I've Moved!Hi, this is John and I am excited to tell you that Topics in Early Childhood Education is now hosted on Wordpress. Just click here! Please change your bookmarks so you can keep up with my latest art projects!…
I've Moved!
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I've Moved!
Review of 2012
Review of 2012If it’s nearly Christmas, it must be time for the annual round-up of major developments and new research published in the children’s sector during the last year. After all, you might have missed some of these the first time round…The one thing that all practitioners and students can’t have missed wa…
#EYTalking
#EYTalkingSince I joined Twitter I've found it an invaluable way of getting in touch with early years practitioners and for staying up-to-date with breaking news stories and new pieces of research that relate to the sector. So if you're on Twitter and want to engage with other childcare people, you may be int…
Social Welfare Portal
Social Welfare PortalThe British Library has just launched its Social Welfare Portal, which aims to provide quick and easy access to high quality research and publications. The portal offers information on all aspects of social welfare in the UK and overseas, often with full-text access to reports, and you can also sign…
European Education Systems
European Education SystemsA lot of students ask for information about childcare / education in other countries, so today's featured link should be useful to some site users - it's simply a brief leaflet with easy-to-understand diagrams of the education systems in each of the EU member states, very handy if you want a quick g…
Early Years Foundation Stage Profile Handbook
Early Years Foundation Stage Profile HandbookSome important documents have just appeared on the Department of Education website, and if you have any involvement with the Early Years Foundation Stage then you should probably take a look.First of all there's the new EYFS Profile Handbook, which replaces the previous 2008 version. The Handbook is…
Ofsted Annual Report 2011/12
Ofsted Annual Report 2011/12Ofsted has just published its latest annual report, the first since Michael Wilshaw was appointed as Chief Inspector. The report looks at all aspects of the education and children's sectors, though has so far made headlines for its claim that there are large differences between the quality of school…
New Research
New ResearchA quick round-up of various new reports:The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: a Study of Legal Implementation in 12 Countries is a new publication from UNICEF which examines how the UK compares to other countries in providing for children's rights at national level.First Steps is a report fr…
Anti-Bullying Week
Anti-Bullying Week19 - 23 November is Anti-Bullying Week, an annual event established in 2006 by the Anti-Bullying Alliance. The theme for this year's Week is We're Better without Bullying, with a focus on how bullying can impact on achievement at school. Already a piece of research commissioned for the event has mad…
Men In Childcare
Men In ChildcareOne of the most common enquiries I've had in recent years is for information on men working in childcare, so a new publication from the London Early Years Foundation is very timely. The report is entitled Men Working in Childcare: Does it Matter to Children? What do they Say? and takes a detailed lo…
Decoding Learning
Decoding LearningA new report claims that expensive technology in schools often goes to waste because teachers have not been trained to use it. The report, entitled Decoding Learning: The Proof, Promise and Potential of Digital Education, also examined good practice around the globe in exploiting both hardware and s…
EYES Search
EYES SearchPossibly as a result of a mention in this article on Kathy Brodie's website - thanks Kathy! - more people have recently begun to use the EYES search box on the right-hand side of this site. I've no way of checking who you are or whether you're finding it useful (unless you get in touch to let me kno…
Evaluating Wikipedia
Evaluating WikipediaA slightly controversial subject today with regards to students... Back in the summer I presented a paper which argued that Wikipedia could, within limits, be a better source of information than its reputation suggests - most lecturers are reluctant to accept student work which cites Wikipedia for a…
The Safety and Security of Consistency
The Safety and Security of ConsistencyI was working with one of my student teachers recently and she expressed to me her exasperation with her cooperating site teacher. They currently have a child who is in foster care in their class. The little first grader has learned how to manipulate situations and refuses to cooperate with classr…
Bernard van Leer Foundation
Bernard van Leer FoundationThe Bernard van Leer Foundation is an international organisation with a mission to "improve opportunities for children up to age 8 who are growing up in socially and economically difficult circumstances." While I've previously linked to the occasional report on their site, I thought that as it's a s…
Counting the Costs of Childcare
Counting the Costs of ChildcareThe affordability of childcare has been a hot political topic in recent years and now a new report is adding to the debate by claiming that the high cost of childcare means that it is often not worthwhile for a family's second earner to work at all. The report is entitled Counting the Costs of Child…
Social and Emotional Wellbeing
Social and Emotional WellbeingThe National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has just published a guidance document entitled Social and Emotional Wellbeing: Early Years. The document describes itself as "for all those responsible for ensuring the social and emotional wellbeing of children aged under 5 years", a…
Children & Media
Children & MediaOfcom has just published Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes, which examines how young people interact with different media types, such as television, the internet and smartphones. The report is wide ranging, examining the habits of children aged 3 right up to 15, and also how parental att…
International Education
International EducationIf you're looking for information on education in other countries, a really good starting point is the International Education Libguide from the IOE. The site serves as a gateway with links to useful education websites all around the world, and while some of the content is specific to users of the I…
Child Protection in Birmingham
Child Protection in BirminghamBirmingham City Council is unfortunately in the headlines for the wrong reasons after a recent surprise Ofsted inspection judged their child protection procedures as "inadequate". You can read the full inspection report by clicking here. …
Double Dutch
Double DutchToday the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has published Double Dutch: The Case Against Deregulation & Demand-Led Funding in Childcare. This paper is partly a response to Affordable Quality: New Approaches to Childcare which was published in May and argued that the childcare structure use…
Research for Teachers
Research for TeachersOne for the PGCE students today... Back when the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE) was still around, they published a series of research summaries entitled Research for Teachers. Each summary was around 20 pages long, and approximately 60 were published in total - the idea behind them was …
Helping Children Bloom
Helping Children BloomWe are getting ready to say goodbye to our flowers for the season. In our area, flowers disappear with the first frost. Although a little early, we lost a few vines this past week, but we are still enjoying the flowers. However, I understand that we must enjoy them today because they will be gone…
Education on the Web
Education on the WebI normally try very hard to stay impartial when posting information here, by just describing what an item is and posting a link to it, and then leaving it to the reader to decide whether or not it's useful or accurate in what it says. That said, today's post deals with a new publication which I real…
Suggested Reading for Students (again)
Suggested Reading for Students (again)It's the first week of teaching, which explains why there's currently a daily stream of students in our office asking what Early Years books they should be looking at! So here's a reposting of a blog post which I originally wrote in June (with hindsight, the timing could have been better...):A regul…
The Cost of A Child in the Twenty-First Century
The Cost of A Child in the Twenty-First CenturyI'm about a month behind with today's post, but better late than never... The Child Poverty Action Group recently published The Cost of a Child in the Twenty-First Century, a report which examines "how much it costs to provide children with a minimum level of participation in society", by studying i…
New from DfE
New from DfEThe Department for Education has just released its latest batch of research reports, and this month there are quite a few! If you're a glutton for punishment then you can read all of the latest reports by clicking here, but what I've tried to do is provide links to the ones which are particularly re…
Outdoor Play & Learning
Outdoor Play & LearningToday the National Trust is holding an event entitled the Natural Childhood Summit and has marked the occasion by releasing a new booklet called Reconnecting Children with Nature, which summarises the findings of the Natural Childhood report which was published earlier this year. This seems to be a …
Literacy in the Sand Table
Literacy in the Sand TableI had the opportunity to present a workshop at the North Carolina AEYC Conference this past week. It was a joy to meet with wonderful early childhood teachers in North Carolina. I always love visiting that beautiful state. No matter where I visit in the United States, there are early childhood t…
Open Access Research for Childhood / Education
Open Access Research for Childhood / EducationAlmost all of the posts on this site link to free resources (usually research reports or similar) which those with an interest in childhood & education will hopefully find useful. However, it still remains the case that much high quality peer-reviewed research is inaccessible to many - you either ne…
Education At A Glance 2012
Education At A Glance 2012Today sees the publication of the OECD's annual Education At A Glance report. This is a huge document, comparing a mass of information on education provision in dozens of different countries, from preschool right up to University level.The full report can be downloaded here, though you'd be forgiven…
Children's Reading Today
Children's Reading TodayThe National Literacy Trust has just published the findings from it's latest annual survey. The report explores children's attitudes towards reading, what they read, the different media they read on and the amount of time they spend reading, while issues such as gender and ethnicity are also consi…
It Shouldn't Happen Here
It Shouldn't Happen HereSave the Children has just published a new report entitled Child Poverty in 2012: It Shouldn’t Happen Here, to mark their first ever fundraising drive aimed at helping children in poverty in the UK. While it's a relatively short document, the report does contain some interesting figures showing the …
Support Materials for the New EYFS
Support Materials for the New EYFSThis week sees the new Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) come into effect across the children's sector. I've covered this topic before on the blog, so here's a quick list of need-to-know material relating to the new regulations: The central document is the Statutory Framework for the Early Years F…
And School Begins...
And School Begins...It is that season again when most school systems begin a new academic year. We started classes at the university last Monday, but most of the public school districts in our area begin in the next few days. I took the opportunity last week to visit my student teaching candidates as they were helpin…
Summon
SummonJust a quick notice for UCB students: the Summon search service will be undergoing essential maintenance over the next few days. We will attempt to keep disruption to a minimum, but it is possible that access to some resources may be affected during this time. You will still be able to gain full …
The Education Debates
The Education DebatesRequired listening over the next couple of weeks: John Humphrys is presenting a 3 part series on Radio 4 entitled The Education Debates, in which he interviews leading educational thinkers on what we should be teaching in the 21st Century, and how we should be teaching it. The programmes are broadca…
Charley Junior's School Days
Charley Junior's School DaysJust a little something to keep site users going over the summer (there doesn't seem to be a lot of news at the moment!)... The film below is entitled Charley Junior's School Days, and is a 1949 public information film. A voiceover explains the school system to a young child, although parents would …
The Role of PCT Therapy in Bodybuilding
The Role of PCT Therapy in BodybuildingFor practitioners and athletic fitness, increase muscle mass and strength quickly is one of the most desirable state. The various elements it needs to exist at the same time to get maximum muscle growth. When anabolic androgenic steroid users complete the cycle, the natural production of hormones, e…
Literacy / Language
Literacy / LanguageFirst post in nearly a month! Well it is the summer...The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment in Ireland (a rough equivalent of our DfE) has recently published two reports which site users may find useful. The reports are entitled Literacy in Early Childhood and Primary Education (3-8 yea…
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