Update from Lindsey Trivett, Head of Early Years, Childcare and Children’s Centres at Birmingham City Council on the recent confusion around COVID-19 vaccination priority for early years workers.

Manager of Dodford Children’s Farm, Kelly Broadfield, tells us how it all began and why the farm, a staple residential destination for early years settings across the West Midlands, is still going strong 70 years later!

At this challenging time, we would like to offer some positive reminders to all the amazing staff working across the Early Years sector in Birmingham (and beyond).

Update from Lindsey Trivett, Head of Early Years, Childcare and Children’s Centres at Birmingham City Council, including new national lockdown measures, Spring Term funding, and further information about support for vulnerable children and families.

A lot has happened at BEYN since we launched our website back in May, and whilst we’re looking forward to seeing the back of 2020, like many others, we couldn’t let the New Year roll in without acknowledging some of the fantastic work that’s happened throughout an incredibly challenging and uncertain time.

CAUTION: Attempting to read this story if you don’t work in the Early Years may lead to severe confusion and a possible headache! You have been warned…

This September, many children and families will be returning to school and settings for the first time since March — as such, it’s vital that we’re prepared for the next phase of living through this pandemic.

Janice, Early Years Consultant from Birmingham City Council, discusses how to start a conversation about anti-racism, including how to talk to children about race and racism.

In this guest post, Ruth Harris talks about transitions and how she came to create “Singing SENCO” - a free bank of easy to sing “songs of transition” to support daily transitions in nurseries, childminders, schools and home.

Our newsletter is the main communication tool we use to keep the community up-to-date with key information, activities, and professional development opportunities across the 10 districts, and Birmingham as a whole.

Here are 5 reasons why you should subscribe to our newsletter today (including an exciting incentive from Letterbox Library!)

NB: Survey now closed. Many thanks to all who took the time to respond during this difficult period.

We are inviting Birmingham schools (with EY provision) and EY providers to complete an online survey, commissioned by the Sutton Trust, which seeks to gather evidence of your COVID-19 experiences as an Early Years provider before, during and after lockdown.

Sharing what works in our Early Years settings during the COVID-19 pandemic - a collection of ideas as a starting point for discussions with your team(s) as we start to open our settings to more children. We would love to add your ideas and experiences to this, so please do get in touch if you have something to share.

While this is not quite how we expected to be launching when we started on this project back in January 2020, we hope that the new Birmingham Early Years Networks (BEYN) site will be a place for the whole Early Years community in and around Birmingham to come together and share resources, ideas, and practice.