Live illustration of the Learning Symposium held in July 2024
The Early Years Special Initiative, funded by The Charity of Sir Richard Whittington aims to enhance young children's numeracy, literacy, and language skills and their school readiness (personal, social and emotional development), through evidence-based interventions in London.
Following the success of Phase 1, Phase 2 of the initiative was launched in January 2023, with two cohorts of grantees receiving funding for four years each. The first cohort, comprising six organisations, began receiving funding in July 2023. Phase 2, Cohort 1 grantees are:
- Campaign for Learning
- Coram Family and Childcare
- Early Education
- Fatherhood Institute
- National Day Nurseries Association
- Youth Sports Trust
SQW has been commissioned as the Learning Partner for Phase 2 of the Early Years Special Initiative to help the grantees to reflect on and develop their work. SQW’s approach combines knowledge generation activities (such as light touch monitoring data collection, deep dives into themes identified by grantees, action learning sets and knowledge sharing through Learning Symposiums.
The Final Report published in August 2024 can be viewed here. The report outlines recommendations for SQW, the Mercers’ Company and Phase 2, Cohort 1 grantees for Year 2, following the Year 1 Learning Partner activities and grantee feedback.