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Foundation Stage Forum

 Articles

You are more than “just a teacher”

by Sara Bonetti on

Practitioners do excellent work that goes unnoticed, leading many to feel disconnected and retreat in their field or even their classroom. So, then, many convince themselves that they are “just teachers”. When you are in the classroom, aren’t …
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Observational Assessment and paperwork – how much is enough?

by Kate Cahill on

It would seem that many years after the first publication of a statutory EYFS Framework, we are still grappling with one key question: how much paperwork is actually enough?
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Educational Pioneers: Susan Isaacs, 1885-1948

by Juliet Mickelburgh on

Isaacs had a passionate belief in the place of nursery education in society. She felt that attending a nursery school should be a natural part of a child’s early life: the early years setting was a place that should both mirror the family through l…
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Supporting Children’s Speech, Language and Communication Skills

by Kathryn Stinton on

Having worked with children with speech, language and communication difficulties for twenty five years I am constantly surprised when I meet typically developing pre-school children with whom I can hold complex conversations.  Children who are able…
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Observing and evaluating children’s well-being

by Rebecca and Jane Evans on

What is well-being and what does it look like? The Foundation Stage Forum has been working with national trauma, wellness and resilience expert Jane Evans to work out what exactly the Early Years Foundation Stage asks us to do.
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 Welcome to the Foundation Stage Forum

For over ten years the FSF has been a platform for a passionate and vibrant community of EYFS professionals, including nursery practitioners, childminders, reception teachers, advisers and consultants, and educators and writers.
We're proud of the quality of our conversation and support here, and our ethos (exemplified by the Lessons from Geese video) of courtesy and mutual respect, even while arguing from very different points of view.

 What's new

NFER 'win' Reception baseline assessment bid

The DfE have announced this morning that NFER have 'won' the bid to provide the baseline assement for Reception children beginning in Autumn 2020. It seems from the various news pieces available that the other other two potential bidders Early…
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Stop Start report by Sutton Trust published

Latest research from Prof Kathy Sylva, Prof Pam Sammons and their team at the University of Oxford has used administrative data, a survey of local authorities and a series of case studies to paint a picture of what has happened to children’s cen…
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Treasury select committee discuss the Government's childcare policy:

The select committee's report has been described in the Financial Times (25/3/18) 'MPs release damning report on childcare policy'. Reading the conclusions and recommendations it is easy to see why the FT went for such a strongly worded headline.…
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Tapestry Newsletter March 2018

You can read this month's Tapestry newsletter from here, which includes details about all of the latest features on Tapestry as well all the other latest Tapestry news. 
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Men can be nursery teachers too

An important point on the BBC today: "Two in three councils providing nursery services do not employ any men, the Victoria Derbyshire programme has learned. How can diversity in the profession be improved?". David Wright, who wrote this article …
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'Evidence of Childcare Costs' document

Following the recent APPG meeting where Michelle Dyson (DfE) spoke regarding the funding and childcare costs faced by settings, we were asked to provide 'hard' evidence from the sector. We have received from the DfE a template document that will…
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 Latest newsletter
Since our last newsletter, we have published articles written by Alistair Bryce Clegg and by Penny Tassoni. Alistair asks us to think about how we prepare and present our setting to ensure that we are encouraging children to be ambitious, inquisit… read on, or browse our newsletters.

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