Early Years

We are inviting Early Years practitioners to complete a short questionnaire exploring current practice around speech, language and communication (SLC). The survey looks at how SLC is prioritised, approaches to screening, and the use of targeted interventions. Your responses will help us build a clearer picture of practice across the […]

Dear Colleagues, Updates from the Team Autumn Term 2026 Key Dates  Please find Autumn Key dates attached. Keep these handy to prevent missing submission deadlines.  Child Safety Week 1st-7th June Shared on behalf of Northumberland Children and Young People Safey Reference group  Child Accident Prevention Trust have a load of free downloadable resources to promote child safety

This second Best Start in Life (BSiL) case study highlights how a Northumberland school is effectively using the School Readiness Passport – 2 Year Old Progress Check to strengthen early identification, partnership working and inclusive practice. By embedding the progress check within everyday practice, practitioners are able to build a clearer, shared

Dear Colleagues, Updates from the Team REMINDER – It’s Headcount/Census Week!!  Information for PVIs ONLY Your Summer term Headcount return is due to be submitted on Friday 22nd May.   To locate your file, Go to Drive > use the search in drive bar to type in your provider ref > click on the file with your provider ref & provider name

Dear Colleagues, Updates from the Team Summer Headcount Return PVIS ONLY The pre-populated forms are now available in the SUM 2025-26 file in your school360 accounts. We have pre-populated the file using data from Spring term along with eligibility checks made.   To locate your file, Go to Drive > use

Dear Colleagues, Updates from the Team Funding Discussions – Headcount As the headcount forms are now available, if you have any questions, or require some support completing the form, please book a funding discussion here. Early Years Leaders Briefings  We have a jam packed Leader’s Briefing for you this term. Further details

Dear Colleagues, Updates from the Team Summer Headcount Return PVIS ONLY The pre-populated forms are now available in the SUM 2025-26 file in your school360 accounts. We have pre-populated the file using data from Spring term along with eligibility checks made.   To locate your file, Go to Drive > use

Dear Colleagues, Updates from the Team Training Offer- Summer 2026 Please find attached our summer training offer for April-July 2026 and flyer. All courses are available to book via the School Readiness Passport. SLA permissions may be required. Preparing for TransitionReception Ready Checkers are now open on the School Readiness Passport. Please

The Early Years Team will be running EYFS Profile Moderation events across the county this May. If you haven’t already done so, please sign up to attend your local session by completing the form attached here: EYFS Profile Moderation 2026 – Fill in form

Occasionally, first/primary schools are asked by parents if they can defer entry of their child into Reception to the following year.  Deferral relates to children who are ‘summer born’ (between 1 April and 31 August) where a parent has the legal right to delay their child’s entry into school until

The Early Years Team is running a one-off workshop for schools to help them assess themselves against the Early Years Evaluation Area of the Ofsted Inspection Toolkit. To sign up, please complete the form attached here: Ofsted Inspection Workshop for Schools Thursday 21st May – Fill in form

Dear Colleagues, Updates from the Team Funding Information Reminder, you can find all updated funding information; including Parent declaration forms, Key dates & hourly rates here. Accident Prevention  Shared on behalf of Northumberland Children and Young People Safety Reference Group, which the EY Team attended on the 19th March. Falls across all ages remain an issue both locally and nationally. Therefore, falls are a key priority area over the April and June period.  We would like to invite all

Dear Colleagues, Updates from the Team Working Together to Safeguard Children- Update  DfE has recently updated Working together to Safeguard Children, its statutory guidance on multi-agency working to safeguard children in England. The guidance applies to all organisations and agencies in England who have functions relating to children, setting out how they can work together to support

Overview Please see attached. This phase of the programme will be led by local authorities, who have been invited to develop multi-year funding proposals that outline project plans for new or expanded SBNs in their area, located in state-funded primary schools, Maintained Nursery Schools (MNS) and Best Start Family Hubs (BSFH). The

Dear Colleagues, Updates from the Team Northumberland Local Code of Practice – April 2026   Please find attached the updated NLCoP. This will shortly be available to read and accept within your wizard account.  New Parent Declaration Form  Please find attached the new parent declaration form. This is in a new format and must be used for new

As part of our support offer to help Northumberland schools digest the Ofsted Inspection Toolkit, we are delivering an online session to help you unpick the Inspection Toolkit for Early Years in Schools. This session is suitable for headteachers, Early Years Leaders, reception teachers and nursery teachers. The session will take place

The DfE have released further supporting guidance for teachers completing the EYFS Profile at the end of the reception year. Click here to access the resources: Help for early years providers : EYFS profile assessment support

Dear Colleagues, Updates from the Team Early Learning for Twos (ELF2) You will see some changes to the eligibility checkers in wizard from Monday next week regarding what was previously known as ‘Disadvantaged 2 Year Old Funding’. In line with the changes from central Government, this funding will now be

EYFS Conference 2026: Wired to Learn Discover the neuroscience behind early childhood at the 2026 EYFS Conference: Wired to Learn, a specialised professional development event for Early Career Teachers, new EYFS leads, and practitioners. Hosted by the Three Rivers Professional Development Institute and Cheviot Learning Trust, this conference explores how developmental cognitive neuroscience can enable

Dear Colleagues, Updates from the Team Early Years Sustainability and Climate Change Audit Many settings may already have a range of tools and resources in place to support sustainability and address climate change within their practice. For those that do not, and are now beginning to consider this area of work, the following information and Audit