Inclusive Playwork Practice for Wraparound Provision

Playwork in Wraparound Childcare - A Quality Practice Programme

This is a 2-day online course. 

The training will outline what playwork practice in a wraparound setting looks like and how to successfully implement this in a way that will not only give you confidence and permission for your practice, but will provide great playful environments for the children in your care. The session will cover the principles of playwork, building on a good understanding of the legal requirements, turning these into practical steps for good quality in practice in context of school based wraparound. During the session you will start to develop your own vision for practice which will be built upon throughout the programme. 

We will look at the theory that informs your everyday playwork practice in an out of school setting. You will develop an 'emerging' level of understanding of playwork theory to inform your responses to playing with children. Considering this theory and what you know about the children who attend your settings, you will be able to plan and construct play environments (whether permanent or pack-away) from available resources. Utilising effective play observation skills, you will begin to understand how to reflect on children's play behaviours and your own interactions to consider the effectiveness of your environments in supporting children's free play in out of school provision.

Finally, we will look at embedding the learning whilst considering intervention styles, the adults role in a setting based on our emergent understanding of childhood, children's play and quality of practice. Digging more into reflective practice, the role of and impact of the adult on the playing child, and how the adult can often be the problem. Considering the vision for practice that's been emerging, we will explore how to best support this vision through everyday practice and high quality interactions.

Training provider: Out of School Alliance

Target audience: Wraparound provision

Cost: £ Fully funded

Click here to book, using the above code

Supporting Bereaved Children in Early Years

A training course offering Early Years Foundation Stage practitioners the opportunity to gain knowledge about the impact a death could have on children in their setting.

This course will offer delegates the opportunity to learn key strategies in dealing with this issue and being able to provide the appropriate support.

Death and dying is part of life, but as adults we find it difficult to talk with children about these issues, and we are often not quite sure about what support young children need and what their understanding is.

Statistics suggest that between 2% and 3% of children under five in Britain will lose a parent, main carer or sibling through death.

The aims of this session are:

• To increase your awareness of the issues surrounding bereavement in young children.
• To help you feel more confident about supporting bereaved children and their parents or carers.

Delegates need to access a microphone and camera during the course; therefore, it is recommended that the training is undertaken on a computer/laptop.

Training Provider: Cherie Pointon, Educational Psychology Support Service

Target audience: Childminders, Early years group settings, School nurseries and Reception classes

Cost: £ Fully funded

Click here to book, using the above code

Communication Champion Core Training

Learning objectives:

• To understand what Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) are and the terminology used for different elements. To be able to understand how these are represented across some key models.
• To be aware of the causes and prevalence of SLCN, with specific focus on Developmental Language Disorder (DLD).
• To be able to identify children who may have SLCN and need further support.
• To appreciate the importance of vocabulary as a cornerstone of SLC development from early emerging language onwards.
• To feel confident in adapting the setting environment, and the way adults interact with children, to support SLC development.
• To have practical strategies and activities to encourage communication within the setting and personalise these to individual children.

Each session will include a resource or activity to use based on the session's content and a task to complete and feedback on at the following session.  These will be based upon Plan Do Review templates.

Training provider: Communicate

Target audience: Childminders, Early years group settings, School nurseries and Reception classes, Out of school settings

Cost: £ Fully funded

Click here to book, using the above codes

Communication Champion Advanced Training

You must have completed the Communication Champion Core training before attending this Advanced course.

Learning Objectives:

To build on knowledge from the Core training:

• To have a greater understanding of specific SLCN areas.
• To increase knowledge in assessing these areas.
• To have specific strategies and activities to develop skills in the specific areas.
• To consider children both in a medical 'deficit' model, as well as a functional 'social' model when setting targets.
• To demonstrate an ability to integrate all the teaching and apply this to case studies.

Each session will include a resource or activity to use based on the session's content and a task to complete and feedback on at the following session.  These will be based upon Plan Do Review templates.

Training provider: Communicate 

Target audience: Childminders, Early years group settings, School nurseries and Reception classes, Out of school settings

Cost: £ Fully funded

Click here to book, using the above code

Communication Hubs

Early Years and Childcare offer Communication Hubs in the following areas:

• Breckland
• Broadland
• Gt Yarmouth & East
• King's Lynn & West
• North Norfolk
• Norwich
• South Norfolk.

Here is what you can expect from your local Communication Hub:

• Termly CPD-filled podcasts - Released in the first half of each term, based on the areas that providers told us they would like more support with.
• Termly in-person network meetings - Workshop-style meetings held in the second half of each term, with the aim of supporting practitioners to take the CPD from the podcast and think about its practical application within their setting.
• Opportunities to share best practice, build relationships and network with other local settings and partner agencies.
• Speech and language surgery to allow practitioners the opportunity to talk to a local speech and language therapist and ask practice-based questions.
• Opportunities to speak with your local Early Years Adviser (EYA) and Improvement & Development Worker (IDW).
• Improved access to speech and language resources via a small resource library that practitioners can browse and borrow from during in-person meetings.
• Booking is limited to four practitioners per setting for in-person meetings, and spaces will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis. If you wish to sign up more than 4 practitioners, the additional practitioners will be placed on a waiting list and contacted one week before the meeting if spaces become available.

Training provider: Early Years Learning and Childcare

Target audience: Childminders, Early years group settings, School nurseries and Reception classes, Out of school settings.

Cost: £ Fully funded

Podcast Information Summer 2025 - 'Let's Talk... Building Oracy in the Early Years' with Dr Nicola Dawson

The podcast is available on all major streaming platforms including Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music etc. Simply type 'The Norfolk Early Years Podcast' into the search function of your streaming app. If you have a subscription to a streaming platform you can listen to the podcast without any adverts. If you don't have a subscription you can still access the podcast using the links below - you may have to make a free account but you can listen for free (with adverts).

Listen via Apple Podcasts: The Norfolk Early Years Podcast - Podcast - Apple Podcasts

Listen via Spotify: The Norfolk Early Years Podcast | Podcast on Spotify

Please see below for the follow-on in-person Summer workshops:

Early years practitioners, reception teachers and nursery teachers - please book via the Portal.

All other professionals - book via email: earlyyearschildcare@norfolk.gov.uk including your name, role, setting and chosen meeting.

Positive Children, Positive Behaviour for Wraparound Settings

This invaluable course, delivered by Ben Kingston-Hughes, explores behaviour for wraparound or out of school settings in a way that is easily accessible and directly applicable to school age children. The course details how we can fundamentally understand our children's behaviour and then gives concrete strategies for steering and guiding our children towards making pro-social choices and ultimately helping our children to thrive.

The course also explores the pressures of modern school life and how this will have a direct impact on the behaviour of our children. The course shows what we can and must do to alleviate those stresses to make the setting an oasis of safety for our children.

This course gives unique insight into children's behaviour which can really help practitioners especially if they feel like they are struggling. The course explores some of the myths around behaviour and gives concrete strategies for unlocking pro-social behaviour and some incredible new research into just why traditional methods are not effective.  This can have a dramatic effect on the children, the practitioners and the setting as a whole.

Ben Kingston-Hughes is an international keynote speaker, author and multi award-winning trainer. He delivers inspirational training to schools, nursery settings, out of school settings and for parents, as well as for local authorities and national charities.

Training provider: Ben Kingston-Hughes

Target audience: Wraparound provision

Cost: £ Fully funded

Click here to book, using the above code