Dear Colleagues in Early Years Settings,

We are writing to let you know about the Spring/Summer Lead teacher visit. This visit is for all Private, Voluntary and Independent (PVI) settings as well as Local Authority managed Children’s Centres.

The focus of the visit will be on early identification and support for communication and language. The visit will provide time to reflect on how your setting recognises, values and supports children’s different stages and methods of communication and the impact of the strategies that you use to promote communication and language development. There will also be an opportunity to consider the provision you have in place to support children whose home language is not English.

As always, in addition to this focused discussion, lead teachers are able to share a range of professional development opportunities including local cluster meetings, free Network CPD and Stronger Practice Hub CPD. They can also signpost to further information and to other support available for your setting and your children and families. In addition, the visits can provide a great opportunity for settings to identify actions for development and to share any further support needs they may have which can feed into planning the support that we offer.

Please find attached the visit note with questions that can be used to guide both you and the lead teacher during the visit discussion. In addition to the questions there are also useful prompts for the conversation (in blue), that your lead teacher may use.

Your lead teacher will be in touch soon to arrange a convenient date for the visit. We hope that you will find the visit beneficial and supportive and that the discussions will have a positive impact on the learning and development of children across Bristol.

Best wishes,The Bristol Early Years Team