Last month saw a successful 2nd workshop at the Hilton Reading. GBA's Early Years lead Sarah Ashton has been able to support more partners this year to collaborate and consider ways of enhancing their physical activity offerings within settings across Berkshire. We have seen professionals from the voluntary, private and community sectors from across Berkshire engage with our training sessions, these have included face to face workshops and virtual support. The feedback from the workshops has been really positive and the case studies from settings has really shown us the impact physical activity opportunities has had on the children involved:

"We loved it, and feel like I am excited to include more physical in our setting" "Fantastic training and networking opportunity - thank you very much." "Found the course really motivating and positive. Thank you" "Excellent focus on Early Years, great networking"

Following support from GBA's Early Years programme and funding, some of the projects that children have had a chance to engage with include football programmes, family sessions focused on physical health alongside activities, improved resources within nursery settings and specialised coaches delivering specific skills for areas physical development.

We know there is scope to support this area longer term and Get Berkshire Active are pleased to be able to offer a short 1 hour virtual session for practitioners to get an introduction to the importance of physical activity in the Early Years and how it can be supported. If you or your team are interested in attending these, we shall be running opportunities once a quarter. Please get in touch by sending our Early Years and Family Co-ordinator an email to be added to the invite list: earlyyears@getberkshireactive.org

"It's important to us that we try and facilitate conversations and forge connections around physical activity in an early years setting so we can embed positive experiences at a very early stage and use physical activity to help develop life skills" (Sarah Ashton, Early Years Lead, GBA)