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Views, news and opinion that will help you improve childcare and boost your business
Social media for early years: it’s not just for sharing cats!
The internet is full of cats. They are everywhere and they get shared on every social media platform with regularity. There is: the famous shocked cat the equally famous angry cat and the even more famous (and incredibly wealthy) grumpy cat. I myself contributed to... read more
Delayed speech development: top tips for working with children
As many as one in ten children in the UK have speech, language and communication needs. We asked Christina Upjohn, Special Educational Coordinator at the Rainbow Smiles nursery, how practitioners can encourage the development of language in a child with delayed... read moreDevelop an ever-improving culture
Following Heather’s recent post on the benefits of carrying out a research project in an early years setting, I asked her to put together some more tips to help you get started. Heather wanted to make it clear that quality is an on-going process and that by the... read more
Action research in an early years setting: a study on reflective practice
One of the more fun parts of a childcare-related MA degree is the research, especially when it involves a nursery setting that you work in. The focus of my latest study has been reflective practice. It’s a subject I have discussed before and it’s something that I... read more
Early years networking – make a connection!
If you are a nursery professional, you are probably a people person: you have to be when you spend most of your day communicating with children, parents and colleagues. But how often do you go and meet peers outside of your setting? There are many benefits to be... read more
Take up the challenge: make nursery work fun!
Although we work in a primarily play-based environment, sometimes our activities and our days can lack lustre and excitement. You can feel it when your team has almost run out of enthusiasm and you can see some of the same ideas being reworked. Recently, I’ve been... read more
David Cameron, childcare and consequences
When you get excited, you sometimes do things without thinking about the consequences. It’s quite possible that such a scenario led to David Cameron’s surprise pledge to increase free childcare hours for three to four-year-olds. We are, after all, in the midst of... read more
Early Years Pupil Premium: can we make it work?
The current hot topic on the Government’s agenda is the Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP): an additional amount of money that is intended to support our most “at risk” 3–4 year olds. At first glance, it appears that the Government have finally listened to the outcry of... read more
Quality amongst the madness
If your life is anything like mine, you’re pretty much on the go from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed. In the last two weeks alone I have: attended a mentoring course for my students; changed around 60 nappies; attended two meetings with SEN... read more
Ideas for continual professional development for the early years practitioner
The discussion on quality at last night’s #EYTalking twitter chat closed with a question about continual professional development (CPD) for the early years professional. @EYSUSSEX suggested a few ideas for continual learning that resonated with a few of us... read more
Poll. Can nurseries make the Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) work?
Ahead of the introduction of the Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) in April, we thought we’d run a quick poll to see if you think nurseries can make the process work. For some food for... read moreRead more“You’ll find boredom when there is an absence of a good idea” (Unknown).
