Welcome to the June FSF newsletter.

This is the month when transition is in the air! The preparations that have been made throughout the year to support children as they grow and develop towards whatever their next stage will be are coming to fruition. And in one form or another, end of year reports are being created. 

In the world of education there is still much talk of ‘recovery’ at all ages as we continue to navigate the pandemic. The government announced additional ‘recovery’ funding, at the start of the month, even as the Education Recovery Commissioner, Sir Kevan Collins, resigned.  

If you are continuing to reflect on how your provision represents all families and all children, don’t forget to take a look at the LGBTQIA+ Early Years Magazine that came out in February. It contains articles written by the LGBTQIA+ Early Years Working Group. 

We are delighted to be holding our next free online Tapestry Education Conference: Reflecting on Parental Engagement on Thursday 24^th June, 4-6pm. Registration for this event is now open, and you can sign up here. Keep an eye out on our social media for updates, and we’ll keep you posted here on the FSF as well. 

Wishing you a happy and sunny June.

On the FSF this month we have an article from Rachna Joshi about children’s mirror play, and by Linda Pound about the ‘playful subject’ of number, while Caroline Vollans reflects on the word ‘Sorry’ and how young children learn to express a true apology.

In our weekly podcast this month we have spoken with Simmone Boyce about using a trauma informed approach to support children; we chatted with Laura England about the Learning Environment; Barbara Adzajlic and Susie Heyward from Gender Friendly Scotland discussed gender friendly practice in the early years; and we chatted with Jannah Hayah about learning Makaton with her son, Musa, and why we should all be learning it too. You can find all our episodes here, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Thank you to everyone who responded to our recent Tapestry and FSF survey about parental engagement. It closed on 31^st May, and we did the prize draw to win £25 M&S vouchers on 7^th June – congratulations to the winner, who has been notified.

For those of you who are Tapestry users - if you wish to pay for Tapestry by cheque or BACs please can we remind you:

Cheques should be made payable to ‘The Foundation Stage Forum Ltd’ and NOT Tapestry or the early years foundation stage forum

BACS – we moved our service provider for our banking in October 2019 and our bank is now HSBC sort code 40 18 22 / Account no 42445565

Our old bank account with Lloyds will be shut soon so payments made to that account in error will not be processed.  If you need further information, please email the finance team on bacs@eyfs.info

If you do not deal with finance in your setting, please ensure this information is passed to the finance team so they can make sure their records are up to date. Thank you. 

And finally, Ben and Stephen, from our Education Team, hosted a webinar in May: Tapestry and the New EYFS Framework. There were over 3,000 attendees, and if you missed it you can now watch the full video on our YouTube channel. Whether or not you are a Tapestry user, Ben and Stephen's conversation will inform you as you consider the new framework.