The Institute Times - January
Welcome to the January edition of ‘The Institute Times’ - your monthly round up of what’s going on at the Institute and across the early years sector. In this edition, you can expect…
Time to catch up:
What’s new at the Institute?
Early years audio library
We know that time is precious and that many of you will welcome the opportunity to be able to upskill whilst you’re on the go. That’s why we’ve been busy developing our new collection of audio resources, so that you can now listen to your favourite pieces of content at a time convenient to you.
So, whether you’re on your commute to or from work or simply want to curl up and relax with a cuppa, why not pop in your headphones and listen to one of our early years resources. Visit our audio library today, and look out for more audio content collections coming your way soon.
Webinars
In our webinars month, we explored ways to plan for a successful year ahead both on a personal and professional level. Our second webinar of the month saw us exploring slow pedagogies and think about ways we can inject excitement into the seemingly mundane every day activities, and bring them to life as meaningful and memorable learning opportunities.
Don’t worry if you were unable to join us live! As part of your membership, you can catch up on the recordings at a time convenient to you.
What’s new beyond the Institute:
Families to receive £126 million in early years support
Around £57 million will be made available to 75 local authorities with high levels of deprivation in 2025 to 2026. This will provide a raft of support through Start for Life services to families with babies, from pregnancy up to the age of 2. Use this link to find out more about the Start for Life programme and resources you can share with families of children in your settings.
New Early Years Teacher Degree Apprenticeship (EYTDA)
Experience-based route for Early Years staff
Time to explore:
National BGE science assessment and moderation events (Scotland members)
Education Scotland is pleased to announce four upcoming national BGE Science Assessment and Moderation events.
The EEF have produced a guide to supporting children’s mental health and wellbeing in the early years.
CWLWM
The five leading childcare organisations in Wales are Clybiau Plant Cymru Kids Clubs (CPCKC), Early Years Wales, Mudiad Meithrin, NDNA Cymru and PACEY Cymru. They work together as CWLWM (Childcare Wales Learning & Working Mutually) to support Welsh Government with its aim to provide accessible, affordable and high quality childcare and play opportunities for families across Wales. They produce a bilingual quarterly newsletter that provides the sector with useful information relevant to the early years, childcare, and playwork sector. Their recent work included collating and submitting evidence to Welsh Government which supported their decision to make the small business rates relief permanent.
Time to engage:
RSPB Big School’s Birdwatch
This year’s birdwatch started on 7th January – 14th February 2025. The annual event is the perfect excuse to get outdoors with the children in your setting to embrace nature and wildlife, whilst specifically focusing on the various bird species around us. You can register here to take part in the event at your setting, and get access to the various resources available for early years settings in England, Scotland and Wales.
Recruitment and retention (Scotland members)
NDNA Scotland’s ELC advisor, Hannah Murison is currently undertaking an MEd and is researching the current issues with recruitment and retention in ELC. Your participation would be highly valued.
To participate, there is a simple questionnaire on QuestionPro. This will ask you to rank the factors that influence your decisions to stay or leave your ELC job by level of importance. There is a mixture of clickable questions and open questions to type in your thoughts about the listed factors. This questionnaire is anonymous, with no identifying information being asked of you to encourage honesty and openness in your responses. It will take about 10 minutes to complete.
If you are interested in taking part, please follow the link to the survey and feel free to share among your staff teams.
Time to prepare:
Are you ready for all that February has in store? Here are just a few reminders to help you get prepared:
National Storytelling week - 1st-8th Feb
National Literacy Trust have put together some free early years specific resources to help celebrate the week using the theme ‘Reimagine your world’.
Children’s mental health week - 3rd-7th February 2025
In addition to the EEF’s guide to supporting children’s mental health and wellbeing in the early years you can find other resources to enhance practices around children’s mental health from the DfE and Place2be.
Time to talk day – 6th February 2025
Time to Talk Day is the nation’s biggest mental health conversation. It’s a day for friends, families, communities and workplaces to come together to talk, listen and change lives.
Time to Talk Day is taking place 6 February 2025 and is run and delivered by a number of organisations in the UK.
To find out more, visit timetotalkday.co.uk
Welsh Language Music Day – 7th February 2025
Welsh Language Music Day celebrates all forms of Welsh Language music. Find out more about how you can get involved.
NSPCC Number day – 7th February 2025
NSPCCNumber Day is a free and inclusive maths-inspired fundraising day for children in nursery right through to secondary school, with free downloadable activities suitable for all ages and abilities. Find out more.
Safer Internet Day - 11th February 2025
Safer Internet aims to promote the safe and responsible use of digital technology. Internet Matters have a whole host of information and guidance to make positive use of the internet with the children in your care, with further resources that can be shared with families for safe use at home.
Valentines day - 14th February 2025
Valentines day is a perfect occasion to talk about the emotion of love and to think about how we can develop caring, positive relationships with those around us.
Ramadan – 28th February 2025
Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, is a time of fasting, reflection, prayer, and community for Muslims around the world. This year, Ramadan is expected to begin on the evening of Friday 28th February, depending on the sighting of the moon. Find out more.
Time to be heard:
Call for clarity on national insurance contributions
NDNA Scotland have joined with another 48 organisations across civic society in Scotland to back a letter from Scottish Government to the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, to raise concerns at the impact of the impending increase to employer National Insurance contributions. The letter calls for funding to fully cover the additional costs they face. Find out more.
Calling new starters in early education roles – share your views on jobs in early years and get £5
Have you started working in an early education role in the last 6 months or so? Or have you recently applied for a role like this?
The Department for Education (DfE) want to learn more about peoples’ views about jobs and careers in early education (i.e. roles working directly with children aged up to four). They have commissioned IFF Research to conduct this research in 40 local authorities across England. If your role is in one of those areas, you can access the survey and receive the £5 on completion.
To take part simply visit this page, and if the role you’ve started/applied for is in one of the 40 local authorities, you will be able to complete a short 5-10 minute survey. Once completed you will receive a £5 PayPal payment or Amazon voucher as a thank you for taking part.
Your feedback will help DfE to learn more about what attracts people like you to work in early education. They will use this information to make decisions about working conditions and pay.
If you know other recent starters in early years settings, or anyone applying for EY roles, please forward this survey on to them so that they can take part.
Curriculum Improvement Cycle (CIC) 2025
Time for you
Finally, remember to make some time for ‘you’. January has been a long and tiring month, so this is your reminder to look after yourself and make effective use of the wide range of exclusive Healthy Lifestyles resources available from our partners, Spectrum Life.
Don’t forget to look out for the range of events coming up in February to boost safety, strengthen relationships, and build supportive communities. Remember that you can also catch up on all other previous series here.
We hope that you and your family have managed to get off to a healthy start this year, but in case anyone in your household gets ill and requires a doctor, remember that as part of our Healthy Lifestyles offer, members get exclusive 24/7 digital GP access.
And that’s all we’ve had time for in this edition of The Institute Times!
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