‘Things’ affect our children, Mr Cameron!

Our prime minster, whilst on an official visit to the USA, has indicated that the coalition government is willing to compromise on the childcare ratio debate.

Mr Cameron stated “There’s no point getting too frustrated about these things.” Well, Mr Cameron, I don’t think children’s safety and welfare is a ‘thing’ and the early years sector, including parents, have a right to be frustrated with Ms Truss’s lack of understanding of good quality childcare and why ratios in England are kept low for a reason.

Ms Truss continues to quote OCED and compare England to other countries, repeating that in other countries staff work to higher ratios, etc.

But what Ms Truss has not grasped is that in England we recognise qualifications are important and so is the personal attention that our dedicated early years staff give children. It is important to note that Ms Truss has stated she is not a childcare expert!

In my role, I have been fortunate to visit different early years provision in a number of countries and recently I have had conversations with colleagues from Sweden, Norway, France and Holland on their childcare systems.

One key factor is that Ms Truss has failed to really understand the ratios in the countries that she has based her childcare proposals on and, more importantly, the unique cultural and political issues within these respective Governments stance on childcare and family issues.

My colleagues in different countries recognise that our ratios really are in the best interest of children and they envy that we are able to give children the attention, love and care that they deserve in order to support children with their learning and development and lay the foundations for children’s future learning.

Yes, Ms Truss, we do know that there are elements of our childcare that needs developing and tweaking. But this should not be compromised via ratios! Also, your figures do not add up and tweaking with the ratios, will not make childcare cheaper for parents!

Please see the variety of research papers, comments and blogs via One voice Also, information on ‘Reclaim Early Years’ events on Saturday 1^st June 2013.

I recently observed that in the UK we have the world’s highest number of bank holidays and annual leave.  But we do not say we need to reduce our bank holidays and annual leave to have a more productive economy! No, because we recognise the wider benefits to employees’ well-being.

Our children are important and deserve the best! Therefore, Mr Cameron I would suggest that you LISTEN to the sector, to academics, to parents and more importantly remember that our children deserve the best start in their early years and staff ratios matter  and are not simply ‘things’! 

Follow me on twitter: LauraChildcare

Ten Low-Cost Smart Marketing Moves

The current economic climate has had an impact on budgets, especially marketing and promotion. I am therefore pleased that my friend and colleague from across the pond, Julie Wassom, has taken the time out of her busy schedule to be my guest blog. Julie gives an overview of her 10 unique effective marketing tips.

Julie is a trainer and consultant who has helped thousands of directors and managers worldwide build significant enrolment in their early care and education programmes. An internationally recognized authority on marketing child care services, Julie is president of The Julian Group, Inc., a marketing firm specialising in the early care and education industry. She is the author of The Enrollment Building Success Library of training resources, and the free online newsletter, Wassom’s Child Care Marketing Wisdom.

Julie states:

“How do you generate more enrollment inquiries when you have little time and even less budget for marketing? By making Smart Marketing Moves.

I define Smart Marketing Moves as those actions you can take to promote your child care service with effective results that stay within your budget. Some of these moves cost you absolutely nothing, but do a lot to promote your unique image and communicate the quality of your program and services. When that message is out in the marketplace again and again, in multiple ways, you generate more inquiries from qualified enrollment prospects.

Here are ten lost-cost actions you can take now.

• 1.  Do a “Sherlock Holmes Check” of your center or home appearance. When parents visit you, they come with an investigative eye, and quickly form an impression that influences their enrollment decision. You never get a second chance to make that first impression! So check carefully how your center or home looks, sounds, and smells to a parent visiting for the first time. Include your parking lot, sign, landscaping, front door, and inside your entry. If it looks like something needs tending, your prospects wonder what else is not getting attention – the program, safety precautions, the children?

• 2.  Market professionally in your email signature. Think about how many people a day receive emails from you. You can maximize the repeated exposure your email signature gives you without it costing you anything! In addition to your name, make sure your email signature includes your center or home care name, logo, tagline, contact information, and a directive statement that is a call-to-action with a link, such as, Click here for a virtual tour of our program.

• 3.   Make your voice mail a marketing tool. If your voice mail message does not include your company name and a statement to direct callers to your web address, you are missing a free marketing opportunity. Adding your tagline to your message can help drive your unique niche. Giving callers a time frame within which you will return their call gives you the opportunity to fulfill their expectation and begin building a solid relationship. Here is a sample: “Thank you for calling Little Learners, a special place for children to learn and grow. We are not available now, so please leave a message with your name, number, and how we might help you. We will get back to you within 24 hours. In the meantime, please do visit our website at littlelearners.com. We look forward to talking with you soon. Goodbye.”  See if you can pick out each of the recommended elements for a good voice mail message in this example.

• 4.   Wear those company-labeled clothes everywhere! Those shirts and hats and umbrellas that have your company name and logo on them are for way more than wearing only at your center and during community events. You never know where you will find your next inquiry or referral. You want to cause the people who see your name all over town to ask about you and the nursery or child care services you provide. Having your company-identifying shirt or jacket on can easily help begin that conversation.

• 5.   Design a great business card. This can be your most cost-efficient marketing tool. Keep it consistent with your image, use heavy enough paper stock, print on both sides, and distribute them widely. It’s smart marketing to get business cards for your staff, as well. Have them printed with a blank line where staff can fill in their names. It markets your staff as the early care professionals they are, and as an important part of your child care service team. That communicates a good message that makes parents want to know more.

• 6.   Generate good publicity about your early childhood program and services. Yes, this takes some time and a little know-how, but the exposure and third-party endorsement it gives you can pay big dividends. It costs very little, if anything, to obtain good publicity. When you do, the image prospects get of your program quality and services is often more believable than your saying the same thing in an ad or on your website.  The good feeling that causes in your prospects yield inquiries, and that’s effective marketing!

• 7.  Label everything that goes into your prospects’ hands with your center or home’s identity and contact information.  Label articles, brochures describing other services or partners in your community, anything that does not already have your name on it. What should you use? – Make or purchase stickers printed with the words, Compliments of…, then add your company name and logo, your web address and your phone number.

• 8.   Cooperative marketing. Share resources and responsibilities for event promotion, such as a Hop-a-thon for Muscular Dystrophy, with a few other early childhood program colleagues in your area for maximum reach and impact at minimal cost. Even if parents then investigate all of you, it gives you the opportunity to get inquiries you would not have gotten otherwise. Once they contact you, use your enrollment building skills to communicate your differences that can meet their specific needs, and invite them to your center or home for an enrollment visit. Marketing mission accomplished!

• 9.   Build a database and follow up. Time is the biggest expenditure you will have on follow-up, but it’s where the fortune lies. Gather prospect names everywhere – from telephone and online inquiries, in guest books at events, in person. Be sure to request email addresses and permission to send them information of value in selecting quality child care. Note this, along with their special interests and concerns, on the prospect profiles in your contact management system. With permission to contact your prospective enrollees, you can cost-efficiently set-up and maintain a follow up program that pays off big time.

 

• Finally, develop and USE a marketing action plan. Consider a good marketing action plan as your GPS, directing you to more enrollment inquiries. In a good plan, you will have noted the low-cost marketing actions you plan to take, the timelines for implementing them, the budget you have allocated for each (if there is any expense at all), the people involved, and the results you will use to evaluate the effectiveness of each effort. A good marketing action plan helps you know where you are going, how you will get there, and what worked best. Smart marketing!”

© The Julian Group, Inc. 2013

Julie can be reached at: julie@juliewassom.com, or  www.juliewassom.com.

The Weekend that Was!

This weekend was very busy for early years colleagues in the sector including taking part in many professional development activities such as the Nursery Show and the Flourish Summit.

It was busy for me too as I attended the Professional Development Day at Reflections Nursery, in Worthing.  I have visited before and was inspired then and even more inspired now. As a trainer, it is a truly reflective experience to be a delegate and soak up new knowledge. On arrival we were treated to apple juice, which was heated up on the garden fire. The fire is surrounded by pebbles which have been sourced from Worthing sea front.

Image copyright to Reflections Nursery

We were then treated to a tour of the nursery by an Educator at Reflections. I was fortunate to be in the group of the Co- Director, Martin Pace. Martin explained that we were only allowed to take photographs of the outdoor areas and not inside. He also added that this was the stance that they have in Reggio Emilia and, in fact, it helps to focus on the experience and remember. Very good point!

Martin carefully and passionately explained, room by room, the inspiration of the projects in each room. I loved the displays that were based on children’s learning, with accompanying anecdotes.  No templates or tacky displays in sight! The displays are sensory inspired. In one of the rooms, there was a bicycle wheel fixed to the wall! Ooh, what fun for a toddler to spin the wheel around!

Martin commented that when they purchased the nursery seven years ago, they threw out three skip loads of plastic toys! Reminds me of a quote from, the early years consultant, Jennie Lindon. “Put plastic in its place!” Indeed, children learn through their senses and our early years environment should have fixtures, resources and equipment that are as close to nature as possible.

Thinking of this reminded me of the Ikea advert; ‘Chuck out your chintz!’ I say shouting from the roof top. ‘Chuck out your plastic!’

A further thought on my strong ‘no plastic’ view, reminds me of when I visited the Science Museum years ago with my sons and they had an exhibition on plastic. The entrance of the display was titled ‘Plastic City’. The family in front commented ‘Oh, plastic, stinks!’ Plastic sure does prevent children’s natural curiosity.

At the Reflections event a question was asked about following babies’ interests. I was so pleased to hear the Educators state it is all about careful observation and support for physical development and the other prime areas and not so much of the project based learning. I share this message on my travels that it is about observing babies and sensitively supporting their learning and development.

When the tour finished, I had more of the lush warm apple juice and chatted to  delegates, childminders, practitioners from day care settings, pre-schools, schools, trainers, consultants. There were colleagues who had travelled right across the UK and from Dubai, Iceland and Australia, truly connecting and engaging on a meaningful professional level. Oh, and the other point to make was that the Educators from Reflections joined in with the discussions and interacted with the delegates.

Image copyright to Reflections Nursery

All eighty -five delegates walked to the Worthing assembly rooms for Martin’s presentation on Project Based Learning at Reflections Nursery. Martin’s passionate presentation gave an overview on the Reggio Emilia Town in Italy where Reflections base their approach on and how children scaffold their own projects.

Martin also reminded us of this quote from Loris Malaguzzi, one of the key figures in the Reggio Emilia approach. “Once children are helped to perceive themselves as authors and inventors, once they are helped to discover the pleasures of inquiry, their motivation and interest explode.”

Well, I am sure that Loris would be so excited to see the Reggio Emilia approach at Reflections being embraced with such desire!

Yvonne, the nursery manager, spoke from the heart about Reflection’s values and how important their induction is to staff mirroring their values. Good point from Yvonne, settings should embed their values into their induction and it should be a holistic process. Too right, your values act as reference point and should be non-negotiable as that is what you stand for.

My colleagues and I walked back to the nursery reaffirming that for settings to be of a high standard in terms of quality, it depends on the educators’/practitioners’ knowledge in child development.

Lunch was outdoors, in the true spirit of outdoor learning. We were treated to a lovely twist of a ploughman’s lunch, a sensory experience, from the flavours, taste, texture and colours.

Image copyright to Reflections Nursery

Shelly, one of the Educators, had lunch with me and a few other colleagues. Shelly has worked at Reflections for 15 years and shared her journey working at Reflections when Martin and the other directors became the new owners. She shared her light bulb moment on embracing children’s interest and how important this is to their learning and development.

After lunch we walked through Worthing Town, still discussing practice issues. Half the delegates attended Martin’s session on projects in the outdoors at the Lime Café and me and the other delegates went to Worthing Museum. The session was led by Ann Mackie from Creative Explores. Ann focused on the relationship between experiences, the environment and reflective dialogue to sustain long-term projects.

Ann explained a journey that an early years unit, within a school, is on – embedding the Reggio Emilia Approach. The focus of the project-based learning is the Educators being able to be tuned in to observe the children as they scaffold their own projects.

As delegates, we drew out our own experiences of children scaffolding their own learning. Delegates asked the Reflections Educators about how they resource the environment and one of the Educators replied. “One of my friends is a carpet fitter, so he is able to supply the nursery with carpet ends.” Job done!

This links to my philosophy that educators/practitioners need to stop thinking of resourcing settings as a budget issue. But, view it as their personal responsibility to creatively source their settings. This can be done by connecting with friends, family and places that they visit in their community and further afield. If the truth be known, the majority of resources that children use actually cost nothing!

Ann also unpicked the three characteristics of effective teaching and learning and how they do indeed are present in the day-to-day practice at Reflections.

Rounding up the session, Ann explained her values and approach which embraces three philosophical approaches: Montessori; find and return, High Scope; plan, do and review, and of course Reggio Emilia; children being the leaders in their learning.  Personally I agree and believe that the elements of these philosophical approaches and other theorists actually should be embedded into every early years settings in order that children have a rich learning and energised environment.

In fact, as Martin and Ann stated, their approach weaves into the EYFS and not the other way round! We should remember this as at times in the sector we focus too much on the EYFS as a document and not the child.

I had a look around the museum and walked back with another colleague, both discussing our roles in the sector and our passion on seeing the ‘wonder and awe’ within Reflections.

Image copyright to Reflections Nursery

During afternoon tea, I caught up with colleagues who I connect with on Twitter who stated that they had the most amazing day!

As a trainer, I loved the active learning approach from being in the garden, the tour of the nursery, walking through the town, listening to Martin and Anne, Educators and delegates sharing experiences, and the different venues for the workshops.

I liked the concept of using the community as part of the learning experience. At Worthing Museum the delegates had the opportunity to look at the exhibits and purchase items in the museum shop, supporting each other and helping the local economy!

So, if you would like to experience this multi-sensory approach to training, Reflections have another Professional Day on Saturday 19^th October 2013.

Please click on this link for more information:

http://www.reflectionsnurseries.co.uk/default.aspx?pageid=56

A final quote from Loris Malaguzzi:

“Our task, regarding creativity, is to help children climb their own mountains, as high as possible.”

I challenge you to think how you help ‘children to climb their own mountains’ in your setting and what legacy are you leaving children?

Image copyright to Reflections Nursery

Through the Decades!

One of my missions for the Easter break was to finish a book called ‘Bath Times & Nursery Rhymes-the honest memoirs of a nursery nurse in the 1960s’ written by Pam Weaver.

My inquisitive nature drew me to this book. I was interested in reading about the life of a nursery nurse in the sixties as I wanted to compare my nursery nursing training and early work life in the 1980s to Pam’s experience.

Even though I have acquired further qualifications and worked in a variety positions within the sector, I am still an NNEB nursery nurse at heart. I say once a nursery nurse, always a nursery nurse!

The book was an honest and a heartfelt memoir from Pam. There are a few points that I wish to share:

Pam remembers meeting up with a man, when he was in his twenties, who she had looked after as a child. He recalled ‘You used to make us sleep on the table!’ He was referring to the camp style ‘stretcher’ beds. This is an example of how a child may understand the world and its strange objects from their point of view.

Throughout the book Pam also makes reference to the dictator – style matrons who managed the different places that she worked in. One Christmas, a staff nurse resigned out of protest and the matron gave her a beautifully wrapped gift. But when the nurse opened the gift, there was a wooden spoon inside with a label attached which read ‘Stir it up!’ Pam tells many other stories like this which demonstrated the type of leadership within these establishments during the sixties. Many examples of negative management rather than positive leadership!

Pam also talked about how one of the matrons was so against ‘family grouping’.  Pam knew this was a positive way of making sure that those siblings who were in care stayed together and felt secure. However this matron insisted on separating them but if they did meet up, for example in the garden, Pam would see them cling desperately on to each other. Hello, Bowlby ‘attachment theory!’

Pam also worked within a special care baby unit and remembers the observation skills she learnt within training and how these were equally important within her role.

Pam mentions something which is very relevant to the current discussions regarding “More Great Childcare” and the Nutbrown Review, regarding qualifications”. In the sixties every student had to work as an assistant for one year and then embark on their two year course to train as a nursery nurse. This idea is something which I feel gives students hands – on learning and provides a solid foundation within a range of early years settings; a topic I have discussed in a previous blog,  Putting the Quality Back into Qualifications. 

I am not going to share anymore from this fantastic book. I would strongly recommend anyone working with children and/or working with those who do work with children to purchase ‘Bath Times and Nursery Rhymes’ to read and experience it for yourself as, like me, you will both enjoy it and learn a great deal from it.

After I finished the book, I emailed Pam to say thank you for sharing her memories within the book and how it has encouraged me to write more. Pam replied saying:

“Thank you for your email and your kind comments, Laura. Your blogs look interesting although I don’t blog myself. It’s good to see that there are still people who genuinely care about children and their needs which have changed (and yet not changed that much) since my days in the nurseries. I spend my time looking after my grandchildren now and I still have a lot of fun.

I wish you every success with your writing. Don’t let anyone discourage you. From what I have seen you have a great talent. Enjoy it!

Every good wish

Pam Weaver”

Why, thank you Pam!

There is another person I’d like to mention today – Pat Cole, who I worked with years ago. She was my line manager when I managed a nursery in North London. I remember one of her stories from when she worked in a children’s home in the 1950s. This account resonates with some of Pam’s experiences.

“Two siblings arrived into care late at night and were absolutely filthy, their clothes and bodies. They clung onto each other. I knew in my heart of hearts it was wrong to remove their clothes and to bath them, I thought to ‘clean’ them then was wrong and it could wait until the morning, as they were frightened and they only thing that they had was each other and the clothes on them, even though they were ‘dirty’ and ‘smelly’. But, the matron made me bath them and put on clean nursery clothes.”

Pat told me she was asked to write her life story and I’m sure this would have been very informative. The guru on children under three, Elinor Goldschmied, acknowledged Pat in her book ‘People Under Three-Young Children in Day Care’.  Sadly, Pat has now passed away but I thank her for sharing her stories and passing on her knowledge to others.

Again, thank you to Pam for sharing her insights into earlier times and encouraging us to reflect on practice in the past. That is it; children are children whatever decade or century they are born. What matters is the care and the love that they receive from the early years practitioners who work with them.

Bath Times and Nursery Rhymes

The honest memoirs of a nursery nurse in the 1960s.

Pam Weaver

Avon

ISBN: 978-0-0074-8844-5

Doing nothing?

Part of children being able to create and think critically is that they should be given the opportunity to be reflective. This gives them time to make connections and create.  To foster this practitioners should, at times, stand back and allow children to be quiet in their play, as this can be an indication that they are thinking, processing information and planning their next steps in their play.

I remember this thought provoking anecdote from Vivian Hill, Director of Educational Psychology Training at the Institute of Education when she recalled the time she was called into a school to assess a four year old boy in the nursery department who spent his whole time day-dreaming, head in hands and looking out of the window. “His teachers were worried. I asked him what he was thinking about. ‘I wonder why it’s harder to pedal uphill than down?’ he replied.  He was thinking about elementary physics.” (The Sunday Times, August 2005)

Vivian’s recollection links into this recently published article from BBC online education http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-21895704 . I totally agree with the academics in this article that we should indeed allow children to be ‘bored’. One of the academics in this report Dr Belton said ‘children needed time to stand and stare.’  Although, me being me, I wouldn’t use the term ‘bored’. I would say we need to allow children to reflect, recharge and reinvent! This is what a quality setting incorporates during the day for children.

Image Copyright of Childcare Consultancy ©  Please do not copy without permission. 

So, within our settings, do we give children the time to be quietly reflective if they so wish to be so? How do we sensitively explore their ideas and suggestions? How do we give children the opportunity to own their creative ideas? How do you celebrate this within your setting?

Lastly, it is OK for children to be quiet and to have thinking time. You never know they could be the next Steve Jobs or Oprah Winfrey!

laura@childcareconsult.co.uk

Twitter:  LauraChildcare

Got Any Saturday Jobs?

When I was a teenager, most of my friends and I, by the time we were 15, had Saturday jobs. If not on a Saturday, these jobs were either after school or during the holidays.

To me it was more about earning extra ‘pennies’. But I built a foundation of skills for work (which is central in my present day-to-day work) including team work, customer care and having responsibilities as an individual employee.

However I am now finding there are fewer opportunities for teenagers to gain vital work experience whilst they are at school. For example the retail industry tends to plan their staffing over a seven day period, resulting in both full and part time staff covering the shifts. As a consequence there are fewer opportunities for teenagers to be given jobs and to acquire essential skills and expertise for the future.

In years gone by, as teenagers we would walk into a shop, even the large retail shops, and make enquires about part- time work.  This is how I got my Saturday job in a bakery shop and I can still name the different types of bread and cakes, from your Bloomers to your Belgium Buns!

Even local jobs are now advertised online and some ask a series of questions before they consider asking the individual to an interview.  Most of these questions, though relevant, actually act as a barrier for many teenagers. Hence I favour the old approach of young people having the confidence of being able to walk into a shop or company and speak to the manager and ask if they have any suitable part-time jobs.

Now that schools are more academically driven and there is less time for practical skills, it is essential that our young people learn these skills within the workplace. In addition, this taps into their creative and entrepreneurial skills. A friend, when her son was 15, asked his school if they could do a ‘mock interview’ to prepare him for his college interview. Amazingly, they said that they did not have the time to do this!

Yes, most young people in year 10 have a two week work placement in secondary school. This, in my opinion, is not enough to give our young people a sense of the realities of working. There are a number of students who start university life who have never worked at all! Also, very sadly, there is an increasing number of young people who are currently not in employment, education or training (NEET).

We need to encourage children when they become teenagers that working increases their confidence and they can add this onto their CV as real life experience. There needs to be more opportunities for part time work for them such as a Saturday job in a local bakery or butcher shop. My sister started off working a couple of evenings in a local chemist and then she went on to have a part time job in Marks and Spencer, before training as a nurse. I am sure the experience in both these sectors gave her fundamental skills in medicine and patient care.

On the other hand, my son didn’t get his first experience of paid work until he was 17, which was at an annual royal event as a ‘litter collector.’ He has now done this twice and says he will do it again this year. I told him he can state on his CV that he has expertise in ‘grounds maintenance!’ Last year it rained on the days that he did this and he came home soaked right the way through, but he still went back the next day, demonstrating a strong work ethic.

Employees also need to trust teenagers to work for them and value what a young person can bring to their business. I would like to see the retail industry and other sectors prioritising Saturday and part time work for teenagers aged 15 plus and making the application process accessible to the age, stage and ability of the teenager.

In addition, companies should be encouraged, as part of their corporate and social responsibility, to provide more paid and unpaid work experience for teenagers. For example summer schemes could be set up where a range of companies pay teenagers £10:00 per day for doing voluntary work in their companies. This will help give teenagers a sense of purpose and belonging, which currently some of them they do not have. This could also act as a road for some of our teenagers into an apprentice with the company. A few years ago I personally devised training for teenagers to work in summer play schemes with younger children. This was successful and as well as creating an intergenerational feel it gave a sense of purpose for the teenagers involved. Sadly, two years ago, the funding was cut, ending these opportunities.

I suppose the message to our young people should be not to worry about their first job but to see this as the first step in their long term career path. Nor should they think that it needs to be in a prominent business. What matters is that they start somewhere. As the song states: ‘It’s not where you start but where you finish!

So, come on Government, what are you doing to support our teenagers and make a difference to their long term future? 

Night, Night!

 “Sleep is the best medication.” Dalai Lama

We all know, as adults, that if we do not get enough sleep this affects us the next day – with symptoms that may range from feeling tired to being really irritable. Therefore, these signs of sleep deprivation may have the same effect on children and can have a negative impact on their day.

To ensure that pre-school children have a decent night’s sleep, they need on average about 12 hours sleep per night. If your child is not ill and your house is not too cold or too hot, (it’s always best to have a thermometer in your child’s bedroom) there is no reason why this can’t be achieved.

It is important that young children have an evening routine and become familiar with this. Children should be given enough notice that bed time is approaching; this can be developed by stating the following “We have five minutes before bed time”. Sometimes, it helps to be at the same physical level as your child giving them a gentle stroke of their hair to make sure that this verbal statement has registered with them.

Depending on the age of your child involve your child with the bedtime routines, for instance from the toys they want in the bath, books to be read and songs to be sang. They are more than likely to enjoy their bedtime routine and look forward to going to bed if there is an element of fun involved with their preparation.

Also, be mindful to switch off and turn down any unnecessary background noise throughout your house, including the television and/or radio. Close curtains and blinds in the room in order to set the scene.  It is important that your child recognises that night time is for sleeping, but in the summer the light evenings can be more of an issue!

Make sure to read books and sing songs when your child is in their own bed and be clear to say how many books or songs you will be reading or singing.  To have a solid routine in place it is imperative so that children fall sleep in their own bed.

After you have finished with your bedtime activities if your child is accustomed to sleeping with a main light or night light on, let them to continue to do so.  Say goodnight, with cuddles and kisses as per usual, and that you will see them in the morning.

There should be no need for your child to wake during the night. Most experts believe that it is usually expected that most babies should sleep throughout the night uninterrupted by 12 months, especially if they are fully weaned. They should not wake for food and/or a drink and, if they do so, this should be discouraged.

 Remember, if your child has not slept well the night before, be sure to discuss this with your child’s key person if they attend any form of day care or their teacher if at school.

If you are concerned about your child’s sleeping habits, please consult your health visitor for further advice and information.

 Twitter: LauraChildcare