On New Year’s Eve, like so many other people, I made my resolutions for 2020. I also looked up the meaning of ‘resolution’ in the Cambridge Dictionary and discovered some thought-provoking definitions that wouldn’t seem out of place in an early years setting.

resolution (noun):

1.       An official decision that is made after a group or organisation has voted.

Okay, so a Nursery isn’t exactly the United Nations, but the process of working as a team and deciding things together, making resolutions, whether they are for the whole world or for a group of children, is still an important one.

2.       A promise to yourself to do or to not do something.

This one is more familiar and more personal, but it can have an impact on those around you at work. Making a commitment to yourself can be part of well-being, of reflective practice, of self-awareness.

3.       The act of solving or ending a problem or difficulty.

Let’s be honest, every setting will have problems or difficulties, big or small, that they’d like to put an end to with a wave of a magic wand. Choosing just one to focus on and finding a resolution for it, would be a pretty good achievement for the start of 2020.

4.       Determination

All early years practitioners have a bit of this – a resolve to do the best they can for our youngest children, even when things seem really challenging.

Whether you’re a resolution maker or not, and whatever your hopes are for the coming year, we wish you a Happy New Year from all of us here at the FSF.