It is stressful being an early years provider, but spark will give you the control back, so all adults involved can strive for outstanding EYFS practice in order to get everything right, ultimately for every child at this time of rapid brain development.
It is stressful being an early years provider, but spark will give you the control back, so all adults involved can strive for outstanding EYFS practice in order to get everything right, ultimately for every child at this time of rapid brain development.
0203 390 2412
Are activities for Early Years included in spark?
Are activities for Early Years included in spark?
Not directly.
spark provides choices on what the child could be learning next based upon what they know and can already do. With this in mind, and using the child’s personal interests and fascinations, you will be guided to plan to help that child achieve. This may be providing a different environment or planning a specific activity/experience.
However, there are ideas for parents, both when the educator writes a report for parents and also in the parents’ own software spark@HOME. These suggestions are to help parents give their child the opportunity to learn new knowledge and skills as they pick a new idea to participate with from the suggestions.
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“sparkearlyyears is one of the best things that has ever happened to me as a practitioner in the early years…. it helps me to think outside of the box by preparing the right resources and materials that child would need to achieve that milestone… I also love the evaluation method, it’s instant; you don’t have to wait for a later time.”
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"A key strength of spark is its ability to free practitioners up to get on with the important business of being authentic/sustained shared moments with children." - Sue Gascoyne - Early Years Author.
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"The team leader checks every child's profile regularly to ensure that key persons make frequent observations and use the system proficiently. This enables her to keep an extremely sharp focus on each child's progress, to identify any gaps in children's learning quickly and to monitor the effectiveness of the key person's observational and assessment knowledge." – Ofsted Report
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“Parents love it and staff are really enjoying it!! It really is great and it's making a huge difference to the amount of time staff spend with children and not writing things up! Well worth the investment!”
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“Having all of the planners to hand is brilliant as it allows me to monitor activities at the click of a button. In my senior role, I can see if practitioners are updating their review of plans consistently whilst considering their key groups next steps. These tasks were previously very time-consuming.”
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“sparkearlyyears is a fantastic software that has helped our school overcome many of the challenges that we have faced in the past; with the brilliant innovation of the instant, next step suggestions for all the seven areas of learning… It has also helped us to provide our parents with instant and simple reports and the response from them has been really positive.”
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"We want to really set the foundations from day one and using the home software has really helped to encourage parents to become involved in their child's learning and also to work with us. This has really been a unique tool when we have shown prospective parents around the nursery. The feedback has been 100% positive."
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"We have just bought sparkPRO and as an established, experienced nursery, we already recognise the benefits. The system can be used in any nursery, but I would have snatched spark's hand off for this years ago when I was starting up. I would thoroughly recommend to new inexperienced nurseries too."
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“The sparkearlyyears app has really revolutionised the way that we implement our EYFS Curriculum… You absolutely cannot miss any learning milestones with the app.”
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"Practitioners use their observational skills to assess children's development and input their observations onto the nursery's computer software program. This system is effectively used to track and follow children's progress." - Ofsted Report
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"I had a chance to use spark@HOME and today found it extremely useful. This totally keeps us in the loop and helps us track Jael's progress as well as start to prepare her for the next steps as much as we can. I think it is a brilliant tool that should even be used by primary schools, as it is difficult for parents to keep up with a child's progress these days."
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"Staff were admittedly a little apprehensive about this change, however, after one training session all their prior concerns evaporated, and the staff were extremely excited about the programme and how it would impact upon their working lives. Not only did they feel it was a much easier ways of recording children's learning and development, but they felt that it would be quicker, allowing them more time to spend with the child, which is obviously the most important part of their role."
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"I find it hard to believe how everything is made so simple."
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"Initially feeling daunted about the 2-3 progress check I can safely say as a team we now feel completely confident. The step by step guide ensures you are fully aware of each point you need to consider and gives you a very thorough understanding of your key child. Also, this involves the parents in such a positive way, as well as other professionals."
