Why this work is needed
More children are needing social, emotional, academic and practical support when they start primary school, impacting school staff and having a knock-on effect on children’s attainment. This is a particular issue in Mansfield. Nationally, by the end of reception, 67% of children have reached 'a good level of development'. In Mansfield, this figure is around 60%.
NTU's Centre for Student and Community Engagement ran an award-winning pilot with Oak Tree Primary School and the Oak Tree estate community in Mansfield to address the issue of below average school readiness.
As a result of this work, Mansfield District Council awarded CenSCE £250,000 through the Levelling Up partnership to expand the project across the district and recruit a team to take this work forward.
How we work
We use systems thinking - which creates long-term solutions to complex problems by looking at the underlying causes -and the Collective Impact approach. We aim to bring the voices of families, and the expertise of professionals, together to work towards of improving school readiness and reducing inequalities for local children.
We have a cross-sector steering group, made up of professionals and community members, and a range of working groups to take forward specific pieces of work. Our work is closely aligned with, and supports the aims of, the new national Best Start in Life Strategy.
Steering Group Membership
Our Steering Group is made up of a range of individuals and representatives of organisations:
- NTU staff
- Mansfield primary schools
- Community members
- Nottinghamshire County Council Public Health
- Nottinghamshire Family Hub Network
- NHS Healthy Family Teams
- Mansfield District Council
- Nottinghamshire Educational Psychology Service
- Nottinghamshire County Council Early Years and Childcare Service
Our approach
Our Vision
'All children in Mansfield start school happy, healthy, and ready to learn, with the best possible foundations for their future.’
Our priority outcomes
Our work is guided by a Theory of Change which sets out the outcomes we believe will have a positive impact on children in Mansfield and help us achieve our vision. These were developed by listening to the views of parents, staff from schools and childcare settings and other professionals and partners in Mansfield. They are represented in the image below:
Our projects
We have developed six main projects to help us work towards the outcomes above:
Supporting schools to share good practice
Our Mansfield Schools’ Early Years Leaders’ Network supports school EYFS teachers to work together and share best practice. It meets once a term, and a WhatsApp group supports members to communicate between meetings.
Ensuring parents’ voices are heard
Our Parents’ Network is a space where families can connect, feed in their views and help shape our work. We also hold informal “Biscuit and Brew” sessions in schools where parents and carers can come along for a cup of tea and share experiences.
Improving transitions into school
Our Transitions Working Group brings schools, private nurseries, professionals and the community together to look at making the transition process into school nursery and reception classes in Mansfield the best it can be.
Finding local solutions to local issues
We are piloting a “hyper-local action team” in the Oak Tree area of Mansfield, bringing together parents and professionals to look at how to increase the number of families who access the local family hub. This is a pilot project that aims to test the effectiveness of small, cross sector teams at tackling local challenges.
Sharing data
Our data working group plans to create a shared data system related to child development in Mansfield. This will enable our partnership to analyse data together so we can act collectively to better target resources, align our activities and make a real difference to local children and families.
Building skills and confidence within the early years workforce
A confident, motivated, highly skilled workforce of early years practitioners is key to improving outcomes for young children. We are working with partners to find out the development needs of the workforce and barriers to accessing training and develop a shared plan of activities.
Oak Tree Getting School Ready
Learn more about our project in Oak Tree.
Get involved
Sign up to our mailing list to receive regular updates and newsletters, and/or register to join our parent network, here.
Please email karen.cross02@ntu.ac.uk to contact the Mansfield Getting School Ready team.
Here's what some of our Mansfield Getting School Ready Steering Group members said...
It was really nice at the meetings where you've got lots of people from lots of different sectors, all in the same room, saying the same things... I felt like everyone was committed to collaboratively trying to work towards finding some ways and how can you contribute to this going forward and just keep talking.
It does feel very exciting.
I think the right people are there, but the very fact that we've got parent representation is really good to see. And it feels quite a kind group, which is a strange thing to say, but it feels like everybody that's around the table is heard.