Early Years

Friday

9th Dec 2022

Early years reform: where are we now?
Many in the early years sector were unhappy with the changes in 2021 but a year or so on and desire, and energy for change, are in the air, writes Julian Grenier
garden play

Friday

18th Nov 2022

What Ofsted gets wrong about executive function
Knowing what executive functions are (and are not) is helpful, but this bit of psychology doesn’t explain how teachers should teach, warns Megan Dixon
Gaming

Sunday

13th Nov 2022

Early years: How to build foundations of science
Young children are naturally curious about the world around them, but to build scientific knowledge we need to go beyond creating opportunities to explore, says Julian Grenier
Chemistry

Friday

21st Oct 2022

Summer-born children: how to assess their development in EYFS
Summer-born children arrive at school with a disadvantage – but how can teachers tell if a struggle is due to maturity, or if something else is going on? Helen Pinnington shares her advice
Ice cream

Friday

14th Oct 2022

How to make EYFS assessment more inclusive
When developing their own assessment approaches, EYFS settings must ensure they are inclusive, responsive and adaptable, says Stephen Kilgour
jigsaw

Friday

23rd Sep 2022

Why we need a mongrel curriculum in EYFS
In the early years, curriculum shouldn’t be either play-based or adult-led, but a mixture of both, writes Julian Grenier
Mixture

Saturday

10th Sep 2022

The best (and worst) bits of planning a school trip
Rising costs are making school trips more difficult, and money’s not the only barrier, says Helen Pinnington, who shares her advice on how to find the ‘magic’ in planning a trip
The best (and worst) bits of planning a school trip

Tuesday

16th Aug 2022

How to develop number sense
In EYFS children need lots of opportunities to explore and play with numbers in order to develop number sense - here one early years lead shares the activities she uses
Playing blocks

Thursday

28th Jul 2022

What every teacher can learn from prehistoric school
Looking at the way children learned thousands of years ago may be the key to encouraging today’s EYFS pupils to drive innovation and fight the climate crisis in their later lives, says Paul Howard-Jones
Dig

Monday

25th Jul 2022

Why it’s time to drop cursive writing 
As long as children write in a legible way, is it really necessary to teach them to write in cursive? Definitely not, argues trainee teacher Aimee Robinson
Why it’s time to drop cursive writing

Friday

22nd Jul 2022

How to support EYFS children to develop story-making
Developing children’s oracy, imagination and sequencing skills is the key to supporting them to become great storytellers, says Jess Gosling
How to support EYFS children to develop story-making

Monday

18th Jul 2022

Five ways to teach foreign languages in key stage 1
It may not be statutory to teach foreign languages in key stage 1 but there are simple things teachers can do to embed language in their classrooms, writes Dr Elizabeth Malone
How to teach foreign languages in KS1