FSF articles and podcasts
In our March article, educator and researcher Sarah Holmes shares her experience of exploring spaces ‘in-between’ homes and settings as places to begin to connect and build relationships with children and families. You…
FSF articles and podcasts
We have two new articles for you this month. Richard Waite shares thoughts on a long career in the early years. And Vanna Fossella, who is part of Tapestry’s Product Support team, writes about the impact of hearing Ker…
FSF articles and podcasts
In our May articles, Early Years teacher Ann-Marie Piper shares her experience of cultivating curiosity in young children. And book confidence coach and bestselling author Winsome Duncan shares tips and support for par…
FSF articles and podcasts
Our new article for June is by Caroline Vollans, who considers whether we have a narrow view of risk and risk-taking in the early years. We’re also highlighting content from our extensive library of articles – this tim…
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 …
Objective-led Planning (Alastair Bryce-Clegg)
Objective-led planning has to be the most effective way of taking teaching into children’s play that I have ever used. With objective-led planning you would still group the children by ability based o…
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…
Resilience and early years experience: child, family, community
Kate Cairns invites us to consider the interaction between resilience and trauma, the key aspects of resilience, and the links between resilience and experience in the early years…
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…
The Role of the Adult in Early Years Settings: Part 2
Part 2 continues the journey of exploring our role in supporting young children’s learning and development. It outlines the five remaining ‘selves’ of the ‘plural practitioner’ framework that …
On our forums it has been a very full month with staff beavering away to ensure they have everything ready for the ‘end of the year’ handovers. We constantly monitor our forums to ensure that threads are constructive and welcoming. We also use the …
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…
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…
We have published an inspiring article this month by June O'Sullivan who is the CEO of the London Early Years Foundation (LEYF). June was very recently listed on the Debrett's '500 people of influence 2017' list for her work with LEYF. June's article…
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 …
A Reception Teacher's Blog (4)
I teach in the Reception class on Wednesdays. This Wednesday I am in the middle of the usual early morning chaos in my house (me, a husband, two teenagers and a 9 year old all attempting to leave at approximately the…
Are You Ready for Your Joint Observation? Observing Practice under the OfSTED Inspection Framework
Why does the joint observation element of OfSTED inspections cause us panic and anxiety? Providers and senior management are the people who have ove…
This term we have published two articles designed to help you and you staff team set ‘Next Steps’ effectively. There seems to be an ongoing conversation about the best way to approach ‘Next Steps’ and hopefully our articles will give you things to …
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…
We've been very busy this half term writing and commissioning articles to extend your knowledge and to challenge your thinking. We have brought you details from two masterclasses held at the Nursery World South show. Kate Cahill reported back to u…
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 …
We have published several articles this term. John Blaney (Forest School Pioneer) wrote for us about encouraging 'Street Play' in young children. Michaela Machan wrote us a 'beginners guide to observing children' article. Finleysmaid wrote for us abo…
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 …
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 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, …
