THE tendency to downplay the worth of toddler groups has been challenged in a latest booklet that highlights the vital part that they play in preparing children for varsity.
The booklet, It’s not ‘just’ a parent and toddler group, has been compiled by quite a few organisations brought together by Dave King, the strategic director for Gather Movement, an organisation that works with churches in search of to rework communities. The group including Kids Matter, Daniel’s Den, Care for the Family, 1277, 5 Minus, and Love and Joy Ministries.
It encourages those running groups to stop prefacing references to their work with “just” (“I’m just putting out some toys”), and sets out 12 facets of school-readiness to which the groups can contribute.
When it involves developing independence, for instance: “It’s not only involving families in tidying away at the tip of the session; it’s helping children to know they’ll take care of the toys, too.” Singing motion songs and playing “Simon says” is “helping children to follow easy instructions”.
“We can often underrate and downplay the worth of what we do.” the booklet says. “Beneath the surface of our noisy, messy, and chaotic sessions there may be all kinds of hidden treasure. Children are learning find out how to interact with others, developing communication skills, gaining resilience, growing in curiosity and rather more. Before we comprehend it, the youngsters in our groups are leaving us and beginning to placed on a faculty uniform five mornings per week. We’ve helped them prepare for that.”
The booklet is accompanied by a summary of educational evidence concerning school-readiness compiled by Narissa Samani, research assistant at Kids Matter. Both can be found free to download, alongside posters.
On Tuesday, Jo Gordon, founder and chief executive of Daniel’s Den, a charity that works to advertise the worth of the parent-and-toddler groups, said that the resource was not about “a guilt trip or one other thing to need to do, but an affirming document”. The message to churches was to “value what is happening in your church hall in the midst of the week”.
Some church leaders had a negative perception of groups, she said, associating them with mess or demands for more cupboard space. Or leaders felt that, because children weren’t present on a Sunday, their church didn’t have children.
“Toddler groups are right up there when it comes to missional impact in your local communities,” she said. “The opportunity that you could have with all those local families at that vulnerable age of latest babies and little ones. . . It’s really essential that these youngest children and their families receive a welcome. For me, the first thing of a toddler group is that unconditional welcome to all.”
While many pre-school groups charge fees — inside a ten-mile radius of a Daniel’s Den group in Brent, only three per cent cost lower than five kilos a session — most church-rung groups are free or low-cost.
Quite a lot of recent reports and surveys have raised concerns about whether children have acquired the talents vital to start out primary school.
Last month, the early-years charity, Kindred2, published the outcomes of a poll of 1000 primary-school teachers and 1000 parents of kids in Reception. The teachers reported that 37 per cent of kids were unable to listen and reply to basic instructions; 46 per cent were unable to sit down still, and 38 per cent found it hard to play or share with other children. Ninety per cent of teachers said that a minimum of one child of their class was not toilet-trained.
Among parents, 43 per cent had not heard of the concept of college readiness and the connection to developmental milestones before their child was 4; while 22 per cent said that they’d never had a visit from a health visitor. Health visitors numbers have fallen by 40 per cent since 2015. More than half of teachers and oldsters said that lack of college readiness was brought on by parents not considering it was their job to organize their child for varsity.
Research has also explored the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. In its annual report in 2022, Ofsted reported that the pandemic had had an “negative impact on children’s personal, social and emotional development. Some children’s social skills are less advanced than they may otherwise have been at their age. These include the talents needed to make friends, to grow to be more confident and to speak with adults. They have missed out on socialising with other children and adults, and lack confidence during social interactions.”
It has also reported that “the dearth of physical activity, including access to large-scale play equipment, in the course of the pandemic has meant that some children haven’t developed the gross motor skills they need.”
A 2021 survey of childcare providers and oldsters, carried out by the House of Commons Petitions Committee, which gathered 8730 responses, found that 93 per cent disagreed that they’d been capable of access baby-and-toddler groups within the previous 12 months.
The pandemic had had a “huge impact”, Mrs Gordon said. While groups had faced challenges, including an absence of contact details for families who had attended and changing national guidelines, many had done an “amazing job” of responding creatively, including by logging on and meeting outdoors.
Once groups reopened, she had observed that babies and toddlers “got here in as in the event that they had all the time been there”.
