The Department of Education visited Zip Zap!

What a week we had last week! The Department of Education and the Education Secretary got in touch with us, via Happity, to come along to a Baby Class to meet and chat to parents about the opening of application for Government funded nursery hours for 9-month olds. For Zip Zap, we saw this as a wonderful opportunity for our parents to discuss child care with the people who have the power to make a difference. I loved hearing our parents thoughts on this, as I know the Education Secretary did too.

This was a significant moment for all of us, it was the Education Secretary and her team’s first experience of a baby class like Zip Zap. They have previously visited all educational institutions from nurseries up to higher education, but never one like ours.

Believe it or not, baby and toddler classes similar to Zip Zap are a relatively new concept. Previously there have been playgroups which are set up for free play and parents and carers can chat to one another, receiving support from like-minded individuals. Classes which have a clear structure, support the Early Years Foundation Stage framework, have only been around for a short while. The Department of Education have only recently recognised them as a sector since the pandemic.

During the pandemic and the reopening of society, there were guidelines for every institution from restaurants, theatres, nurseries, schools, after school clubs etc but absolutely nothing for children’s activity providers. We all spent hours researching how we could ensure our classes were safe for everyone involved and ready to re-open, yet with no legislation from the government it was impossible to do so.

Happity, run by an amazing group of women campaigned tirelessly to get some legislation

If you want to listen to the feature, click the photo. We are at 34 minutes.

and guidance from the Department of Education so we could all get up and running again. This was huge, because it was the first time that our sector was recognised. So, therefore as Gillian Keegan, came along to our class, it shows that change and recognition is coming.

Lisa, from Happity and I chatted with the team from the Department of Education and will continue to do so, in the hope that we can create more governmental support for the children’s activity providers out there.