This article has been brought to you by Slough Borough Council's EYFS Advisory Teacher, Karen Loft on behalf of Department of Education, for the attention of all Early Years and childcare practitioners.
On 6th October Better Health Start for Life and the Department for Education will be launching a new campaign to encourage parents and carers to chat, play and read more with their children to develop their communication, language and literacy skills before starting school.
Some of the most disadvantaged children in the UK start school developmentally months behind their peers and the gap can grow through their school years. Children with poor vocabulary skills at age five may be up to twice as likely to be unemployed in their thirties. This issue has further increased during the pandemic, with a rise in the number of children starting school with language skills poorer than would have been expected prior.
The Department of Education want to empower parents to do more learning and play activities with their children and help overcome the key barriers they face, such as lack of time, confidence, and not knowing what type activities they should be doing. These activities take little time, can happen anywhere and can easily be interwoven with daily tasks.
The Department of Education will provide partners with a full range of digital and downloadable resources to help support the campaign, available on the Campaign Resource Centre soon.