The ONE Programme consists of professional development for practitioners to run fun, short, play-based activities designed to support children’s early thinking and numeracy skills.
The 25 activities have been co-developed with Early Years practitioners and are delivered with the help of activity cards and some low-cost resources to be used with the activities. The activity cards describe maths activities and highlight how to gradually increase executive function demands within maths learning. The activities last five to ten minutes and can be embedded into preschool routines and overall continuous provision, such as small group activities, outdoor play, and free play.
The programme is delivered in Early Years settings by the practitioners at each setting, following some training sessions by the delivery team. Within each setting, practitioners are asked to engage in a minimum of three activities per week for the 12-week duration of the programme. Staff have the flexibility to choose how to implement the activities (big groups, small groups, one-to-one, or a combination) and which children to involve, as long as children in the year preceding the move into Reception are included in these activities (3 – 4year-olds).
Staff at the University of Oxford and University of Sheffield will deliver the staff training for the programme. There are four weekly 30-minute face-to-face professional development sessions for the first four weeks of the programme, during which practitioners will be trained in their settings, and will learn about early numeracy, executive functions, as well as their integration in everyday classroom activities.
These sessions are scheduled at times and in formats that best suit practitioners at each setting (e.g., one-to-one, or in a group, at the preference of each setting). One representative per setting is also contacted in the eighth and twelfth week to provide support and time for reflection, and to check fidelity of delivery (i.e., how often the play-based activities have been delivered).
Recruitment for this programme is now closed.