early years alliance - Events

Childcare and Education Expo London, 1-2 March

amanda.during — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 14:10:43 +0000

The �� team were pleased to attend the Childcare & Education Expo at Olympia, London, on Friday 1 and Saturday 2 March, where we were happy to once again run the “Joy of Doing” feature area in addition to our own stand.

Catching up with members and interested non-members is always a joy and gives us an opportunity to discuss the things that matter to the people working in settings day-to-day. It’s important not only in our work to support our members, but also in our advocacy work, that we know what truly matters to the sector and the people working in it.

Funding rates, premises costs, the new entitlements and recruitment were issues that keep coming up in every conversation – so we know, when we speak to decision makers, that these are the things that the sector desperately needs better answers to.

And in between important conversations, we also had time for fun interludes through our partnership with TTS. Members collected their potion bottle stoppers that they could then take over to the TTS stand to receive the rest of the potion bottle. The choice of a pink, blue, or green bottle stumped more than one member on the day!

We were also delighted to be asked to host the "Joy of Doing" feature area, where we highlighted the joy that children find in the act of doing, rather than the outcome. And the popularity of the feature area spoke for itself – educators and parents alike wanted more ideas on how to incorporate play into learning. Alison, Heather and Fiona's display of mainly natural materials and demonstrations of how these can spark children's creativity and promote learning led to interesting conversations and observations.

If you weren’t able to attend the show, don’t worry – you’ll have another chance to speak to the �� at the Childcare and Education Expo Midlands on 28 and 29 September. Get the dates in your diary and get your ticket now!

Events

The Joy of Doing

Tanya_temp — Wed, 02 Aug 2023 09:57:55 +0000

Rebecca Elsom, Early Years Development Officer at the �� shares more about our area at the recent Childcare & Education Expo North event.

The aim of our ‘Joy of Doing’ feature area at the Childcare & Education Expo North in Bolton was to share the important message that children learn so much when they are able to explore resources in an open-ended way and through the process of ‘doing’ what they personally set out to do. Our focus was on ‘process over product’ – when children can decide how to play, experiment and test out their own ideas, rather than adults having a set end product in mind, that can often add unnecessary pressure for children, worrying if they are doing it ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. We wanted to provide attendees with some easy ideas that they could take away and use in their own practise, but also put them in the minds of children when they were taking part in our activities – how did they feel when they were being creative and imaginative? How might children feel when given the same opportunity?

By allowing children to be creative, we are supporting them to express themselves and think of their own ideas. Children’s creativity can often be limited when they take part in activities, often arts and crafts, that have predetermined end products in mind. Those activities where every child creates the exact same card to take home or are asked to do a handprint that is then made into something else by an adult – they have very little opportunities for children to use their own imagination and almost no learning take places, except maybe how to follow an instruction of what to paint or where to stick something!

By providing children with the opportunity to manipulate resources and use materials in whatever way they want, they may not have an end goal about what they are ‘making’, but they are able to focus on what they are doing in the moment. There is no pressure on them to create a beautiful piece of artwork to take home to put on the fridge – often something that families are more keen on having than children are about creating! They may just end up with a big smudge of muddy brown paint on their paper after mixing all of the colours together, but they will have learnt so much along the way that it just wouldn’t matter!

Within our area in Bolton, we showcased activities that promote the learning that can take place through the process of ‘doing’. We used activities such as collaging, mark making, transient art and loose parts play to demonstrate that when children are provided with unrestricted activities and resources, learning will just happen naturally!

Almost everyone found it impossible to pass by our feature area without coming to feel the texture of the soap foam we had on offer to demonstrate how mark making can happen without a pen or pencil in sight and that the flexibility of such material can lead to all sorts of possibilities. We had young children smearing their arms in it to make large marks, the foam was carefully rolled into balls, and it was even questioned what would happen if we did a high five with some foam on our hands – and of course we had to find out!

Our collage activity provided attendees with a range of loose materials and craft items to let their creative juices flow. A small group of attendees used the collage materials to create their very own ‘pictures’ to take home – and of course, they were all different! This sparked a conversation about how all children are different, and that if we as adults use materials in various ways then naturally so would children! A young child accessed the area and asked us “what can I make?” – it just summed up the area entirely when we could reply with “whatever you would like…” They went on to practise their snipping skills by cutting into paper repeatedly and actually sticking tissue paper onto a lollipop stick – something that even we hadn’t thought of, expecting the paper we had provided to be where things got stuck!

The transient art activity was a hit with everyone that accessed it, with one attendee telling us “it helped them ground themselves”. It was a new idea to some attendees, and we shared with them that transient art is a temporary creation made from loose parts where no item is fixed, resulting in endless possibilities for things to be moved around to create something new each and every time. Transient art supports thinking skills, creativity, problem-solving, concentration skills, fine motor skills, awareness of patterns, shapes, colours, and lots more! The main focus is on the skills that are learnt during the process rather than what the end product is.

Lots of photos were taken of the treasure basket and loose parts play area for inspiration. One person told us that they are trying to integrate loose parts play within their setting and that they would use photos of our area and posters as inspiration with colleagues that didn’t yet see the benefit of such play. Conversations throughout the whole weekend ranged from attendees telling us how they integrate similar concepts into their practice already, to those that were new to the ideas completely but could see the benefit and were hoping to do things differently from now on. We even had the pleasure of a group of attendees sharing some recipes with us for sensory activities, so we learnt something new too!

If you were unable to attend Childcare & Education Expo North, you can find us at the next show in London on 1 – 2 March 2024. Join us at stand F44 or drop by the creative area where we’ll be exploring the endless possibilities and benefits to children’s learning through loose parts play. Find out more and book your ticket here.

Events

The Highlights of Childcare & Education Expo North

Tanya.Svilar — Wed, 26 Jul 2023 12:30:30 +0000

Childcare & Education Expo North took place from 30 June – 1 July, bringing together early years professionals, business owners, and industry experts to share knowledge, inspire best practices, and explore the latest innovations in the childcare and education sector. With a mission to empower and elevate the field, the event series aims to foster collaboration and create positive impacts on early childhood development.

Visitors engaged in a seminar and panel discussion programme, covering topics such as understanding children's behaviour, communication, and language needs. Llewella Ivins, Sarah Blackwell, and Alice Sharp delivered inspiring presentations, and an update from Ofsted on the latest inspection publications added valuable insights to the discussions.

The expo was not only an educational platform but also a networking opportunity for participants. Attendees had valuable connections to develop through interactions in the speaker's corner, activities with special guests, and networking with fellow professionals.

Innovative feature areas enriched the expo experience, offering visitors a chance to unwind and engage in creative activities. The �� had a feature area promoting ‘The Joy of Doing’, with a focus on process over product, while Creative Steps and YPO allowed participants to get involved in crafting and designing jellyfish. A mindfulness colouring wall and rock painting area provided a moment of reflection and unleashed boundless creativity among attendees.

From singing and dancing along with special guest Mr. Bloom, to exploring the benefits of outdoor learning with Alfresco Learning, the workshops catered to diverse interests and learning styles. Olivia Corbin-Phillips enchanted the audience with passionate storytelling, while Play Makes Sense emphasised the significance of rhyming in phonics success. In sessions dedicated to well-being, visitors learned practical strategies for maintaining positive mindfulness in themselves and the children they care for.

Childcare & Education Expo Midlands 2023

For those who couldn't attend, the organisers have announced that the next show, Childcare & Education Expo Midlands, is taking place at CBS Arena 22 – 23 September 2023. Registration for the upcoming event is open, offering another opportunity for professionals in the sector to engage and enrich their knowledge and practices. You can register for a free ticket to the event here.

�� Members get 20% off all seminars - log in to the Members' Area of the My EYA portal to find the code.

Events

Screens in the Early Years

Tanya.Svilar — Fri, 12 May 2023 16:01:48 +0000

Recent research from Ofcom (2023) highlighted that children are accessing devices and going online for more time, and from a younger age. They found that 87% of 3–4-year-olds go online (an increase from previous years’ data), with 92% of children in this cohort watching videos on streaming sites such as YouTube. When children go online, they are most likely to be using a tablet (75%), but in this report, parents suggest that 25% of 3–4-year-olds own a mobile phone.

With children accessing online devices earlier, it should be unsurprising that children are now also being exposed to risks from a younger age. Risks such as struggles with emotional regulation, overstimulation, being overweight due to increases in sedentary activity, experiencing bullying, accessing inappropriate content and taking sexual images. With regards to the latter risk, a 2023 report from the Internet Watch Foundation, found that the biggest increase in concern of children being coerced into taking sexual imagery of themselves, is within the 7–10-year-old group, where there had been a 360% increase of such concerns compared to the previous year’s data.

But children in the early years cannot go online without adults facilitating this. Therefore, it is imperative that if we allow children to access devices in our settings, and therefore potentially exposing them to such risks, we take responsibility for understanding this, and putting in place measures that protect children, and promote safe, healthy and fun online activity.

We want early years professionals to be informed and proactive about managing and curating children’s first experiences online, rather than leaving this up to others to do so, or even worse, to chance. But we recognise that navigating and understanding the various apps, games, sites and devices children use, can feel quite overwhelming and intimidating. So, LGfL are offering a workshop for professionals to discuss and learn about the basic principles that will help you to keep children safe when they are using devices in your setting, and also beyond.

LGfL - The National Grid for Learning is a charitable trust that is passionate about saving schools money, keeping children safe, tackling inequality, energising teaching and learning and promoting wellbeing. Its mission is the advancement of education. It does not profit from schools and reinvests any profits it makes into education.

This article was written by Alex Dave, safeguarding education officer at the London Grid for Learning Trust’s (LGfL) DigiSafe team.

We hosted a free webinar with LGfL on Screens in the Early Years on Wednesday 28 June 2023.

In the session, Alex Dave and Mark Bentley from LGfL charitable trust explore the steps early years professionals can take to protect children from potential risks and promote safe, healthy and fun online activity.

The full webinar is available to watch below.

Events

Empowering families to support children’s learning at home

rachel.lawler — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 10:06:12 +0000

Richard Knight, early years development manager at the ��, shares ideas for inspiring families and support learning at home

Parents and families must be valued, supported and empowered to be engaged in their children’s lifelong learning journey. Using a broad range of approaches to supporting parents at your early years provision can help improve outcome for children and young people.

All families and parents are just as unique as the children we support. The complex differences between each parent and each family means that the pathways to achieving positive relationships should always be seen as a work in progress, rather than a race to the finish line.

How can we differentiate our approach, considering the ways we communicate and create opportunities for all families to be welcomed and listened to?

Reflecting on and evaluating our work can help ensure that our provision is as inclusive as possible and that our work continues to make a difference to the children in our care.

What does ‘empowering families’ mean?
Empowering parents and carers is about improving and strengthening the methods by which educators engage with them. It’s about ensuring that they are at the centre of decision-making processes in their child’s education.

Early years providers should create a culture in which ongoing collaboration with parents is the norm and not the exception. This is crucial to building a system in which parents and carers feel valued, respected and truly empowered.

Parents as partners
Acknowledging and supporting parents and the family in their key role as the primary educators of their children is enshrined in the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).

The framework tells us that key persons must look for ways to engage with and support families and carers in guiding children’s development at home. We know that families and influential adults make a huge difference to children’s outcomes. It is important that educators give priority to working with parents and seek to understand the family’s commitment to their children’s learning and early education.

Working together gives everyone the best understanding of a child’s needs, interests, likes and dislikes. This partnership will lead to better provision within a setting and maximise the potential we as early educators have to influence learning at home.

Parents as educators
Most families arrive at early childhood setting with a bank of observations about their children. They will often know the best ways to support them.

As early years providers, we should be effective at capturing parents’ voices, giving utmost appreciation and respect to the rich knowledge that families have about their children. We should work to weave that into the flow of practice and teaching.

Remember...

Parents, carers and families make a vital difference to children’s learning and development.
Parents/carers are a child’s first and most enduring educators.
Each family is unique.
Consider the best engagement methods to work with families.
Thinking about partnership with parents is a good starting point.
Educators have a responsibility to work with all families.

Events

Best practice

How can we support children’s resilience?

shannon.pite — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 16:00:13 +0000

Tracey Hobbs, early years development manager at the ��, explains why resilience is so important and how early years educators can help children develop this vital skill

Building children’s resilience can help give them the tools they need to navigate stressful situations. When children have the skills and confidence to confront and work through problems, they learn that they have what it takes to tackle difficult issues.

The more they can manage on their own, the more they internalise the message that they are strong and capable.

As we know, all children are different and they develop at their own rate. All children will have different levels of resilience and different ways of responding and recovering from stressful situations.

Children will also have their own ways of showing when the demands put on them are outweighing their ability to cope. Some children will display this by becoming emotional, others will withdraw or become defiant, and restless.

Even the most resilient of young children will have days when it all becomes too much for them. Children with low resilience are more likely to display certain patterns of behaviour.

A supportive role

Early educators and parents can help children build resilience and confront uncertainty by teaching them to solve problems independently. As an adult, your gut reaction might be to jump in and help so that the child avoids dealing with discomfort. But this can weaken a child’s resilience.

Unfortunately, children need to experience discomfort so that they can learn to work through it and develop their own problem-solving skills. Without this skill set in place, children may experience anxiety and learn to shut down in the face of adversity.

Helping children develop into thriving adults is not about shielding them from adversity. If we could scoop them up and lift them over things that may cause them to stumble, that would be wonderful – but this would not do them justice.

Children need to know how to deal with a little bit of stress. This will help them to develop the skills they need to flourish. Nurturing strategies that will help them cope with adversity will set them up with healthy coping skills for the future.

It isn’t self-reliance, determination or inner strength that leads children through adversity but the reliable presence of supportive relationships with adults. The daily presence of responsive adults can help to reverse the physiological changes activated by stress, which can be damaging for young children.

Resilient children are more likely to take healthy risks because they don’t fear falling short of expectations. They are curious, brave and trusting of their own instincts. They learn to know their limits and push themselves to step outside of their comfort zone. This helps them to reach their long-term goals and helps them solve their problems independently.

Events

Best practice

Supporting children with English as an Additional Language at your setting

rachel.lawler — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 08:56:12 +0000

Sharon Bond, lead early help advisor and Louise Campbell White, early help advisor, at the ��, explain how you can support children and families with EAL in your early years setting

Living as we do in a diverse and multi-cultural society, many early years settings are welcoming families who have English as an additional language. For some providers, this may be a new experience, but for others it will have become routine over many years.

The important thing to remember is that we all do our best to understand how to meet the needs of these families and how best to support them.

A tailored approach
We all know that children are unique – as are their families. A one-size-fits-all approach is not the answer. That said, it is important to have a comprehensive knowledge of strategies and resources which are suitable to deliver a broad, supportive and playful educational programme for your children and families.

Some early years providers may have up to 90% of their cohort with English as an additional language. This could mean that there are many different languages spoken in your setting.

For other providers, there may only be one child for whom English is an additional language during any one session.

Bearing this in mind, how can early years educators ensure that they are providing a communication-rich setting? How can we ensure that every child has an opportunity to share their language? How can we make sure that everyone is able to communicate?

Supporting children and families
It’s important that all children and families are made to feel welcome and not isolated in their communities. Language is a key part of this.

Since 2013, we’ve been working with early year educators in Somerset on supporting children with English as an additional language as part of a commissioned service. We provide training, visits to early years settings and sign-posting as well as partnership working with translation and interpreting services.

The important thing to remember when thinking about how to support a child who has English as an Additional Language, is to first consider their personal, social and emotional aspect of development and wellbeing.

A child needs to feel secure and valued before they can even think about developing their language skills. This is something we as EY Educators can pride ourselves on doing effectively and indeed do every day as part of the care and education we provide to all children.

We should also consider how young children learn English and what early years educators can do to develop this skill. Helping children to develop their communication and language skills is something we do with all children – not just our learners with English as an additional language.

Events

Best practice

Nursery World 2022: Come and visit our Best Practice Clinic

caroline.graham — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 11:31:44 +0000

Picture credit: Cool Milk

Promotion

After two years the Nursery World Show is back — bringing together the early years community under one roof.

With a mix of CPD-certified sessions, free-to-attend workshops, visitor attractions and networking opportunities, it’s the perfect place to rediscover the magic of early years.

Best Practice Clinic

An exciting new visitor area this year is the Best Practice Clinic.

This has been developed in partnership with the �� as a response to the increasing challenges practitioners face in their roles and settings.

Over two days, sector experts will be on hand to provide support and advice on a wide range of issues.

There is no need to book an appointment, practitioners of all levels are welcome to drop-in for answers to any burning early years questions.

CPD-certified seminars

The show has plenty of high-quality CPD.

Friday masterclass — Supporting the communication and language needs of all children

Gain an understanding of the importance of communication and language for children’s holistic development and provide new ideas and approaches for building their skills in this area.

Led by educationalists including Dr Julian Grenier, Kerry Murphy, Penny Tassoni MBE and Anne-Marie Tassoni.

Friday afternoon masterclass — Under 3’s – Supporting Learning

Trainer Alice Sharp explores the rich and meaningful experiences that support the learning and developmental needs of the very young.

Seminars

Join Judith Twani, early years consultant and trainer, who combines theory and practical hands-on experience for two seminars:

Role Play and Small World Play: From the Familiar to Fantasy explores the learning opportunities offered by role play and small world play. Discover how they support many aspects of children’s early development and understanding of their world. Gain a fresh perspective on how to resource and support these forms of play.
Sand and Water Play: Make a Splash — revisit your core provision for sand and water play, indoors and outside, and discover rich and engaging ways to enhance these areas – particularly to maximise learning in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) areas of the curriculum.

NEW for Saturday — The Nursery World Debate: The Power of Play

Chaired by Nursery World editor in chief, Liz Roberts this seminar brings together a range of early years experts including Dr Pete King, Dr Stella Louis and Sarah Watkins to reflect on:

the importance of play
the play cycle
the aspects of early years best practice that we need to value and protect under the revised EYFS to ensure children can enjoy the kind of rich play opportunities that enable them to explore and thrive.

Saturday afternoon — Positive Relationships: The Power of Love

Tamsin Grimmer’s seminar explores how forming deep connections with the children in your care affects their behaviour, leaves them feeling safe, secure and valued and empowers them to learn and achieve.

The show also has an exhibition, where you can discover, compare and source the latest products and attend sessions at the Live Theatre, all for free.

The Nursery World Show takes place on 29 and 30 April 2022 at the Business Design Centre in London.

!! Special Offer - �� members get 10% off CPD seminar bookings using the offer code in the Members' Area in the My EYA portal. !!

Register now

Events

Creating a popular pop-up children's space at events

caroline.graham — Tue, 03 Dec 2019 16:05:50 +0000

Laura Wilkinson from the ��'s Central England Service Hub shares a story of providing a successful pop-up children's space at the 10th Annual Breastfeeding Festival at Milton Keynes.

In the summer the Breastfeeding Festival approached a children's centre in Milton Keynes to run a children's space for them at their annual festival.

The children's centre felt it wasn’t something they could provide but instead recommended they try us, the ��'s MK Crèche Service. The children's centre knew about us because of children's services we run in the area such as the crèche service and the MK: Toy Library.

Creating the perfect space

After meeting someone from the festival, we discussed their requirements and we agreed that we could set up an area for babies, toddlers and older children in a quiet corner of the festival.

At first when we spoke to the festival organisers we offered them various MK Toy Library packages but borrowing toys and soft play equipment wasn’t enough because the festival still needed people to staff it and they didn’t have anyone to staff it.

So we came up with a bespoke package where we offered the toys, soft play equipment and two people to staff it the whole day from 8am til 5pm.

So on 13 and 14 September MK Crèche Service with the support of MK:Toy Library attended the 10th Annual Breastfeeding Festival at Milton Keynes University Hospital Academic Centre.

By having us there it meant the equipment was regularly wiped down and cleaned throughout the day as the festival were worried about food contamination.

We had to adapt the space as it was quite small and we had more children than expected so we had to adapt it again as we went along as we didn’t really know what to expect in terms of numbers.

In the end we had just over 30 families using our soft play area during the two-day event.

Benefiting parents and children

Having us there meant parents who did not want to or who were not able to go upstairs to the conference itself, could watch the events on the live screen while their children played.

The festival wanted to provide parents with a space to feed their babies or just be with their children, to let the children have room to run around while still remaining part of the event and being able to watch the speakers’ presentations live on TV screens.

Parents would have been welcome in the auditorium of course with their children, but the soft play area was there in case they felt self-conscious being in the auditorium with babies or children who needed to run around.

The auditorium was a more formal environment but by having the soft play space it meant parents could watch while their babies could crawl around and play and older pre-schoolers could run around and stretch their legs.

A chance to chat to others

The children had a whale of a time and it was great that the parents could still feel part of the event.

It was really nice to hear the parents talking to each other about the speakers as they gave their presentations.

And you could see that when parents came out of the auditorium and brought the children down to the soft play space the babies could calm down and play and crawl about. A time and space for them to feed.

Although the parents never left their children alone in the soft play space – it wasn’t a crèche — we still played with the children and chatted to parents. It gave us a good opportunity to tell them about the Service Hub and the services we offer such as the toy library.

And it was a great opportunity to meet families from both the local community and from as far as Devon.

It was a really nice event – I feel like we all learned something. It took me and the staff back to our breastfeeding days and we could share our experiences with the parents there. We had a good discussion.

Feedback on both days was extremely positive. One mother who attended the event wrote on her feedback form: “This soft play area should be available at all events — it’s a great idea to have this with the screens so we can hear the speakers too.”

We would like to do it again and will definitely discuss how we could market it for future events.

MK: pop up crèche is an �� childcare service based in Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes.

It offers crèches in the community to children centres and other local business across Milton Keynes. This enables parents and carers to access educational courses either on a long term basis or as a one off crèche.

All crèche supervisors are qualified to an NVQ level 3 in Early Years and Childcare or above and a staff employed has an enhanced DBS disclosure.

For further information or any queries please contact

Laura Wilkinson
tel: 01908 266688 or 07718404592
email:crechemk@eyalliance.org.uk

Or visit the Central England Service Hub website

Events

CBeebies’ star celebrates Childcare Expo Midlands' 10th birthday

caroline.graham — Thu, 05 Sep 2019 11:29:09 +0000

Childcare Expo Midlands returns to Coventry and will put on even more of a show for early years and primary professionals.

To celebrate Childcare Expo’s 10th birthday, CBeebies presenter Sid Sloane will open the show and provide entertainment for visitors.

As one of the original presenters who launched the CBeebies channel in 2002, Sid has considerable experience in children’s entertainment. He recently founded Roots4Kids which empowers children from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Sid also hosts a free workshop on children's mental health on Friday 27 September and will entertain visitors throughout the day.

Two days of information and interaction

Visitors can expect an exhibition of suppliers, new products, interactive activities and a full two days of seminars to inform and inspire.

This year, sessions cover a range of important topics, from preparing for inspections and motivating your team to creating environments for SEND children.

The �� will be exhibiting at stand D44, plus Michael Freeston, the ��'s Director of Quality Improvement will leading a seminar on ‘The future of the Early Years – scrutinising the new Early Learning Goals’

Other highlights

Friday’s highlights include Jennie Johnson MBE, her session Team Motivation and Performance covers ways to minimise time spent on administrative tasks to allow more time to focus on needs of children.

Executive Head Teacher, Michele Barrett will introduce Elijah, a child with severe and complex needs, and follow his journey through mainstream nursery and transition to school.

Angela Dyer, Early Years Lead Trainer from Ofsted, will deliver an update on the New Education Inspection Framework for 2019.

Saturday highlights include Vanessa Dooley, who asks, Are you ready for your inspection? She will share advice on showing IMPACT and consistency in practice to support your Ofsted inspection.

In Top Tips for Talking, speech therapist Deborah Powers explores practical strategies for use in developing children’s communication skills.

Key information

Childcare Expo takes place on 27 and 28 September at Ricoh Arena Coventry.

It is free to register.

CPD seminars are only £12.50 + VAT if booked in advance.

Find out more information

Events