Swift on the heels of two Outstanding OFSTED judgements, the REYS federation has won a bid to run the South-east Early years stronger practice hub. Blagdon Nursery School will lead the group which serves Reading, West Berkshire and Windsor. Early years stronger practice hubs are distributed across England, with an ambition of 2 hubs in each region (18 hubs in total). The first 13 hubs were appointed last week.
Early years stronger practice hubs will provide advice, share good practice, and offer evidence-based professional development for early years practitioners. The hubs are part of the early years education recovery support package which also includes the early years experts and mentors programme. The early years stronger practice hubs programme is supported by the Education Endowment Foundation and the National Children’s Bureau.
Stronger practice hubs will support other nurseries and childminders in their area to adopt evidence-based practice improvements, by:
- establishing local networks of early years educators to share knowledge and effective practice
- proactively sharing information and advice on evidence-based approaches – for example, through newsletters, blogs and social media
- acting as a point of contact for bespoke advice, and signposting to other funded support
- working with the Education Endowment Foundation to select evidence-based programmes to fund and make available to nurseries and childminders
Many congratulations to REYS for becoming a national centre of excellence.