Last week’s Coffee Break highlighted podcasts as a useful way to keep yourself up to date with the latest news, theories and discussions in education. This week it is the turn of the article or blog post as a way to get your CPD fix without feeling overwhelmed.

Just like a podcast, an article is a way to connect you with new ideas. They can reinvigorate your practice, encourage you to explore with links to websites and books for further reading, or help you to reflect on what is already good in your provision, and what could be improved.

With a podcast you can multitask – listen and do! But with an article you have to sit for a moment and give it your full attention. This has its advantages, so make sure you give yourself that time every so often if you can.

Here on the FSF we have lots of articles to support your teaching and learning. Some inform you about the latest research, such as this one by Dr Lala Manners looking at children’s physical development and the links to their essential body systems, or this one by Dr Rebecca Webb and Kathy Foster about reflective practice. Others invite you to look more closely at aspects of your own practice, such as the article by Dr Stella Louis and Hannah Betteridge on unconscious biases, or Liz Pemberton’s article on how to talk about race with young children, or Leslie Patterson’s piece about the language we use with and about children. Then we have some that discuss the latest changes to guidance, like this one by Dr Julian Grenier with a focus on the early years curriculum, and a recent article by Ruth Swailes exploring the possibilities offered by the early years reforms. We also have contributors who share their daily practice with us, like childminder Doreen Barton, or Joss Cambridge-Simmons who tells the story of his journey to becoming a Manny.

At the end of every article there is the opportunity to have a conversation about it in the comments section. Although reading is generally a solitary experience, we can all learn from each other by sharing our thoughts about what we have read. 

There are so many other places you can go to find articles and blog posts that will inspire you. Here are just a few we visit:

Early Education have a blog page full of thought-provoking pieces. PEDAL (the Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development and Learning) has a Hub which gathers together research articles, reports and resources about play. Their ‘Play Pieces’ offer short summaries on relevant research. Julian Grenier’s blog Inside the Secret Garden shares good practice and thoughts on current early years guidance.  The organisation BAMEed Network, which has a mission to create an education sector that is reflective of society, collects together articles to support this aim. TES has an online presence and covers everything from early years to secondary – did you know it began as a pull-out supplement in the Times newspaper in 1910!  And finally, Inclusiveteach.com is a SEND focussed website with loads of articles relating to special education.

We hope you enjoy reading and learning.