Apologies for the unavailability of the FSF for a large part of this morning (25th January). A major technical issue with our webhost service provider caused a large number of sites to become unavailable across the UK.

The Haven Fun & Fitness free sports equipment campaign opened again on the 1^st September 2011. Log onto www.havenfunfitness.com to register your setting for free sports equipment.

All Ofsted/SCSWIS/CSSIW registered settings can apply for the scheme, as long as you have 10 or more children aged under 5 registered to you. To qualify for the equipment you just need to ask your parents to find your pre-school’s page on the havenfunfitness.com website and leave you a supportive message once you’ve registered your setting on the campaign. As soon as you hit 70% support - you get your free equipment pack. The first 1000 schools to hit 100% support will receive a bonus item of either a Kiddimoto bike, mini high jumps, space hoppers, geometric course, curved walkway or stepping stones.

You have until the 31 January 2012 to register for your place, and until the 27 April 2012 to gain your support targets with your parents.

Make sure your setting doesn’t miss out and register now!

New Local Authority Members. We're delighted to inform you that Oldham LA have joined the FSF Local Authority subscription scheme. Lincolnshire and Cornwall have renewed for a second year and Kent, Manchester and North Tyneside are renewing for the third year. A special welcome back for Guernsey, Reading, Norfolk, Windsor & Maidenhead, Wigan, Portsmouth City, Cumbria, Darlington, Herefordshire, Derbyshire, Wandsworth and LB of Barnet who have just renewed for a 4th year. We are especially pleased that Brent, Northamptonshire, Brighton and Hove, Southampton, Northumberland, Leicestershire and LB of Richmond have just renewed for a 5th Year; and a great big welcome back to East Sussex, Worcestershire, Hartlepool, NE Lincs, Suffolk, Sandwell, Hampshire renewing for the 6th year! Lastly welcome back to your friends in Birmingham and Bracknell Forest renewing for the 7th year, great to have you back again. If you work in any of these authorities and would like to take out a free subscription, please click here. Current members from these authorities need do nothing: their account subscriptions will automatically be renewed. To find out more about the LA subscription scheme please feel free to contact us by email.

New Jan 20th, 2012

Festivals: Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is also known as the Spring Festival. It is a fifteen day celebration of good fortune, family and prosperity. The Chinese calendar follows a twelve year cycle and each year is named after an animal. This year, Chinese New Year begins on 23rd January and is the Year of the Dragon. Celebrating Chinese New Year is a wonderful way of introducing another country and another culture to young children.

New Dec 6th, 2011

Festivals series: Christmas

Beginning a new series on festivals, Juliet Mickelburgh kicks us off with Christmas!

New Nov 11th, 2011

Positive Behaviour Management

What do we mean by "good behaviour"? We are often quite clear about the behaviour that we don't want to see in our settings! Can we be proactive about this and plan consistent positive behaviour strategies where all children feel happy and secure and want to demonstrate that "good behaviour", however we define it?

New Oct 21st, 2011

All About Clemmie: Part 2

Continuing Juliet Mickelburgh's diary of her daughter Clemmie's learning and development from her first birthday to her second.

Featured article: What's critical about critical thinking?

Starting any form of Higher Education is a huge leap for most practitioners and along with the general concerns about issues like time management and referencing there is also a requirement to get to grips with what the lecturers mean when they use specific terminology. The request to think critically, or demonstrate critical thinking, is the essence of Higher Education (University of Canberra, n.d.) and in my experience of teaching on a foundation degree in early years for over 8 years, it causes students a lot of confusion. This is often because it is likely to have a specific meaning in academic circles, which is not related to how it is used in everyday life. Study skills books don't always seem to help clarify the issue with definitions such as:

"Critical thinking is the art of thinking about thinking while thinking in order to
make thinking better" (Paul and Elder, 2006, p.xvii),

which seem to suggest that critical thinking can be a complex and difficult matter.

Concerned about how to help our students, my colleagues and I embarked upon a project to identify the thinking skills, we believe, combine to create a 'critical thinker' on our type of course.

(Read more) (Subscribing members article)

Featured article: Assessment, Progression and Attainment in the EYFS

Assessment in the EYFS is inextricably linked not only to cognitive development but also to a child's physical and emotional development. Unlike the National Curriculum, which measures attainment in a simpler, linear manner with expectations of minimum progression, the EYFS is more complex. Further complications exist when we try to identify the expectations for children's outcomes at different transitional points.

So what do we need to consider and how do we make best use of the assessment information we gather?

With the arrival of the EYFS framework for the first time there was a framework that supported professionals working with children from birth right through to the end of reception. However it lacked specific, detailed guidance on the full range of assessments that practitioners might reasonably be expected to make. In summary it states:

"Practitioners should:

make systematic observations and assessments of each child's achievements, interests and learning styles;

use these observations and assessments to identify learning priorities and plan relevant and motivating learning experiences for each child;

match their observations to the expectations of the early learning goals."

(EYFS statutory Framework 2008)

The first two points are integral parts of the way in which effective practitioners work. However the third bullet point reflects much that was not made explicit in the 2008 EYFS documentation and it is here that the cause of the confusion found in settings lies.

In order to really understand this third expectation we need to define the difference between formative and summative assessments and understand the different roles that they play.

(Read more) (Subscribing members article)