Three-year-old Hugh* often didn’t turn up at nursery on the two days he was supposed to. His sporadic attendance gradually became no attendance at all. Staff called Hugh’s mum, who revealed that the family car, used to transport him to nursery, had broken down, and there was no money to repair it. Luckily, Hugh was eligible for Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) funding, so the setting decided to use some of that money to pay for his bus fare to nursery.
Caroline Eaton, EYPP project lead for Early Education, which is running a programme looking at strategies for implementing the funding, says, ‘He went from no attendance to 100 per cent, and his mother now feels the setting cares for her and she is a valued member of the community.’ As a result of being there more often, he has made more friends – and a relatively small spend has made a big impact.
Yet as attending an early years setting is not a statutory obligation, providers sometimes feel that attendance is not an issue for them in the same way that it is for schools. For Early Education, which publishes an EYPP toolkit, supporting parents and attendance are two key areas for the EYPP spend. ‘Attendance could be a first hurdle,’ Ms Eaton says, adding that ‘children have to be at the setting before they can benefit from it’.
Parental engagement starts right at the beginning, with checking eligibility, and goes through to evaluating the impact of the spend. ‘First a setting has to encourage parents to fill in the form and get through our checking process, then wait for a signal in terms of which children are eligible,’ says Graham Arnold, sector development manager at Cambridgeshire County Council’s early years service. Settings sometimes find they need to support parents in challenging eligibility decisions (see box).
Parents should also be involved in the decisions about how the money is to be spent. ‘When we first ran workshops about the EYPP, one of the main questions from providers was: Do we have to agree with parents? There is an element of professional judgement involved – but if having that conversation with parents helps to engage them with the child’s learning that can only be a good thing,’ he says.
With only four children out of about 55 in the setting eligible for the EYPP last academic year, ‘outstanding’ Knightsfield Pre-School in Welwyn Garden City was able to tailor its spend very specifically to individuals. ‘We received the funding very close to the end of term, after which the children were leaving for Reception or school nurseries,’ says manager Karen Powell. ‘So we had limited time to spend it.’
Knightsfield made learning packs for children
Staff spoke to the four families as well as using their own observations, and constructed home-learning packs based on the children’s needs and interests. The packs, which cost about £6 each, included laminated instructions for activities such as rhyming and alliteration for a child needing some support with speech and language development, as well as games and toys. ‘We didn’t have time to go out and buy new things, so we used resources we already had and used the funding to replace them in the setting,’ says Ms Powell. ‘We created about a dozen packs, so that as soon as one came back we could give that child anot-her one to take home.’ The pre-school also spent some of the funding on staff training, speech and language resources, and furniture for the home corner.
Using the EYPP to fund a home visit programme can also be an effective way of engaging parents. Although Knightsfield currently has no eligible children, staff are planning potential spend for those who may receive future funding, including siblings and those benefiting from the two-year-old free entitlement. ‘We are looking at sending a senior practitioner into the family home to model how to extend children’s learning through play,’ explains Ms Powell.
The plan is to carry out three visits: in the first, the practitioner will play with the child while the parent observes; in the second, the practitioner will step back a little while the parent joins in; and during the last visit the parent will play with the child while the practitioner observes.
‘Parental involvement is absolutely key in helping children’s development,’ says Ms Powell. ‘Also, it is something that can continue into the future, once parents have been shown how these simple activities can make a huge difference to their child’s learning.’ n
*name has been changed
Further information
Education Endowment Foundation EYPP toolkit, http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit/early-years.
Early Education project on EYPP spend, www.early-education.org.uk/eypp
EYPP guide for local authorities, www.gov.uk/guidance/early-years-pupil-premium-guide-for-local-authorities
Case study: Parson Drove Pre-School, Cambridgeshire
At Parson Drove Pre-School, practitioners regularly take time at the start and end of sessions to chat to parents. The setting carries out formal parent consultations at least twice a year, in the family home if required, as well as home visits for every child before they start.
This close relationship with families has allowed the pre-school to challenge situations where children were mistakenly identified as ineligible for EYPP funding. ‘After a conversation with a child’s mother, we challenged the funding decision and sent copies of letters demonstrating entitlement,’ says manager Carol Grooms.
When a child is identified as EYPP-eligible, the key worker meets with the parents to discuss their potential requirements, and these thoughts are recorded on a document that sets out how the pre-school will spend the money. The form, devised by another local setting, includes an evaluation section where the impact of the spend can be recorded.
Home-learning packs have proved a cost-effective way of stretching the EYPP funding. The setting already uses such packs as part of a lending library, led by deputy early years manager Dawn Hamilton. EYPP funding has allowed the scheme to be targeted further.
‘Dawn often makes the money go further by making her own resources,’ says Ms Grooms. Bags will usually contain a book such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and related toys or activities such as a soft toy caterpillar, or games focusing on the days of the week.
‘We have used some funding to make improvements to our outdoor area,’ says Ms Grooms. ‘Since some of the improvement can be costly, we have looked to parents and extended family to assist. Recently, a talented grandparent turned some wood we sourced into large balancing scales for our outdoor area, and tree trunks into seats.’
Occasionally EYPP money is spent on a key worker accompanying a parent and child to a speech and language session. Staff have also undergone training on separation and bereavement. ‘Having spoken to other settings experiencing a similar trend, we decided to organise an evening training session that covered bereavement, loss and separation,’ says Ms Grooms. ‘We were able to identify resources, including books such as Mum and Dad Glue by Kes Gray and Goodbye Mousie by Robie Harris. It also made us consider persona doll training as a possible spend. Persona dolls are large cloth dolls used to develop children’s empathy and tackle discrimination.’
Parents are involved in evaluating the impact of EYPP spend through consultations and feedback forms sent out in the children’s learning journals. Other approaches to measuring the impact include staff observations, EYFS data, comments from other professionals and meetings with the Reception teacher in the setting’s main feeder school.