No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
You must do the things you think you cannot do.
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt 1884 -1962
We talk often in early years about developing practitioners’ observation skills. We are attuned to observing children to help us assess progress and plan further developments (Machan 2016). Working with the Development Matters guidance (2012) we can …
As a student getting to grips with the world of early years, the word ‘observation’ filled me with fear and trepidation. I knew it was important but what exactly, was it that I was being asked to do? I didn’t walk around with my eyes shut so why wer…
We know that children love to play. Play is an intrinsic developmental vehicle by which children develop a plethora of skills through physical play, playing with objects, pretence and game play. This ‘knowledge’ of the importance of play has gaine…
These are my meeting notes from the NDNA South East regional meeting that I attended on 12th October. They are not official and I won’t have captured everything …but NDNA members can download all the slides and the official notes from the NDNA websi…
Closeted in the home or watched by helicopter parents children lack much of the freedom they had 40 years ago. British children’s play has been transformed in the last 100 years. In the 1960's few children did not spend all their free time outdoors, …
NDNA conference
Last week FSF HQ headed up the M1 to attend the NDNA conference in Milton Keynes. We attended a range of talks in the Leadership stream – here are the headlines we picked out …
You could be forgiven for thinking that outdoor play is a relatively new phenomenon, driven by The National Trust (2016) and their ‘50 Things to do before you’re 11¾’ project. Children and being outside seems to be a recurrent theme in the media a…
How many times have you thought that it would be easy to use Development Matters as a 'tick list'? Which managers have had heated meetings with staff who say that 'ticking off' aspects makes it so much easier to plan next steps? I know that here at…
