time ‘teaching’ them and less time just letting them have free play. Lastly, the focus of your teaching should gradually move away from the ‘prime’ areas (language, PSE, physical development) and include more focus on the ‘specific’ areas (mathematics, literacy etc.)

     

    Assessment remains important but physical evidence of this assessment is not

    Before you throw away your learning journeys and the pages of next steps: STOP. The EYFS is still very clear that ‘ongoing assessment (also known as formative assessment) is an integral part of children’s learning and development. What has changed in the new EYFS is the emphasis on the ‘professional knowledge’ of the childminder. When doing the ‘assessment’ part of the planning – implementation – assessment process, ‘Practitioners should draw on their own knowledge of the child and their own expert professional judgment and should not be required to prove this through a collection of physical evidence’.

    Ofsted is making it clear that they do not want to see data. They are not going to look at your learning journeys with random snapshot photos and hundreds of ‘next steps’ written out because that sort of data is often meaningless. You still need to assess children and be very aware of exactly where each child is in their learning and development. But you no longer need to feel you have to ‘prove’ the observation.

    When you do assessments you should:

    • Focus on what is useful
    • Establish starting points
    • Use the checkpoints in Development Matters as checkpoints, not checklists
    • Involve the parents
    • Take the attitude of inclusion: every child can thrive

     

    You must promote oral health

    The new EYFS makes it clear that you ‘must promote the good health including oral health of the children you look after. This is an addition to what was previously there and is in response to the growing problem of tooth decay in young children, particularly children from disadvantaged backgrounds. The basic message you are hoping to teach to children is that too many sugary foods are bad for you, and that you should brush your teeth.

    Planning activities to promote oral health into your curriculum does not have to be complicated. Suppose you look after a child from a home where you know the parents very rarely brush his teeth?  You can make an enormous difference to that child’s oral health if YOU brush his teeth after he eats lunch with you. You are teaching him a skill he needs that will hopefully become a good habit. Furthermore, you are ensuring that his teeth are, at the very least, being brushed once a day while you look after him. And if you really want to do your bit towards helping him even more you can gently encourage the parents to help him at home, perhaps with a take home reward chart he can use each time he brushes his teeth at home?

    Specific activities and resources for promoting oral health are available in my Be Safe Be Healthy pack.

    Non-prescription medication does not need a doctor’s note

    GPs have been finding that providers were requiring parents to get prescriptions for non-prescription medications. The new EYFS makes it clear that providers only need to have a prescription for prescription medication. So a child does not have to have a prescription for the Calpol for you to give it to him. Nothing else has really changed. You still need to get permission in writing for every medication (including Calpol) and you can only give prescription medicines that have been prescribed by a doctor, dentist, nurse or pharmacist.

    In practice all childminders should have both a long term medication permission form (for Calpol etc) and a short term medication form (for antibiotics), a written record each time a medicine is administered to a child, and a way to ensure that the parent is informed ‘on the same day or as soon as reasonably practicable’. While the EYFS does not specifically state that a parent must sign your ‘medicines administered book’, I think this is a good, tidy, more traceable method than relying on a Whatsapp message.

    Are you putting infants down to sleep properly and safely according to the EYFS guidelines? 

    The new EYFS includes a link to the NHS guidance on reducing the risk of sudden infant death syndrome. What this means for childminders is that how you put a baby down to sleep while they are in your care is no longer at the discretion of parents – so please make sure you are familiar with the details in this link – there’s more than just putting babies on their backs.

    Cyber Security for Early Years – are you doing everything you should be?

    This page is full of practical information that childminders can use to check that you are doing everything you can to keep you, your setting and your data safe from cyber attacks. The site reminds you that “For Early Years practitioners, cyber security also plays a role in safeguarding the children in your care.” The link to this page was included as a footnote in the new EYFS.

    Are you supervising children while they are eating?

    To me, this has always been absolutely obvious: of course you must supervise children while they are eating – what if they start choking?  However, maybe not everyone was getting this, so this requirement has now been spelled out in the new EYFS. You MUST supervise children while they are eating so that rapid action can be taken if needed to save them! So does this mean that you have to literally keep them in your gaze at all times – what if you have to pop back into the kitchen to grab some ketchup. Please rest assured that ‘supervised’ is clearly defined by the EYFS. “Children must usually be within sight and hearing of staff but always within sight or hearing”.

    Recommended menus and food preparation advice for early years

    This series of example menus and associated guidance has been developed to support early years settings (such as nurseries and childminders) to offer food and drink in line with current government dietary recommendations for infants and children aged 6 months to 4 years. It also includes food safety, managing food allergies and reading food labels. This guide was included as a footnote in the new EYFS.

    You should not vape or use e-cigarettes around children (or smoke)

    The new EYFS makes it clear that as well as providers not allowing smoking in or on the premises when children are present that staff should not ‘vape or use e-cigarettes when children are around’ either. This addition is in line with Public Health England’s advice on use of e-cigarettes in the workplace.

    Those are the key new points of new release of the Sept 2021 EYFS. You need to read the cited documents and make sure that you are following the new guidelines before they become statutory in September. 

    Good luck!

    Do you want to improve your understanding of the Characteristics of Effective Learning?

    Promoting the Characteristics of Effective Learning PosterFor help putting the Characteristics of Effective Learning into practice including tools, activity ideas, certificates you can give to children, poster and display ideas, CPD worksheets for your setting, examples for your SEF and a setting checklist for the COEL, check out my new Characteristics of Effective Learning Pack for childminders.

    About Kay Woods and Kids To Go

    Kay Woods Kids To GoKay Woods has been writing and selling childminding resources through her company Kids To Go since 2008. Her products include the Ultimate Childminding Checklist, the Learning Journey Plus for planning, observation and assessment and best practice resources promoting diversity and childminding in the great outdoors (Forest Childcare). She is the author of the Start Learning book set published by Tarquin and she writes the free quarterly Childminding Best Practice Newsletter.

    Lots of places offer help to childminders. I provide solutions.

    www.kidstogo.co.uk