Welcome to the FSF January newsletter.

As 2022 arrives we express our gratitude for early years educators, who are working so hard for children and families. In this month’s newsletter we hope to share a little positivity and support at the start of a new year.

First, an uplifting reminder of some past and present awards received by leading voices in the early years in 2021 and as we begin 2022. In September last year, Laura Henry-Allain, MBE, received the Nursery World Lifetime Achievement award for nearly 35 years of working with children in the early years. You can read more about Laura’s work here. In November, Liz Pemberton, anti-racist trainer and consultant, won the 2021 Community Unsung She-ro of the Year award at the Multicultural Business and Community Champion Awards (MBCC). You can visit Liz’s website here. And as we arrive in 2022, Early Years Alliance Chief Executive, Neil Leitch, has been awarded an OBE for services to education.

Then we have the APPG for Childcare and Early Education (CEE) campaign to celebrate early years educators and the hugely important work they do. The campaign aims to raise the profile of the work done by early years professionals, to ensure politicians and policy makers understand the vital role the early years workforce has in children’s lives and futures, and to gain the respect our early years educators deserve.  The campaign week will run from 24^th-28^th January 2022 – keep a look out for the hashtag #WeAreEducators. 

The next APPG for CEE meeting will be on 25^th January at 2pm, and the focus will be SEND in the early years provision. We have a dedicated forum space for the APPG here.

Finally, there is another opportunity for SEND settings to apply for DfE-funded air cleaning units. Applications can be made until 9am on 17^th January from this link. You can check the eligibility criteria here.

To support early years professionals as they reflect on their practice, we have a new resource to share. Emily Lees, an autistic Speech and Language Therapist, has written The Beginner’s Guide to Ableism. This free downloadable resource is designed to be a starting point for vital conversations and learning about ableism and the work we need to do to. You can learn more about it, and download the guide, in this month’s Coffee Break.

This month on the FSF we have an article about the wonder of woodwork with young children, by early years creative consultant Pete Moorhouse.

We recorded a new podcast episode with Karen Faux, editor of Nursery World. Then we took a break from creating new episodes over the holiday season, and chose a couple of podcast rewinds for you, revisiting a conversation Ben and Jules had with Jannah Hayah about learning Makaton with her son Musa, and also the discussion Stephen and Jules had with Fifi Benham about creating a gender inclusive environment in your setting. Remember you can listen to all our podcasts from this link, or wherever you usually get your podcasts.

Wishing you a happy and safe new year,

From Helen, Steve and all of us at the FSF and Tapestry.