Practical ideas and honest advice for early years practitioners and teachers.
The September update to Keeping Children Safe in Education is never just an admin exercise — and 2024 is no exception. This breakdown cuts through the document to show DSLs and headteachers exactly where the guidance has teeth and what genuinely needs to change in your school.
Many practitioners find that writing a SEND support plan is straightforward enough until they actually sit down to do it — then the blank page has a way of making everything feel uncertain. This guide works through the process in practical terms, grounded in what genuinely helps children rather than what satisfies a checklist.
There's a persistent myth in early years settings that taking children into woodland requires a forest school certificate — and it's keeping perfectly capable practitioners stuck indoors. This article cuts through the confusion between outdoor learning and forest school proper, so you know exactly what you can do today and what genuinely requires a qualification.
Children's repeated, seemingly baffling play behaviours — the endless moving, wrapping, filling, and spinning — are far from random, and understanding why they happen changes how you see everything in the early years setting. This article unpacks what schemas are, where the idea comes from, and how recognising them lets you plan provision that actually meets children where they are.
Your policies pack isn't just a box-ticking exercise — it's Ofsted's clearest window into how you actually run your setting. This guide cuts through the confusion to show you what genuinely needs to be in it, and how to write it in your own words rather than hiding behind someone else's template.
End-of-term reports for young children sit at an uncomfortable crossroads: too vague and parents learn nothing, too formal and you lose the warmth that defines early years practice. A practitioner with years of nursery and reception experience shares what she's learned — including the mistakes that took embarrassingly long to fix.