"A great opportunity for childminders to access a professionally supported session which will not only enhance their own skills but also be invaluable to the children they care for."
Kären Pallot – Coordinator, St Piers Children’s Centre, Lingfield
The Debutots Childminders’ Support through Story Programme (EYFS) launches as a part of National Childminding Week – 14th–20th June 2009
The Childminders’ Support Through Story Programme (EYFS)©, Debutots’ ground-breaking new curriculum of interactive storytelling and dramatic play sessions specifically designed to support childminders in England with their EYFS curriculum requirements, is launched in England this June.
With the number of childminders plummeting since the inception of the EYFS’s rigorous observation and assessment requirements in 2008, Debutots have seen the need to tailor their hugely successful nursery classes and resources so childminders and their charges can benefit too. "Our programme will provide unrivalled personal support to childminders with regard to the EYFS" say Karen Wallace-Jones, Co-director of the Debutots franchise network, "Yet they will still be able to imagine and play with their little ones, which is what despondent home carers feel the EYFS framework is not allowing them to do".
The Childminders’ Support Through Story Programme (EYFS)© will be delivered in local settings (such as Children’s Centres) on a weekly basis for a mixed under 5’s age group. Childminders will be encouraged to play creatively with their little ones guided by a skilled Debutots practitioner. Interactive storytelling will promote skilful communication, drama techniques will foster cognitive development and imaginative role-play will grow their children’s positive sense of themselves and of others.
Unique EYFS support will be delivered through the established Debutots Creative Planning Pack©, which is already an essential tool for many nurseries and pre-schools’ planning. This termly resource demonstrates links to the EYFS early learning goals and provides follow up activities for each Debutots session for the childminder.
In addition, there are now new and specifically developed Debutots My Learning Story© weekly handouts for each child. Not only will these give an overview of the class for the child’s parents each week, but will guide the childminder in how to observe the child within the Debutots learning environment, provide a record of their weekly achievements and the opportunity to consider future progression.
Kären Pallot, Coordinator of St Piers Children’s Centre in Lingfield, Surrey, where one of the free launch events will take place, says "This is a great opportunity for childminders to access a professionally supported session which will not only enhance their own skills, but also be invaluable to the children they care for. Debutots sessions are thoughtfully planned and skilfully led, and provide excellent links to the Early Years Foundation Stage."
Launching as a part of National Childminding Week in England this June, childminders no longer need be disheartened in their quest to balance play and paperwork, Children’s Centres can look no further for activities to provide support to their local childminders, and parents should be assured that the home-from-home play they sought in a childminder can still be nurtured within the context of the new EYFS framework.