Readiness for Learning – Support from the Start

PEEP

The Parent Early Education Partnership was started in 1995 and has developed a five-year programme offering developmentally appropriate support for parents and carers. It covers the period from their child’s birth to starting school. Already well established in Midlothian this programme is relatively new to East Lothian, and Support from the Start has sponsored training for around 30 practitioners to bring this programme to more parents and children in East Lothian. The cluster champions groups that have got going so far have all identified PEEP as one of the resources they would like to bring into there communities.

PEEP Programme Aims

To promote parents’ and carers’ awareness of children’s very early learning and development through making the most of everyday activities and interactions.

To support parents/carers in their relationships with their children, so that the children’s self-esteem will be enhanced.

To affirm the crucial role of parents/carers as children’s first educators.

To support parents/carers in the development of their children’s literacy and numeracy.

To support parents/carers so that they can encourage the development of positive learning dispositions.

To promote and support parents’ and carers’ lifelong learning.

Maureen Black family, engagement worker, has been runnig a PEEP group for babies and their parents in partnership with the Musselburgh Burgh Primary school using the schools community room. The sessions are very popular with parents as this recent feedback suggests

We’re really enjoying these Wednesday afternoons with you. The sessions are really relaxed and fun for the wee ones (and us big uns) and you are so welcoming.

For more information on PEEP and the evidence base for the programme visit www.peep.org.uk

‘Loose materials & Play’

A small group of staff from East & Midlothian went to visit the schools featured in this short video at the invite of Grounds for Learning. The group included a teacher from Whitecraig Primary, and the team leader for a pre-school centre managed by Midlothian Surestart.. Whitecraig and two Suretart centres are now working with GfL to introduce natural loose materials into the playground. A P1 teacher at Wallyford primary is also working with a local artist to find ways of using different materials in their playground area – this time with an emphasis on recycled materials. Excited to see how these projects develop and hope they prove to be exemplars for other schools and pre-school centres in the use of loose materials for more imaginative play opportunities.

Nature Play & Nurture

Whitecraig primary made a short video about their experience as a exemplar for the nature, play and nurture training held at the school earlier this year. This involved the nursery class working with Aline Hill from Big World training and Ros Marshall a nursery teacher and forest school leader, to run an outdoor learning programme. The programme included sessions that could be observed by staff taking a three day course in Nature Play & Nurture. Stobhill Primary in Gorebridge is currently hosting this training and acting as the exemplars. A further course will be available in the spring.

Are We Getting it Right ?

Getting through my ‘to read file’ – this time going back to the fascinating parliamentary review by the finance committee of early years interventions

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/finance/reports-11/fir11-01.htm

The committee members had quite a challenge to absorb the depth of information / evidence provided verbally and in writing to the committee. Reviewing some of the evidence offered to the committee really make you ask the question – Are we getting it right for children in Scotland. Scandinavian countries have been in the news a lot for the wrong reasons in the last few weeks – but their investment in children clearly pays off in improved outcomes. For example

Sweden’s strong focus on prevention starts at the very beginning of life with emphasis on breastfeeding (98% of Swedish mothers begin breast-feeding and 72% have maintained this at 6 months vs 79% and 22% in the UK). In addition long periods of maternity and parental leave support attention to the needs of the child in its earlier months. 100% of hospitals have BFHI (baby-friendly) status (compared with less than 10% in the UK) and early parent training is provided for a high proportion of the population.

What Works in Early Years Education, a review of approaches to Early Years Education across the globe, cites two international comparisons of academic performance in English schools, in one case with Slovenia, in the other case with Switzerland. Though the Slovenian children started school two years later, within 9 months they had caught up on English mathematics attainment. The Swiss children started school a year later than those in England, yet the Swiss one year younger than English children performed better in maths. A study which addressed why this was the case identified the variable academic ability of children in the English reception class.

However, one report given to the committee as evidnece stood out for me because it chimed so strongly with the ethos of Support from the Start – It is a report from an organsation called the Wave Trust which has produced a comprehensive review of international evidence on violence reduction. It gives the following six success factors in improving social & health outcomes.

1. Those who prioritise investment in the earliest years secure the best outcomes

2. The quality of parenting/care is the key to a successful society

3. There could be a major dividend from focused commitment to ensure children arrive at school ‘school ready’

4. The impact of poor early care can be alleviated by the right experience during school years

5. Galvanising the community is the secret of success

6. Innovative approaches to social care can provide significant benefits at minimum cost

We know that many of Scotland’s closest neighbours are so much better at improving outcomes for its citizens, and this reports emphasises that, but it also give a clue about what can be done to change it. The success factors / key messages they outline are relatively simple but they need to be applied systematically and need relentless leadership in pursuing them. They also need Scotlands citizens to be engaged and demanding better services for children.

Steven Wray

Readiness to learn – supporting parents to establish home learning

Another one in my ‘too read file’ – and this one was really worth the effort. Its finding are quite hopeful in that it highlights that sometimes small changes in practise, culture and thinking can potentially have big impacts.

This is the report of a major study, released earlier this month, which examined how nurseries and other early years settings can better support parents wanting to develop their children’s learning at home.

The Family and Parenting Institute, in partnership with the Campaign for Learning, conducted the study to identify which strategies are most effective in supporting parents to give their child the strongest educational start in life.

The findings identify best practice, help quantify the benefits of support to parents, and offer suggestions about how to make best use of resources at a time of financial constraint.

The study, named Provider Influence on the Home Learning Environment, was commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (now the Department for Education) and released on July 4, 2011.

You can read the study here.

Thanks to Anne Rooney Planning Manager at Midlothian Council for highlighting this report

Growing Up in Scotland

The latest findings of a study shining a spotlight on the realities of life as a child in Scotland were published this week.

Launched in 2005, the Growing Up in Scotland study (GUS) gathers the experiences of 14,000 children and their families including attitudes towards children’s services, parenting, childcare, healthcare and education.

This round of reports is the fifth set in a longitudinal study which explores a range of issues experienced by children in the first five years of their lives. The reports cover a range of issues including parenting and child health, cognitive development, service use and support, and the impact of significant events.

The findings include:

· During the first five years of their lives, around one in ten children in Scotland experience their parents separating, with the incidence being highest in the first two years after the child’s birth. Separation increased the likelihood of mothers experiencing poor mental health and low income, both known drivers of child outcomes.

· The gap in cognitive abilities between children from more and less advantaged social backgrounds found at age 3 persists at age 5. The largest differences in ability are between children whose parents have higher and lower educational qualifications. Factors such as a rich home learning environment had a positive influence on the improvement of cognitive ability in the pre-school period.

· Mothers living in disadvantaged circumstances are more reluctant to engage with services aimed at supporting parents with young children and are less likely to make use of such services. Informal support by family and friends was used equally by those with different levels of service use.

· Child health and health behaviours are less favourable in families experiencing adversity. However, good parenting was found to have a positive impact on child health. This suggests that parenting support could go some way in reducing health inequalities.

In the reports one quote caught my eye in particular :

The positive impact of infant-maternal attachment on improvement in relative language ability was specific to children whose parents have lower qualifications. This implies that the overall negative effect on cognitive development associated with a lack of parental qualifications can be limited somewhat by improving early infant-maternal attachment.

This point jumped out at me because many of the other findings in the report were rather depressing in that they confirmed the picture of inequality without pointing at means of breaking the cycle of inequalities. We know that attachment can be improved and that their are interventions some of them relatively simple that can improve attachment behaviours between babies and significant adults even before the babies are born. Similarly the report highlights the benefits of positive parenting behaviours, and the need for good informal networks that parents can access when the going gets tough all things that we can make it easier for individual parents to achieve or access with good services and open caring communities.

Joining the Dots …

Joining the Dots – A better start for Scotland’s children

AN INDEPENDENT REPORT BY PROFESSOR SUSAN DEACON

?Susan Deacon’s report to the Scottish Government is now available online at :-

www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/343337/0114216.pdf

??Just finished reading the report.

In reflecting on how I might introduce the report, and my reaction to it, for this post; I decided that I could draw on the learning of the amazing authors in P2P at Sanderson’s Wynd. The children (who have published an e-book on Amazon) have been finding interesting words, including ‘wow’ words, as part of their literacy work. Here are my wow words for Susan’s report:-

Passionate

Punchy,

Positive

Provoking

but definitely not pallid

Sanderson’s Wynd and Whitecraig Primary have pride of place on the front cover of the report with their great outdoor activity and learning photo’s

Regards

Steven Wray

Interventions for Promoting Early Child Development for Health- an Environmental Scan

Dr Rosemary Geddes from the Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and policy has completed an ‘Environmental Scan’ of interventions aimed at promoting cognitive and social development in early years children. Rosemary has previously given presentations to the planning board for Support from the Start and was one of the speakers at a 1/2 day session on readiness for learning (see earlier posts).

I have to admit I wasn’t familiar with the term ‘environmental scan’. It turns out that it is management speak for getting a very smart person like Dr Geddes to rapidly but systematically review evidence for what works in a policy area at the same time as making an assessment of what is actually being delivered.

The definition given in the report is

Environmental scan – In management terms, an environmental scan is the internal communication of external information about issues that may potentially influence an organisation’s decision-making process. Our environmental scan refers to the process of rapidly scoping the literature for evidence of what works, reviewing the current policy landscape and interviewing key informants to determine which programmes are currently being delivered.

The document is a weighty read at 169 pages, but gives a very clear review of the research in this area, including brief overviews of different programmes that met the criteria to be included in the scan, and the range of Government policy and strategy that has bearing on children’s early development .

Interventions for Promoting Early Child Development for Health

‘The Foundation Years’

Frank Field MP was commissioned by the British Prime Minister in June 2010 to provide an independent review on poverty and life chances by the end of the year. The aim of the review is to:

• generate a broader debate about the nature and extent of poverty in the UK;

• examine the case for reforms to poverty measures, in particular for the inclusion of non financial elements;

• explore how a child’s home environment affects their chances of being ready to take full advantage of their schooling; and

• recommend potential action by government and other institutions to reduce poverty and enhance life chances for the least advantaged, consistent with the Government’s fiscal strategy.

His report is now available and although it is a UK government document it is well worth a read you can download it here TheFoundationYears1 The following is a quotation from the introduction on the findings of the review

We have found overwhelming evidence that children’s life chances are most heavily predicated on their development in the first five years of life. It is family background, parental education, good parenting and the opportunities for learning and development in those crucial years that together matter more to children than money, in determining whether their potential is realised in adult life. The things that matter most are a healthy pregnancy; good maternal mental health; secure bonding with the child; love and responsiveness of parents along with clear boundaries, as well as opportunities for a child’s cognitive, language and social and emotional development. Good services matter too: health services, Children’s Centres and high quality childcare. (Page 7 The Foundation Years 2010)

Can’t disagree with that – but this is not just another report weighing the evidence on the importance of early years. In chapter four he describes a very practical vision for ‘Building Foundations Years Services’ the principles of which which I think many practitioners in Scotland would find very positive.

Perhaps one of the key things for me in this report is that he puts parents at the centre of his thinking – not in a patronising way – but making it clear that improving outcomes for children cannot be achieved by services alone.

What parents do is the most important factor in children’s development. Services need to be better at engaging parents and building on their strengths. More opportunities to learn parenting skills should be provided, including through the school curriculum.

Olive Bank nature play & nurture

Olivebank Child and family centre recently hosted a forest kindergarten. Apart from it being a great experience for the children involved it also provided experiential learning for staff on a short training course with Aline Hill and Ros Marshall on nature play & nurture. The video gives staff experience of the forest kindergarten.

Aine & Ross talk about an early session

Olivebank Nature Play2

Staff talk about effect on the childrens use of language

Olivebank Nature Play3

Staff member talks about effect on behaviour

Olivebank Nature Play4

Staff talk about impat of sessions on Olivebabk children and staff

olivebank nature play14