What is it?
The School 2 School (S2S) support service is working closely with Norfolk County Council’s Early Years and Foundation Stage (EYFS) service to provide support for early years providers and settings. Support is delivered by qualified specialist teachers working in Norfolk’s Complex Needs Schools.
How much will it cost?
The support is delivered free of charge to private, voluntary and independent early years settings* provided they make their referral via Norfolk County Council’s EYFS service (and the request for support is agreed by the EYFS team). The Early Years Strategic Team will cover the cost of support via their contract with S2S.
*Mainstream reception classes who wish to access S2S support can do so by completing a Mainstream request for support at a cost of £100.
What can S2S offer EYFS settings?
- Direct support to practitioners empowering them to meet the needs of individually identified children in their provision, including support to evaluate existing individual support plans
- Modelling strategies and approaches to meet individual need
- Ideas about differentiated activities/resources to meet individual need
- Developing skills, knowledge and confidence of practitioners to support children’s’ individual ‘needs’
- Bespoke training for the whole provision as identified by the EYFS team
- Visits to assigned Complex Needs School to see strategies in action, agreed in conjunction with the EYFS service
- Signpost to other relevant services and organisations
How can early years’ providers access S2S?
Early years providers can request support via Norfolk County Council’s EYFS team by completing the referral form here.
Please note that all referrals will be initially reviewed via the EYFS service (i.e. making a referral does not guarantee support will be granted under this contract). After making a referral, the EYFS team may request information about strategies and interventions already used within the provision and evidence of outcomes in the first instance. They may give further advice/guidance about strategies/interventions to be used prior to any decision about a request to S2S for support.
How does the process work?
- A referral is made by the early years provider (via the referral form above)
- Norfolk County Council’s EYFS team receives and reviews the referral form
- If the request for support is agreed by the EYFS team, the referral is submitted to S2S
- An S2S specialist will contact the early years provider to arrange an initial visit and assessment
- Following observations made at the initial visit, a programme of support/recommendations are made to the early years setting to implement
- An ‘observations and recommendations’ report confirming the above is completed by the S2S specialist and a copy is emailed to the early years provider and the EYFS team
- A monitoring/evaluation form is issued to the early years provider once the programme of support is complete
What is expected of the early years’ providers?
If a request for S2S support is agreed by the EYFS service there is an expectation that early years providers will commit to carrying out any strategies/interventions suggested and that progress will be monitored. It is expected that all learning will be embedded into daily practice and this will be monitored by EYFS service.
NOTE
Early years providers can buy the School 2 School services independently if they require and this can be done by contact the team via [email protected].
Evaluations for our EYFS service from Early Years settings
You can view feedback received from our customers online here (enter date range and ‘Run Report’).