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Hinds announces Early Years initiative and new nursery places

Education Secretary Damian Hinds has launched the early years initiative ‘Hungry Little Minds’ in collaboration with a coalition of national businesses, aimed at improving communication and literacy skills in the early years.

The programme, aimed at supporting children from all income groups, will provide parents with video tips and advice on assisting language development through both playtime and everyday activities. While the Department for Education’s own data collection reveals a 20% increase over five years in the percentage of children attaining at least a good level of development in the early years, more than a quarter of children do not reach their expected level of development. Hungry Little Minds intends to build on core EYFS communication skills through encouraging engagement between parents and children, utilising shopping and other aspects of normal life for learning.

Although early years development in the North East matches the 70% national average, a significant gap in achievement is highlighted between pupils eligible for Free School Meals (FSMs) and their classmates. The widest gap in the region was found in Northumberland where only 53% of students eligible for FSMs achieved the expected level of development, 24% lower than all other students.

Alongside the three-year campaign, £22m has been allocated between 66 schools across the country to open up 1,800 nursery places. Seven primary schools in the region will benefit from the scheme: one each in Newcastle, Middlesbrough, North Tyneside, Hartlepool, Durham and two in Northumberland. This adds to the 26,653 nursery places within the region, of which currently 89% are based within primary schools and meets the demands of the 29% parents nationally who pointed out the need for places in a recent DfE survey. Establishing new places in deprived areas should provide greater opportunities for all children in the region to get a high quality education and assist in narrowing attainment gaps in later years.

On the launch of the scheme, Mr Hinds said: “Part of making sure our children have the opportunity to take advantage of all the joys of childhood and growing up is supporting them to develop the language and communication skills they need to express themselves.

Sadly, too many children are starting school without these – and all too often, if there’s a gap at the very start of school, it tends to persist, and grow. The only way we are going to solve this is through a relentless focus on improving early communication.”

The initiative is aimed to extend the arrangement with businesses in improving lifelong learning outcomes from the early years through the use of educational apps for development. Among the collaborators are Lego, who have designed games specifically for the EasyPeasy education app platform, which is set to be piloted among 500 families in areas of low social mobility. 

Further reading: DfE Press Release

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