Stephen

It's always tricky when purse holders need to justify their spending. The convenient aspect of the previous incarnation of DM were the age bands where as Helen says, a setting could easily evidence how 'far behind' a child was. Unfortunately during the reforms, children with learning differences were somewhat of an after thought. Dingley's Promise are currently undertaking a significant project around what high quality assessment needs to look like for these children, so hopefully their guidance as a result will be well received.

Hi Vandna, Welcome to the forum! I worked on a 'Reflection Toolkit' with Doncaster local authority which might be of interest. The workbook was designed particularly for educators working with children who have learning differences or disabilities and challenges us to consider various aspects of our provision to ensure we are being inclusive. You can find it here: https://tapestry.info/reflection-toolkit.html Doncaster have had some nice feedback since their nurseries started using the toolkit, i could try and get some of that for you if that would be helpful?

When I was the EYFS lead in a specialist school we linked up with some of the local nursery schools to share good practice. As we were coming from different starting points, there was such value in collaborating - generally the nursery schools were more advanced when it came to the quality of their play environments, but we were able to contribute specialist knowledge about working with children with learning differences and disabilities. The culmination of these discussions was a weekly staff swap where we would exchange 1 or 2 staff members for an afternoon - it was such a great CPD exercise for all involved, and helped to enhance quality across both settings.

I often found some of my best educators started their journey as volunteers. I found it was beneficial to everyone concerned. Experiencing day to day life in an early years environment can be the best indicator as to whether the role is suitable, as well as giving leaders an opportunity to see someone in action. I could usually tell within a few minutes whether someone was going to be good or not! I actually started advertising for volunteers some of whom became permanent members of staff. One thing i will say is that it doesn't always work out, and can be time consuming going through the process of registering and sorting a DBS, particularly if they don't come back after one session, but more often than not it was worthwhile.

You can now register for our free event here: https://tapestry.info/tec/building-a-community-of-practice.html