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:471,550
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Members:51,060
Cultivating Collaborative Relationships: 5 Strategies for Parent Engag…
by Alicia Wilkins
Alicia Wilkins writes about working collaboratively with parents - from the perspective of being a parent herself, and having been an early years educator.
Podcast: Exploring contemporary digital childhood and children’s play
Jules and Stephen chat with Dr Yinka Olusoga about children’s digital literacies, how children’s play is evolving, and how we can shift our mindset to recognise and participate in their digital and post-digital play.
View the full article
Rumena Aktar, primary school librarian, shares how a library can inspi…
Just A Room Full of Books? Rumena Aktar takes a close look at how a library, and it’s librarian, can support children to become enthusiastic readers.
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Spreading the cost of holiday care throughout the year
Can I do this on tapestry we have several children that only attend during the holidays and I would like to be able to offer them equal monthly invoices to cover their otherwise high holiday care bills many thanks -
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Kamal Hinduja : What are classroom management strategies?
Hi Kamal, Welcome to the community! Here are a few quick thoughts that might be useful: Building relationships with children, families, and colleagues is really important for developing positive classroom strategies. Getting to know them. Think about your classroom routines – these can help children to know what to expect, and help them feel secure. It is also helpful to review your routines and think about what’s working and what might need adapting. Visual timetable – giving a clear overview of the day. This is useful for all children. You may want to create individual ones to support some children, for example children who are neurodivergent. Agreeing things together – depending on the stage and age of the children, involve them in important things like how they would like to behave towards each other – you could collect their words and talk about what they look like in real life – kindness, respectful, listening… Learning environment – think about the children in your class and what they need, what will help them feel reassured and secure so they can engage and learn. Let them know that this is their space, this can help them to feel a sense of ownership and want to take care of it. That’s just a start - there will be loads more! As finleysmaid said, is there something in particular you are thinking to focus on? -
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Qualification check
Can anyone help me as I find the new qualification checker unhelpful in this scenario. I have had a student apply who has just enrolled on her Level 5 Foundation Degree Arts Children and Young People - Pathway Early Years with Practitioner Status. The student has no prior experience or qualifications in early years or any form of education. She has completed a Level 3 but in business studies. Upon completion of her course can she be fully counted as a Level 5 without ever having any other early years qualifications? -
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new funding arrangements
Hi All sorry been busy so not been on much! Has anyone got any ideas as to how to stop us all going out of business? !!!! we are a not for profit charity in a sole use rented property currently offering 32,5 hours care and education, 38 weeks a year for the grand sum of £32.50 a week. This is claimed from a charge for lunch club of £6.50 a day in between our two sessions. We do not demand people attend it and they are welcome to take their children out for lunch ! the new government rules will expect me to 'put' this half hour session somewhere else in the day but we run after school club so cant jiggle much. Anyone have a get round/good idea/solution?????? getting rather concerned this small change in wording could remove 33k from our bottom line and put us out of work! -
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Resending Tapestry profiles to parents
A parent has not received the profile and cannot locate it in their junk mail, how do we resend the profile for them to download? -
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Staggered intake to Reception class
We are a private preschool in a primary school, the Reception class stagger the children starting in September over 2 weeks. A lot of our children have been accessing 30 hrs and some of the parents have asked if their children can come back to preschool for the 2 week? Is this legal? are we allowed to do this ? Thank you for any answers -
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New deputy manager - HELP!
Hello all, I am so thankful for finding this forum, as I think this will be a big help for me on my new journey as deputy manager. Technically this is my first ever management role. Unfortunately, due to some unpredictable circumstances, I am the only management in at the moment, however, big boss has now had to step in, but I of course need to do jobs that I wouldn't necessarily do due to my job role being assistant deputy head. I am enjoying the challenge! The teaching and learning has not been managed well, and I am expected to ensure planning, leaning environment, areas set up, and learning outcomes are all from development matters. Could anyone please help me how to get the perfect planning in (currently using curriculum bites), what are we looking for in learning environment (curiosity approach). Any forms, or help from you lovely lot would be so appreciated, as I have had no handover and most of the time I am winging it, there has been quite a lot of improvement since I have started, boosting staff morale and making sure staff are all doing their jobs effectively. Thank you so much !!!! -
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18th October 2025 - Childminding UK Early Years Conference - Northampton
Childminding UK - Early Years Conference 2025 Inspiring Minds Saturday 18th October 2025 • Hilton Hotel, Northampton Sponsored by Tapestry A vibrant day of learning, connection and inspiration designed especially for childminders! Whether you're looking for fresh ideas, professional development, or just a chance to recharge with like-minded professionals, this is a day not to be missed! For a full list of speakers and how to book click here aa vibrant day of learning, connection and inspiration designed especially for childminders! Whether you're looking for fresh ideas, professional development, or just a chance to recharge with like-minded professionals, this is a day not to be missed! vibrant day of learning, connection and inspiration designed especially for childminders! Whether you're looking for fresh ideas, professional development, or just a chance to recharge with like-minded professionals, this is a day not to be missed!
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