Early Years Manager’s Report
Overview of the Year - (September 2024 – August 2025)
The academic year began in September with a strong cohort of children attending and the increase of extended hours, enabling more families to access full-time early years provision. Throughout the year, we delivered a wide range of educational, cultural, and community-focused activities that supported children’s development and strengthened our charitable impact within the local community.
Summary of Charitable Impact - across the year, we have:
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Strengthened community partnerships through food bank donations, local visits, and engagement with PCSOs
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Provided subsidised trips and events to ensure all families, regardless of financial circumstances, could participate
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Supported children’s development through cultural celebrations, environmental education, and the school readiness programme
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Continued to offer extended hours to meet the needs of working families
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Established new initiatives to support children and families through our holiday playscheme provision
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Delivered inclusive, high-quality early years experiences aligned with our charitable objectives.
September – Establishing Routines and Extended Hours
We welcomed children back with healthy attendance levels and successfully implemented extended childcare hours. This allowed more families to benefit from full-day childcare and supported working parents within our community.
October – Harvest Festival and Community Giving. In October, we held our first mini-production of the year for parents and extended family members as part of our Harvest Festival celebrations. Families donated a significant amount of food and toiletries, which were later delivered to the local food bank for distribution. This event strengthened community engagement and encouraged children to understand the value of giving.
November – Community Visits and Road Safety Week. Children experienced their first local bus journey to Weston Favell, where they visited the Remembrance Day stall and met veterans who shared their medals and poppy displays. We delivered our Harvest Festival donations to Emmanuel Church Food Bank, where children met the volunteers who run the service. During Road Safety Week, children learnt how to stay safe outdoors through video clips, community walks, and discussions. Our local PCSOs, Michael and Laura, visited the Nursery, allowing children to try on uniform items, explore the police van, and speak to the Control Room. The children produced drawings and early writing skills about their learning, which were compiled into a booklet as a thank-you gift and delivered to the Control Room.
December – Nativity and Christmas Fayre. Our Nativity Production and Christmas Fayre were well attended and raised £620.00, our highest total to date. These funds directly support our charitable activities and subsidise future events for families, such as subsidising the coach fare for our annual family trip.
January – Elklan Communication Friendly Status. We continue to strengthen our practice by supporting children’s learning and investing in the professional development of our Early Years Practitioners. A key priority this year has been enhancing our expertise in communication and language and creating a consistently language-rich learning environment. To achieve this, we began working towards accreditation with Elklan, the UK’s leading provider of specialist training in speech, language and communication. Their programmes are designed by Speech and Language Therapists and provide practitioners with evidence-based strategies to support children’s communication needs effectively. This accreditation will further equip our team with the skills required to identify, model and extend language development across the setting.
Ofsted Reg. No. EY297068 Registered Charity No. 1105598
February – Big Garden Birdwatch and Number Week. We participated in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, encouraging families to observe wildlife together. Children’s drawings were displayed in the foyer, and the event supported learning in nature, observation, and early science. We also participated in NSPCC’s Number Week, with activities and a mini-productions for parents and family members to attend. The main focus was to fundraise for their Childline charity.
March – Bookstart Week and Red Nose Day. During Bookstart Week, children received book packs and literacy resources to promote early reading, communication and mark making skills at home. For Red Nose Day, families joined us on a sponsored walk, raising £35.00 for charity. We also held our Easter mini-production and Bonnet Parade, which were well attended by parents and family members.
May – VE Day Celebrations and Climate Action Planning. To mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, children explored historical video clips, listened to wartime music, and engaged in themed physical activities such as marching, crawling under nets, and building bases. The room was decorated with bunting, and children enjoyed a celebratory tea party. We thank families for dressing children in red, white, and blue. In line with the Department for Education’s expectation that all settings develop a Climate Action Plan by 2025, we began implementing sustainable practices. These include reusing cardboard packaging for art resource activities and recycling non-confidential paper for drawing and writing. We started our delivery of school readiness sessions to support our leaver children transitioning to primary school, which entails teaching and strengthening their self-help skills, confidence and self-belief.
June – Gulliver’s Land Trip and Sports Day. We extend our thanks to all families who joined us for our annual family trip to Gulliver’s Land, followed by our Sports Day and a family picnic. Feedback was extremely positive and the high level of parental participation contributed to a memorable community event. The enthusiasm during the parent races was particularly appreciated and added to the enjoyment of the day.
July – Heatwave Well-being Activities and End of Year Celebrations. During the hot weather, we provided cooling activities such as shallow water trays for children to cool their feet, supporting independence as they removed and replaced their shoes and socks. We also used a cooler room in the Children’s Centre for mindfulness and yoga sessions to support their emotional well-being. The nursery year concluded with our end-of-term celebrations, including the leavers party and a final mini-production for parents and carers.
August – Holiday Playscheme Provision. This year we successful made a bid to join the West Northamptonshire Council’s – Holiday Activities Fund (HAF). The Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme is a UK governmentfunded initiative designed to provide free, healthy meals and enriching activities for school-aged children during the Easter, Summer, and Winter school holidays. Our provision must meet specific standards set by the Department for Education (DfE) to ensure a high-quality experience for the primary school aged children attending. Key components include:
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Providing healthy means which are nutritious and wholesome, that meets food standards
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Deliver fund and engaging activities which include arts and crafts, music, drama and cooking classes
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Physical activity sessions which are designed to keep children active and healthy during the holidays
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▪ Nutritional education which teaches children and parents about food, healthy eating and budgeting
On behalf of all the staff at Happy Days Childcare, we would like to extend our appreciation to the Committee Members and Parents/Carers for their continued support.
Jane R Copeland Early Years Manager
Ofsted Reg. No. EY297068 Registered Charity No. 1105598