The Foundation Stage Forum Community

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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

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 !!!!

Reflection and Theoretical Perspectives in Professional Development: Reflection is an essential component of professional development, particularly in early years education, where practitioners are expected to continually evaluate and improve their practice. Reflective practice enables educators to assess their strengths and weaknesses, identify areas for growth, and take intentional steps to enhance their skills and the quality of care and learning they provide. Donald Schön’s theory of reflective practice (1983): Schön emphasises that professionals grow by revisiting their experiences, analysing what worked and what didn't, and using this insight to guide future actions. This model is highly relevant in early years work, where day-to-day experiences often require quick thinking and post-reflection for ongoing improvement. Schön distinguishes between. · reflection-in-action (reflecting as the situation occurs, it helps make real-time judgment and adjust decisions immediately). · reflection-on-action (thinking after the event had happened to review the action and learn from it). Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle (1984), which outlines four stages of the learning cycle, when an individual progresses through the four stages, new knowledge will be created through new experiences, which will lead to better outcomes when faced with the same situations. This cycle supports the idea that learning is an ongoing loop of doing, that requires reflecting, learning from the experience, and applying new understanding. Practitioners often apply this in their evaluations of planned activities or when considering children’s responses and needs. · Concrete Experience (directly involved in a task), · Reflective Observation (reviewing and reflecting on the experience gained), · Abstract Conceptualisation (concluding and learning from the experience gained), · Active Experimentation (planning and trying out the new ideas). Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle (1988), a widely used model in education and training. This structure helps practitioners think more deeply about how their actions impact others and what they can improve. Several peers highlighted Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle as being particularly practical for early years settings due to its structured nature. Others mentioned the Brookfield’s Four Lenses approach, which encourages reflection through the eyes of the self, colleagues, learners (children), and theoretical literature. This perspective aligns with working in partnership and incorporating feedback from all stakeholders. Gibbs encourages reflection through six stages: · Description (of the event), · Feelings (during the event), · Evaluation (of what worked and what did not), · Analysis (of the current situation and its cause), · Conclusion (of what else could have been done differently next time), · Action Plan (if faced by the same situation, what will you do differently?).

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!

Hi, we're looking at using the accident form feature on Tapestry but would like to understand whether comments added by staff are visible to parents? I can see from the help that you can stop comments being visible to other carers, but it's not clear whether staff comments are visible to all.

This walkthrough will cover how we recommend taking the orders from parents if ordering printed journals in bulk. It is for staff at schools and settings who: Are located outside the UK Are intending to make an order of 20 or more children’s journals, and Will be letting the parents/carers decide whether they would like a copy/several copies of the journal and passing on the costs to them. The steps we'll go through are as follows: Decide on how much you’d like to charge for the journals. Export the finished journals into PDFs Distribute the order form and price list so parents can decide if they’d like to buy Collect the orders and payments from families Order the journals Distribute them. 1. Decide on how much you’d like to charge for the journals. The discount we’re offering on large orders of journals mean they’ll be paying significantly less than if they ordered individually. Because of this, and because it is a little bit of work for you to order them we recommend you add a small fee on top to go towards the school. We have recommended a fee of £7.05 per journal. This still gives parents the bulk of the saving (£8+) and the 5p means if a parent wants to order multiple copies, the maths is a bit easier! If you’d like to increase or decrease that though that is completely up to you. When the journals are purchased you will only be charged the cost of the journal + £5 per book for delivery, so anything on top can be kept by you. You can see the prices you’ll be charged (cost of book and delivery), and the prices we recommend you charge (price with fee for the school), below. Price list - cost of book and delivery only.pdf Price list - includes fee for school.pdf 2. Export the finished journals into PDFs It is really important to only do this step when you know the journal is complete. This is because any observations added to the journal after it's been exported won't be included. We have written a short advice article, which you can find here, which covers everything we recommend checking before exporting children's journals to become printed books. Once you're happy the child's journal is complete, you can then export their journals in bulk by following the instructions in this tutorial. If you delete children after exporting their journals and realise there is a mistake with their journal, don't worry, you can export another copy of their journal within 90 days of selecting to delete them on your account. To find them just use the the 'inactive' filter at the top of Manage Children page. 3. Distribute the order form and price list so parents can decide if they’d like to buy You can use our order form template linked below, or create your own, to distribute to parents. Order Form International Schools.pdf There are a few different ways you can share the form with parents: Add a memo to Tapestry Print off the order form and price list to physically hand out Share by any other means To help you with this we've created two different kinds of memo and letter templates, depending on whether you want to add an additional fee to the price to charge parents for the books or not. Memo and Letter template - information only.docx Memo and letter template - with additional charge.docx 4. Collect the orders and payments from families Now you'll just need to wait to receive the completed order forms and payments from parents. You can add orders to your cart within Tapestry as they come in if you like as they will stay saved. 5. Order the journals Once parents have returned their completed order forms and you've received payment from them, you can add children's journals to your cart within Tapestry. Make sure to check you are happy with the child's journal when you add it to your cart as you won't be able to make any changes once the order has been placed. You can always re-export a child's journal if you need. This tutorial talks you through the whole process of adding the journals to your cart within Tapestry, and then placing and paying for your order with Group Hugs. Once you've completed your order you'll just need to wait to receive it! Group Hugs will communicate to you how long this should take and also when your order has been dispatched. 6. Distribute them Once the printed books have arrived you just need to let parents know and ask them to come and collect their child's book. You may want to use Memos on Tapestry to do this. And that's it! We hope the parents enjoy their new keepsakes.

Hello everyone, I’m Kamal Hinduja from Geneva, Switzerland. I'm new to this community and excited to contribute positively to discussions while learning from everyone's insights. Can anyone explain in detail what classroom management strategies are? Thanks in Advance! Kamal Hinduja from Geneva, Switzerland