A whole setting approach to communication

Implementing a whole setting approach to accessing high quality communication training and implementing effective strategies ensures all practitioners have knowledge and use techniques on a daily basis with the children and know the best strategies to support and develop their communication skills.

The Communication and Language webpage from gov.uk has lots of useful advice and videos. These resources will help you when reviewing your current curriculum to make sure you are meeting the requirements of the revised communication and language area of learning.

Resources are split into 3 areas based on the educational programmes:

• Interactions
• Exploring Language
• Listening and Understanding

St Edmund’s Early Years Stronger Practice Hub is one of 18 Stronger Practice Hubs appointed by the Department for Education (DfE) across England. Our main aim is to help pre-reception early years settings adopt evidence-based practice improvements to address key Covid recovery issues, and build trusted networks for sharing effective practice. We will do this by:

• Establishing local networks of settings to share knowledge and effective practice.
• Proactively sharing information and advice on evidence-based approaches, for example, through newsletters, blogs, events 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 settings

A key part of our work as a Stronger Practice Hub is to offer evidence-based programmes to Early Years practitioners in Yorkshire and The Humber. We are offering two FREE programmes, one developed by Sheffield Hallam University to promote high quality adult-child interactions in early years, and one developed by National Day Nurseries Association to build practitioner confidence in supporting early maths. Find out more information about the Stronger Practice Hub here.

High quality interactions often look effortless, but they are not easy to do well. So, to support early years professionals, EFF have distilled the evidence into the ShREC approach. This provides us with a simple and memorable set of specific, evidence-informed strategies which we can embed into everyday practice. We can use these strategies with every child, every day.

Take some time to watch this video and visit EFF's ShREC introduction webpage to find out more.

Speech and Language UK design innovative tools and training for thousands of nursery staff and teachers. They can help you support children who struggle with talking and understanding words. 

Visit their website to find out about specialist programmes for Early Years and much more here