On the FSF we have a thought-provoking article by Caroline Vollans taking a closer look at compliments and the impact they can have on young children, and a short reflection on a research project where teenagers are taught about how babies’ brains…
On the FSF this month you will find an article by Nancy Stewart exploring how the new Birth to 5 Matters guidance can work for you in your setting. There are also articles by Caroline Vollans, who shares one setting’s approach to rethinking suppor…
Our Coffee Break on the FSF this month considers the SEND Green Paper, and the deeper need for a shift in mindset - identifying the barriers to education and learning for children with learning differences and disabilities, and what adjustments we…
Speaking of responding to the proposed changes to the EYFS, the education team here at the FSF have added our views. We discuss our thoughts and responses in our latest podcast, coming out on Thursday 16th January. You can find our podcasts on App…
Aspects of Art: Printing
We continue our series on Art in the early years with a closer look at printing.
Exploring practitioners' perspectives on 'quality' in early years services
Michelle Cottle is a senior lecturer in early childhood stu…
Choosing 'Next Steps' from your observations
One of the biggest concerns when the EYFS was first published was about doing observations of children. How will there be enough time? How could you observe every child? How much paperwork was this goin…
Child Development: fact or fiction?
Knowledge about child development is an important tool which enables practitioners to make appropriate provision for young children; but if we are not careful it can also be a dangerously limiting illusion that…
Twenty top tips for helping to develop self-discipline for positive behaviour management in young children
With increasing numbers of children being diagnosed with special educational needs such as ADHD and autism, managing challenging behaviour i…
Ofsted Inspection Reports for Childminders (Part 2) In this article we look at the quality and standards of the early years provision and outcomes for children.
The Practitioner as an Explorer: Effective Observation Techniques Observation is …
The New Ofsted Inspection Framework
Summarising the revised inspection framework documents, we include reflective questions and some useful proformas for you to use in evaluating your provision in the light of the new framework.?
Characteristics …
Using the Mosaic Approach to Listen to Young Children Developed at the Thomas Coram Early Childhood centre, the Mosaic Approach uses children's photographs, tours and maps to gain an in-depth understanding of children's lives and what is importan…
After our popular articles covering recent Ofsted reports last year we've brought out a new series, updated after studying over 100 new Ofsted reports from the last three months. We can see certain recurrent themes and in the reports we outl…
This half term we have kept our courses and events page up to date with details of CPD being offered around the country as well as online. There is sure to be something that interests you! Some courses are completely free, others are more pricey, …
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 a…
We have published several excellent articles recently. Nancy Stewart, who co-authored 'Development Matters', wrote a fantastic piece about why it is so important that practitioners do not use the Development Matters document as a 'tick list'. You …
Here at FSF and Tapestry HQ we have been looking outwards in more ways than one!
Earlier in October, Emily and Jules went to Devon to do some training for Ventrus MAT. This was a new experience for us - we don't get out much! Thank you to the …
Since Christmas we have published two articles by extremely prominent Early Years folk. Our first article, Being 'Outstanding' - Passion, with bucket loads of enthusiasm and commitment thrown in, by Jenny Barber was very well received with members …
How do young children learn to make decisions?
Babies and young children are able to make decisions that are relevant to their lives. This article examines what kinds of decisions children can make at different stages of their development and …
We have published an inspiring article by Alistair Bryce Clegg this half term. In it, he discusses the ways in which different theorists impact on our practice. At FSF HQ the practitioners amongst us agree we are probably all 'magpies' lifting lit…
Our contributors have been busy writing inspiring articles to enthuse and motivate your practice. Natalie Perera, who is Executive Director and Head of Research at the Education Policy Institute, wrote for us explaining How research is used (or no…
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…
Jenny Barber wrote for us this half term 'Shake up! Refresh! How to reflect and move your setting on...'. Jenny's article encourages us to consider how we make changes to our provision that are necessary, understood and consistently implemented by…
In this month's article we have been thinking about the managers who struggle in the first few months of their role. It can be hard to 'manage' colleagues who you have worked alongside as an 'equal' for some time - in her article, Anni McTavish tal…
Safeguarding for managers
We have recently published a series of articles about safeguarding for managers. They are aimed at new managers undertaking the management responsibility for the first time but would also be very useful as refre…
This half-term we published David Wright's article Men in childcare, an ongoing debate which discussed the perceptions that people have about men who work in early years. You can comment on the article from here and see David's response to questio…
