Green

Being ready to start school isn’t about counting and phonics. It's more about the day-to-day skills which can be practised at home in fun, everyday opportunities. You are your child’s first teacher and we're here to support you being the best you can.

Keep it simple - so many exciting activities can be drafted out of items you already have at home. Just add imagination and go!

Families Connect is a well-established, evidence-based programme for practitioners to use with 3-6 year olds and their parents and carers. It was designed to strengthen parent-child interactions, relationships between parents and settings, and early learning outcomes. It has supported thousands of families by helping parents develop practical skills to support their children's literacy, numeracy, and emotional development in the home learning environment.

We are thrilled to announce that Families Connect, developed and delivered by Save the Children since 2014, will be transitioning to Peeple as part of our portfolio of programmes. This marks an exciting new chapter for Families Connect, ensuring its long-term future and continued impact on children and families across the UK and beyond.

At Peeple, we share Save the Children’s commitment to giving every child the best start in life, with a particular focus on supporting under-resourced communities. Our mission is to work in partnership with parents and professionals, valuing and building on their knowledge, skills, and confidence to embed high-quality early learning experiences in everyday life. Families Connect is a natural fit within our approach, and we are excited to build on the incredible foundation that Save the Children has created over the past decade.

“We are delighted to be working with Save the Children to support the delivery of the fantastic Families Connect Programme in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Then in July 2026 Families Connect will join Peeple’s portfolio of programmes which help parents to make the most of play and learning opportunities in everyday life." Dr Sally Smith, CEO, Peeple

“Families Connect has been a key element of our work in the UK for 10 years, positively impacting thousands of children and families, and we are excited it has found a long-term home with Peeple. We look forward to seeing the lasting impact of the programme in the years to come.” Dan Paskins, Executive Director of Policy, Advocacy & Campaigns, Save the Children UK

If you have any questions, please get in touch: [email protected] 

From April 2025, the cost of Peep Learning Together Training will include our bespoke Practitioner Accreditation. As our Peep community grows and develops across the UK and beyond, this ensures all practitioners have equal access to this beneficial qualification, helping to maintain high-quality Peep delivery across all settings.

The Practitioner Accreditation unit - ‘Supporting parents and children to learn together’ - is an inclusive, nationally recognised credit-rated qualification, awarded through AIM. It provides valuable CPD, helping practitioners embed their learning, reflect on their practice, and strengthen their skills.

To support practitioners, the accreditation includes:

• Assessor guidance throughout the accreditation process
• Monthly online accreditation support sessions
• Extra support for those with additional learning needs
• Login access to all the accreditation materials and guidance

We also have regular online Peep in Practice sessions for all Peep practitioners to share ideas on themes such as working with EAL families, SEND support, recruiting families, transition to nursery/school, etc.

By including accreditation as part of Learning Together Programme Training, we’re making it easier for more practitioners to complete this valuable qualification—benefitting practitioners, the families they support, and the wider Peep community.

If you or your staff have already completed Peep Learning Together Training but are interested in completing the accreditation, you can find out more via the links below.

Find out more:

>  Practitioner Accreditation Overview – including link for free 1-hour information sessions

>  Peep Practitioner Accreditation – detail for LTP-trained practitioners (in the login Members Area)

Nearly 30 years of delivering Peep has taught us that we have much to learn from families - so we approached our work with Kenyan communities with real excitement. Why did we - and our partners, the charity Kenya Connect -  think that the Peep Learning Together and Antenatal programmes might be effectively used within these communities?  Because the core, universal elements of Peep are those that shape every child: the very early relationships that underpin a child's ability to trust and understand, and the brain development that goes on during those first weeks, months and years, giving children the best start in life. Peep isn't about special equipment or special activities, it's about what families do in day-to-day life. If parents can really engage with everyday learning opportunities and understand what an impact that can have, their child is going to pick up on that. And during our time with the wonderful Kenya Connect charity and families that they work with, we found that there was a real interest in learning about what they can do to support and make a difference to the children in their lives. 

To find out more, watch our Peeple and Kenya Connect video, and read the diary below from Liz, our National Training and Accreditation Manager at Peeple, from her visit to Kenya to collaborate with colleagues from Kenya Connect.

Family Engagement Session: Supporting young children’s early learning and play

We were delighted that hundreds of families signed up in advance for our parent session at the Kenya Connect headquarters near Nairobi, giving us a small indication of the enthusiasm which we would be met with. Kenya Connect is a charity with a vision of empowering rural communities to harness the benefits of education to drive sustainable development.  As well as being a staff base, the Kenya Connect building houses an incredible community library, home to thousands of books for all ages and interests, a Makers Space where groups are held and learning opportunities for adults and children are provided, including LitMoms, sewing group and Saturday Storytelling. A busy hub of opportunity and collaboration.

After early morning nerves that no-one might turn up, the families started to arrive, with babies swaddled close, often on the mother’s back, and toddlers walking alongside. By the time we started, around 300 adults had joined us. They were predominantly mothers, though we were so pleased to see many grandparents, extended family members and men, equally interested in finding out more about Peeple, our programmes and the importance of their role as parents and carers.  Western culture has much to learn from this ‘village’ support system and mindset.

The audience were keen to engage, and we had many volunteers offering to come up to support us with activities and role play. Singing all together, and experiencing the warmth and eagerness of every participant, was a total joy!

We began the session with information about brain development, sharing images of the amazing brain structure developments between birth and age 3. Using balls of wool (as in the Peep Antenatal Programme), participants helped demonstrate how interactions with those closest to them stimulate a baby’s senses, strengthening connections between the neurons in their rapidly developing brains.

One of the universal pressures felt by parents is the feeling that they should be buying expensive resources and toys to support their child’s development. It’s a myth we were keen to dispel. As the audience were seated, I saw a sea of vibrant pattern and colour – the women’s clothing was an early maths gift! Parents were thrilled to discover that their own outfits could support conversations around shape, size, colour, pattern, counting and more, with their babies and young children.

Earlier that morning, my colleague Magdelize and I had gathered fallen leaves to act as a focus on early maths concepts. We put small stones, sand and shingle into empty water bottles to assist with a discussion about babies and young children learning to make sense of sounds, developing their listening skills. An empty cardboard box became a shape sorter and a magic sounds box (with local African animals inside of course), easily supporting both early maths and communication and language.

All the activities and examples underpinned our key message: the simple things that parents do in day-to-day life to support learning, with items readily available to them, make a big difference. Believing that our Antenatal and Learning Together Programmes could be used cross culturally is one thing - observing the impact directly was astounding. These parents were so eager to give their children the best start they possibly could in order to arrive at school aged 6 with home-learned skills and self-confidence. They were keen to learn more about child development - to listen and watch, and to view through an ORIM lens, thinking about the Opportunities, Recognition, Interactions and Modelling which they provided in everyday life. Every parent we asked was able to share something that they would do differently with their newfound understanding, and the very next day a parent approached me to share that she had read a story to her unborn baby.

Learning Together Programme (LTP) Training for practitioners

22 practitioners including Kenya Connect staff, Public Health practitioners (and a few parents!) joined the 2-day Learning Together Programme training on the rooftop of the Kenya Connect building. The space was wonderful (if a little windy for the paperwork at times!).  

We delivered the usual components of our Learning Together training: the Programme’s evidence base, the five main elements to cover within Peep sessions, considering key strand and key topic points, thinking of songs and stories which connect to the topic. We again focussed on the natural resource around us (leaves, sticks, stones) with the addition of some books, boxes and simple playthings provided by the Library and Makers Space staff at Kenya Connect.

After a recap on the second morning, we placed the trainees into small groups and gave them  some prep time for their mini Peep delivery. Unexpectedly we had five parents and babies arrive to participate on day 2 having heard something of what was happening from the community. So we abandoned the need for the use of dolls – and the teams delivered their mini Peep sessions to a ready-made Peep group! Parents and babies took everything in their stride, fully engaging with the practitioners. The standard of session delivery was fantastic – the delegates appeared relaxed, natural and very happy to throw themselves into the whole experience.

During one of the demo sessions a child really enjoyed a water bottle ‘shaker’ with small stones inside (legumes/grains are a valuable food source and therefore would not be used to play with).  A practitioner took the lid off a shaker bottle and blew across the top to demonstrate how sound could be made.  Immediately the 10 month old took his own bottle shaker towards his mouth. Of course the lid was secure, but this beautiful example of providing rich learning through modelling behaviour was captured and the parents observing this were delighted.

Saturday Storytime

I had been invited to lead on the story, chosen by the children on library day last week. Seventy children aged between 4-12 years arrived, armed with their library cards and much enthusiasm to engage with the story, songs and themed activity.  The book was ‘Kojo and his Father’, a story about how Kojo’s father introduces Kojo each day to a different aspect of STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths), and how they learn together about the weather and seasons, baking, coding, planting and growing, using a microscope and exploring maps.

The children’s ability to understand and speak English varied hugely but they sat patiently and seemed to absorb every word. Songs were then shared, questions asked and answered, and we helped one another with the prepared craft activity - each child was able to make a windsock from toilet roll insert and streamers (not an easy task with 70 children!).

Next steps

We left feeling positive and optimistic about our contribution to Kenya Connect and their partners and communities. There is much we can offer and there is much we have learned from the inspiring and hopeful communities we were so warmly welcomed into. 

Our conversations with Kenya Connect have continued. We are thrilled to be working with them again in February this year to establish a Peeple/Kenya Connect Training and Support Agreement, and to train 12 practitioners in the Peep Antenatal Programme. I’m looking forward to what emerges from this exciting partnership… watch this space for more news soon.

Thanks to all the families, practitioners and video producer Reulo for helping us make such a wonderful film.

Liz Ersoy, National Training and Accreditation Manager, Peeple

Contact Liz to find out more about our work in Kenya:  Email: [email protected]  or LinkedIn

Peeple & Mellow Parenting are delighted to announce that we are developing a strategic partnership, working together with the aim of providing an even higher level of support to both organisations' Practitioners. 

The overall aim is that more families get access to high quality, non-stigmatising programmes, designed to strengthen parent-child relationships.

To help with this exciting project both Peeple and Mellow Parenting would love to hear from any Practitioners who have been trained to use a Peep programme AND a Mellow programme.

If you have done both - please email to let us know:  [email protected]

We’ll have some exciting updates during 2025! Keep up-to-date with both Peeple and Mellow Parenting by following our channels on social media, or signing up to both organisations' newsletters from our websites.

The challenges and isolation of becoming a parent…

Like many parents, Kirsty found being a new parent to be a challenging and isolating experience.

‘Even though I was a social worker’, she described, ‘when I had my two girls, I felt like I was completely de-skilled by them. I was exhausted, I was lonely, and these two children were just running rings around me.’  

When, after the birth of her third child, a health visitor noticed Kirsty’s low mood, she told Kirsty about a Peep group happening at her local community centre. Kirsty remembers the first time she tried the group:

‘As soon as I walked into Sharyn’s Peep group, I knew it was the right place for me’ she said. ‘She was so welcoming, the room was laid out so nicely’.

… and finding a tribe of other new parents

The group quickly became the highlight of the week for Kirsty and her daughter, who began to recognise where they were going on the way.

Crucially, attending the group enabled Kirsty to meet a group of parents in a similar stage to her, and helped her feel less isolated in the challenges of parenting a young child. ‘It helped me find a new tribe’ she said, and the group began to meet up regularly outside of sessions, even beginning to celebrate their children’s birthdays together. 7 years later they remain in touch, despite Kirsty having moved away.

Developing skills and confidence as a parent and child

Not only did Kirsty and the other families come away from the group with a new community, but with new skills too. She described how the Peep group helped build her child’s confidence, and her own confidence as a parent. She could see the impact this was having on her relationship with her daughter, and was able to share what she learnt at the groups with her partner and her parents.

The group also offered parents the opportunity to create a portfolio of what they were learning and doing at home with their child, to gain an accredited qualification unit through the ‘Peep Progression Pathway’. Kirsty completed not just one but four qualification units.

Reflecting on the impact of Peep with her daughter, now aged 7, Kirsty attributes her school readiness, learning and development down to the positive effect of Peep: ‘I just feel like everything came a lot easier – counting, writing, forming letters, settling in at school – she was ready to learn.’

Career opportunities

At the time, Kirsty’s local council were offering an opportunity for parents who had gained these qualification units to be trained in delivering the Peep Learning Together Programme themselves. After undertaking this training, and successfully being interviewed for a role as a Peep group leader, Kirsty began leading Peep groups for other parents and carers, alongside two other parents from her Peep group who had also undertaken the training.

‘It did change our lives’ she reflected. ‘I sound really cheesy when I say that … but for the three of us it completely changed the direction of our careers and also the way we parented as well.’

Now an experienced Peep group leader, Kirsty trained to become a Peeple Trainer, training other professionals in how to deliver the Peep Learning Together Programme and Peep Antenatal Programme to families. Alongside another trainer, she has trained around 60 professionals within Early Years, Education, Social Work and the NHS since then.

The benefits of early intervention

She observed that with the cost-of-living crisis pushing more carers to return to work soon after parental leave ends, provision of the Antenatal programme is particularly important in enabling families to have the opportunities that Kirsty’s family did.

‘I love Antenatal Peep…’ she said, ‘expectant parents come and feel so relaxed.’ Speaking of both her love of Peep programmes, and her experiences as a social worker, she said: ‘if you want an early intervention tool, use Peep. It can be so flexible in whatever you’re hoping to achieve with your families.’ In Dumfries and Galloway, Kirsty has seen Peep positively impact a diverse range of families, including those who are particularly vulnerable.

But the most resounding impact of Peep for Kirsty is the impact that she continues to see in her daughter, who will still come and sit on her knee and ask ‘can we do some Peep songs?’

Thanks to Kirsty, Dumfries & Galloway

> Find out more about Peep Progression Pathway accreditation for parents and carers

This information is for practitioners who are attending or have attended a Peep Training course, and want to access or download the relevant Programme resources.

> Here is a 1-page overview of the courses, for info: Peep LT Programme & Training ~  Peep Antenatal Programme and Training  ~  Peep TALK Programme and Training

If you already have a Peep login account from previous Peep training: Email us with your username and latest training, and we’ll add access for the relevant programme area to your existing login account.

To create a Peeple website login account:

1. Please read this webpage first, so you know how long it will take for you to gain access. Then click on the green 'login' button in the menu bar at the top of the website (in the main menu on your phone).  
   Then click the green ‘Create new account’ button.
    
2. On the Registration page (see screenshot): Use the same email address for your ‘Username’ and  ‘Email address’. Fill in the remainder of the page, then read and accept the Terms & Conditions  at the bottom, and click the ‘Submit’ button.
    
3. You’ll receive a confirmation email:  You will immediately receive an automated email from [email protected], to let you know that we’re in the process of checking and approving your account: Email Subject:  ‘Account details for [your email address] pending admin approval’.  

   If you don’t  receive that email (and it isn’t in your junk or spam folder) - please email us to let us know. The automated emails occasionally get blocked by council firewalls, so we’d need to finish setting it up.
    

4. Choose a password:  Within a day (occasionally two) we'll have checked and approved your account, and you’ll receive a second email asking you to choose a password. Once you’ve chosen a password, you’ll get instant access to the login area.
   If you don’t  get the email within two working days please check your junk/ spam box, and if it’s not there, contact us.
    
5. Log-in: When you’ve logged in you’ll see a webpage similar to the following screenshot.  It will show your email address/ username in blue (rather than support@...).  

The green '... area' buttons will show for the relevant training courses that you have attended (or if you signed up for Practitioner Accreditation), giving access to the programme resources and delivery support. The green ‘Members Area’ button gives access to the Peep Learning Together Programme (LTP) resources. 

If you can't see any  green buttons after logging in:  We have a mysterious technical issue with the button for the Peep TALK Area not always showing if you have only  attended Peep TALK training. If this affects you, please log in, then go to this webpage link: https://www.peeple.org.uk/peep-talk-area. This will give you access to the area - you might want to bookmark/ save the page (just remember to be logged in to open it). We're sorry for any inconvenience if this affects you.

To log-in in future: just go to www.peeple.org.uk and click the green ‘login’ button on the top right. You can tell if you're logged in, as the green button at the top will now say 'logout'.  If you're looking at non-login pages (from any of the sections in the top blue menu, such as a case study) and you want to go to a login area, just click the green 'my area' button at the top.

Remember - your Username = your Email address (and can be used from any computer). If you forget your password, click on forgotten your password? on the log-in page.
If you want to change your username in future, contact us and we'll change it for you.

We hope you find the website useful, and enjoy using Peep – do get in touch with any questions or comments any time.

Peep Training and Support Team | tel 01865 397970 |    [email protected]

Families Learning Together (FLT) delivered an early intervention and prevention, multi-disciplinary approach to family learning, using Peep programmes across 11 areas in Scotland. The fund duration was April 2023 - March 2026.

Families Learning Together areas

The 11 areas involved in this ‘test of change’ are:

• Highland
• East Ayrshire
• Edinburgh
• South Ayrshire
• Falkirk
• Perth and Kinross
• Dumfries and Galloway
• Aberdeen
• East Lothian
• Shetland
• Moray 

Each area was allocated a number of training places to enable practitioners to deliver the Peep Antenatal Programme, Peep Learning Together Programme and/or Peep Progression Pathway to families. Practitioners' workforce development was further supported through Peep Practitioner Accreditation places and implementation support from Peeple's FLT staff.

Find out more:

> Explore our Peep Training courses for practitioners working with families

>  Attend a free Information session

> Families Learning Together evaluation report 2024-26