National Adoption Week

Today is the first day of <a href="http://www.nationaladoptionweek.org.uk/" target="_blank">National Adoption Week</a>, 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 <a href="http://www.baaf.org.uk/" target="_blank">British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF)</a>, who provide guidance and support for all aspects of adoption, and their website is a fantastic source of information, containing news, free reports, statistics and more.<br /><br />Site users with an interest in adoption may also want to look at the <a href="http://baafadoption.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">BAAF blog</a> or their <a href="http://www.baaf.org.uk/res/links" target="_blank">links page</a> for details of other organisations that work in this area. The <a href="http://www.adoptionresearchinitiative.org.uk/" target="_blank">Adoption Research Initiative</a> and <a href="http://www.tactcare.org.uk/" target="_blank">TACT</a> websites are also well worth a visit.<br /><br />If you know of another particularly useful adoption resource, feel free to share it by leaving a comment below.

National Adoption Week

Today is the first day of National Adoption Week , which has been an annual event since 1997 and aims to raise the profile of adoption servi...

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Nutbrown Review of Early Education and Childcare Qualifications

Today sees the launch of the Department of Education's <a href="http://www.education.gov.uk/nutbrownreview" target="_blank">independent review of early education and childcare qualifications</a>. 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 years. Parents, employers and early years workers are invited to submit evidence and their views on how qualifications should be developed in the future.<br /><br />You can read more about the review in <a href="http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/news/1101262/Government-launches-Professor-Cathy-Nutbrown-review-early-education-childcare-qualifications/" target="_blank">this <span style="font-style: italic;">Nursery World</span> article</a>; evidence can be submitted until 23 December.

Nutbrown Review of Early Education and Childcare Qualifications

Today sees the launch of the Department of Education's independent review of early education and childcare qualifications . The review i...

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Foundation Years

The <a href="http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/" target="_blank">Foundation Years</a> 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 publications, links and themed areas. It's well worth bookmarking the site and checking it on a regular basis.

Foundation Years

The Foundation Years website has existed for a while for use by parents, but has now been revamped to offer plenty of information for profe...

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Where Now for UK Parenting?

Today sees the beginning of <a href="http://parentsweek.org.uk/" target="_blank">Parents Week</a>, an annual event run by the <a href="http://www.familyandparenting.org/" target="_blank">Family & Parenting Institute</a>. 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 <a href="http://www.familyandparenting.org/Parenting" target="_blank">this link</a>.

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 h...

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CORE

Not a post about a specific childcare resource today, but rather one about a general research tool which the site's users may find helpful...<br /><br />In recent years, many Universities have begun to set up Open Access research repositories, where various academic papers, conference presentations, journal articles and more produced by the academics at these institutions can be found. Access to these collections is generally free, but finding the material relies on the user knowing where the item they want is held.<br /><br />Now a new service called <a href="http://core.kmi.open.ac.uk/search" target="_blank">CORE</a> aims to improve the visibility of these items by allowing users to search across 142 Open Access research repositories simultaneously. Once you've carried out your search, all of your results also have information about the authors, date, peer review etc of each item, so you know exactly what it is you're looking at, as well as a link to the full text.<br /><br />I've carried out a few searches around various childcare / education topics, and was impressed with the range of material that's available out there. So it might be worth bookmarking this site in addition to the other places that you usually look for research information.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH-OVvA3K6BcfNkanOl8Ihz2XhsKaESKRpawt_Pjg1TGUV7eGmPF0BKJzr8FH6WKGU0dqXEmpN8MHip68EbASbE4kbnssJPU5p493iBaEfY0J4JLjaLnTGMkHq0T3bBnbfEzu3vmukfQ/s1600/ResearchPic.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5662580172875042098" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH-OVvA3K6BcfNkanOl8Ihz2XhsKaESKRpawt_Pjg1TGUV7eGmPF0BKJzr8FH6WKGU0dqXEmpN8MHip68EbASbE4kbnssJPU5p493iBaEfY0J4JLjaLnTGMkHq0T3bBnbfEzu3vmukfQ/s200/ResearchPic.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 156px;" /></a>

CORE

Not a post about a specific childcare resource today, but rather one about a general research tool which the site's users may find helpf...

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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 using the CCSS lesson plan format to teach reading.  I have been impressed with how successful their lessons have been when incorporating the two different types of texts.  My understanding is that one of the reasons the CCSS include both types of texts in every lesson is that students graduating from high school had much weaker comprehension skills when using non-fiction texts than they did for fiction material.  The emphasis is to teach children how to use different strategies for different purposes.  It is appropriate that it would begin in kindergarten where comprehension strategies are being established.  I have been challenging every early childhood teacher to choose a fiction and a non-fiction text, read both to their group and then discuss the differences in the text and the format of the books.

Following up with my last blog post about the Common Core State Standards I have been interested in how the new standards constantly stress ...

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Routledge Education Class of 2011

It'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. Many of the titles are not usually available through the resources available to UCB students.<br /><br />To take a look for yourself, <a href="http://www.educationarena.com/journalPromotions/mostDownloaded/classof2011/" target="_blank">click here</a>.

Routledge Education Class of 2011

It's special offer time again... Publishers Routledge are offering free full access to the most downloaded articles of the last year fro...

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New from the Department of Education

A 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:<br /><ul><li>The <a href="https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/OSR17-2011-Main%20report.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="font-style: italic;">Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey 2010</span></a> gives a very detailed overview of provision of these services in England. A summary of the main findings can be <a href="http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/news/rss/1096346/OVERVIEW-Childcare-Early-Years-Providers-Survey-2010/" target="_blank">found here</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/Childhood%20bereavement%20literature%20review.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="font-style: italic;">Childhood Bereavement: A Rapid Literature Review</span></a> is a useful introduction to the issues surrounding children's grief.</li><li><a href="https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DFE-RR156.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="font-style: italic;">Review of Best Practice in Parental Engagement</span></a> examines the effectiveness of interventions aimed at supporting and improving parental engagement in the education of children aged 5-19.</li><li><a href="https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DFE-RR151.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="font-style: italic;">A Profile of Teachers in England from the 2010 School Workforce Census</span></a> contains information on the teacher workforce, covering topics such as pay, ethnicity, gender, performance, qualifications and much more.</li></ul>A full list of the Department of Education's publications is <a href="https://www.education.gov.uk/publications" target="_blank">available here</a>.

New from the Department of Education

A 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...

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