Welcome to the March FSF newsletter.

It has been almost a year since the Covid-19 pandemic changed our lives. It is difficult to remember how we all felt a year ago, and hard to comprehend the ways in which the world has had to adapt. This year has left the inequalities already present in our society, and in our education system, gaping wide open.

Over the last few days, children who had been home learning have returned to school and talk from the government of ‘catch up’ continues. In the early years, a new non-statutory guidance to support children’s learning and development, Birth to 5 Matters will be published at the end of this month.

On Thursday 25^th March, Tapestry is holding a free online event - Tapestry Education Conference: Reflecting on Anti-racism in the Early Years. Registration for this event took just hours to fill when it opened yesterday, and is now closed. However, we are hoping to make a recording of the conference available afterwards.

The event will be co-hosted by Liz Pemberton, with speakers Faith Chow and Shaddai Tembo. There is much work to be done, to understand what it means to be an anti-racist and an ally, within the early years and beyond. This conference is part of that ongoing work – for us here at Tapestry and the FSF, and, we hope, for all of those who attend or watch it. You can find out more here.

 Wishing you a happy and safe March.

We'd like to welcome back members from the following authorities, who have renewed their LA subscription. Members from these authorities need do nothing; their individual accounts will automatically be re-subscribed:

Suffolk -16th year. 

On the FSF we have an article about young children’s mathematical development by early years author Linda Pound. Joanna Grace, an Engagement and Inclusion Specialist, has written a piece titled I am Autistic, explaining why the autistic community prefer identity first language. In our Coffee Break section we have a reflective piece about Mother’s Day and how we approach it in early years settings and schools.

It is always interesting to hear your thoughts and reflections in the comments section on each article page.

As always, we have had some fantastic conversations with our podcast guests this month. Action Jackson shared his thoughts and hopes for children’s wellbeing – and began with a song!; Early Years Consultant Jo Caswell talked about leadership in early years settings; primary school teacher and SEND Coordinator Manny Awoyelu discussed the importance of mentoring for children and young people, and explained the work being done by The Reach Out Project; and Aaron Bradbury-Coffey, chair of the LGBTQIA+ Early Years Working Group talked with Ben and Jack about the importance of inclusion and diversity in early years teaching and learning. You can find all our episodes here, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

The Spring Clean on the Forum continues, and you may notice a few changes as a result. You can read a little more about it in Sue’s post.

Over at Tapestry HQ, a new screen for the EYFSP is now available for those early adopters who are assessing with the new ELGs this year. You can find it by going to Tracking > ELG 2020, and find out more in the two tutorials here and here. For those who are not early adopters, the original EYFSP screen remains. If you are using the Cherry Garden Framework, children will now be able to access their own ‘Orchard’ via Child Login. Managers can make this visible to children by going to Control Panel > User Permissions > Children. In addition, Baseline assessments are now included in the Orchard.