Literacy in the Early Years

This course explains in detail all about the theory of attachment and the impact it has on all areas of children’s learning and development. If children do not have a secure attachment, it can prevent them from exploring their environment and achieving deep levels of learning.

This online introductory training course comprises of 5 modules. It covers all the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) necessary for registration plus extra information that will help you build a high quality and sustainable childminding business. Once you have completed all 5 modules, you will be able to print off your Childminder Introductory Training Certificate too, which you will need to show to Ofsted or your childminder agency. There are no assignments or requirements for written tests to pass this course. Each module is likely to take between 2 and 3 hours to complete.

This Level 3 Course has 4 modules. It is aimed at, Childminders who are caring for school aged children only (Year 1 and over), Nannies, Holiday and activity clubs, Out of school clubs that are not operated by a school, Activity based groups such as dance clubs, trampolining clubs, boating clubs etc. This course covers all the Common Core of Skills and Knowledge but also includes the practical information you need to help you carry out your day to day responsibilities in your particular Childcare Register setting. Downloadable course handouts are included.

From September 2019 The Education Inspection Framework includes the term Cultural Capital for all early years settings. This online module looks what Cultural Capital is and what Childminders (and other early years practitioners) need to do in their day to day work with children to enhance their Cultural Capital.

This is the only online data protection course that has been produced specifically for registered childminders, however it is equally useful to others working within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and/or the Requirements of the Childcare Register. Unlike other courses, this one clearly outlines the links between the requirements of the EYFS, Childcare Register and the Data Protection Act and aims to help you fully understand your responsibilities regarding the data you need to keep. Most requirements are common sense and you will already have systems in place to meet at least some of them.

A sound knowledge and understanding of how children develop and learn helps with effective planning for individual children. It aids understanding of children’s behaviour and helps identify when a child is not developing as they should. Firstly, this course looks at Child Development for children aged up to 8 years, including how developmental norms link to the EYFS. Then it explores equality, diversity and inclusion, explaining common terms and giving some ideas of providing a positive inclusive environment for all children. Lastly this course will cover play, which is the cornerstone for children's learning.

This course consists of 3 modules and is designed to provide all the information you may need to know about the inspection itself and about the elements that Ofsted will look for that have a specific focus regarding your work with children. The modules in this course are, Understanding your Ofsted Inspection, Cultural Capital, Teaching and Learning in the Early Years (Pedagogy).

All children have their own characteristics, interests and ways of learning and developing and it’s important to have high aspirations for both girls and boys. Early Years is predominantly female dominated and because of this we need to consider the impact this could have on the activities and experiences we offer and how they are approached and presented. Girls continue to out-perform boys at all levels of education. This course explores the differences between girls and boys and why it is important to look at how we approach engaging and supporting boys to enable them to reach their full potential.

Enhancing Practice with Hygge. Hygge has become a firm part of the Danish way of life, meaning to be ‘cosy’ relaxed and calm. Scandinavian countries score high in their sense of wellbeing and this along with their ethos of hygge has interested other countries in the world. The Danes live in near darkness during the long winter months. They fill their houses with beautiful and comfortable things to make their homes desirable places to relax and unwind in. Hygge can be described as The Danish way of living well. A way of experiencing calm and joy. A pathway to happiness and good mental health.

In order to achieve equality in a diverse world, it is essential that we educate our young children to grow up without discrimination. Everything you do needs to be non discriminatory and this must include regularly reviewing your practices, policies and procedures to ensure they do not discriminate against people with a protected characteristic. All children, irrespective of ethnicity, culture or religion, home language, family background, learning ability, sex or disabilities, should have the opportunity to experience a challenging and enjoyable programme of learning and development. This course will teach you about all laws and anti-discrimination legislation currently in place.

Exploring Maths in the Early Years has been written to help practitioners gain a better understanding about how early maths can be taught and incorporated into our daily routines with children. It looks at how the foundations for maths are vital for later schooling and life-long skills. The course is broken down into understanding number, shapes, patterns and sequencing and spatial awareness. It addresses how all aspects of maths can be included into everyone’s curriculum both indoors and out and how we can work with parents to encourage and teach early maths at home.

This two part virtual training course has been designed and written specifically for Childminders and will provide you with all the relevant food safety information you need, and covers food related illnesses, food allergy and intolerance, pests and pets, food storage and cleaning. Completing this training and following the guidance it covers will ensure that you are complying with the EYFS requirements which state that you are competent to prepare and handle food appropriately.

This course will help learners to open and run a successful childminding business. It will help them to market their business to help ensure sustainability and to comply with legislation around self-employment. The course covers information about, Marketing (direct and indirect), Building a portfolio of information for parents, Making childminding work - considering own family, The importance of building effective relationships with parents, Managing that first meeting with parents, Settling new children into a childminding setting, Establishing routines, Income Tax and National Insurance requirements and Providing funded childcare places

The theory of loose parts has been around for approximately 50 years, however, it is only in recent years that Early Years' settings have realised the importance of loose parts in stimulating children's curiosity, creativity and imagination. This course will explain what loose parts are, what the benefits of loose parts play are including how it can stimulate brain growth and development and how it can save money and our environment by ‘reducing, reusing and recycling' our waste.

Getting it right regarding healthy eating for our young children has never been more high profile. This training will show how good nutrition is a fundamental part of caring for children, especially those who are under 5 years old. This module covers key nutritional guidelines for all food groups. It also includes the differences between nutritional needs of children and adults. It then covers all you need to know about planning balanced menus and the portion sizes you should be providing.

Getting it right regarding healthy eating for our young children is vital. This module helps with some of the challenges you may face and covers how to cater for special diets. It explains the difference between food intolerance and food allergy and what you need to do about this regarding serving foods. It then explores food preferences and what influences children’s preferences. It gives hints and tips to cater for fussy eaters and explains when you need to seek expert help for extreme fussy eaters. Lastly this module includes information about effective weaning including baby led weaning.

Childminding UK worked in partnership with Ben Kingston-Hughes, award winning trainer to produce this video training course about Play, Nurturing and Curiosity. This Curiosity module includes information about brain development and its link to curiosity. What curiosity is, how children experience it and ways it might be stifled. What is a Brain-deprived Neurotropic Factor and what happens to brain cells when more are produced. The difference between convergent and divergent thinking and the link to playfulness. An enriched environment, the importance of the child’s environment being flexible and the adult role in achieving this.

Childminding UK worked in partnership with Ben Kingston-Hughes, award winning trainer to produce this video training course about Play, Nurturing and Curiosity. This module includes information about brain development and how it links to Nurturing. It describes how children experience nurturing and why it is so important. It describes how children form attachments, learn about empathy, looks at the positive emotional system, the adult role in children being able to deal with negative emotions and developing behaviour strategies.

Childminding UK worked in partnership with Ben Kingston-Hughes, award winning trainer to produce this video training course about Play, Nurturing and Curiosity. This play module includes information about brain development and how this links to play and the physical benefits of play. It describes how to identify the play cues that children display. It also includes valuable information about your role in children’s play. Learn what happens when children are deprived of quality play experiences.

Most lifelong mental health issues begin in childhood, however support to learn good mental health protective skills and routines, and learning to talk about wellbeing and feelings in the early years can help children and their families to take care of their wellbeing and to feel able to ask for help as they need it. This course has been written to help practitioners working with early years children to understand some of the key protectors for good mental health in children.

This course has been produced as an aid to anyone who works with children, whether a childminder (working alone or employing others), or working in a larger group setting. It aims to help learners to understand why they need to record a child's development and learning, what to record in a child's development record, how they might achieve this, how the record can help to identify the child's next steps in their development and how to communicate effectively with others who are relevant to the child's learning and development.

This course provides an introduction or refresher about Safeguarding Children including introducing relevant national safeguarding documentation. It is relevant to all who work with children or young people. It includes identifying categories and recognising the signs and symptoms of abuse. It explains responsibilities to reporting concerns and information sharing among professionals. It will help learners respond to disclosures of abuse, identifies which children may be more vulnerable and covers how to protect yourself from allegations. It also includes information about the Prevent Duty, female genital mutilation, and child sexual exploitation. Child Protection training needs renewing every 2 years

This 2 part interactive virtual training course training is aimed at providing an introduction or refresher about Safeguarding children has been written specifically with Childminders in mind. This course incorporates Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) Training. The course will guide you through the information required to understand your responsibilities to keep children safe from harm. This course includes DSL training that is compulsory for Childminders. Therefore you do not need to book a separate DSL course.

Safer recruitment is a set of practices designed to ensure that when employing staff to work in their childminding setting, that they are suitable to do so and that they don’t pose any risk of harm to the children in their care. As safer recruitment is one of the most important aspects of safeguarding children, this should form part of childminder’s safeguarding policy and procedures. It is one of the first opportunities that you have to minimise the risks of anyone causing harm to the children in your care. This course will enhance the learners’ knowledge of safer recruitment and creating a safer environment for children.

There are many different identified Schemas. According to Chris Athey (2007), a child development theorist. Athey identified these through prolonged and in-depth research of children over a period of 5 years, with a skilled team of researchers. This aim of this course is to teach you about Schemas and enable you to identify and recognise them in children's play and know what to do once you've recognised a child has Schematic play to aid their learning and development.

This module helps explore how sound knowledge of children’s development and learning through play can help track children's progress to help determine if they reaching their developmental milestones and gives practical tips to help. Observing children in their play and learning, communication and sensory and motor development is the best way to find out more about a child's ability and achievements. It also explains how the best way to find out more about a child and gain more depth to observations is to go and play with them.

Grief and loss are human experiences that everyone has shared in. Therefore this can be an emotional subject to think about, as it will often call to your own experiences and memories. This training will support you with ideas to incorporate in your practice. While many practitioners are concerned about getting it wrong in a sensitive situation, the important thing to remember is that if you work to know your child and have a good relationship with them, and if you listen to and respond to your child's feelings, then it is difficult to say or do the wrong thing.

This module is intended to provide you with insights, and a range of tools and strategies to choose from that you may wish to use to support your children and families to have the best experience in your care, when working with a child who may need assessment for Autism, or who has received a diagnosis.

The Education Inspection Framework is the framework Ofsted use to inspect early years settings and focuses on how childminders determine what their charges need to learn, what they will teach them, how they will teach them and how they assess the effectiveness of what they have taught them. The way in which we teach in the Early Years is known as our Pedagogy. Teaching in the early years looks very different to the way teachers teach in schools. This online module covers the many ways that early years practitioners teach and assess children’s learning.

Babies and young children learn by using their senses, Elinor Goldschmied developed treasure baskets over 60 years ago for babies who could sit up but who were not yet mobile, She understood that babies' brains grow rapidly at this stage, developing in response to their surroundings through the senses of touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight, A treasure basket is a collection of everyday objects chosen carefully to stimulate those senses helping the brain to make connections and develop, This course explains how to make and use Treasure Baskets and how they enhance babies learning in line with the EYFS

Produced particularly for Registered Childminders this course is suitable for all early year's practitioners. It helps you understand the Prevent Duty and your responsibilities regarding this in your setting. Firstly the course explains what the Prevent Duty and Fundamental British Values are. Then covers information about the Channel programme before describing what radicalisation is, signs and symptoms to look out for and what to do with concerns. It gives a background to Fundamental British Values, details about how you use them in your childminding setting and then explains how Prevent and British Values will be judged at your Ofsted inspection.

This course has been produced particularly for Registered Childminders who use the (EYFS). To fully meet the requirements of the (EYFS) it is important to be familiar with it and understand what is expected. This step by step guide explains what is needed at each step. This course is particularly useful for pre-registration and new childminders but also useful for those who would like the EYFS requirements explaining in more detail as it gives top tips and explains what Ofsted are looking for. Please note that this course is NOT sufficient on its own to cover introductory training requirements.