However, my first step was to reflect on what went well last year and how I am going to build on it through the coming year, because if we forget our successes, we can quickly turn challenges into negatives and I don't want to go there. I love what I do and I want to stay focused on the future.
Here are some of my aims for the year ahead:
**Chat with parents to find out what their children are doing and saying at home so their ‘starting points’ are up to date and where appropriate, review their ‘next steps’ planning. I don’t track on paper because it’s not required or expected by DfE or Ofsted and I have a good knowledge of child development so I can spot if there’s a concern, but I will use the gold member assessment guidance from Childcare.co.uk if I want to monitor progress –
https://www.childcare.co.uk/eyfs
**Get my long-term group planning in place so I can simply deliver it, with some tweaks depending on children’s individual 'next steps' and interests of course, with the help of the free Childcare.co.uk childminder organiser for 2024 –
https://www.childcare.co.uk/childminderorganiser
**Update my safeguarding knowledge for the new year with this updated free Q & A from Childcare.co.uk and make a note in the diary to update safeguarding every 3 months, checking the local authority website and NSPCC information for latest developments –
https://www.childcare.co.uk/childminders/safeguarding-q-and-a
**While thinking about safeguarding, I have already updated my safeguarding / child protection policy linked to the Cheshire East ‘model’ policy and added further information linked to the changes in the EYFS for childminders 2024. The latest ‘model’ policy from Childcare.co.uk for gold members is here –
https://www.childcare.co.uk/childminderpolicies/safeguarding
**I will be using a selection of the Childcare.co.uk gold member audits to help me reflect on the changes in the EYFS for childminders 2024 and how they might impact on my practice –
https://www.childcare.co.uk/childminders/audits
**Plan my month with the free Childcare.co.uk childminder diary so things get done when they are due rather than sitting on my desk for too long. I also want to implement a clear desk policy consistently this year, which means I have bought some new files, had a good sort out and shredded old documents that are no longer relevant and done some paperwork pruning.
**Prepare for the new funding offer from April by reading the latest Govt guidance for local authorities, from April 2024 and putting a new funding policy into place for parents, to fully explain the implications of the funding on providers –
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-education-and-childcare--2/early-education-and-childcare-applies-from-1-april-2024
**Prepare for submitting my accounts in April so they are done and dusted early and not hanging over me like a bad smell. I use the free childcare.co.uk accounts documentation to help me –
https://www.childcare.co.uk/childminders/accounts
**I am also busy planning upcoming webinars so colleagues can plan their free professional development for the months ahead–
www.childcare.co.uk/webinars
What are your goals for 2024? What do you want to achieve and where do you want to be by the end of the year?
Goal setting is about:
**Being motivated – remembering why your job is important to you will help drive you forwards.
**Being SMART – setting goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound.
**Being organised – write down your goals like I have done here and refer back to them if you find yourself struggling.
**Keeping on trying – we support children with this, so why not ourselves?
**Being positive – there is lots to look forward to in 2024 and I intend to embrace it all!
Chat soon, Sarah x