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Posted by
Kathy Brodie on January 31, 2016.
It was my great pleasure to attend the Cheshire East Early Years Teacher Network meeting this week. We were welcomed into the New Life Nursery in Congleton to find out all about their Story Café.
Now, I’ve read about story cafés. They are an excellent parent partnership idea, where parents can come along with their children to share a story, in a relaxed, café style environment. Practitioners can support parent’s story telling, give ideas for sharing books at home and share knowledge about language development. Parents can get an insight into nursery life and spend time with their children, other parents and practitioners in an informal way.
There are a mountain of obvious benefits for parents, practitioners, children and the relationships between all of them. However, I had always thought that it sounded difficult to organise and resource, so I was really looking forward to finding out how it was achieved so successfully in Congleton. (more…)
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Posted byKathy Brodie on January 23, 2016.
Keeping up to date with changes in legislation, practice and pedagogy can be a real headache, especially when there is so much information on the internet. I find that subscribing to some key sites (for free) helps to keep me in the know and ensures my practice is current.
Here I’ve listed some of my ‘go-to’ sites, which make getting information much easier and faster. Some of them you can decide how often you’d like emails, so you may only want them once a month or you can choose more often:
- CASPAR NSPCC updates This is an ‘awareness service for practice, policy and research’ with weekly emails. These are particularly good for the latest safeguarding and child protection news, from all parts of the UK. It also includes news for older children, children in care and social services updates
(more…)
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Posted byKathy Brodie on December 18, 2015.
Paul Clarke is both an experienced nursery practitioner and babysitter. In this podcast, he explains his particular interest in promoting sport with the young children in his care, especially football. It is something he is keen to expand on in his local area which is useful as the setting he works at, Woodhouse Day Nursery in Loughborough, is in the countryside with a large garden.
Paul also discusses his different learning experiences and gives some tried and tested advice for other men in childcare.
Please do contact Paul via the nursery if you are interested in developing football or other sports with young children in your care.
Find out more about Woodhouse Day Nursery here
And you can contact Paul for babysitting on his email: baby1204@gmail.com
Enjoy!
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Posted byKathy Brodie on November 27, 2015.
Schematic play is fascinating to watch and can be a very informative way of analysing children’s thinking.
I have written previously about the mixed feelings some practitioners have about schemas – find the blog post here – but schematic play is now identified in the EYFS and can be a powerful learning process for young children. For this reason, I’m going to focus on one very typical type of schematic play – Transporting.
Let’s start a the beginning though. Athey (2007) defines schema as ‘patterns of behaviour and thinking in children that exist underneath the surface feature of various contents, contexts and specific experience’ (page 5).
So when you are looking out for a particular schema, you must observe children’s behaviour and see if that behaviour is repeated in many different areas of play, such as drawings, physical activities, 3D modelling, role play and sand play.
Using the Transporting schema as an example, do you see the children: (more…)
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Posted byKathy Brodie on November 24, 2015.
I am very proud and pleased to present the third in the series of guest blog posts, written by Mrs M, who writes ‘A Slice of Autism’. I am publishing these once a month.
This month Mrs M gives us some very practical ideas for how to support children with autism in the classroom. These do not need massive changes in routine or environment, but simply viewing the school from a child’s perspective. Here is her third blog:
Many children on the spectrum can have huge anxieties about school, and if we think about it it’s no wonder really; the hustle and bustle of the playground, the unwritten rules and complex friendship groups, and the language and sensory demands that bombard our kid’s fragile nervous systems is bound to take its toll. And that’s before we even think about our kids sitting still in a chair and actually ‘learning’ anything formally.
I worked for many years within the Primary Education sector with Autistic children, so I have a good understanding of what daily life for many kids on the spectrum can be like. I also have an 11 year old son who went through Primary school as a very anxious child with High Functioning Autism and sensory issues. He would often cope at school and reflect all his anxiety inwards, only to explode once at home. Until finally during Year 6 it all just became too much and his mental health deteriorated due to prolonged anxiety. He now attends a specialist school in Year 7.
So I kind of feel like I am positioned well to see things from the perspective of both school and home when it comes to school related stress and anxiety. Some parents can feel that their concerns aren’t really taken seriously, and that they can come across as paranoid, overprotective parents as they often see a different child that the one that school sees. And that can cause conflict and tension between home and school which is helpful for no one (especially the child in the middle of it all). And with the new SEN Code of Practice it’s even more important than ever that schools works collaboratively with parents as that will lead to the best outcome for children (more…)
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Posted byKathy Brodie on November 20, 2015.
How many senses do we have?
Five, right? – touch, taste, sight, hearing and smell.
However, if you talk to an occupational therapist, you’ll find at least an extra two – vestibular and proprioception – which are vital that you know about.
The vestibular sense is so named because it is sensed in the ‘vestibulum’ system in the inner ear in the semi-circular canals. These are responsible for balance, and it describes both the sense of balance and spatial orientation. The vestibular system detects movement and changes in the position of the head, for example, when your head is upright or tilted (even with your eyes closed).
Proprioception is defined as the perception of stimuli relating to position, posture, equilibrium, or internal condition. Basically this means knowing where your body is in relation to the external environment, for example, being able to sit in a chair without turning round to look, or walk up stairs.
Proprioception is a dynamic sense, allowing us to continuously adapt to a changing environment and is learned through all our other senses and neuro-developmental exercises, usually whilst we are children.
It is vital to know about these, because without good vestibular and proprioception senses, children would not be able to walk, hop, skip, navigate around a room, catch a ball and definitely not be able to manage stairs.
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Posted byKathy Brodie on October 26, 2015.
I am very proud and pleased to present the second in the series of guest blog posts, written by Mrs M, who writes ‘A Slice of Autism‘. These will be published once a month.
The first blog ‘The Delayed Effect’ had a massive response, with many readers saying how they could relate to the blog. This month Mrs M focuses on how effective partnerships between home and school can be made, for the benefit of all involved – most importantly the children. Here is her second blog:
I want to share a story with you. A story about ‘that mum’. A mum who found herself on a journey. A bumpy journey that she hadn’t really planned to take.
Now you may be read this story and think that mum sounds just like me, I’m so relieved that I’m not alone. Or you may read this story and think I know that mum and I never realised that’s why she stands in the playground each day looking down at the floor, maybe I’ll go and talk to her.
Or finally you could read this story and think I hadn’t realised how much courage it took for that mum in my class to pat me on the shoulder and ask if she could have a word with me at home time today.
So here is my story of…..
How I became ‘that mum’
Once upon a time on a sparkly autumn morning there was a playground full of nervous little children. All looking so grown up; wearing their crisp clean uniforms, and squeaky new shoes. Their parents were beginning to smile and nod at each other in a knowing kind of way. Then the awkward silence was broken by the bell ringing loudly, a signal to everyone that it was now time. Time for all the anxious parents to let go, and time for the children to start on their journey of discovery…..as it was their first day of school
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Posted byKathy Brodie on October 17, 2015.
The 21st of October 2015 is a significant date for many of us who watched Sci-fi films in the late 1980s.
It is the date of the future in the film ‘Back to the Future 2’ that Marty McFly (played by Michael J. Fox) goes forward to, and is amazed by, the way the world has changed in 2015. There are an impressive array of concepts that the film got spot on:
- Giant, split screen TVs
- Computer games operated by the player (think Kinect)
- Video phone conferencing
- 3D films
- Handheld devices where you can sign a petition (think your tablet and online petitions)
- Biometrics as security
- Exercising at your desk (think ‘standing’ tables)
- Google glasses
Some of these might be a little predictable – we would expect TV technology and gaming technology to move on – but others are more unpredictable and rely on technology or a change in society that we couldn’t possibly have known about 30 years ago.
Coincidentally, I was asked this week about children under the age of three using tablets and the benefits of this. Who would’ve imagined that we would be discussing the efficacy of babies using computers 30 years ago?
I know there are many arguments for excluding screen technology of any sort for very young children, and I would agree that tablets and ipads are no replacement for many of the rich sensory experiences that children should be having. However, this may be a good time to reflect on what we are giving our children and how these are preparing them for their future – whatever that may be.
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Posted byKathy Brodie on October 8, 2015.
I’m beginning to wonder if the government has forgotten the original purpose of schools.
First schools were able (expected?) to offer care and education for two year olds onwards to tackle the childcare ‘crisis’ (one news report here) so parents could leave toddlers during the ‘working day’.
Now comes the latest news from Nicky Morgan, who would like schools to offer wraparound care to cover a ‘working day’ (news report here). There have been doubts expressed by the Head Teachers Association (NAHT) whether or not this could even work, due to staffing and individual circumstances of schools.
I did think the original purpose of schools was for the education and care for children – not as somewhere to place children so parents could go to work.
Kathy Brodie on January 31, 2016.
Keeping up to date with changes in legislation, practice and pedagogy can be a real headache, especially when there is so much information on the internet. I find that subscribing to some key sites (for free) helps to keep me in the know and ensures my practice is current.
Paul Clarke is both an experienced nursery practitioner and babysitter. In this podcast, he explains his particular interest in promoting sport with the young children in his care, especially football. It is something he is keen to expand on in his local area which is useful as the setting he works at, Woodhouse Day Nursery in Loughborough, is in the countryside with a large garden.
I want to share a story with you. A story about ‘that mum’. A mum who found herself on a journey. A bumpy journey that she hadn’t really planned to take.
