Management Focus - Jumpstart for resources

A range of innovative products and programmes devised by Buckinghamshire County Council are boosting practice in pre-school nurseries, nursery schools and children's centres in the county. These include a printed pack and DVD providing induction to the EYFS, and Jumpstart, a pack which supports literacy and language development. Based on their success, the council is now promoting them outside Buckinghamshire.

Working with nursery managers, teachers and practitioners on the ground has been key to ensuring that the materials are effective. 'Everything has a test run before being launched and we gauge the effectiveness of the resources on an ongoing basis,' says Catherine Stormonth, business development manager.

Tara Wright, head teacher at Bowerdean Nursery, worked closely with Buckinghamshire's children's services to develop products designed to empower parents as children's first educators. The nursery, which is graded outsanding, runs several parent groups and the message Ms Wright wanted to give all parents is that talking to children is vital and makes an amazing difference to a child when they start school.

Resources such as Jumpstart and Kickstart support this. The former is a folder of durable learning cards which focuses on everyday activities to support personal, social and emotional development along with communication, language and literacy. Kickstart forms part of the council's Men Behaving Dadly series, which is designed to get fathers involved in the learning of their twoto five-year-olds, and introduces the EYFS.

Ms Wright says, 'When registering at the nursery, parents kept asking what they could do to help their children be ready for school. They imagined we would give them a worksheet, but we recognised the need for a new, child-centred approach.

'In our nursery we have families attending family literacy sessions who use Jumpstart folders to find ways to talk and share feelings and special moments. Parents tell us that the materials give them the confidence to feel they are doing things right.'

She adds, 'On home visits and at a first meeting, parents feel they are getting a present when they get their copies of Jumpstart and Kickstart. They are great ice breakers and a superb focus for showing parents how they can support their children's learning and personal development.'

At Buckinghamshire Children's Services, divisional director Chris Munday says, 'We develop products that help us achieve our vision to give children the best start in life and produce very positive learning outcomes. We are pleased to be able to share these outside Buckinghamshire now.'

Jumpstart comes in boxes of 12 folders priced at £60 plus VAT. Visit www.buckscyp.org.uk.