Welcome to the FSF October newsletter.

It’s been all change recently in the wider world of education, with the cabinet reshuffle in Westminster - Nadhim Zahawi is now Secretary of State for Education and Will Quince has been appointed Minister for Children and Families with responsibility for Early Years. The hopes and futures of children and families are in their hands.

The APPG for Childcare and Early Education will continue to hold those in power accountable to support the early years sector. We have a section about the APPG for Childcare and Early Education on the Forum where you can keep updated about meetings, campaigns, and debates in Westminster.

For those in Reception and KS 1 teams, their SLT and LAs, the DfE have just issued the 2022 EYFSP handbook. The document is designed to support teachers and early years educators to make accurate judgments about the level of development of each child at the end of the EYFS, as well as to provide the statutory requirements for the EYFSP at the end of the 2021/22 academic year.

If you are looking for some SLCN/EYFS training, Launchpad for Literacy founder, Kirstie Page, is delivering some free virtual sessions through Orgill English Hub this term. Find out more in this post including links to some of the recordings from the training. 

And in other news, the fuel distribution crisis caused concern and frustration, leading the General Secretary of the NASUWT, Patrick Roach, to call for education to be prioritised if the situation continued. We share some thoughts on this in the latest Coffee Break.  

Registration is now open for the next free online Tapestry Education Conference: Reflecting on CPD in the Early Years, which will take place on 4th November 6-8pm. You can find out more here. 

As always, we have new articles and podcasts for you to read and listen to. Varinder Kaur Johal shares her reflections on what she learned from teaching in early years that she took with her into Key Stage. Alicia Wilkins asks us to reflect with honesty on how representative our resources are, particularly those in our topic boxes, and when and how we use them. And Susie Heywood discusses challenging gender stereotypes in the early years.

Our podcast discussions this month include supporting children with everyday transitions and change with Sonia Mainstone-Cotton; how to support mums and their mental health with Katherine Dalgliesh and Sarah Penn from The Happy Mums Foundation; and Dr Chandrika Devarakonda shares reflections on identity, diversity and inclusion in the early years. You can listen to them all here, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Over at Tapestry HQ, Ben from our education team recently hosted a webinar about the new EYFS and Tapestry – you can watch a recording of it here. In addition, whether or not you are a Tapestry user, you may find the FAQs curated from the event helpful as you move forward with the new EYFS.

Happy October.

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