Starting School Soon

A Good Start in Life (Early Years)

The Medway Early Years Partnership Forum is pleased to announce the launch of Grow Through Play – an information campaign about child development in Early Years targeting parents of 2-4 year olds living in Medway.

Grow Through Play provides parents & carers with simple and fun activities they can do with children that will build children’s language and social skills and aid school readiness. The campaign has been developed in response to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on child development in Early Years.

The principal aims of Grow Through Play are:

• To promote the importance of playing, talking and reading to children
• To encourage parents / carers to take up the 10-12 month and 2-2.5 year checks delivered by MCH’s Health Visiting service
• To encourage parents / carers to complete the school readiness questionnaire as part of the primary school places application process
• To encourage take up of funded childcare places for 2 year olds

The key features of the campaign include:

• Twice weekly Facebook posts shared via the A Better Medway and Medway Council Facebook pages until December 2022 with a range of video and static content providing suggested activities for parents and promoting the aims of the campaign.
• A dedicated web page providing information about child development milestones and where to go if you have further questions or concerns: www.medway.gov.uk/childdevelopment. Content will be added to the webpages as the campaign rolls out.
• A resource pack of the activities for families (available towards the end of the year)
• A programme of local face to face events in 2023 to share these activities with families who may not be engaged through social media

 Please help to promote the campaign in 3 ways:

1. By sharing and liking the social media posts.  Simply follow https://www.facebook.com/abettermedway/ and look out for the hashtag #growthroughplay.
2. By raising awareness of the campaign with parents and carers by any means at your disposal e.g. through word of mouth, newsletters etc. Our Comms Officer, Anne Trafford can assist with copy for any messaging if required – please get in touch if that would be helpful – anne.trafford@medway.gov.uk
3. By sharing this information with your colleagues, partners, networks etc