The Foundation Stage Forum Community
Welcome to the FSF – a community for early years professionals. Engage in conversations, offer and receive advice and support, make connections. Discover our library of education articles and podcast episodes to enhance your reflective practice. Working together to achieve high-quality early childhood education.
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Posts:472,132
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Members:56,198
A Reflection Toolkit: supporting educators to reflect on their provisi…
by Ann Lowe
Ann Lowe, Early Years Inclusion Officer with Doncaster EY Service, shares the reflective journey that led to the Reflection Toolkit, designed to support educators to consider their provision for children with learning differences.
Podcast: Little Minds - Big Tech
Technology in Early Years education, digital literacy, and online safety - what do educators need to know now?
On this month's Tapestry Talks, Ben and Kat sit down with Princess Souassou Tsiagbe for a practical conversation on using technology to en…
What does it mean to be antiracist? Education and racial literacy cons…
Education and racial literacy consultant, and former headteacher Orlene Badu explains that we need to focus on our own antiracist journey in order to be able to model how to challenging and disrupt racism to our children.
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What is the Archetype Approach?
You're very welcome! For those FSF members who didn't find themselves at the recent Cornish Early Years conference and therefore didn't hear Olli on a panel discussing what school readiness could/should mean, you can soon listen to the podcast recording from The Voice of Early Childhood. -
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What are you seeing?
One of the simplest ideas within The Archetype Approach is to create a little more space between what happened and what we decide it means. -
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What is the Archetype Approach?
I first came across Oliver Riddett's posts on Instagram and I was struck with how refreshing his approach is to understanding and supporting children's learning. Based on Jungian Theory (about which I know nothing!) I started to learn about different ways of observing, appreciating, and responding to children's patterns of behaviour, that Oliver's materials were describing. I bought his book- available here: https://www.archetype-approach.co.uk/product-page/the-archetype-approach-paperback and I find myself often referring to it when thinking about and reflecting on children (and adults, if I'm honest). I got in touch with Olli, found out more about the approach, visited his setting in Cornwall and we recorded a podcast for Tapestry, available here: I'm still learning and this will no doubt continue- it's not a quick fix to managing children's behaviour but a gentle, insightful, new way of seeing each child as a whole being. Oliver's own words in the book's first chapter: 'In most educational settings, performance has become the lens through which children are seen and valued. Whether it's through termly assessments, observations written for data purposes, or informal praise for finished work- adults are often trained to evaluate, not witness. But something is lost when we focus on what a child can show rather than how they show up. We lose their rhythm. We lose their intention. We lose the chance to meet them where they truly are. Children are not meant to be assessed for output. They are meant to be understood in process. Learning is not a product-it is a living, relational act.' I'm excited at this new way of supporting children and it hasn't come a moment too soon! The sector, and most of all our youngest children, really need this.
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