April 2015

Our first term of Early Years Pupil Premium Funding (EYPP) was awarded from Bradford Metropolitan District Council just before the Summer holidays and we were lucky enough to receive around £2,000.00. This money is to be allocated on eligible children over three years old and will be invested in a number of ways.

The two main areas of focus we have decided to spend our money on, this term and next, is supporting and developing communication delays and helping to improve children's health and well-being 

In the Spring term, we made the decision to invest in staff training and resources for supporting and developing children with communication delays was as a direct result of our most recent Foundation Stage tracking data. It was clear from the number of referrals we had made to local professionals and in the data itself that this was an area that we could focus on. We used some of the funding to enable staff to access training in Leeds, we purchased Boardmaker software which enables us to not only update our existing visual timetables but also create bespoke activities for individual children and we also purchased a number of resources to use with all children which will help develop social/emotional skills as well and communication skills.

Our Local Children's Centre Group then helped inform our decision to allocate the final monies on the promotion of health and well-being as this is one of their targets and an area we wholeheartedly agree with. The first order of business was to ensure that children could access the outside areas in all weathers and waterproof all-in-ones have covered that. We then invested in new water bottles, lots of physical equipment and most importantly a qualified sports coach to come into nursery twice a week and put the children through their paces!

September 2015

As the Autumn term is now fully under way and sticking with the above areas of focus, we are now investing our £1,100.00 in -

Buying in a number of communication group sessions for the children to work on their singing, speaking and listening skills. Our Little Owls story and rhyme time sessions are offered every Tuesday morning and the children are loving them! Lots of creative and imaginative skills are used along with some dancing and musical instruments! Its all going on at Little Owls! 

And secondly, the weekly sending home of ingredients and recipe cards for healthy meals between now and Christmas. Each week, all the ingredients that families will need to make seven nutritious and easy meals that will feed a family of 4 are provided and then the following week we ask the children about what they liked and more importantly, what they didn't! The recipe cards are easy to follow and we have received some lovely feedback so far as children are getting busy in the kitchen!

January 2016

We have decided to change things up in this last term of EYPP monies before the new financial year starts and as a result we are investing our £600 in numeracy as well as continuing on with communication support.  

Lot of exciting early maths toys and equipment are arriving all the time and our oldest children are enjoying lots of fun and learning with their tape measures and stop watches!! Staff are also completing training courses to build on their confidence regarding supporting children's learning in numeracy and to give them ideas on activities that we can introduce both inside and out. As a setting we have invested in working towards becoming NDNA Maths Champions and have identified several staff members to take the lead with this.

We have received lots of love about last terms speaking and listening group so as a result, our staff are continuing on with these groups and also working with children who we have identified through our most recent tracking data as having a communication or speech delay in small group time. These sessions are informal, fun, interactive and promote not just verbal communication but non verbal as well.  

April 2016

We are now entering our fourth term of EYPP monies and this time we have changed our focus back to our initial investment in children's health and well-being by offering a breakfast club for our pre school children and also are looking forward to better support school readiness. We all know a healthy breakfast can help improve children's attention and approach to learning so from April 2016 we are now offering a breakfast club wherein children can be dropped off at nursery 30 minutes earlier and join us for a big breakfast. We will be providing a number of healthy options from baked products to cereals and fruit and our hope is that children will be happy arriving a little bit earlier to start the day on a full tummy!

We are also looking at school readiness and although we are happy with our existing transition into school procedures, we had a think about what we could do to better support children with understanding daily school routines and their own self care. To this end we are using some of our EYPP monies this year to provide PE kits for pre school children which will develop their confidence and abilities with getting themselves ready for PE, folding and storing their clothes and then getting dressed once more ready for classes. We are also implementing a school dinner system from after May half term wherein twice a week we will be serving lunches in the hall and children will practice lining up, eating somewhere different and self selecting their own meals! Our pre-schoolers will be ready for anything by mid July!

September 2016

Our EYPP monies are working hard this term as we use them to increase the number of hours staff are able to offer individualised learning time. As before, we use the children's tracking data to identify who needs help or support with which area of learning and then allocate staffing accordingly. This enables us to ensure that every child in receipt of EYPP funding has one on one time with an adult filled with learning opportunities and activities that should best support them to learn in whichever area or areas they require it. This approach is also challenging our fantastic pre school staff team who are responsible for delivering this style of bespoke learning and are busy researching different and creative activities to turn children on to learning through exciting and new resources, games and activities. 

We are also continuing with our free breakfast club this term as adults and children alike have shared their love for this free service offered daily from 8.30am and nursery staff have commented too on the visible improvements they have observed with children's listening and attention. As the weather gets colder there are more hot cereals and foods on offer to heat us all up as well as the tried and tested favourites!!

January 2017

A new year and new EYPP monies being invested in our eligible 3 year olds! Lots of resources were purchased this term to help build confidence in all areas of learning inline with our most recent tracking data, as well as the room layout being reviewed and changed to create more imaginative play spaces for everyone and an improved maths area.

Our Story Bear Bags were launched this month with 5 bears, their notebooks and back packs that the children can take home and read with their families. Each bear has their own clothes and each book focuses on either phonics, rhyming, sounds or stories.  The children are welcome to take the story bear bags home and keep them for a number of days before filling in the note book with their families and returning them for another family to borrow. So far this initiatve has been bearly well enjoyed!!!

One to one learning and focused activities are still being offered in small groups as children develop their problem solving skills, familiarise themsleves with technology, gain confidence with their numbers and discuss all manner of scientific and amazing topics!

April 2017

This term, for the first time, we were able to access the local authorities eligibility checker and find out exactly who is eligible for EYPP funding which in turn enabled us to calculate in advance, the amount of funding available to our children. These monies are used well as the staff training continues towards becoming Maths Champions and the introduction of our Magic Maths sessions have been welcomed as well! These short but fun small group sessions encourage the children to investigate and gain confidence in early maths using all manner of resources! Water, playdough, board games and giants' shoes help children understand early number concepts, patterns and differentiation.

We also welcome the return of our PE sessions this term as older children are preparing for a successful transition into big school in a few months. The staff take time to plan and offer music and movement sessions both outside and in regardless of the weather which the children enjoy...almost as much as they enjoy getting changed into their PE kits! 

September 2017

Our favourite support staff member Jenny is back on site this term as we continue to work towards improving our preschool children's early numeracy skills! Our most recent tracking data has been reviewed and analysed so we can best identify the areas we should be focusing on and despite the fact we have now thankfully(!) completed our Maths Champion accreditation, this is still an area we would like to develop. With this is mind,  we have recruited Mrs Jenny Fenwick to come in once a week alongside our qualified teacher, Celine and look at fun and different ways to introduce and enhance childrens understanding of maths within our setting.  

Of course, children cannot learn on an empty stomach, so we are also continuing with our free breakfast club this term and as the weather gets colder we are returning to cooked breakfasts to heat us all up as deepest, darkest winter approaches!!

January 2018

After a term (or four!) investing in both early numeracy and free breakfast foods, we have considered numerous and exciting options that we believe would be a wise investment of our EYPP monies.......but these two old faithfuls have been SOOOOO successful, we are sticking by them!

New resources have been purchased, staff training is an ongoing investment and our small group sessions are things of beauty! Our older children are really benefitting from all of these approaches as well as a move to a new, larger room with more outside space. Our new pre school room has its own library service, access to quieter, learning areas and a wonderful nature garden that has made magic maths appear more magic than ever!

With our free breakfast club continuing with a free early drop off facility, our older children have never had it so good! Next terms funding is still to be determined and our continued investment in early maths should be visible in the next batch of our tracking data so from April, these monies could be allocated to something completely different....but for now, yummy foods and magic maths continue to hold our attention and our funding!

April 2018

 Hello!! Spring is in the air and this marks a change in our EYPP funding allocations, as we move away from maths and return to the exciting world of communication! This term, we have been lucky enough to offer a number of our staff team the opportunity to attend a training session with our local Speech and Language Team. These sessions mean we have more staff than ever able to provide small group work building on childrens early language skills, turn taking and speech sounds. We have been working hard to ensure our nursery is a language rich environment as well as refreshing our dual language story books and posters! Znakomity! Our community library is still available along with our story bear bags so we are working hard to ensure the children here at KCN have a lot to say!! Excelente!

September 2018

This is always an exciting time of year as the children retun from their summer adventures into new play rooms, to make new friends and learn lots of amazing new skills! Our tracking data from last term shows great improvements made so in order to keep moving in the right direction, we are allocating more small group time to more staff in order to build on childrens confidence, language skills and understanding. These groups will be offered to children who tracked lower than we would have liked at the end of last term, children who have english as a second language and also our new children who may just be feeling a little overwhelmed as they find their place within our nursery! The whole staff team have also accessed online early communication training and they are keen to get started, so watch this space and get ready to listen! 

January 2020

Through completing our cohort tracking in December 2019, we have identified that some of our children are not where we would like them to be in their language development. This term we are continuing with our time to talk sessions, which are small group sessions, focussing on childrens langauge development. We are also offering our free breakfast club for our pre school children, to ensure they are being offered a healthy breakfast before they start their learning.

 April 2020

This term we have continued with our time to talk sessions to help children with their langauge development. We have also continued with our free breakfast club to ensure children are being given a healthy breakfast ready to start their leanring.

We also started our weekly visits to a local care home, to help children develop their social skills and become more involved in the community around us. Unfortunatley due to the pandemic this had to be stopped to keep evertoyone safe and the nursery closed until June 2020.

September 2020

We had a delivery of lots of new resources this month, to help the children progress in all areas of development and allow us to plan lots of new exiting activities for the children. Our breakfast club is still running throghout this term, as well as our time to talk sessions to help with language development.

January 2021

As before we are using our cohort tracking data to identify areas where we need to support children. Although we have seen a lot of improvement in childrens language development, we are still continuing with our time to talk sessions throughout the term. We have also taken on a new staff member to help support the staff and offer more indivdual time with the children, to support them with their individual needs.

We are also still offering our breakfast club to all children.

 April 2021

Our EYPP money this term is being spent on supporting children with more indivdual needs. We now have lots of children staying for lunch each day to support them with their social communication, as well as them enjoying a home cooked meal with their peers. This is helping children with lots of dietry needs. Our free breakfast club is also still running.

This term also sees our leavers trip, which will take place at the end of this term. We have used some of our EYPP money to contribute towards the cost of this for children who are eligible, as well as additional staffing for the day.

The staff have all completed lots of new training courses with our new traniing provider, Noodle Now.

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