Kate B

It used to be cheaper to buy a national Trust Scotland one and use it for free entry to English properties. Might be worth checking out

Beautiful!!!

Quote from new leader of Lancs County Council (Reform Party) "I'm sure that some of the ladies in the group will be useful in the future at the cabinet level, but when the skills are the right skills"

Just wow (and not in a good way)

Just ventured over to the avian place briefly. Wow. It's definitely got much worse

Fabulous place!

Michael Gove gets peerage in Rishi Sunak's resignation honours list The veteran former cabinet minister is among several Conservative figures to be given peerages.

BBC News - Gove gets peerage in Sunak's resignation honours list
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Yup, pretty much covers it

marge simpson from the simpsons is standing with her arms crossed and looking angry ALT: marge simpson from the simpsons is standing with her arms crossed and looking angry

Serious dose of hmmmm from here!

I wouldn't call someone else quirky, but growing up, different was me, and most of the time I was happy to be individual. When my son was growing up I always tried to show it was OK to be yourself and not feel like you had to do / be the same as everyone else

I think I'm maybe the only person in the world who doesn't have TikTok! Thanks for sharing how it is /feels for you and lots of people

Quirky is a complement in my book

Amazing day today at the National Portage Association development day. I learned a lot, talked to some every day heroes and heard about some fantastic research. If you don't know what Portage is please look it up. Making a difference to children and families every day 🙌

That is just wow!!!

Information from those who know the child best is everything.If it works, it works, & what works for some (even when the evidence says so) won't necessarily work for everyone. And yes,lack of timely and specific advice from health and social care is a widespread issue (when is an EHCP not an EHCP?!)

Reading together from a very early age.Lots of time spent out and about, historic sites,museums, science & industry museums etc.Failed dismally at enforcing homework(he did most of it under his own steam in secondary).But hey,I'm early years so play,relationships, interactions and fun is everything

I think it's important to remember and celebrate all the small differences that ordinary people can make. We can all find ways to be kind and supportive to others in our own contexts. ♥️

"Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping." Fred Rogers

a man in a suit and cowboy hat is standing next to a tree and says hey now ALT: a man in a suit and cowboy hat is standing next to a tree and says hey now

A school bird? Chapeau

Indulge me. Aren't these (or are these not if you're posher that I am) the most aesthetically pleasing boots you have seen in a while? [I accept I'm a bit weird but hey ho]

Increase in number of places and staffing against drop in number of providers. Perhaps not evident in the report, in some areas funding rate for under 2s / 2s is significantly higher than what parents were being charged

Childcare and early years provider survey, Reporting year 2024 <h5>User feedback survey:</h5><p>We would like to collect feedback on how results from the Survey are used and what users think of the way that results are published. We would be very appreciative if ...

School based providers make up 31% of provision in the North East. The data above doesn't include them. I also don't think it includes agency registered childminders. It's interesting to look at alongside this explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statist...

Rural is a particular issue that should be looked at. This report doesn't go far enough into the why.Some of the issue is a bit chicken and egg. It's a juggling act to balance provision as creating too many places when demand is lower destabilises existing providers and has been an issue in the past

It would be interesting to know how many settings in those areas currently have mandatory charges and will have to make changes. In my experience it's not universal (but that's only actually knowing about one relatively small area)

That's a lot of topping up!!!

As you said, you can still ask for it. The rules haven't actually changed, just been clarified. I'm honestly not saying it's not hard, and I know like you a lot of people are feeling that the funding rates don't cover their costs, particularly if they only take 3&4 year olds and can't average out

Not as hard as you think. Top slicing by agencies a bit of an issue ime. Know of several who have made the switch from agency to Ofsted, which is quite straight forward once you've got everything in place

Childminders are awesome btw

Any particular reason for going with an agency rather than registering with Ofsted directly?

2/2 every family was happy to pay. This isn't about that it's about unnecessary uniforms, spurious top ups, unclear additional charges that struggling families don't realise they don't *have* to pay

To clarify my comments - you do an amazing job, and should charge for what is not covered by funding. In my role as nursery teacher we asked for voluntary 50p per week to cover snack costs. That was longer ago than I care to mention and would be equivalent to at least £2 today. 1/2