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News from Tynemouth Nursery

Learning Book coming soon

learningbook

We are delighted to announce that very soon we will be introducing ‘Learning Book’ to all of our settings. In order to continue and improve our relationship with Parents/Carers we want to make your child’s learning journey at Nursery something that you can see and participate in as much as you would like. We also believe using Learning Book will make each child’s learning journey more fun and more thorough.

LearningBook gives parents a smart, flexible way to review and interact with their child’s early years education by transforming the link between home and Nursery.

Support your child’s learning

Do you know what your child did today at nursery, or what they’re doing tomorrow? More importantly, do you know how that fits into their learning journey or what milestones they are currently working towards? Parents face enough time constraints as it is, and keeping up to date with your child’s daily progress is not made any easier by limited contact time with their teachers and key workers. You need to be able to follow, review and understand what your son or daughter gets up to at nursery in order for you to give them the right support at home. More often than not nurseries don’t have the tools to enable this.

LearningBook is a complete digital solution for learning journeys where your child’s nursery can record, analyse and share information on their progress.

Paper learning journeys are outdated, impractical and often unavailable to parents, which is why we’ve developed a smarter, safer and more accessible way of capturing and presenting your child’s Early Years progress. LearningBook brings learning journeys to the digital age, providing parents with an electronic version of their child’s learning journey which they can access and engage with at any time. Increased visibility means parents can support the skills their son or daughter is learning at nursery by using the same teaching styles and processes at home when planning fun and educational activities.

With LearningBook, you can:

  • View and comment on observations taken at nursery through the MyLearningBook portal.
  • See how each observation is linked to the EYFS curriculum and what link means.
  • Give extended or overseas family access to view your child’s learning journey.
  • View your child’s overall progress throughout the early years curriculum.
  • Upload your own photos and video media from home activities to enhance your child’s learning record.
  • Access and download activities relevant to your child’s stage of development, created by your child’s nursery.

Get more involved with your child’s education – wherever you are, whenever it suits you.

Don’t miss out on the small things

Even the small steps are a big part of your child’s development, and LearningBook means you don’t miss out on a single part of your child’s learning journey. A permanent electronic copy of your son or daughter’s learning journey can be accessed securely by parents at any time.

“We look at LearningBook together with our daughter, who loves to explain what she is doing in the recorded clips. We can be as involved as we want as it’s always available.” – Yvonne Rushton, Parent

Also see the below video.

 

 

 

For more information please go to http://www.learningbook.co.uk/

 

We will be furnishing you with more information prior to launch.

 

£1 Breakfast snack to go starts at Tynemouth

From Monday the 13th of March 2017 we will be offering freshly ground bean coffee, or other hot beverages, and a variety of fresh fruit, biscuits and/or home cooked flap jacks.

This will be available in the new parents lounge, (in the ICT room from 7:30am to 9:00am and beverages only at 11:30am to 1:00pm)

*Includes hot beverage from vending machine (£1) and one piece of fruit and a biscuit/flap jack or other similar snack from 7:30am to 9:00am only. All snacks are served on a first come first served basis and are subject to availability.

Budget 2017 tax free child care

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Budget 2017: New tax-free childcare scheme to launch next month – what we know so far

9 Mar 2017

The new Tax-Free Childcare scheme which gives eligible families an extra 20% towards childcare costs will launch in April, the Chancellor announced yesterday. But with just one month to go, details about how it will work are still sketchy.

Tax-Free Childcare is a Government-backed scheme which helps parents with the cost of childcare. For every 80p you put in, the state will add 20p – so it effectively gives you basic-rate tax back on what you pay, hence the scheme’s name.

In total you’ll be able to use the scheme to pay for childcare of up to £10,000 per child each year – so you could get an extra £2,000 per child each year.

The new initiative will replace the existing Childcare Vouchers scheme, which will close to new entrants in April 2018. But despite its imminent launch, there’s very little official info about how it will work – the Treasury today told us more details would be released “soon”.

Tynemouth Nursery Group will keep you posted. Check our website for latest updates.

30 hours free childcare available now

So is Tynemouth Nursery Group offering the 30 hour free childcare deal?

Tynemouth Nursery Group are totally committed to make sure we can deliver the doubling of free childcare to 30 hours.

It is being rolled out by the Government across the country this year. But, what does it mean?

The following article explains more about the free childcare deal we will offer:

So what is the free childcare deal? In a nutshell, many working parents of 3 to 4-yearolds in England will be eligible for 30 hours of free childcare – rather than the 15 hours  (which will continue if you don’t qualify for the 30 hours) But the first thing you need to know is that this is 30 hours free for only 38 weeks per year – not 52 weeks of the year. It’s basically equivalent to school term times usually less a week though, as school term times, in most instances, are 39 weeks. In theory, you may be able to spread the free childcare out over further weeks, but this will mean you’ll get fewer than 30 hours free childcare each week.

When will it start?

The Government has been rolling out a pilot scheme in 8 English areas: Wigan, Staffordshire, Swindon, Portsmouth, Northumberland, York, Newham and Hertfordshire. The scheme has started nationwide from Autumn 2017.

Will my child get it?

Not necessarily as not everyone is eligible. But everyone will still receive the 15 hours free childcare that is currently available.

Eligibility rules for 30 hours free childcare:

  • Your child will be aged 3 or 4 when the scheme starts in your area
  • Both parents must be working – or the sole parent is working in a lone parent family
  • Each parent earns, on average, a weekly minimum equivalent to 16 hours at National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage
  • Each parent must have an annual income of less than £100,000
  • You live in England

How much is the equivalent of 16 hours at National Minimum Wage?

It depends on your age. For this scheme, the minimum amount will always reflect the lowest hourly rate that a person of your age can legally be paid. Therefore, currently for a parent aged 21-24, you’d need to earn a weekly average of at least £111.20. For a parent aged 25+, you’d need to earn a weekly average of at least £115.20.

What if one parent in a couple isn’t working?

This is basically a scheme to help working parents, so families where one parent doesn’t work, or both parents don’t work, will usually not be eligible for these additional 15 hours.

However, if one parent isn’t working because they’re an official carer (eg receiving benefits relating to being a carer) or they are receiving disability benefits, and the other parent is working, then the Government has stated it “intends to make provision” to support these families.

There is also additional entitlement if the parent normally works but is temporarily away from the workplace, for example on statutory sick pay.

What if you are self-employed or on a zero hours contract?

You will be eligible if you (or both of you in a couple) earn at least the equivalent of 16 hours at the National Minimum Wage.

What if one parent loses their job?

There will be a short “grace period” – although this hasn’t yet been defined – allowing parents to have a chance to find new employment.

How do you apply for the 30 hours free childcare?

You’ll be able to apply for both the 30-hour scheme and the Tax-Free Childcare scheme through a joint online application being developed by HMRC. This is because the eligibility requirements for both schemes are aligned.

Will all nurseries offer this?

Most will – but some nurseries may not be able to offer the flexible 30 hours free childcare.

There has been a lot of concern within the nursery industry that the grant supplied by the Government is not enough to cover the costs of the current scheme.

According to educational charity the Pre-school Learning Alliance, the true cost to provide the childcare is typically £4.53 per hour. For the pilot schemes, the Government is allocating £4 an hour – an underfunding of 17%. (Initially, the Government had offered to pay £3.88 but this was increased after nursery providers in York battled for more funding).

Why free childcare doesn’t necessarily mean free

As the first trials are rolling out, there’s concern that free childcare won’t be quite as free as first appears. Basically, if all the money isn’t coming from the Government, then there will be a shortfall to the Nursery.

Charging for extras…

While nurseries can’t charge for the 30 hours, they can charge for other ‘extras’ or ask for contributions. One nursery in York (one of the pilot areas) will be adding a new charge for food, whereas previously this had been included in the overall cost.

“I’m introducing a charge, which is something that was never there beforehand,” one nursery owner in York told Radio 4’s Today programme. “I’m now going to introduce a funded hours charge, which includes the meals which we’ve been providing, in a lot of cases totally for free.”

Another York nursery is asking parents to pay £5 per day as a voluntary contribution.

Term-by-term bookingParents who are getting completely free childcare may find that they can only secure a nursery place on a term-by-term basis. This means they may need to re-apply each term and may not be guaranteed the same days or place allocation each term. This lack of certainty could prove a headache for the majority of parents who don’t have flexible work hours.

Will the Government increase the funding?

In November 2015, the then-Chancellor George Osborne announced in his Autumn Statement that the Government was going to invest a further £300m in early years providers, increasing the hourly rate to an average of £4.88 from 2017. He also announced that nurseries will be given £50m in capital investment to provide more places.

There was a cautiously positive response from the nursery industry.

The Chief Executive of National Day Nurseries Association, Purnima Tanuku OBE, says, “We are pleased the Government has listened to our campaigning for better levels of funding. Despite the tough fiscal climate, the childcare sector is receiving more money. This is a welcome step.

“The sector is now looking carefully at the details to establish whether the increase is sufficient to support the Government’s ambitious promise of 30 hours free childcare to working parents. The Government must work to make sure that every penny secured for early years goes straight to the frontline of childcare.”

No doubt, the pilot areas will be monitored carefully as the Government makes further decisions around funding.

You probably know everything about the current childcare entitlement but just in case…

Currently, 3 and 4-year-old children are eligible for 570 hours of childcare a year – which is usually broken down to 15 hours each week over 38 weeks of the year .

Depending on income levels, some 2-year-olds in England can get free early education and childcare. In order to claim, you must be getting one of the following:

  • Income Support
  • Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
  • Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
  • Support through part 6 of the Immigration and Asylum Act
  • Child Tax Credit and/or Working Tax Credit and have an annual income under £16,190
  • The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
  • The Working Tax Credit 4-week run on (the payment you get when you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit)

Letter from The Queen

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We haven’t got the ‘by royal appointment’ yet, geography would make this rather difficult! but we got the next best thing, a letter from Buckingham Palace thanking all our children for celebrating The Queen’s birthday by having parties at each nursery and making birthday cards which were duly sent to Her Majesty. The children where overjoyed to receive this letter from The Queen. We are all very proud of the brilliant cards and messages they made, well done children!