Early Years Development

It is well documented that higher levels of physical activity in childhood can lead to continued participation in later life.

It is important to establish high levels of physical activity as early as possible to encourage children to stay active enough to benefit their health and to support continued interest and participation throughout adult life.

Across Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland we are committed to driving the Early Years Physical Activity agenda forward. We work closely with partners to provide CPD for all early years practitioners across LLR such as Purposeful Physical Play and Story Telling Through Dance.

Our Early Years opportunities including Purposeful Physical Play Training, CPD Courses, our Conference and Awards will be available within this section of the website.

Early Years Conference & Awards

Purposeful Physical Play Training

For Early Years Practitioners or anyone who works with under 5's - join the movement to promote physical literacy.

FREE training to enable you to promote and deliver effective purposeful play and physical development programmes to children aged 0-5 years.

What the training will offer you:

On-going support from experts in the field
Access to a comprehensive resource bank
Practical ideas on how to create positive enabling environments & providing positive activities for babies, toddlers and pre schoolers
Practical evidence based ideas on how to engage with parents in purposeful physical play
Neurological development from birth and the importance of movement in brain growth

If you would like to help your children learn to love being active, improve their health and learning prospects and demonstrate your commitment to – this training is for you!

Training dates currently available will be listed below.

Early Years CPD Courses

We also organise exciting training course opportunities that Early Years practitioners or anyone that works with children under the age of 5 can access. Courses currently available will be listed below.

Smarty Pilates

Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2018 (18:00 - 20:30)

Location: SportPark, 3 Oakwood Drive, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE11 3QF

The course will involve a full history of the benefits of Pilates for children, followed by a practical session introducing you to the basic Pilates moves for Under 7's, PLUS an electronic training manual of that specific Key Stage for you to print off or use with your Interactive whiteboards.

Risky Play Course

Date: Thu, 24 May 2018 (18:00 - 20:00)

Location: Hinckley Leisure Centre, Argents Mead, Hinckley, Leicestershire, LE10 1BZ

Risky Play is designed to share knowledge, evidence and research which supports the value of unstructured and risky play in early years, education, recreation, community centres and spaces.

Story Telling Through Dance Course

Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2018 (09:30 - 15:30)

Location: Brocks Hill Country Park, Washbrook Lane Oadby Leicester Leicestershire LE2 5JJ, Oadby, Leicestershire, LE2 5JJ

One day course for Early Years Practitioners.

Our Events/Courses section will list all upcoming courses

Resources

The Healthy Tots Physical Activity Guide and supporting 'Lets Get Moving' cards have been developed by LRS and partners to support early years practitioners plan and coordinate appropriate physical activity play opportunities and environments for children under 5.

They will help practitioners meet requirements of various UK curriculums, particularly those relating to physical development within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). The Lets Get Moving cards give practical ideas of what practitioners, parents and carers can do with each age group, from 0-3 months to pre-schoolers.

Our 'Let's Get Moving' leaflet for parents provides top tips and advice on how to encourage 0-5 year olds to be active in the home environment.

Let's Get Moving Parent Leaflet (PDF, 5.3 Mb)
Physical activity tips and advice for 0-5 year olds
Healthy Tots Physical Activity Guide Web (PDF, 1.7 Mb)
Healthy Tots Lets Get Moving 0 3 Months Web (PDF, 247 Kb)
Healthy Tots Lets Get Moving 3 6 Month Web (PDF, 262 Kb)
Healthy Tots Lets Get Moving 3 6 Months 2 V5 Web (PDF, 218 Kb)
Healthy Tots Lets Get Moving 6 12 Months Web (PDF, 258 Kb)
Healthy Tots Lets Get Moving 6 12 Months 2 Web (PDF, 221 Kb)
Healthy Tots Lets Get Moving Preschool 1 V6 Web (PDF, 231 Kb)
Healthy Tots Lets Get Moving Preschool 2 V6 Web (PDF, 207 Kb)
Healthy Tots Lets Get Moving Toddler 1web (PDF, 216 Kb)
Healthy Tots Lets Get Moving Toddler 2 Web (PDF, 219 Kb)

Leicestershire Healthy Tots

Leicestershire Healthy Tots is an early year's accredited health promotion programme designed to encourage settings to promote healthy lifestyles as well as becoming health promoting environments. It was based on the National Healthy Schools model as well as similar tried and tested programmes for under-fives, established in other parts of the UK.

The programme aims to provide support to early years settings to enable them to:

Support young children in making healthier choices around physical activity, healthy eating and emotional health and wellbeing.
Develop a framework for planning, delivering and evaluating health promotion, which is in line with the early years foundation stage.
Enable all children to develop healthy lifestyles regardless of age, disability, ethnic origin, faith, gender, language, sexuality, social class or special needs.
Support children and their parents in developing healthy behaviours at home
Develop staff confidence and competence in relation to health promotion
Develop links with parents, the wider community and other agencies.

The resources in the section above and the Purposeful Physical Play Training will help practitioners work towards the accreditation criteria for physical activity.

For further details, to access resources and to sign your setting up for the accreditation process, please visit: