Blackpool Better Start’s new ‘Ready Steady School’ campaign is now up and running!

Alex Daniels, Communications Manager at Blackpool Better Start, considers the key elements of a new school readiness programme.

As an organisation, Blackpool Better Start is committed to supporting and empowering families in Blackpool to have the best outcomes for their babies and children, from pregnancy to starting school. We are always looking for ways to support families and improve outcomes across the town.

We know that school readiness is vital for helping young children get the most out of their first days in reception class. But being ready to learn isn’t as simple as putting on your uniform and arriving at school.

That is why Blackpool Better Start is delivering a new campaign called ‘Ready Steady School,’ to help people in Blackpool better prepare their little ones for school life.

Ready Steady School

This campaign focuses on nine main skills that we’ve identified as being pivotal for school preparedness.

These are:

1. Recognising your name
2. Personal hygiene
3. Listening and attention
4. Making choices
5. Getting dressed
6. Talking
7. Hand and finger strength
8. Mealtime independence
9. Talking about your feelings

Together, these skills will help young children to feel more settled in a school setting. With these skills secured, they are then free to concentrate on making friends, playing, and learning.

Co-production

At Blackpool Better Start, we always try to involve local parents in what we do. The content and resources for our Ready Steady School campaign was a perfect opportunity to do this, and we were pleased to invest time to gather insight from local parents.

This approach helps us to ensure our resources answer the questions that people really care about and focus on the topics that make a difference to children.

Supporting professionals

School readiness is not only important for the children and their families. We are also pleased to offer support for local professionals, including teachers, teaching assistants, and nursery workers.

We rely on good working relationships with local professionals and services to allow us to work more effectively. Listening to feedback, we know that many professionals are asking us about toilet training and how they can help support families to train their little ones outside of school.

Because potty training is such an important topic, and one that can take up a lot of school time, we are developing additional resources to help families potty train their children outside of school. This will free up time for teachers to concentrate on play and learning with the whole class.

Free Play Sessions

We are pleased to offer free play sessions in Blackpool for local families. These sessions take place regularly at three locations across the town, making them as accessible for people who are less able to travel.

These sessions do not require people to book in advance, further increasing their accessibility. Moreover, we can speak to parents not only about school readiness but also signpost them to any other local services that they might not currently engage with.

Offline and Online Resources

In support of this campaign, we have developed a range of both offline and online resources.

These resources include:

• Printed cards with advice and QR codes directing to online resources.
• A webpage hosting more information about Ready Steady School.
• Individual webpages for each of the nine key school readiness skills we’ve identified.

These resources are being distributed at Ready Steady School events and other opportunities where our teams can speak to people in person.

We are delighted with the start of our Ready Steady School campaign, and we believe it will make a real difference for children, parents, and professionals in Blackpool. For more information, please visit the Blackpool Better Start website.

About A Better Start

A Better Start is a ten-year (2015-2025), £215 million programme set-up by The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK.

Five A Better Start partnerships based in Blackpool, Bradford, Lambeth, Nottingham and Southend are supporting families to give their babies and very young children the best possible start in life. Working with local parents, the A Better Start partnerships are developing and testing ways to improve their children’s diet and nutrition, social and emotional development, and speech, language and communication.

The work of the programme is grounded in scientific evidence and research. A Better Start is place-based and enabling systems change. It aims to improve the way that organisations work together and with families to shift attitudes and spending towards preventing problems that can start in early life. It is one of five major programmes set up by The National Lottery Community Fund to test and learn from new approaches to designing services which aim to make people’s lives healthier and happier

The National Children’s Bureau is coordinating an ambitious programme of shared learning for A Better Start, disseminating the partnerships’ experiences in creating innovative services far and wide, so that others working in early childhood development or place-based systems change can benefit.

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Visit the A Better Start website to find out more.