Review of 2011So what were the most important developments and reports in the childcare / education sectors in 2011? If you missed any, read on to find out...Probably the most significant event of the year was the publication in March of the Tickell Review of the Early Years Foundation Stage, which has implicatio…
An Introduction to Child Protection Legislation in the UKI'm a couple of months behind with this one, but better late than never... In October the NSPCC published An Introduction to Child Protection Legislation in the UK. This is a 13 page guide to all of the major parliamentary Acts covering child protection, providing brief, simple overviews of each one…
On Your MarksThe Resolution Foundation has just published a new report entitled On Your Marks: Measuring the School Readiness of Children in Low-to-Middle Income Families. The rationale for this research is explained in this article by one of the Foundation's directors. To view the full report, click here.…
Children's Centres & Needy FamiliesThe NFER has just published Targeting Children's Centre Services on the Most Needy Families. This report explains how local authority and children’s centre staff are defining, identifying and prioritising families in greatest need of support, and the practical implications of targeting for local aut…
State of Children’s Rights in England 2011Today the Children's Rights Alliance for England has published its annual State of Children’s Rights in England report. This year's edition marks the 20th anniversary of the UK ratifying the UN Conention on the Rights of the Child, and reviews how the government has performed in terms of acting on U…
The Modern British FamilyThe Centre for the Modern Family is a new think tank which aims to investigate what constitutes a 'family' in Britain today. Today sees the publication of its first report Family: Helping to Understand the Modern British Family, which concludes that the traditional idea of 'married with 2.4 children…
RedesignRegular visitors will have noticed a different look to the site in recent days - I've made some changes to colour schemes, fonts and chosen a new background image more in keeping with the site's subject matter, but all of the content and archives are unchanged. Also, if you're visiting these pages u…
OnTheWebAfter a gap of a few months, there's a welcome return for OnTheWeb service from the NFER. This is a monthly newsletter which rounds up details of new reports from the educational sector and provides links to the full text of items - well worth checking on a regular basis! The latest issue is availab…
Joyful ReadingReading has been on my mind a lot lately. I was searching through research on how children learn to read and the best methods for teaching reading. We know that the best methods don't work with every child and that some questionable methods seem to work with some children. I was challenging my re…
Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2011The 2011 edition of Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion has just been published. This is an annual report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which uses official government data to examine in detail issues such as low income, poor education and community problems. Regular readers of this site w…
The Parent TrapYesterday saw the publication of The Parent Trap: Illustrating the Growing Cost of Childcare. This report from the Social Market Foundation examines the different forms of childcare support which are available, and how the amount that families have to pay for formal childcare is likely to change ove…
Digital Education Resource Archive (DERA)Following several recent requests about obtaining official documents, today's post is a reminder about the Digital Education Resource Archive (DERA). This site is hosted by the Institute of Education at the University of London, and offers free access to governmental reports. As a lot of government …
Ofsted Annual ReportThe latest Ofsted annual report has been published today, and contains information on schools, children's centres, teacher education and more. Press reaction to the report has been mixed; the BBC highlights some points about coasting schools, while Children & Young People Now has chosen to focus on …
Children Who are Read To Just Know More!We were discussing in our reading class this week how research indicates that children who are read to on a regular basis simply know more when they get to school. Besides preparing the child to be a reader, being read to increases vocabulary and allows for more discussion and conversation. Combine…
Sowing The SeedsReaders with an interest in outdoor learning may want to take notice of a new publication from Tim Gill. The report, entitled Sowing the Seeds, examines the amount of opportunities that children from London have to spend time in natural green spaces, and argues that regular exposure to such environm…
Safeguarding Children Across ServicesSafeguarding Children Across Services: Messages from Research is a recent publication from the Department of Education. The report provides an overview of 15 separate studies carried out within England, and is aimed at professionals who engage with child protection in their everyday work.…
Anti-Bullying WeekToday is the beginning of Anti-Bullying Week, an annual event supported by various charities and other organisations to raise awareness of the problems that bullying can cause. So it's with good timing that the NFER has just published Sticks and Stones May Break my Bones but Being Left on my Own is …
Missing OutToday the Children's Society has published Missing Out: a Child Centred Analysis of Material Deprivation and Subjective Well-Being. This is a study of what items and experiences children themselves think are necessary for a ‘normal kind of life’, whether lacking these items and experiences is relate…
Investing in High-Quality Early Childhood Education and CareThe OECD has just published Investing in High-Quality Early Childhood Education and Care. This is a briefing document which outlines the benefits of quality provision in the early years, and provides some comparisons between different social groups and countries.…
Apps for ChildrenToday's post isn't really about new research, but there's an interesting article on the Guardian website which talks about the growing market for iPad and mobile apps which are aimed at children. Most of the high profile apps to date contain a mixture of fun and educational content - speaking as som…
Does When You Are Born Matter?The issue of summer-born children is in the news again, with new research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) which claims that children born in the summer in England are at an academic disadvantage throughout school. By contrast, babies born in September are more than three times less likel…
It's All BonesI was helping in my grandchildren's classrooms recently and was struck by the thought of how easily children will take control of their learning if given a chance. One of the components of the HighScope curriculum, which I think is the most child-friendly approach to early learning, gives the child…
National Adoption WeekToday is the first day of National Adoption Week, which has been an annual event since 1997 and aims to raise the profile of adoption services throughout the UK. The Week is co-ordinated by the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), who provide guidance and support for all aspects of…
Nutbrown Review of Early Education and Childcare QualificationsToday sees the launch of the Department of Education's independent review of early education and childcare qualifications. The review is being led by Cathy Nutbrown, a professor of education at the University of Sheffield, and will be examining qualifications and career pathways in the foundation ye…
Foundation YearsThe Foundation Years website has existed for a while for use by parents, but has now been revamped to offer plenty of information for professionals who work with children from pregnancy to age 5. The site will continue to evolve over the coming months, but already contains news stories, useful publi…
Where Now for UK Parenting?Today sees the beginning of Parents Week, an annual event run by the Family & Parenting Institute. To mark the occasion, the charity has invited 30 leading commentators and academics to examine parenting from a range of perspectives, and you can read their thoughts and contributions by clicking this…
CORENot a post about a specific childcare resource today, but rather one about a general research tool which the site's users may find helpful...In recent years, many Universities have begun to set up Open Access research repositories, where various academic papers, conference presentations, journal art…
Following up with my last blog post about the Common Core State Standards I have been interested in how the new standards constantly stress using a piece of literature and a piece of informational text when teaching each reading lesson. I have challenged my student teachers to do this as they are u…
Routledge Education Class of 2011It's special offer time again... Publishers Routledge are offering free full access to the most downloaded articles of the last year from their collection of education journals. The articles are divided into 10 categories to help you navigate them quickly, and approximately 150 articles are included…
New from the Department of EducationA new batch of reports have just been released by the Department of Education. There are too many to list all of them here, but here's a pick of the titles that this site's users might find most relevant:The Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey 2010 gives a very detailed overview of provision …
Key Stage One StatisticsThe Department of Education have just released the latest set of statistics on pupils achievement in Key Stage One assessments. The figures measure children's progress in reading, writing, speaking and listening, mathematics and science, and provide a detailed breakdown of the results by areas such …
Common Core Standards and Early ChildhoodI was sitting in a meeting recently with a group educators and we were talking about the impact of the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) on early childhood. I mentioned that I had spent the summer on a state committee looking at our preschool language arts standards and making sure they are pr…
Child Abuse and Neglect in the UK TodayThe NSPCC has just published a major new study into the prevalence of child abuse and neglect. The new report is the result of over 6000 interviews with a random sample of parents and young people, and follows on from another major study which the charity published in 2000.The full text of Child Abu…
School RulesA few slow news days so here's another retro educational film from the archives. This one is from 1953 and is entitled School Rules: How They Help Us. As you might expect, the 10 minute clip explains the importance of obeying rules to children, and especially takes time to explain why exceptions can…
Education At A Glance 2011One for the number crunchers today - the OECD has just published Education At A Glance 2011, its annual report comparing a mass of information on education in 34 different countries, from school right up to University level. A handy summary of much of the data is available from this link.For further…
Children's Well-Being in the UK, Spain and SwedenA major new report from UNICEF has put the the issue of children's wellbeing in the UK under the microscope. It's not the first time that the charity has published research about this topic - in 2007 its report An Overview of Child Well-Being in Rich Countries made headlines for placing the UK at th…
Getting Ready for KindergartenI have spent many years working on helping children be prepared for kindergarten. I have always thought that it was imperative that parents know what truly is important as their child moves into the foundation year of school. When I began teaching kindergarten approximately 25 years ago, many of t…
Effective Relationships with Vulnerable ParentsThe Action for Children charity has published new research which examines how childcare professionals can develop effective relationships with vulnerable parents, and how such relationships can make a difference for children and young people. The report concludes that an assertive approach from prac…
Is it Legal? A Families' Guide to the LawThe Family and Parenting Institute has recently published the 4th edition of its booklet Is It Legal? A Families Guide to the Law. This contains simple advice about some of the questions you may have about children's rights and related issues, and is well worth bookmarking as something you may want …
The Childcare TrapToday the Daycare Trust publishes the results of a survey into childcare costs in the UK. Over 4000 parents were interviewed in spring this year to explore their views on access to childcare and the impact of childcare costs on family incomes and work prospects. Among the findings are that the curre…
Good Practice in Autism EducationFeatures that represent 'good practice' in autism education have been identified in new research published by the Autism Education Trust. The report, which was written by a team from the IOE's Centre for Research in Autism and Education, examined practices in schools which Ofsted had judged to be 'o…
We Need Good People to be TeachersSchool began at the university again last week. It is difficult to believe that another school year has begun. I am teaching an "Introduction to Teaching" course this semester and I have a wonderful group. I am thrilled with the caliber of people who are considering being a teacher. It always re…
Setting the Baseline: Reading ReportYesterday saw the publication of Setting the Baseline, a new publication from the National Literacy Trust which reports on the findings of an online survey conducted with over 18000 8-17 year olds in November and December of last year. The authors regard the results as portraying children as read an…
Men Working in ChildcareA common enquiry I get is for information about men working in childcare. Ironically, this morning's episode of Woman's Hour on Radio 4 had a feature about this topic - click here to listen to the programme (for the next 7 days anyway), the relevant section begins at about 28 minutes.For further inf…
ParentingA lot of debate concerning the UK riots over the past few days has focussed on the ages of those involved, and the fact that many of them appear to be schoolchildren. In particular, there have been plenty of discussion articles on the role of the parents of those involved such as 'Being Liberal is F…
The Hummingbird KnowsI have always been able to attract hummingbirds wherever I have lived. For many years, whether in the country, the suburbs or in the middle of downtown, I have always had at least one hummingbird feeder. While some acquaintances have struggled to attract the little creatures, I have always been able…
Free Play ArticlesYesterday was Playday, an annual event which celebrates the right of children to play, and the role that it has in their development. To mark the day, publishers Routledge are offering free access to a range of journal articles about different aspects of play for the whole of August. If you're consi…
Parenting Matters: Early Years and Social MobilityA new report from the CentreForum think tank contains for promoting important parenting skills, through the use of a 'five a day' approach. Such activities might include regular playing and talking with a child, and ensuring that they are fed nutritious food. The basis for such advice stems from the…
Supporting Families in the Foundation YearsThe Department for Education has recently set out its policy vision regarding the early years sector, in a major document entitled Supporting Families in the Early Years. This new publication combines the government's response to various reviews of recent months, including Frank Field’s poverty revi…
There's More Than One AnswerWhile teaching a creativity workshop recently, the discussion turned to how important divergent thinking is to problem solving skills. Divergent thinking allows children to look at a problem and explore the many ways it can be solved. I dislike scenarios where there is only one answer. I know that 2…
Unsure About Sure StartAnyone with an interest in the children's sector should take the time to listen to the latest episode of the Analysis series on Radio 4, which investigates what the Sure Start programme has achieved for children in the 12 years since it was set up. The programme was initially broadcast last night an…
Bumper Crop of New ResearchThere have been several new reports in recent days which may interest visitors to this site, so without further ado:The Cabinet Office has today published Early Intervention: Smart Investment, Massive Savings. This is a report from Graham Allen MP which calls for more money to be spent improving the…
Sometimes It's Just a SlinkyA group of us were looking at new early childhood product possibilities recently and we saw this large, colorful slinky. Everyone was so excited and thought it was so cool. A product developer said, "Yes, everyone thinks it is great. But what do you do with it?" That became the big question. They ga…
One Million Reasons for ReformSimilar to my last post, todays post also deals with a report looking at the Big Society agenda and children's services. One Million Reasons for Reform: Unleashing the Potential of the Voluntary Sector in Early Years Services has been published by ACEVO, and examines the future role of voluntary ser…
Children and the Big SocietyA recent report from the Respublica thinktank examines the potential impact of the government's Big Society and localism agenda on the lives of children and their families. The publication notes that while progress has been made in family policy during the past two decades, there is a need to protec…
Free Nursery EducationNew figures from the Department of Education show that more than 86 per cent of all three- and four-year-olds who are entitled to free nursery places are taking up the full 15-hour offer. Well, their guardians are taking up the offer on their behalf, but you know what I mean...A detailed breakdown o…
Refugee WeekIt's Refugee Week, which seems a fairly good excuse to look at resources from recent years which examine various aspects of the experiences of refugee and asylum-seeking children in the UK.Several reports have covered the circumstances of children when they first arrive in the country. The Office of…
Childcare for Working ParentsFinding childcare outside of the typical working day is becoming a greater problem for working parents, according to a new report from the Resolution Foundation. At present, many nurseries are open from 8am - 6pm, which creates a problem for parents who work at weekends or during the evenings.The fu…
Spotlight on Kinship CareChildren's charity Buttle UK has just published a report entitled Kinship Care, which investigates how many children are being brought up by relatives other than their mother or father. The research is based on data from the 2001 census, and found that many such arrangements between parents and rela…
Never Give Up!I ran a half-marathon yesterday and was suffering the last few miles. I had purchased running shoes which had been 'fitted by experts' that did not provide the support that I needed to run 13 miles. I broke my foot in a car accident in 1996 and that old injury came back yesterday at about mile 9 bec…
Poor KidsA lot of the chatter on Twitter today among the various children's organisations revolves around Poor Kids, a documentary which was shown last night on BBC1. The film follows different children who live in poverty in different parts of the UK, and they talk to the camera about their experiences of t…
Technology in the Early YearsA new study from the Open University claims that many nursery staff and parents are not allowing preschool children to engage with ICT, believing that "new technologies might damage children's wellbeing, social interaction and learning." However, Dr Rosie Flewitt, the lead researcher for the project…
National Literacy Trust First Annual SurveyThe National Literacy Trust has just released the results of its first annual online survey, which was carried out during November / December of last year with young people aged 8-17. The survey focused on young people’s attitudes towards reading, writing and communication skills as well as technolo…
Early Childhood StandardsI am currently working on a committee for my state to see how closely our preschool standards are aligned in preparing children for the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for kindergarten. It is always delightful to work with a group that is in tune with what is developmentally appropriate for early…
New DfE ResearchThe Department for Education tends to release a batch of research reports at the end of each month, and the latest ones have just been published. There are too many to list all of them here, but some of the new material which seems particularly useful is linked below. Remember that if the prospect o…
Childhood and Education on TwitterI've recently set up a Twitter account, and so to the right hand side of this page you'll now see an area entitled 'Twitter Updates'. This displays recent tweets from my account (UCBChildEd) which will typically contain links to useful articles and other information relating to childcare and educati…
Foster Care FortnightMonday saw the beginning of Foster Care Fortnight, which seems as good an excuse as any to post some resources about fostering, as it's a topic which I sometimes get enquiries about. Foster Care Fortnight is an annual event held by UK charity the Fostering Network, which aims to raise the profile of…
Excellence in EnglishA new report from Ofsted argues that creativity in the classroom allows for better teaching of English. The publication, entitled Excellence in English, examines 12 primary and secondary schools which are rated outstanding in their teaching of English, to explore how their approaches to the subject …
A New BeginningI just watched 23 of my student teachers graduate last week. Now they are actively interviewing for jobs as the local school districts are slowly posting their openings. Five of these soon-to-be new first year teachers already have a job. I was thinking recently about my first year of teaching back …