Teaching and Learning Toolkit

I'm a little late with today's item, but then it has been a busy few weeks for the early years sector. <i>The Teaching and Learning Toolkit</i> is the result of a collaboration between the <a href="http://www.suttontrust.com/" target="_blank">Sutton Trust</a> and the <a href="http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/" target="_blank">Education Endowment Foundation</a>, and is a really useful document for all teachers, describing itself as "an accessible summary of educational research which provides guidance for teachers and schools on how to use their resources to improve the attainment of disadvantaged pupils."<br /><br />Basically what it does is to examine the effectiveness of 30 different teaching approaches (eg ability grouping, after school programmes, mentoring), using evidence to rate them for cost and the impact that they have on pupils' learning. Future editions of the toolkit are promised, so watch this space...<br /><br />If I've whetted your appetite, then <a href="http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/uploads/toolkit/Teaching_and_Learning_Toolkit_%28Spring_2013%29.pdf" target="_blank">here's the link</a>.

Teaching and Learning Toolkit

I'm a little late with today's item, but then it has been a busy few weeks for the early years sector. The Teaching and Learning Too...

Read more »

Family Matters

Today sees the launch of the <a href="http://www.familyandchildcaretrust.org/" target="_blank">Family and Childcare Trust</a>, a new organisation formed out of the merger of the <a href="http://www.daycaretrust.org.uk/" target="_blank">Daycare Trust</a> and the <a href="http://www.familyandparenting.org/" target="_blank">Family & Parenting Institute</a>. To mark the occasion, the organisation has published <i>Family Matters: Understanding Families in an Age of Austerity</i>. This report tracked the lives of a selection of different families, to investigate the effects of cuts to benefits and services over the course of a year. The research identifies <a href="http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/news/1180071/Financial-pressures-causing-families-feel-strain/" target="_blank">four areas which have been placed under pressure</a> in recent times: the cost of childcare, the cost of living, the cost of running a car and credit.<br /><br />To read the full report, <a href="http://www.familyandparenting.org/Resources/FPI/Documents/Family_Matters_web.pdf" target="_blank">click here</a>.

Family Matters

Today sees the launch of the Family and Childcare Trust , a new organisation formed out of the merger of the Daycare Trust and the Family ...

Read more »

Early Childhood Care & Education - International Resources.

In a similar vein to yesterday's post, this entry is all about international education. The International Bureau of Education has recently released a *fantastic* new publication entitled <i>Early Childhood Care & Education and the Curriculum: a List of Resources</i>. And it does what it says on the tin really - it's just 27 pages of links to important documents relating to early years provision around the world, so whatever country you're interested in, there's almost certainly going to be at least one item here that you can use!<br /><br />The drawback is that some of the linked items are not actually written in English, but there's certainly more than enough included to keep most researchers happy. That's the sales talk over, click on <a href="http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Documentation/Alerts/ECCE2013.pdf" target="_blank">this link</a> to have a look.

Early Childhood Care & Education - International Resources.

In a similar vein to yesterday's post, this entry is all about international education. The International Bureau of Education has recent...

Read more »

Childcare in France

If you've picked up a newspaper or watched the news in the last couple of days, then you're probably aware that the childcare minister Elizabeth Truss has made some <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2312657/A-generation-unruly-toddlers-Childcare-Minister-Elizabeth-Truss-ill-judged-claims-nursery-children-arent-taught-manners.html" target="_blank">comments regarding 'chaotic' British nurseries</a>, and argued that an approach with parallels to the French childcare system would be more beneficial. It's probably safe to say that the reaction from the early years sector in this country <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/22/tory-minister-nursery-education" target="_blank">has been largely negative</a>, but how does childcare in France compare to what's on offer in the UK? I decided to see what I could find out...<br /><br />For a quick, easy summary of the French system, there's an <a href="http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/news/1170249/" target="_blank">excellent <i>Nursery World</i> article</a> from a couple of months back which gives an overview of issues such as ratios, staff qualifications etc. You can also look at the <a href="https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/eurydice/index.php/France:Early_Childhood_Education_and_Care" target="_blank">Eurypedia page</a> relating to early childhood education and care, and the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/edu/EAG2012%20-%20Country%20note%20-%20France%20%28EN%29.pdf" target="_blank">Country Note for France</a> from the most recent OECD <i>Education at a Glance</i> report gives an overview of educational provision there as a whole - most of the material relating to pre-primary education can be found on the first 3 pages. The French childcare model is also the subject of a short <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-22279096" target="_blank">BBC news report today</a>.<br /><br />After that, it quickly became difficult to find useful items which focused specifically on France (though if you can speak French, then <a href="http://media.education.gouv.fr/file/2011/54/5/2011-108-IGEN-IGAENR_215545.pdf" target="_blank">here's the link</a> for what appears to be a detailed overview of the French system), but there are plenty of documents available which compare the early years sector in many countries, with the UK and France among the countries surveyed.<br /><br />What does become clear is that most of the reports available tend to focus on easily comparable statistics such as amount of funding, staff ratios, cost of childcare etc, rather than attempting to describe the quality of the provision on offer. A useful 2010 OECD paper entitled <a href="http://www.oecd.org/els/soc/37864559.pdf" target="_blank"><i>Quality of Childcare and Early Education Services</i></a> perhaps partially explains this by stating that "The quality of formal childcare and early education services is difficult to measure as there is no single indicator which adequately reflects the quality of service environment and the quality of interaction between staff and children."<br /><br />Nevertheless, the 2012 report <a href="http://www.managementthinking.eiu.com/sites/default/files/downloads/Starting%20Well.pdf" target="_blank"><i>Starting Well: Benchmarking Early Education Across the World</i></a> attempts to compile a league table of preschool quality - interestingly, the UK is ranked 3 places ahead of France. It's also worth having a look at <a href="http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/rc8_eng.pdf" target="_blank"><i>The Child Care Transition: A League Table of Early Childhood Education and Care in Economically Advanced Countries</i></a> - this is a UNICEF report from 2008 which rated French provision ahead of what is available in the UK.<br /><br />And a couple of other items to finish - you might want to read <a href="http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/thematic_reports/098EN.pdf" target="_blank"><i>Early Childhood Education and Care in Europe: Tackling Social and Cultural Inequalities</i></a>, which is a 2009 Eurydice report offering detailed information on early years provision in many different countries. Or you could just look at the recent <a href="https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/More%20Great%20Childcare%20v2.pdf" target="_blank"><i>More Great Childcare</i></a> proposal from the government, which mentions 'France' 25 times in just 46 pages. And by the time you've finished that lot, you'll hopefully have made up your mind about the minister's ideas...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHGbfWWcZHWwljBcsKE_ZqOvBkwqzli7KMPV7rx-a0QTGd2uxci9HxqTD4M-Uy5rz82HBV5NsV6Pr6Ezl7A-iA5cDsZSxh0gor_UN-trEYDdTZNn4N_Bn-Qhk1dhKosN1QVLzaJT4o5w/s1600/FrenchChildren.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHGbfWWcZHWwljBcsKE_ZqOvBkwqzli7KMPV7rx-a0QTGd2uxci9HxqTD4M-Uy5rz82HBV5NsV6Pr6Ezl7A-iA5cDsZSxh0gor_UN-trEYDdTZNn4N_Bn-Qhk1dhKosN1QVLzaJT4o5w/s320/FrenchChildren.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />

Childcare in France

If you've picked up a newspaper or watched the news in the last couple of days, then you're probably aware that the childcare minist...

Read more »

VIPER

VIPER (Voice, Inclusion, Participation, Empowerment and Research) is the name of a research project carried out by several children's organisations. VIPER set out to investigate to what extent disabled young people are able to participate in decision-making about how health and social care services that effect them are delivered.<br /><br />You can now read all the outputs from the research on the <a href="http://viper.councilfordisabledchildren.org.uk/home/" target="_blank">VIPER website</a>; these include the findings of an extensive literature review, the results of a survey, and the project's final conclusions.

VIPER

VIPER (Voice, Inclusion, Participation, Empowerment and Research) is the name of a research project carried out by several children's or...

Read more »

How Safe Are Our Children?

Yesterday saw the publication of <i>How Safe Are Our Children?</i>, a new report from the <a href="http://www.nspcc.org.uk/" target="_blank">NSPCC</a> which compiles child protection data across the UK. Many different areas of child safety are tackled, with the key message being that "in some ways today's children are safer from abuse and neglect than those of previous generations but worrying levels of abuse still remain."<br /><br />You can read the full report online by <a href="http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/research/findings/howsafe/how-safe-2013-report_wdf95435.pdf" target="_blank">clicking here</a>. In addition, 19 different indicators were used to compile the report, and you can get more detail on each of them from <a href="http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/research/findings/howsafe/indicators_wda95423.html" target="_blank">this page</a>. For a full list of all previous posts on this site relating to child protection / safeguarding, <a href="http://bcftcschildhoodeducation.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Child%20Protection" target="_blank">click here</a>.

How Safe Are Our Children?

Yesterday saw the publication of How Safe Are Our Children? , a new report from the NSPCC which compiles child protection data across the U...

Read more »

Child Well-Being in Rich Countries

UNICEF are in the headlines today following the publication of their latest 'Report Card' which examines the well-being of children in industrialised countries. The new publication ranks the UK <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/apr/10/children-bleaker-future-coalition-unicef" target="_blank">16th out of 29 developed countries</a> for overall wellbeing, although it also suggests that <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22088267" target="_blank">children's lives have improved</a> since a similar UNICEF report in 2007.<br /><br />If you'd like to read the full report, you can do so by <a href="http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/rc11_eng.pdf" target="_blank">clicking here</a>; a summary version containing the key messages is <a href="http://www.unicef.org.uk/Images/Campaigns/Report%20card%20briefing2b.pdf" target="_blank">also available</a>. For further reading, you may want to look at <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22087974" target="_blank">this opinion article</a> or the <a href="http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/series/16/" target="_blank">full list of previous UNICEF report cards</a>, while only last week the Office of National Statistics published its own short report: <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171766_304416.pdf" target="_blank"><i>Children's Well-Being, 2013</i></a>. Or you could view all previous posts on this site relating to children's well-being by <a href="http://bcftcschildhoodeducation.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/wellbeing" target="_blank">clicking here</a>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjKtSiHRgkgXm5ZnsgslM-YbaUn3CNblAJwSfqVY3qDUrZLx4oc8DI05Cp1gqCaEw7xEmnG1Kx4iWQrdm1WO5N3WoGRvc3DnRskwWQdpVDJtnGZmUaXuW44wDbe7u8EmjZG1oFimKynA/s1600/ChildEating.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjKtSiHRgkgXm5ZnsgslM-YbaUn3CNblAJwSfqVY3qDUrZLx4oc8DI05Cp1gqCaEw7xEmnG1Kx4iWQrdm1WO5N3WoGRvc3DnRskwWQdpVDJtnGZmUaXuW44wDbe7u8EmjZG1oFimKynA/s200/ChildEating.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />

Child Well-Being in Rich Countries

UNICEF are in the headlines today following the publication of their latest 'Report Card' which examines the well-being of children ...

Read more »

Play in the Snow

This is possibly a few days late now that spring seems to be (finally!) on the way, but below is an archive 1945 film produced by Encyclopedia Britannica which provides advice for children on how to play safely in the snow, and also has ideas for fun activities. The film might be almost 70 years old, but the sledging section which begins at 05.37 looks almost identical to the scene in my local park during the first snowfall back in January...<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="252" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/96_Iyl3-krs?list=UUV78nuSmJxTtHaD4wnzPJkA" width="448"></iframe>

Play in the Snow

This is possibly a few days late now that spring seems to be (finally!) on the way, but below is an archive 1945 film produced by Encycloped...

Read more »