Little Minds Early Years

26/08/2026

21/08/2026

🌿 **FRIDAY FREEBIE** 🌿

This week’s free resource is **Getting to Know My Key Child** 💚

The key person role is about so much more than completing observations and identifying next steps. It’s about really knowing the child in front of you, what makes them smile, how they communicate, what helps them feel safe, what they find difficult and what matters to their family.

This simple reflective sheet gives practitioners prompts to help them build a deeper understanding of each child in their key group and strengthen those all-important relationships.

Perfect for:
✨ New starters
✨ Room transitions
✨ Key person changes
✨ September resets
✨ Reflecting on children already in your key group

Available **FREE today only** 🌿
https://www.littlemindsearlyyears.com/product-page/getting-to-know-my-key-child

Because strong key person relationships start with knowing the child beyond their next steps. 💚

20/08/2026

🔥 FLASH SALE – 50% OFF! 🔥

Over 30 copies sold already 👀🌿 and if you’ve been thinking about grabbing The Safeguarding Practitioner Challenge, now is the time!

For 48 HOURS ONLY, it’s just £6.49 instead of £12.99! 🙌

A 40-page interactive safeguarding workbook packed with realistic scenarios, challenges, reflection activities, safeguarding games, knowledge checks and more designed to actually get practitioners thinking and talking about safeguarding, rather than just ticking another training box.

Perfect for:
🌿 Staff meetings
🌿 Supervisions & inductions
🌿 Safeguarding refreshers
🌿 Practitioner knowledge checks
🌿 Team discussions & reflection

⏰ £6.49 for 48 hours only!

"GET YOUR COPY HERE 🌿"
https://www.littlemindsearlyyears.com/product-page/the-safeguarding-practitioner-challenge

20/08/2026

🦟🌿 WORLD MOSQUITO DAY | 20TH AUGUST 🌿🦟

They might be tiny… but mosquitoes can have a BIG impact! 🌍

Today is a great opportunity to turn an unusual awareness day into meaningful learning through play. 💚

🔎 Go on a mini-beast hunt
💧 Investigate where water collects outdoors
🦟 Explore the mosquito life cycle
🎨 Draw or create your own mini-beast
💨 Get moving and buzz like a mosquito!
🌱 Talk about caring for our environment and why we empty standing water

✨ EYFS links: Understanding the World • Physical Development • Communication & Language • Expressive Arts & Design

You don't need a complicated activity or lots of resources — sometimes the best learning starts with simply going outside, looking closely and asking “What can we find?” 🔍🌿

Happy World Mosquito Day! 🦟💚

18/08/2026

🚨 Think your team knows safeguarding? Let’s put it to the test… 👀

The Safeguarding Practitioner Challenge is an interactive challenge book created for Early Years teams 🌿

Rather than another sit-down training session or PowerPoint, practitioners work through a variety of activities, scenarios, questions and challenges designed to test their knowledge, encourage professional discussion and get them really thinking about safeguarding in practice.

There’s even a safeguarding twist on Snakes & Ladders 🐍🪜🙌

Perfect for staff meetings, team training, supervisions, CPD or simply dipping into whenever you have 10 minutes to spare.

Because safeguarding is serious — but developing your team’s knowledge can still be engaging. 💚

Available now from Little Minds Early Years 👇
https://www.littlemindsearlyyears.com/product-page/the-safeguarding-practitioner-challenge

18/08/2026

🛡️ SAFEGUARDING IN EARLY YEARS | A USEFUL READ

The Department for Education has published a helpful overview explaining how children should be kept safe within nurseries and childminding settings.

Although written with parents in mind, it's also a useful read for Early Years leaders and practitioners — and a good opportunity to reflect on how confidently we could answer the same questions about our own provision.

The article looks at:

🔹 Supervision of children
🔹 Safer recruitment, DBS checks & references
🔹 Safeguarding training
🔹 Paediatric First Aid
🔹 Safe sleeping and eating practices
🔹 The role of the DSL
🔹 Raising and responding to concerns
🔹 Ofsted's role in safeguarding
🔹 CCTV and digital devices

💭 A useful reflection for settings:

If a parent asked you today “How do you keep my child safe?” — would every member of your team be confident in their answer?

Safeguarding isn't just about having the right policies in a folder. It's about those expectations being understood and embedded in everyday practice.

👇 Read the full Department for Education article here:

https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2026/07/how-were-making-sure-your-child-is-safe-in-nursery/

🌿 Little Minds Early Years

17/08/2026

🌿 NEW RESOURCE | The Safeguarding Practitioner Challenge 🌿

Okay… I am SO excited about this one 👀😂

Safeguarding development is incredibly important but that doesn’t mean it has to be another policy to read, PowerPoint to sit through, or quiz where everyone already knows the obvious answer.

I wanted to create something different.

💚 Introducing The Safeguarding Practitioner Challenge 💚

A 40-page interactive knowledge & reflection workbook designed specifically for Early Years practitioners in England.

And I’ve deliberately not made it easy 👀

Because real safeguarding isn’t always presented with a giant flashing SAFEGUARDING CONCERN 🚨 sign above it.

Practitioners need to notice the little things.
Recognise patterns.
Separate fact from assumption.
Use professional curiosity.
Question what they’re seeing and hearing.
And most importantly, know what to do next.

Inside you’ll find:

🧩 Puzzles & interactive challenges
🐍 Safeguarding Snakes & Ladders
🔎 Realistic safeguarding scenarios
🚩 Types & indicators of abuse and neglect
🗣️ Responding to disclosures
✍️ Fact vs opinion & recording concerns
🧠 Professional curiosity challenges
🏠 Domestic abuse & coercive control
⚠️ Prevent, radicalisation & extremism
🌍 FGM awareness
👥 Grooming & exploitation
♿ Safeguarding children with SEND & non-verbal children
📱 Screens, devices, images & online safety
👶 Safer sleep & mealtime safeguarding
👤 Concerns & allegations about adults
📢 LADO, escalation & whistleblowing
🔐 Information sharing & confidentiality
✅ Safer recruitment & professional boundaries
…and plenty more!

💡 Use it your way

Give practitioners the whole workbook as a safeguarding knowledge check, refresher and reflective activity…

OR 👀

Pull out individual challenges for staff meetings, supervisions, inductions and safeguarding refreshers throughout the year.

There are Manager Challenge prompts throughout too, so managers can push discussions further rather than just accepting the first answer.

PLUS…

✨ Final 30-point safeguarding knowledge check
✨ Practitioner action planning
✨ Manager discussion & answer guides
✨ Annex C coverage map
✨ Certificate of completion

Designed around safeguarding expectations for Early Years practitioners in England, including the Annex C safeguarding training criteria and key September 2026 EYFS changes.

I genuinely think if someone put this on the table at a staff meeting and said “this is what we’re doing tonight”, I’d be weirdly excited 😂🙈

Maybe that says more about me than the workbook… 👀🤣

Safeguarding development… but make it actually engaging. 🌿💚

💚 Available now – £12.99
👉 https://www.littlemindsearlyyears.com/product-page/the-safeguarding-practitioner-challenge

17/08/2026

🐍✨ **Nag Panchami – EYFS Activity Ideas**

Today we’re recognising **Nag Panchami**, a Hindu festival that celebrates and honours snakes and their importance within culture, stories and nature.

It’s a lovely opportunity to introduce children to different celebrations while extending learning across the EYFS. 🌿

You could try:

🐍 Rolling and shaping **playdough snakes**
🌾 Creating a **snake sensory tray** with rice, natural materials and figures
🎨 Exploring **rangoli-inspired patterns** and colour
📚 Sharing stories and talking about **snakes in nature and culture**
🔢 Using snake figures for **counting, sorting and repeating patterns**

As always, cultural celebrations don’t need to become huge themed activities — simple, respectful conversations and experiences can be a brilliant starting point. 💚