All Activity

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!

This is where I am at now, and we too need to lower our age group, however i have no interest in that happening. I will 100% definitely finish next July (when my GS leaves) ... but I'm not really putting my 'all' into generating numbers at the moment - so it could be Christmas.

Louby I miss absolutely NOTHING about it! And I still cannot believe I am saying that. I am totally running my life in year starting in January and have no clue of half terms etc! I love it! I just wish my Dad could have seen me leave and enjoy having left so much. He knew I had handed my notice in but died before I actually left. He said to me one day “you won’t go back will you?” I think he would have been so happy to see me stress free. I honestly think that you naturally know when the time is right to finally leave. It certainly was my time. And so glad that the pre-school has gone on to expand into full days and now takes babies! Which is what needed to happen, but I just didn’t have the commitment or energy to do it.

That hasn't happened yet - I am still working in 'terms'🤦‍♀️🤣

.... and how long does it take to start seeing the new year 'start' in January ? 😂

Full transparency - yes I do! It is however a very small price to pay 🤣

To all of those who are 'out of it' I have a serious question..... What about the stationary fix? Do you not miss the joy of new folders, pens, diaries etc? ... and not to mention 'work bags'!

This weather just makes life so much better doesn't it! Sunnyday I completely agree with you, once my job is done by mid morning the rest of the day is mine! I absolutely love it. Have done early dogs walks this week and have enjoyed a few paddles in the sea. Got a busy weekend of changeovers which is going to be hot but hopefully they will be reasonably quick! Have a lovely weekend all.

Oh Louby colds are miserable at the best of times but especially in this kind of weather - I hope it clears up soon. I have had a gentle week. Some reading and sock knitting (I won't wear them for a bit but they are good small projects for hot weather). I made a rhubarb and custard cake, got my hair cut and spent the first part of the day reading in the garden whilst it was still cool out there.

Hi everyone. OMG!!!! I cannot beileve we (I) only have 2 weeks 4 days to go!! Another not very exciting week for me - although I have now got a chesty cough/cold 😭 I even took a Covid test, it was negative. I did suggest that maybe we should close the preschool this year as our numbers are very low for September- but staff were rather against it for some reason. We are a not for profit group, and financially we can make it until December. Long term - July 26 is the most definate end for me- that's when my GS leaves. Have a good weekend all. x

Morning Beautiful weather here in Lewes and looking like I will be doing some early dog walks over the weekend before it gets too hot. My hubby is golfing Saturday and Sunday so some nice quiet time - me, the dog and my audiobook while I dog walk and then potter round the house/garden. Enjoy your weekends whatever you get up to peoples 💗

Good morning - 'tis Friday Another week has just whooshed by... How is everyone? How amazing is this weather - I am so enjoying this retirement lark - it's been a while now but I am still 'surprised' by the idea that I can do as much or as little as I like - think today it might be the latter! Have a good weekend all x

Good morning @Tweetinat, Yes, comments added to the Accidents Only / Care Diary feature by staff members will always be visible to all relatives of the child. 🙂 The relative user permission for 'View comments added to an accident' / 'Visibility of care diary comments' refers to comments added by other relative users only. If this is 'not permitted' then staff comments will be still visible to all, and staff will be able to view all relative comments. Best wishes, Alexandra

Sorry late to the chat this week. We had torrential weather on Friday! It seemed to be one of those days when you were constantly soggy! Think we were the only place in the country to be like that. It was lovely yesterday but bit overcast today. Think next week is going to be good though! The only good thing about it is it saves watering the veg garden! Glad everyone is ok.

We had nothing! maybe a bit of lightnening in the distance but that was all 😮 Glad it was sorted quickly. x

Thank you young Froglet - we were so lucky all restored by lunchtime - phew - hard to not overreact think we are all scarred by the events of summer '22!

Everything is crossed for you Sunnyday! I remember the last time! It's very sunny but also very blustery up here - I wonder if the storms are heading north.

Hello, I hope you are well. I am at the tail end of my NCFE CACHE Level 3 qualification in Early Years and currently doing a very useful module on professional development. Introduction: This week I have been learning the theoretical perspectives on reflection in relation to professional development. I have gained some very useful information through studying the main theories on the topic which I was keen to share and discuss. I hope you all don't mind me sharing my work here and would love to gain your thoughts on which theories align with you and if you have used any in your own reflective journey in early years; which have been useful to you and which have not been as expected. I will share my work here and look forward to discussing this further with you. Please do message, comment and discuss. Thank you in advance for any engagement and all the best with your personal journey and more importantly your professional development. [start] REFLECTION – theoretical perspective : Reflecting on our own practice is really important in early years, as we can improve our responses and the overall way in which we work. When we think about the way we work, observe, question and evaluate our practice we can make improvements and indeed grow and develop as a practitioner. Various theories exist on the reflective process, giving us evidence-based research on the benefits of it. The 5 theories below are mostly cyclical models, encouraging the process of reflection and therefore the principle of most of the theories is the same, which is looking at what happened, reviewing what went well and what did not, looking at what can be improved and putting in a strategy for better results in future. I will have a look at some of the theories in more detail below: Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle (1984): This is a four stage learning cycle and effective learning is seen when a person progresses through all four stages, resulting in new experiences. This is used for reflective practice. Kolb’s model is referred to as an experiential learning model, which relates to learning through experience. After the four steps have been reached we may need to reflect again (on the changes / adaptations). Concrete Experience: Immerse yourself in the experience such as teaching children how to play a game of snakes and ladders. What happened? Reflective Observation: What did you notice about the experience? What did it make you think about? reviewing / reflecting on the experience. Such as, what worked in this game and which parts were less successful. Abstract Conceptualization: How might you change things? Learning from the experience. Can we adapt the above game to make it more useful or easier for children to understand and play better and stay engaged? Active Experimentation: Try out you new ideas. Planning and trying out what you have learnt. Such as , play the game again using your new ideas / adaptations and see if you get better results. Gibbs Cycle of Reflection (1988): Gibbs model is known as an iterative model, which focuses on challenging our assumptions and exploring new ideas and ways of doing things and promoting self-improvement. It relates to learning through repetition. This is a reflective process with 6 steps so that each step informs the next. After a situation or incident has arisen we can use these steps to reach some conclusions about what to do differently in the future. Here, we think about what happened, our feelings, why it happened, what conclusion is drawn and an action plan for future practice. This could be the need for more training or more opportunities to learn from others and this is how it is about continuous professional development. His cycle of reflection is as follows: Description: what happened? Simply describe the incident or situation. Feelings: What were you thinking or feeling at the time? Evaluation: what was good or bad about the experience? Think about the incident in terms of the quality of the practice. Analysis: what sense can you make of the situation? What were the underlying issues? Was it lack of knowledge or training in a certain area such as behavioural management? Conclusion: what else could you have done? And how can these be used to help you improve practice? Action plan: if this arose again, what would you do? action plan to prevent the situation from occurring again. Such as training or more support or regular check-in with a senior colleague or regular breaks. The aims of using Gibbs’ reflective cycle are to: challenge your assumptions explore new ideas or different ways of doing or thinking about things promote self-improvement by identifying your own strengths and weaknesses and taking action to address them link theory and practice by combining doing with thinking To me, I find Gibb’s theory useful. Gibb’s theory of reflection explains the human thought process in simple terms, explaining that by engaging in reflection, using the simple cycle, one can engage in continuous learning which can help us to improve our practice. Schon’s process of continuous learning (1995): Schon suggested that the capacity to reflect in order to engage in a process of continuous learning was one of the defining characteristics of professional practice. His model of continuous learning emphasizes the importance of reflective practice, focusing on "reflection-in-action" and "reflection-on-action" to facilitate learning from experience. This process encourages ongoing development and refinement of skills by analysing situations, learning from mistakes, and adapting strategies in real-time. Schön believed in the concept of improvisation and incorporating life experiences into the process of learning. Reflecting-in-action: thinking ‘as you go’ about what you are doing, how well you are performing and how successful you are with different tasks Reflecting-on-action: thinking ‘after the event’ when you have completed a task you can consider afterwards what worked well, or how things could have been managed differently. Johns’ five stage model (2000): This 5 stage model gives us practitioners a structured framework to analyse our experiences, understand the impact of our choices and focus on growth and professional development through developing strategies for future improvement. The five stages are: 1. Description: Describe the event objectively, focusing on facts and what happened (significant factors). 2. Reflection: Reflect on personal feelings, thoughts, and the purpose of your actions during the event. And the consequences of the same. 3. Influencing Factors: Identify internal and external factors that influenced your decisions and actions. 4. Evaluation: Assess the effectiveness of your actions and decisions, considering both successes and failures. 5. Learning: Draw conclusions about what you learned from the experience and how it can improve future practice. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory: This theory comprises a pyramid of human needs which are physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Maslow’s theory explains that a human needs to first accept and fulfil their physiological needs such as food, clothing, basic health and shelter and then they move on to complex physiological needs such as accomplishing something worthy or taking themselves to the top pinnacle of success and then realising it. Maslow placed the needs in the order from top to bottom with the more creative and intellectually oriented ‘self-actualization’ needs at the top. Maslow asserted that not everyone would actually reach their full potential or consider this as their goal, however there might be peak moments in everybody’s life when it comes to achievements. According to Maslow, people who are self-actualised measure their success through peak experiences, they also perceive reality efficiently and take themselves at their face value for who they are, meaning accepting their strengths or weaknesses, they are highly creative and problem centred and look towards continuously bettering themselves. Hence Maslow believed that if a person is already comfortable in their basic needs, then they can start their journey of improvement and self-actualization which relates a lot with what we call reflection today. [end]

Hello, I hope you are well. I am at the tail end of my NCFE CACHE Level 3 qualification in Early Years and currently doing a very useful module on professional development. Introduction: This week I have been learning the theoretical perspectives on reflection in relation to professional development. I have gained some very useful information through studying the main theories on the topic which I was keen to share and discuss. I hope you all don't mind me sharing my work here and would love to gain your thoughts on which theories align with you and if you have used any in your own reflective journey in early years; which have been useful to you and which have not been as expected. I will share my work here and look forward to discussing this further with you. Please do message, comment and discuss. Thank you in advance for any engagement and all the best with your personal journey and more importantly your professional development. [start] REFLECTION – theoretical perspective : Reflecting on our own practice is really important in early years, as we can improve our responses and the overall way in which we work. When we think about the way we work, observe, question and evaluate our practice we can make improvements and indeed grow and develop as a practitioner. Various theories exist on the reflective process, giving us evidence-based research on the benefits of it. The 5 theories below are mostly cyclical models, encouraging the process of reflection and therefore the principle of most of the theories is the same, which is looking at what happened, reviewing what went well and what did not, looking at what can be improved and putting in a strategy for better results in future. I will have a look at some of the theories in more detail below: Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle (1984): This is a four stage learning cycle and effective learning is seen when a person progresses through all four stages, resulting in new experiences. This is used for reflective practice. Kolb’s model is referred to as an experiential learning model, which relates to learning through experience. After the four steps have been reached we may need to reflect again (on the changes / adaptations). Concrete Experience: Immerse yourself in the experience such as teaching children how to play a game of snakes and ladders. What happened? Reflective Observation: What did you notice about the experience? What did it make you think about? reviewing / reflecting on the experience. Such as, what worked in this game and which parts were less successful. Abstract Conceptualization: How might you change things? Learning from the experience. Can we adapt the above game to make it more useful or easier for children to understand and play better and stay engaged? Active Experimentation: Try out you new ideas. Planning and trying out what you have learnt. Such as , play the game again using your new ideas / adaptations and see if you get better results. Gibbs Cycle of Reflection (1988): Gibbs model is known as an iterative model, which focuses on challenging our assumptions and exploring new ideas and ways of doing things and promoting self-improvement. It relates to learning through repetition. This is a reflective process with 6 steps so that each step informs the next. After a situation or incident has arisen we can use these steps to reach some conclusions about what to do differently in the future. Here, we think about what happened, our feelings, why it happened, what conclusion is drawn and an action plan for future practice. This could be the need for more training or more opportunities to learn from others and this is how it is about continuous professional development. His cycle of reflection is as follows: Description: what happened? Simply describe the incident or situation. Feelings: What were you thinking or feeling at the time? Evaluation: what was good or bad about the experience? Think about the incident in terms of the quality of the practice. Analysis: what sense can you make of the situation? What were the underlying issues? Was it lack of knowledge or training in a certain area such as behavioural management? Conclusion: what else could you have done? And how can these be used to help you improve practice? Action plan: if this arose again, what would you do? action plan to prevent the situation from occurring again. Such as training or more support or regular check-in with a senior colleague or regular breaks. The aims of using Gibbs’ reflective cycle are to: challenge your assumptions explore new ideas or different ways of doing or thinking about things promote self-improvement by identifying your own strengths and weaknesses and taking action to address them link theory and practice by combining doing with thinking To me, I find Gibb’s theory useful. Gibb’s theory of reflection explains the human thought process in simple terms, explaining that by engaging in reflection, using the simple cycle, one can engage in continuous learning which can help us to improve our practice. Schon’s process of continuous learning (1995): Schon suggested that the capacity to reflect in order to engage in a process of continuous learning was one of the defining characteristics of professional practice. His model of continuous learning emphasizes the importance of reflective practice, focusing on "reflection-in-action" and "reflection-on-action" to facilitate learning from experience. This process encourages ongoing development and refinement of skills by analysing situations, learning from mistakes, and adapting strategies in real-time. Schön believed in the concept of improvisation and incorporating life experiences into the process of learning. Reflecting-in-action: thinking ‘as you go’ about what you are doing, how well you are performing and how successful you are with different tasks Reflecting-on-action: thinking ‘after the event’ when you have completed a task you can consider afterwards what worked well, or how things could have been managed differently. Johns’ five stage model (2000): This 5 stage model gives us practitioners a structured framework to analyse our experiences, understand the impact of our choices and focus on growth and professional development through developing strategies for future improvement. The five stages are: 1. Description: Describe the event objectively, focusing on facts and what happened (significant factors). 2. Reflection: Reflect on personal feelings, thoughts, and the purpose of your actions during the event. And the consequences of the same. 3. Influencing Factors: Identify internal and external factors that influenced your decisions and actions. 4. Evaluation: Assess the effectiveness of your actions and decisions, considering both successes and failures. 5. Learning: Draw conclusions about what you learned from the experience and how it can improve future practice. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory: This theory comprises a pyramid of human needs which are physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Maslow’s theory explains that a human needs to first accept and fulfil their physiological needs such as food, clothing, basic health and shelter and then they move on to complex physiological needs such as accomplishing something worthy or taking themselves to the top pinnacle of success and then realising it. Maslow placed the needs in the order from top to bottom with the more creative and intellectually oriented ‘self-actualization’ needs at the top. Maslow asserted that not everyone would actually reach their full potential or consider this as their goal, however there might be peak moments in everybody’s life when it comes to achievements. According to Maslow, people who are self-actualised measure their success through peak experiences, they also perceive reality efficiently and take themselves at their face value for who they are, meaning accepting their strengths or weaknesses, they are highly creative and problem centred and look towards continuously bettering themselves. Hence Maslow believed that if a person is already comfortable in their basic needs, then they can start their journey of improvement and self-actualization which relates a lot with what we call reflection today. [end]

We had the most spectacular storms here last night - went on for hours... This morning we have no water, not a drop...apparently the storms caused a power outage at pumping station - let's hope this is shortlived this time and not the beginning of a week without water and needing to collect from a water station, that is still etched in my mind- please keep your fingers and toes crossed for me and my fellow villagers!

Happy Weekend all 👋

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.

Happy Friday eveyone! Sitting chilling with a sleeping GS at the monent 😊, in about an hour or so I get to swap him for the GD - who's having a sleep over tonight 😊 I'm sure I've been busy this week, but I have nothing to show for it😮😂 Have a good weekend all. xx

Happy Friday! I've had a busy week with a couple of days away exploring Norwich and Norfolk. I spent a lot of time going round various lovely gardens and came back inspired to do more with mine. So, this morning I have cleared and cleaned the shelf opposite my back door and then went plant shopping. It's going to be a shelf for herbs mainly with just a couple of flowering pots. It's one of the few parts of my garden I can see straight out of the back door/kitchen so really want to keep it looking nice. I've been working on the mandala kit that I bought at the yarn show last week. It's not hard but you need to count and I've undone it several times! I have a friend coming for tea/coffee tomorrow morning although with the beautiful weather and an excess of lemons in my fruit bowl I'm contemplating making a bottle of lemonade to offer her something chilled too. I also have a load of rhubarb from my last veg box which I need to use up. Does anyone have any favourite rhubarb recipes? I've been googling and found a rhubarb and custard cake which looks interesting. I'm also thinking about just cooking a few sticks to have with yogurt with my breakfast. Right now though am inside hiding from the hottest part of the day before going out to my garden again.

Morning sunnyday Beautiful morning here 🌞 I am working from home today and have all the doors open so nice breeze although my daft black dog is laying on the patio in the full sun! Seriously he is a proper sun worshipper and lays there until he is so hot and panting 🤦‍♀️ Fun weekend in prospect including a 60th birthday BBQ on Saturday and dog walk on the Sunday. Not doing any chores lol Have fun whatever you end up doing in this lovely sunshine 💟