Nurseries have a lot of freedom in choosing to spend their early years pupil premium (EYPP) money, which can buy anything from a few hundred pounds to several thousand, depending on numbers of recipients.
A recent Department for Education report, Experiences of the Early Years Pupil Premium, part of the Study of Early Education and Development, found some providers wanted more guidance on how to spend this money and see examples of how other settings are using it.
Whatever managers decide to invest in, they must be able to demonstrate a clear and worthwhile return in terms of benefit to the children who the EYPP is intended to help.
As all nurseries know, improved outcomes via EYPP come under intense scrutiny at inspection - every penny must count - and if interventions, special projects or new equipment work well for a wider demographic of children in attendance, so much the better.
Settings need to ask themselves, what do we want the impact to be for the child the EYPP is provided to support? Once the solution is identified, the search for what is out there can begin.
EEF Toolkit
A first port of call for inspiration is the Education Endowment Foundation's Early Years Toolkit, free to access online. The toolkit usefully rates potential strands of approaches - such as early literacy, early numeracy, physical development and play for learning - for impact against cost and duration of activity.
The DfE study found there was a sense that some smaller providers struggled to achieve the same kinds of impacts as larger settings, due to fewer eligible pupils and less funding. For example, some settings struggled to fund staff resources such as speech and language therapists, but found creative solutions such as training existing staff.
Programmes such as NDNA's Literacy, Maths and SEND Champions - online courses that train graduate staff to improve practice based on identified needs - help children to meet developmental milestones (see case study).
Equipment and experiences
Other successes have involved purchasing very specific toys or equipment - books, tablets, games and musical instruments - to support the development of children with particular learning needs.
One example reported in the DfE report was a mud kitchen, bought with a selectively mute child in mind, with the aim of developing his communication skills. A much wider group of children benefited as they were all able to play in it.
Along similar lines, other settings have used money to improve outdoor spaces, create growing areas or buy bikes.
Days out to the theatre or seaside to broaden learning experiences for children who might not otherwise get such an opportunity, as well as short courses for parents about supporting their children's behaviour, sleep or toilet training, have also been shown to be a worthwhile use of EYPP money.
Some smaller nurseries have pooled their EYPP allocation - for example, to fund a new, specialist staff member. New rounds of funding, year on year, are allowing nurseries to build on their original purchases and projects, and further enhance outcomes.
Once purchases have been made and put to appropriate use, projects run and training applied, being able to prove the worth of these activities is essential.
Sue Asquith is early years adviser at the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA)
Case Study: Portico Poppets Day Nursery uses pupil premium cash to help staff boost children's maths skills
Portico Poppets Day Nursery in St Helens used EYPP money for manager Vicki Cardwell to do NDNA's Maths Champions programme.
Assessments had shown space, shapes and measures as an area where not all children were making expected progress.
An initial maths audit highlighted that there were not enough opportunities for children to weigh and measure, so practitioners watched a webinar on measuring to get ideas on what to do.
EYPP money was also used to buy rulers, tape measures and scales, as well as setting up activities using ordinary equipment such as cups for weighing.
Cardwell gave parents information about things they could do at home with children such as using tape measures or making play dough.
"The staff took the ideas and used them in different ways," she explains. "For example, one staff member built an obstacle course where children measured how far they had jumped."
Activities included measuring the heights of the children or the length of their arms. As children began to understand more about measuring, they started using their hands to measure and making their own rulers.
Children learned about weighing when making play dough or snacks, using scales and also measuring out quantities using cups.
Cardwell also observed children using rulers and tape measures spontaneously as part of their play, including measuring play dough snakes they had made.
It was also noted that practitioners' anxieties about maths decreased as they began to understand how maths could be used in simple everyday activities.
Maths Champions is currently undergoing a large scale evaluation with the Education Endowment Foundation to further research its impact.
