Why Are Fewer Boys Meeting Early Developmental Milestones? What the Latest Research Really Tells Us
Why are fewer boys meeting early developmental milestones? Explore the latest research, biological and social factors, and what early years settings can do to support boys’ language, social‑emotional, and self‑regulation development.
In our recent blog exploring school readiness — and the striking statistic that 37% of children were not ready for school in 2025 — we highlighted a growing concern shared by schools across the country: more children are arriving in Reception without the foundational language, social‑emotional, and self‑regulation skills they need to thrive. Early years settings are working incredibly hard to close these gaps, yet the pattern is becoming clearer year on year.
Alongside this wider picture, practitioners frequently tell us something else they’re noticing: boys are disproportionately represented among the children who are not meeting early developmental milestones. Whether it’s language, attention, social interaction, or self‑regulation, boys are more likely to be flagged as “behind” — and this trend is visible long before they reach school.
So today, we’re digging deeper into this question. Why are fewer boys meeting developmental milestones in the early years? And more importantly, what does this mean for our practice, our environments, and the way we support children’s development from birth to five?
The answer, as always, is nuanced — and far more hopeful than the headlines suggest.
⭐Key Takeaway: Boys often develop differently, not deficiently — and our practice needs to reflect that.
A Clear Pattern in Early Childhood Development
Recent research consistently shows sex‑based differences in early development:
A 2026 cohort study found 47.4% of boys fell into “low” developmental trajectories compared with 7.3% of girls.
A 2024 study of 800,000 children revealed boys typically reach many milestones later than girls — and that mixed‑sex milestone charts over‑diagnose delay in boys and under‑diagnose delay in girls.
International studies show girls tend to score higher in language, fine motor, and social‑emotional domains.
This doesn’t mean boys are “behind.” It means boys often follow a different developmental rhythm — one that traditional milestone charts don’t always capture accurately.
Why Are Fewer Boys Meeting Milestones?
1. Biological and neurological development
Girls’ brains mature slightly earlier in areas linked to:
language
social‑emotional processing
self‑regulation
Boys show more variability in these domains and are more likely to experience neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism or ADHD. This creates a wider spread in developmental timing.
2. Milestone charts aren’t always sex‑specific
Most milestone charts were built using mixed‑sex data. When we apply one curve to everyone:
Boys appear “delayed” more often
Girls’ subtle delays are easier to miss
Sex‑specific charts provide a more accurate picture and reduce unnecessary referrals.
3. Environmental and social influences
Adults often interact differently with boys and girls:
Boys receive more physical, active play
Girls receive more verbal, nurturing, conversational interaction
These differences shape early language and social‑emotional development.
What This Means for Early Years Practice
At Growing Together Early Years, we champion relational pedagogy, responsive environments, and developmentally attuned practice. This research reinforces what many practitioners already know intuitively.
1. Boys need language embedded in movement
Rich language experiences should be woven into:
outdoor play
construction
role play
sensory exploration
Not just sit‑down conversations.
2. Girls need careful observation too
Because girls often meet milestones earlier, their quieter struggles can be overlooked. Sex differences shouldn’t distract us from seeing the individual child.
3. Milestones should guide, not define
Milestones are helpful markers, but they’re not a verdict. A child’s wellbeing, relationships, curiosity, and engagement tell us far more.
4. Early support should be proactive
If boys are more likely to fall into lower developmental trajectories, early years environments should intentionally strengthen:
language and communication
social‑emotional connection
self‑regulation
problem‑solving through play
This isn’t about “fixing boys” — it’s about meeting them where they are.
A More Nuanced, More Hopeful Story
The headline “boys are less likely to meet milestones” can sound worrying. But when we dig deeper, the story becomes far more encouraging:
Boys often develop differently, not deficiently
Girls’ needs can be overlooked if we assume they’re always “ahead”
Sex‑specific research helps us refine our practice
Responsive, relational environments support all children to thrive
The real takeaway? Children flourish when we understand their unique developmental rhythms — and when we create spaces that honour those rhythms with curiosity, compassion, and connection.
That’s the heart of Growing Together Early Years. And it’s exactly where this research leads us.
References
1. Sex‑specific neurodevelopment trajectories (2026) Zhang, Y., et al. (2026). Sex-specific neurodevelopmental trajectories in children under three years: A retrospective cohort study. Journal of Child Development Research.
2. Sex‑specific milestone attainment (2024) Barzilay, E., et al. (2024). Sex-specific developmental milestone attainment from birth to 6 years: A population-based study of 800,000 children. Pediatrics.
3. Cross‑country early development differences McCoy, D. C., et al. (2016). Early childhood developmental status in low- and middle-income countries: A meta-analysis. Child Development.
4. Social‑communication differences in toddlers Constantino, J. N., et al. (2020). Infant and toddler social communication sex differences and early neurodevelopmental risk. Nature Human Behaviour.
The Leader You Are Every Day: How Small Actions Shape Big Outcomes in Early Years Practice
Discover a more human approach to early years leadership. Explore how small, intentional behaviours create culture, strengthen teams, and improve children’s experiences.
Leadership in early years rarely feels like the job description suggests. It isn’t a neat list of competencies, nor a tidy framework you can pull out in a staff meeting. More often, it feels like juggling: supporting a practitioner who’s had a difficult morning, responding to a parent who needs reassurance, protecting the integrity of your curriculum, and still finding a moment to breathe before lunchtime.
But here’s the truth we don’t say often enough: Leadership is not the big moments. It’s the small ones. It’s the everyday behaviours. The tone you use, the curiosity you model, the calm you hold, the values you make visible — that quietly shape the culture, confidence, and quality of your setting.
In early years, leadership is lived practice.
Leadership as a pedagogical act
We often talk about pedagogy in the simplest terms as “the art of teaching”. In other terms pedagogy could be something practitioners refer to as the “approach and how we teach”, but leadership is deeply pedagogical too. Every decision you make teaches something: about what you value, what you prioritise, and how you want your team to think about children’s learning.
When you protect time for reflection, you teach your team that thinking is part of practice. When you ask, “What did you notice?” instead of “Did you finish?”, you teach that observation matters. When you slow down to model curiosity, you teach that learning is relational, not rushed; you value the time for critical thinking in learning.
Competitor content often frames leadership as strategic planning, compliance management, or operational oversight. Those things matter, but they don’t tell leaders what to do tomorrow morning. Growing Together’s approach is different: leadership is something you enact in the moment, with intention and humanity.
The emotional climate starts with you
Early years settings are emotional ecosystems. Children feel the room. Staff feel the room. And leaders, whether they intend to or not — set the emotional temperature.
This doesn’t mean leaders must be endlessly calm or endlessly positive. It means they are emotionally aware. They notice when a practitioner is carrying something heavy. They recognise when the team needs grounding rather than motivation. They understand that psychological safety is not a “nice to have”; it is the foundation of high‑quality practice.
A leader who says, “Let’s pause and think together,” creates safety. A leader who listens before advising creates trust. A leader who models emotional regulation teaches the team how to support children to do the same.
These are not grand gestures. They are micro‑moments, but they accumulate.
Culture is built in the small decisions
Culture is often described as “the way we do things around here”, but in early years it’s more precise: Culture is the sum of your everyday leadership behaviours.
It’s built when you:
choose reflection over reaction
hold boundaries with kindness
make values visible in your decisions
ask questions that deepen thinking
protect time for practice quality, even when the day is busy
These actions tell your team what matters. They show them how to think, how to collaborate, and how to hold children at the centre of every choice.
Culture isn’t created in away days or strategy documents. It’s created in the corridor conversations, the shared problem‑solving, the way you respond when something goes wrong.
Leadership that shapes children’s experiences
It’s easy to forget that leadership reaches children indirectly but powerfully. When leaders create a reflective, emotionally safe, values‑led environment, children experience:
calmer adults
more intentional interactions
richer learning conversations
more consistent boundaries
a curriculum that is lived, not laminated
Your leadership shapes the climate children grow in. Not through the policies you write, but through the behaviours you model.
A more human way to lead
The early years sector is full of frameworks, competencies, and leadership models. They have value — but they often miss the heart of the work.
Growing Together champions a different view: Leadership is relational. Leadership is reflective. Leadership is pedagogical. Leadership is human.
And because it is human, it is built in the small moments. The ones that don’t make it into job descriptions but make all the difference in practice.
A reflection to close
Tomorrow, notice one leadership behaviour you enact and a question you ask, a tone you choose, a moment you pause, a value you make visible.
Ask yourself: What did this teach my team? What did this make possible for children?
Leadership is not who you are in the big moments. It’s who you are every day.
A complete CPD planning and leadership bundle for early years managers.
The Growing Practice Toolkit brings together four beautifully designed, practical resources that help managers plan CPD with confidence, clarity, and intention. Instead of scrambling for courses or filling a calendar for the sake of it, this toolkit supports you to build CPD around what children need, what your team needs, and what your setting is working towards.
Inside the toolkit, you’ll find:
CPD Planning Templates for setting‑level and individual development
A Supervision Conversation Guide that supports reflective, strengths‑based discussions
A Seasonal CPD Calendar aligned to the natural rhythm of the early years
A Reflective Leadership Exercise that helps you identify meaningful CPD priorities
This bundle is perfect for managers who want CPD to feel purposeful, relational, and achievable — not overwhelming. It’s a calm, structured way to grow your team, strengthen practice, and create a culture where learning becomes part of everyday life.
Inclusive Education Estates: What the New DfE Guidance Means for Early Years Settings
Why the DfE’s Inclusive Education Estates Guidance Matters
The DfE states:
“Every child or young person deserves a high‑quality, inclusive education, supported by an environment that meets their needs.”
Inclusion is defined as all staff supporting the learning, wellbeing and safety needs of all children, so they feel they belong, achieve and thrive.
The Department for Education has released new guidance — Inclusive Education Estates: Supporting Inclusive Environments in Mainstream Settings (June 2026). For early years leaders, this is a powerful reminder of something we’ve always known: the environment shapes children’s learning, wellbeing and sense of belonging.
In early years theory, Montessori calls this the prepared environment. Reggio Emilia describes it as the third teacher. And now, the DfE is placing national emphasis on creating spaces where every child can belong, achieve and thrive.
This blog breaks down what the guidance says, why it matters, and what early years settings should consider when designing inclusive environments.
Why the DfE’s Inclusive Education Estates Guidance Matters
The DfE states:
“Every child or young person deserves a high‑quality, inclusive education, supported by an environment that meets their needs.”
Inclusion is defined as all staff supporting the learning, wellbeing and safety needs of all children, so they feel they belong, achieve and thrive.
This aligns strongly with early years pedagogy:
Montessori: independence, order, calm and child‑led exploration
Reggio Emilia: the environment as the third teacher
Contemporary neuroscience: sensory‑safe, predictable spaces support regulation and readiness to learn
The guidance is non‑statutory but backed by robust evidence:
The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) shows inclusive environments improve engagement.
The HEAD Project found that environmental factors (light, temperature, air quality, flexibility, colour) account for 16% of variation in children’s learning progress.
Natural light, natural materials and access to nature reduce stress and support concentration.
For early years practitioners, this is not new — but it is affirming.
The 10 Core Elements of Inclusive Design
The DfE highlights ten elements that support inclusion across all phases:
Accessibility & movement
Navigation & wayfinding
Quiet spaces & sensory comfort
Acoustics
Lighting & visual comfort
Ventilation
Thermal comfort
Access to nature
Sanitary provision
Furniture, fittings & equipment
These principles echo Montessori’s prepared environment and Reggio Emilia’s emphasis on sensory richness, autonomy and emotional safety.
What This Means for Early Years Settings
🌱 1. Access to Nature and Natural Materials
Early years children regulate through sensory experiences. The guidance encourages:
Natural materials
Soft, muted colour palettes
Views of nature
Edible gardens and sensory planting
Shaded quiet outdoor spaces
This mirrors Montessori’s use of natural materials and Reggio’s belief that nature supports curiosity, wellbeing and connection.
🔊 2. Acoustics That Support Calm and Communication
Noise is a major trigger for dysregulation. The guidance recommends:
Acoustic panels
Soft furnishings
Quieter equipment (e.g., paper towels instead of hand dryers)
Separating noisy and quiet zones
This supports communication, emotional regulation and social interaction.
🧭 3. Clear Navigation and Predictable Spaces
Predictability reduces cognitive load and supports independence — a core Montessori principle.
The guidance suggests:
Clear activity zones
Simple circulation routes
Visual cues and consistent signage
Makaton‑supported wayfinding
This helps children feel confident and secure.
🧘 4. Quiet, Low‑Stimulus Spaces for Regulation
The DfE emphasises the importance of calm spaces:
Cosy corners
Soft‑furnished dens
Small group rooms
Low‑stimulus areas
These reflect Reggio’s “places of pause” and Montessori’s respect for children’s need for solitude and calm.
🏃 5. Movement and Sensory‑Motor Opportunities
Movement is foundational for early learning. The guidance highlights:
Climbing, balancing and jumping
Free‑flow access to outdoors
Sensory paths
Trails and physical challenges
This aligns with early years theory that sees movement as essential for cognitive development.
🌬️ 6. Air Quality, Ventilation and Thermal Comfort
Healthy, comfortable spaces support attention and wellbeing. The guidance recommends:
Safe window ventilation
CO₂ monitoring
Avoiding artificial fragrances
Shaded outdoor areas
Natural landscaping to reduce heat
These are simple, low‑cost improvements.
Reflection Questions for Early Years Leaders
Does our environment act as a third teacher?
Where are the sensory pressure points in our day?
Do children have access to both stimulation and calm?
How predictable and navigable is our space?
Do children experience nature meaningfully every day?
Are families and staff involved in shaping the environment?
Final Thoughts
The DfE’s Inclusive Education Estates guidance doesn’t ask early years settings to become something new. It validates what early years educators have always known:
The environment is a powerful tool for inclusion.
Small, thoughtful changes — many of them low‑cost — can help every child feel safe, regulated and ready to learn.
And that’s the heart of early years practice.
Create inclusive spaces. Support thriving children. Build stronger futures.
Our Inclusive Early Years Environment Audit & Checklist is a practical, evidence-based tool designed to help nurseries, preschools, childminders, and early years settings evaluate and enhance the inclusivity of their learning environments. Rooted in the Department for Education’s Inclusive Education Estates Guidance (June 2026), this audit supports settings to create spaces where every child can feel safe, regulated, and ready to learn.
This comprehensive audit covers 11 key environmental areas, from accessibility and sensory comfort to outdoor learning and sanitary provision. Each section includes clear audit questions, a practical checklist, and direct citations from the DfE guidance—such as “free-flow play with direct level access to outdoors” and “create low stimulus quiet corners and quiet spaces, such as a soft furnished den”—to ensure your improvements are aligned with national expectations.
What’s Inside
Accessibility & Movement Ensure routes are clear, surfaces safe, and movement opportunities available for regulation and motor development.
Navigation & Wayfinding Create predictable, calm transitions with child-height signage and clearly defined activity zones.
Quiet Spaces & Sensory Comfort Reduce visual overload, declutter displays, and provide low-stimulus nooks for regulation.
Acoustics Improve sound quality with soft furnishings, acoustic panels, and thoughtful zoning.
Lighting & Visual Comfort Use warm, even lighting and natural materials to create visually calm environments.
Ventilation & Air Quality Promote wellbeing with safe window access, CO₂ monitoring, and fragrance-free cleaning.
Thermal Comfort Provide shade, manage heat gain, and ensure year-round comfort indoors and outdoors.
Access to Nature Incorporate plants, natural textures, sensory gardens, and edible planting areas.
Sanitary Provision Create calm, child-friendly toilet areas with reduced sensory triggers.
Furniture, Fittings & Equipment Use adaptable, child-sized furniture and soft furnishings to support comfort and zoning.
Outdoor Environment Develop sensory gardens, quiet dens, natural play elements, and level access to outdoors.
SMART Target Action Plan Included
Turn your audit findings into meaningful change with a built-in SMART Action Plan, helping you set clear, measurable, achievable goals that align with your setting’s priorities.
Who This Audit Is For
✔ Nurseries
✔ Preschools
✔ Childminders
✔ Early Years SEND leads
✔ Setting managers and owners
✔ Local authorities and advisory teams
Why Settings Love It
Easy to use
Evidence-based
Practical and actionable
Supports SEND inclusion
Helps settings meet DfE expectations
Strengthens quality improvement processes
37% of Children Were Not Ready for School in 2025 — What Schools Are Telling Us, and What Early Years Settings Can Do
A new report from Kindred (January 2026) brings fresh insight into what schools are experiencing. And one statistic in particular demands our attention:
Teachers reported that 37% of children were not school‑ready in 2025. That’s the equivalent of 4 in every 10 children starting Reception.
This isn’t a small shift. It’s a significant change in the landscape of early education and it’s shaping what teachers, headteachers and early years practitioners are navigating every day.
School readiness is a topic we return to often at Growing Together — not because we believe children should be pushed to be “ready”, but because the term itself is so widely misunderstood. There is no universal definition, no shared benchmark, and no single set of skills that magically prepare a child for Reception. Yet the expectations placed on children, families and early years settings continue to grow.
A new report from Kindred (January 2026) brings fresh insight into what schools are experiencing. And one statistic in particular demands our attention:
Teachers reported that 37% of children were not school‑ready in 2025. That’s the equivalent of 4 in every 10 children starting Reception.
This isn’t a small shift. It’s a significant change in the landscape of early education and it’s shaping what teachers, headteachers and early years practitioners are navigating every day.
What Does “37% Not Ready” Actually Mean?
The Kindred report highlights several areas where teachers are seeing gaps in children’s foundational skills. These aren’t academic gaps — they’re basic life skills that underpin a child’s ability to access the EYFS curriculum.
Teachers shared that:
2.4 hours of daily teaching time are lost due to catch‑up needs
1.4 hours of daily teaching time are lost due to lack of toilet training
70% of teachers say toileting delays impact the progression of the whole class
One headteacher recently told us something that echoes this data:
“Teachers are spending a lot more time teaching basic life skills, such as how to drink out of a cup and feed themselves, or toilet training.”
These are skills that used to be embedded long before children reached Reception. Now, they’re becoming a core part of the school day.
And the impact is clear:
“A lack of school readiness has really impacted on the EYFS curriculum.”
When teachers must prioritise toileting, feeding, communication and independence, the time available for early literacy, maths, exploration and play is significantly reduced.
Three Themes Emerging From Schools
The Kindred report and conversations with headteachers — point to three key themes shaping the school readiness picture in 2025–26.
1. Basic Independence Skills Are Declining
Schools are seeing more children who struggle with:
Toileting
Feeding themselves
Drinking from an open cup
Managing belongings
Following simple instructions
Communicating needs clearly
These skills are not “nice to have”. They are essential for a child’s wellbeing, confidence and ability to participate in classroom routines.
2. Boys and Girls Are Learning Differently
The report highlights a notable trend: fewer boys are meeting school readiness expectations compared to girls.
This isn’t about ability — it’s about developmental patterns:
Boys often develop communication skills later
Self‑regulation can take longer
Play preferences may not align with school expectations
Boys may need more time and space for movement‑based learning
This theme deserves its own blog post and we’ll explore it in a future instalment.
3. Increasing Levels of SEND and Unmet Needs
Schools are reporting more children entering Reception with emerging or undiagnosed SEND needs. This includes:
Speech and language delays
Social communication differences
Sensory processing needs
Emotional regulation challenges
Early identification and partnership with families is becoming more critical than ever.
This too will form part of a wider series.
Why This Matters for Early Years Practice
When children arrive in Reception without foundational life skills, teachers must shift their focus from curriculum delivery to basic care and independence teaching.
This has several consequences:
The pace of the EYFS curriculum slows
Whole‑class learning becomes harder to manage
Children who are ready may become disengaged
Children who are not ready may feel overwhelmed
Teachers experience increased pressure and workload
But most importantly:
Children who start school without these skills often feel less confident, less settled and less able to thrive.
This isn’t about pushing children earlier. It’s about ensuring they have the emotional, physical and developmental foundations to feel safe, secure and capable in a school environment.
The Real Question: How Do We Support Families Earlier?
One of the most powerful insights from the Kindred report is that school readiness cannot be addressed in the term before Reception. By then, it’s too late.
Families need support much earlier, ideally from the moment their child enters an early years setting.
Here are practical ways settings can help:
1. Start Conversations Early and Often
Introduce independence skills during settling‑in meetings, progress reviews and informal chats. Make it part of your ongoing dialogue with families.
2. Share Simple, Non‑Overwhelming Guidance
Parents don’t need long checklists. They need clear, manageable steps such as:
Practising toileting routines
Encouraging children to feed themselves
Supporting open‑cup drinking
Building communication through everyday interactions
3. Model Skills in Your Setting
Show families what independence looks like in practice. Demonstrate routines, language and strategies.
4. Create Opportunities for Children to Practise
Offer time for children to dress themselves, pour water, tidy belongings and manage transitions.
5. Build Partnerships Without Judgement
Families are doing their best. School readiness should never be framed as failure — only as an opportunity for support.
Final Reflection
The statistic: 37% of children not school‑ready — is not a criticism of children, families or early years settings. It is a signal. A sign that the landscape is changing, and that we must respond with compassion, partnership and proactive support.
School readiness is not about preparing children for school. It’s about preparing schools, families and systems to meet children where they are.
And that’s a journey we can take together.
Why Is the Voice of the Child Important to Your Early Years Setting?
In every early years environment, there are countless moments when children communicate with us long before they speak. A glance towards a quiet corner. A repeated action that seems small but carries meaning. A hesitation before joining a group. These moments are the child’s voice — expressed not only through words, but through their bodies, behaviours, emotions, and choices.
In every early years environment, there are countless moments when children communicate with us long before they speak. A glance towards a quiet corner. A repeated action that seems small but carries meaning. A hesitation before joining a group. These moments are the child’s voice — expressed not only through words, but through their bodies, behaviours, emotions, and choices.
When we talk about “voice of the child”, we are not simply referring to what children say. We are talking about how they show us who they are, what they need, and how they experience the world. And when practitioners tune into this with curiosity and care, something powerful happens: children feel seen.
In a sector built on relationships, listening becomes one of our most important professional skills.
What Do We Mean by “Voice of the Child”?
Voice of the child is often misunderstood as “giving children a say” or “letting them choose activities”. In reality, it is far deeper and more relational.
Children communicate through:
Verbal language — words, stories, questions, ideas
Non‑verbal cues — gestures, facial expressions, posture
Behaviour — patterns, preferences, repeated actions
Emotional expression — joy, frustration, uncertainty, excitement
Symbolic play — narratives, characters, and themes that reveal inner worlds
Listening to children means recognising all of these as valid forms of communication. It means slowing down enough to notice, and being reflective enough to interpret with care.
Why It Matters: The Impact on Learning and Wellbeing
When children feel heard, they feel safe. And when they feel safe, they learn.
Embedding the voice of the child in your setting supports:
Emotional security — children trust that adults understand and respond to them
Self‑regulation — being heard helps children make sense of their feelings
Confidence and agency — children learn that their ideas matter
Stronger relationships — practitioners become partners in learning, not directors
Curriculum responsiveness — planning becomes rooted in children’s interests and developmental needs
This is not an “extra”. It is central to the EYFS principles of the unique child, positive relationships, and enabling environments.
Listening as a Professional Skill
Listening deeply is not passive. It is an intentional, reflective act.
Practitioners must navigate:
The pace of the day
The needs of multiple children
Their own assumptions and interpretations
The emotional demands of the role
It is easy to unintentionally silence children — not through intention, but through routine.
We’ve previously shared thoughts on love‑based leadership that reminds us that leadership begins with presence. When practitioners feel supported, valued, and emotionally regulated, they are more able to tune into children with empathy and curiosity.
Listening becomes a culture, not a task.
Embedding Voice of the Child in Daily Practice
Here are some ways settings can bring children’s voices to the centre of practice:
Sustained shared thinking — exploring ideas together rather than leading from the front
Observing schemas and play patterns — recognising these as expressions of thinking
Offering open‑ended materials — allowing children to show us what they want to create
Using visual supports and objects of reference — especially for non‑verbal communicators
Creating predictable routines with flexible spaces — enabling children to influence their environment
Capturing children’s perspectives — through photos, drawings, conversations, or play narratives
The goal is not to gather more evidence, but to understand children more deeply.
Voice of the Child in Leadership and Quality Improvement
For leaders, the voice of the child is a powerful lens for reflective practice and mid‑year quality review.
Consider:
Whose voices are heard most often?
Whose voices are missing — and why?
How do children influence planning, environment design, and provision?
How is children’s feedback captured, interpreted, and acted upon?
How do we ensure quieter or non‑verbal children are equally represented?
When leaders embed these questions into supervision, team meetings, and curriculum discussions, the culture shifts. Practitioners begin to see listening not as an add‑on, but as the foundation of high‑quality practice.
A Mini‑Scenario: A Moment of Being Heard
Amira, aged three, spends several mornings in a row repeatedly filling and emptying a small basket of wooden rings. She becomes distressed when another child approaches the basket, even though there are plenty of materials nearby.
A practitioner pauses, watches, and wonders.
Instead of redirecting her, they sit alongside her and narrate gently:
“You’re making sure they’re all together. It looks like it’s important that they stay with you.”
Amira looks up, nods, and continues.
Later, the practitioner notices that Amira seeks out enclosed spaces and often gathers objects into small collections. Through reflective discussion, the team recognises a connecting and enclosing schema emerging — and they adapt the environment to support it.
Amira’s behaviour was not “possessive”. It was communication.
This is the voice of the child in action.
Reflective Questions for Your Team
Where in our setting do children have genuine influence?
How do we ensure every child’s voice is represented — not just the confident communicators?
What recent decisions have been shaped by children’s perspectives?
How do we capture and evidence children’s voices meaningfully?
What might we be missing because of our routines, assumptions, or pace?
These questions help teams move from intention to impact.
Ready to Deepen Your Approach? Download the Voice of the Child Audit
If you’re ready to strengthen your setting’s approach to listening, the Voice of the Child Audit offers a structured, reflective tool to help you understand where you are now — and where you can grow.
It supports leaders and teams to:
Identify strengths and gaps
Reflect on practice with clarity
Ensure every child’s voice shapes provision
Build a culture of attuned, child‑centred learning
Download the Voice of the Child Audit and begin your reflective journey today.
Safeguarding and the voice of the child or young person.
Welcome to our fourth blog post in the series of posts on the voice of the child. This week we are talking about safeguarding and the voice of the child or young person. In our second blog post we talked about the importance of listening to the voice of the child in early years settings, which included when we listen to the voice of the child, we empower them in decision-making. This is equally as true and important when it comes to dealing with safeguarding children and young people.
Welcome to our fourth blog post in the series of posts on the voice of the child. This week we are talking about safeguarding and the voice of the child or young person. In our second blog post we talked about the importance of listening to the voice of the child in early years settings, which included when we listen to the voice of the child, we empower them in decision-making. This is equally as true and important when it comes to dealing with safeguarding children and young people. CQC (2022) defines safeguarding as:
‘…protecting a person’s health, wellbeing, and human rights, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect’
We are talking directly about protecting our children and young people’s rights, health and well-being; it is only right that we involve them in decisions relating to them. The United Convention on Rights of the Child, states clearly that the voice of the child should be heard and listened to. That we should seek to have the voice of the child at the centre of effective safeguarding practices. Now, we know in reality that this can be challenging to, which is echoed in the recent paper from the NSPCC in 2024 on the voice of the child and lessons learnt from serious case review. This paper shares that in reality the voice of the child can be unheard, this may be the result of a few things such as lack of engagement, visits, relationship building, high caseloads or lack of resources.
Here is the thing, and I am often heard saying this, “we are all responsible for safeguarding!”. And form part of a multi-agency approach, that creates a team around the family. Although, I appreciate we may not be trained social workers reading this blog posts, we might be teachers, early years practitioners, nursery nurses, managers or volunteers. We can still actively listen to the child or young persons perspective on their own lives in matters of safeguarding. In fact, this is one of the issues that was raised as a lesson learnt in the NSPCC (2024) paper, that professionals did not hear from others that had information to share about the child. Although, it is recommended that we want to hear directly from the child; we have to remember that in the early years we develop deep and positive relationships with children. Afterall, positive relationships is one of our overarching principles of the Early Years Foundation Stage.
We are able through play and our high-quality interactions and teaching to create a safe and trusted relationship with children that a social worker with a busy caseload simply does not have the time to do. This puts us in a unique position as a profession that we can offer insight and deep understanding to conversations as advocates for the children that we work with. And we have a very valuable role to play in the team around the child, in making sure that the voice of that child is heard and understood. And this is why effective muti-agency working is important in safeguarding; because we all have a valuable piece of information to add to the jigsaw puzzle and this is none the less important then when it comes to the voice of the child.
If you would like to read the full NSPPC (2024) paper The Voice of the Child: Lessons form Serious case review; please click here.
We have developed a set of 5 safeguarding scenario cards that can be used as part of staff meetings, supervisions, inhouse training and continuous professional development. It is important to keep at the forefront of all staff the knowledge of what they would do in different situations; and make sure they are confident to take the adequate steps to safeguard our children.
Please note these are discussion pointers for your team, as the answers will be setting specific and these do not include the answers.
5 tips for ensuring the voice of the child is being used in your early years setting.
A high-quality early years setting values, listens and responds to the voice of the child. Pauline Milsted (Early Years Consultant) shares with us 5 top tips for ensuring that your early years setting values the voice of the child.
A high-quality early years setting values, listens and responds to the voice of the child. Pauline Milsted (Early Years Consultant) shares with us 5 top tips for ensuring that your early years setting values the voice of the child.
1. Ensure the environment reflects your children’s interests, schemas and stage of development.
Case Study:
As an Early Years Consultant I often visit settings, when I visit good settings I see the children in the environment. For example, I might see a whole dinosaur area set up with two children enthusiastically playing. While hearing a small comment from their key worker, “Oh Johnny and Isla love dinosaurs”. Showing they have listened to and responded to what the children like, what there current interests are - what motivates them to learn. I might see in another corner cars and ramps set up for children to explore the movement of their cars. While noticing that there is a lot of scarfs and balls around the setting. I look in the tuff-tray that has lots of lines drawn in it, with the toy cars placed inside. I turn and see a child who is obviously in the trajectory schema, throwing toys, jumping around and exploring their own movement. Again, just a tiny comment from a member of staff showing they understand that child. “Oh that’s Jack at the moment he loves the swings and throwing things. We are trying to support his schema!” This to me is always the start of a successful visit where I can see the voice of the child, staff who understand their children and are following their interests. A setting where I think those children are heard.
2. Involve children in reflecting and developing your enabling environment. Ask the children what they would or would not like in the setting. This could be that they take photos of what makes them happy or sad. Part of a small group discussion or circle time. You could also facilitate conversation through the use of puppets or while drawing pictures, to help children to communicate in different ways. When thinking about buying new things for the environment you can involve the children in researching looking in catalogues or making shopping lists together.
3. Observe children carefully. Remember that the voice of the child is not just verbal. We communicate in all sorts of ways and not all children will have the language skills to use words. Therefore, it is important that we take the time to observe, watch children’s cues, body language, behaviour, learn about children and their families from others involved in their lives parent/carers and other professionals; alongside listening.
4. Empower children to have their voices heard. In practice this might look like giving children choices and opportunities to practice having control over their world. Encouraging children to participate in setting routines and activities. Or making sure that we have the correct communication tools in place for them to communicate with others, for example, PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) cards, or staff who are trained in Makaton.
5. Create an environment and ethos that promotes children’s self-confidence and self-esteem. Build nurturing positive relationships that encourage the development of self-confidence and self-esteem. Have a curriculum and ethos that has embedded in it an approach that supports children’s emotional literacy and resilience.
With children’s mental health week 2024 focusing on the theme ‘My Voice Matters’. We have developed an audit resource to be used in early years settings to ensure that we are capturing the voice of the child through our practice. This tool has been designed to support early years staff reflections and evaluations that can feed into the continuous development of the setting.
This audit tool contains 3 easy to use audits, breaking it down into bitesize chunks.
Key Person Voice of Child
Enabling Environment Voice of Child
Safeguarding Voice of the Child
This document comes in a pdf, allowing you to print and use the pages as and when you need them.
Why is the voice of the child important in the early years?
Blog post two in our series of exploring the voice of the child, is on the topic of why is the voice of the child in the early years important. In recent years with the previous Ofsted framework having a focus intent, implementation and impact, we have talked a lot about the why. Understanding our why or intent – can help us to ensure that our practice in the early years is grounded in understanding and knowledge of child development and good practice. The 3 I’s may not be such a focus of the new early years’ inspection toolkit, but there is still a strong need of understanding why we do what we do – regardless of the terminology we are using. So why is valuing the voice of the child important?
Blog post two in our series of exploring the voice of the child, is on the topic of why is the voice of the child in the early years important. In recent years with the previous Ofsted framework having a focus intent, implementation and impact, we have talked a lot about the why. Understanding our why or intent – can help us to ensure that our practice in the early years is grounded in understanding and knowledge of child development and good practice. The 3 I’s may not be such a focus of the new early years’ inspection toolkit, but there is still a strong need of understanding why we do what we do – regardless of the terminology we are using. So why is valuing the voice of the child important?
Listening to the voice of the child and valuing it in early years has several healthy benefits from boosting children’s self-confidence and self-image, too empowering and giving children autonomy. It helps us to understand them and their perspectives and lead to better decision making. We may have heard the phrase, “Oh, I wish to see the world through a child’s eyes again”. It is often a perspective that is romanticised, with the idea of looking at the world for the first time with awe and wonder and magic. Some of which is true, when we truly begin to see the world from the perspective of a 3-year-old again, we might see magic and wonder all around us. But we also might suddenly understand the challenges they are facing, the things that confuse them and their wants and desires.
By taking the time to understand and truly listen to their perspectives; it can help us to involve children in decision-making. When we involve children in decision-making it helps to give them a sense of control and autonomy; rather than seeing the world as something that is happening to them, it helps to involve them in that world. We know that children who are empowered and autonomy; will develop more resilience, there will have high levels of well-being and increased self-confidence. When children are empowered to use their voice, they flourish, they are more engaged in their learning and they achieve better academically. Part of these higher levels of engagement through valuing the voice of the child, results in higher levels of motivation. Motivation cannot be underestimated and is powerful when we are working with others.
Additionally, in terms of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) we have the overarching principle of the Unique Child. Tailoring our practice, curriculum, teaching, environment and positive relationships to the individual needs of the children. Understanding that all children are different, have different experiences, different interests and stages of development; but all are wonderful and unique. If we truly want to meet the needs of the unique child in our early year’s settings, we cannot avoid the most powerful thing – the voice of the child.
In an ever-changing world we want to see a future generation who have resilience in the face of uncertain circumstances. This package contains several resources for practitioners working in the early years explores what we mean by the term resilience, current research on resilience in early childhood and how as professionals we can support children to develop resilience. As well as making impactful changes to our settings and practise to support the resilience of the setting.
The package includes the following:
Recording of our webinar ‘Emotional Resilience in Early Childhood’ and accompanying PowerPoint presentation.
A certificate to say that you have watched the recording to add to your CPD file.
Emotional resilience in childhood questionnaire.
Impactful training document - allowing individuals to reflect on the webinar and make sure it is impactful to their setting.
Indicators of resilience poster in both pdf and png format.
Resilience intent, implementation and impact reflection form.
4 resilience quote posters in both pdf and png format.
What do we mean by the phrase ‘listening to the voice of the child’?
The phrase voice of the child is often used in educational settings, health and social work, to describe the valuing of children’s input and contribution to decisions, things that matter to them and outcomes. The voice of the child is more then listening to the spoken voice of children; listening is when we physically hear what others have to say. A quick google search of the dictionary definition of listening refers to listening as the tuning in and hearing sound or the act of paying attention to someone or something you can hear.
The phrase voice of the child is often used in educational settings, health and social work, to describe the valuing of children’s input and contribution to decisions, things that matter to them and outcomes. The voice of the child is more then listening to the spoken voice of children; listening is when we physically hear what others have to say. A quick google search of the dictionary definition of listening refers to listening as the tuning in and hearing sound or the act of paying attention to someone or something you can hear.
Maybe the term active listening would sit more comfortably with us as a term for fully embracing the voice of the child. As after all, active listening is making a conscious effort to really listen and understand what someone is trying to share with us. It goes beyond the act of just hearing, but implies that we are trying to look for the intent, the meaning, the clues – almost like a detective behind what they have said; to truly be present and understand. Through, healthy relationships that show concern and care, positive open-body language, by limiting our interruptions or opinions, but rather just listening and being open-ended in our responses as we engage with the children.
Although, active listening is a part of understanding the voice of the child. It is not the full picture of understanding and valuing the voice of the child. We connect with the voice of the child in a variety of ways through, spoken and non-spoken language, body language, behaviour, arts, play and many other ways. Perhaps, therefore it is important to acknowledge we hear the voice of the child in a multitude of ways; but also, it is probably beneficial to unpick what we actually mean by the voice of the child. What is it that we are actually tuning in to…?
The following definition of the voice of the child taken from the NSPCC (2024):
The term "voice of the child" refers to the real involvement of children in expressing their views, opinions, and experiences. It includes both verbal and nonverbal communication and goes beyond simply seeking their views to actively including them in decision-making processes.
Similarly, Gwent Safeguarding states:
The voice of the child refers not only to what children (including those who are preverbal and non-verbal) say directly but to their behaviour as a whole. Facilitating the child’s voice involves developing relationships and creating environments in which children feel comfortable and confident sharing their thoughts and experiences. It also means making sure that children’s views, opinions, and preferences are sought and listened to when decisions are made which impact their life.
Both of these definitions share that the voice of the child is, us facilitating ways in which we can actively listen, tuning in to and observe children to hear and respond to their wishes, desires, thoughts, experiences and opinions. Using this in a way to support their learning and development, to inform practice that impacts on their lives, decisions that are going to impact them. It is interesting that the Gwent Safeguarding definition discusses how facilitating children’s voices is through the development of relationships and through the creation of our environments. Something that we are not too dissimilar with in the early years.
When we look at the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), we have four overarching principles the Unique Child, Positive Relationships, Enabling Environments and Learning and Development. The unique child is essentially an extension of the voice of the child, when we think about the unique child, we are thinking about being child-led, about understanding individual children – their behaviour, interests, stages of developing, culture, live experiences. And then producing positive relationships and an enabling environment that fully supports this wonderfully unique child; so that we inevitably see learning and development.
An interesting thought as we explore the voice of the child in the early years. During January and February 2026, we are doing a new blog series on the voice of the child. Please do check out our blog posts each week as we explore different topics around exploring the voice of the children, including things such as top tips, question and answers and much more. Or head over to our socials at Growing Together Early Years for more content.
These discussion cards have been designed to be used to promote a discussion around the child’s voice in staff meetings. This is a pdf set of 6 cards that have thought provoking questions to aid discussion.
This resource has been designed to promote the voice of the child which is a right for all children to feel they have their voice listened to and their opinions considered.
The power of starting with a question in the Early Years
Children are naturally curious. Piaget often referred to children as mini-scientists. All our children have questions inside them that they love to ask and are naturally interested in the why and how things work or happen in the world around them. As practitioners we are often trying to help children to make connections between the different pieces of knowledge that they are obtaining.
Children are naturally curious. Piaget often referred to children as mini-scientists. All our children have questions inside them that they love to ask and are naturally interested in the why and how things work or happen in the world around them. As practitioners we are often trying to help children to make connections between the different pieces of knowledge that they are obtaining.
Piaget often referred to this process as schematic learning and how we develop schemas of knowledge. These are the up-to-date ideas, knowledge and information that we hold about the world around us. Often in the early years we talk about schemas as the way in which children make sense of the world around them, because we see repeated actions in their play. For example, a child within the trajectory schema will be exploring throwing, often drop things from a highchair, explore the movement of themselves and objects both vertically and horizontally. This is the way that their brains are making connections and learning about the all-important world around them.
As a constructivist Piaget spoke about the process of accommodation, assimilation and reaching equilibrium as we build on our schemas of knowledge about the world around us. I often think of schemas as boxes of knowledge/information. When we are assimilating these boxes (schemas) it is changing the information that we already have, whereas accommodation is creating a new box (or schematic structure) of information to build with because something does not fit in with our pre-existing ideas. This then help’s us to reach a status of equilibrium, where there is no conflict between previous and new pieces of knowledge and information.
Tuning into children’s questions that they have about the world around them and how things work, is a fantastic way of exploring connections with young children. Whether that be questions that they have verbalised, such as, “Why is a tiger different to a cheetah?”. Or it is discovered through our careful observations of children’s learning and development that leads to supporting children’s enquiry-based learning through our careful interactions and enabling environments.
For example, we have noticed that Tommy has been sat with the clipboard and the toy cars and is placing the cars at the top, watching them go down and saying “wow!”. We might extend this to support more child-led learning, for example, adding in different materials to make ramps e.g. pieces of wood or cardboard. We might add non-standard units for measuring etc. But we are following the child’s interest and lead throughout the activity.
A booklet exploring some simple science activities you can do with children in the early years and different provocations to create some awe and wonder. This booklet also talk about potential links to learning and development in the early years.
Our tips for creating an environment that encourages questions
Creating an environment where questions are encouraged, can be challenging. It can be so easy as educators or professionals wanting to jump in with one of the answers, or expect children to have an answer. My top tip to you is to model open-ended questions and statements. “I wonder why the smaller car went faster then the big one?” Or to think through problems aloud, (sometimes referred to as think aloud strategies); where we give a verbal dialogue of our observations. For example, “Wow! That car went really fast! It went faster then the bigger car. Maybe, I will try again and see what happened!”
Our second top tip is to create an environment that has a lot of open-ended resources. By this we mean resources that have multiple purposes or functions, that children can explore and play with in different ways. This is going to promote problem-solving and natural curiosity as children play. Resources that don’t have set outcome, meaning we are giving children the opportunity to develop their own ideas.
Our final tip for creating an environment that encourages questions, is to have the children’s voice at the centre of it. What are their interests? Can we see that physical in our environment and through the interactions we have? What intrinsically motivates our individual children and gets them ticking? For example, Ellie loves messy play and exploring mixing poster paints together and doing handprints – we are going to add to the environment powder paints, colour charts and water pots. To encourage exploring of consistency, how to make different colours and shades and so on.
A time where we’ve seen the power of starting with a question to support a child’s development
Case Study – How do we make a boat?
Several years ago, we were doing the story of Chinese New Year in one of my settings. The group of children at the time loved to use small world animals and puppets to retell a story. This, developed into them wanting to make a raft for some of the animals to cross the river, like in the story. So, the question was posed, how do we make a boat?
We didn’t give the children the answer, we supported them as they raided the art junk modelling resources to see what they thought would work to make a boat. We experimented initially putting different items into the water tray to see what would float (a suggestion from a child). Before a group of children settled on using a cardboard box, they spent time working together cutting sticking and making the shape they wanted.
We then tested our idea putting the cardboard in the water tray and adding plastic animals to see what happened. We observed for some time and talked about our observations, the animals made it sink slightly, they got wet feet. As the cardboard got soggy it didn’t really float anymore. Perhaps, we should try and cut up a plastic milk bottle. Maybe, it needs slightly round sides, because boats aren’t completely flat.
When they came in the next day we tried to make a boat with a milk bottle; it initially kept flipping. And we talked about and watched a video on buoyancy and then we tried again until they had perfectly made a floating boat with small world animals on it. I share this because that one question of how do we make a boat? Opened a whole spectrum of learning, resilience, perseverance, and enquiry. We could of easily of tried to jump in with an answer, looked at it technically, but we would have missed something that was vitally important. Self-discovery, the power of investigating a question for ourselves.
We hope that you’ve enjoyed reading our blog. Do let us know in the comments if you would like us to write more about encouraging curiosity in the early years.
A recording of our webinar, STEM and Traditional Tales in the Early Years. In the past 5-10 years there has been an increasing focus on STEM in education, but not such a focus on STEM being incorporated into the early years. This webinar looks first at what we mean by STEM. Followed by looking at how we can use beloved traditional tales for a basis for STEM activities, provocations and stimuli. Bringing our passion for traditional tales and science together to create beautiful learning opportunities.
5 Ways to Enhance Your Mud Kitchen this Autumn
Autumn is a wonderful season, full of so many learning opportunities for children as they connect with nature. This blog posts explores 5 ways you can easily enhance your mud kitchen this autumn to make the most of the season. Autumn provides us with many treasures that can make it fun as we explore, play and learn in the mud kitchen.
Autumn is a wonderful season, full of so many learning opportunities for children as they connect with nature. This blog posts explores 5 ways you can easily enhance your mud kitchen this autumn to make the most of the season. Autumn provides us with many treasures that can make it fun as we explore, play and learn in the mud kitchen.
An informative 8 page leaflet for early years practitioners, covering the intent, implementation, role of the adult, impact and potential links to the educational programs from children playing in the mud kitchen.
This leaflet forms part of our brand new enabling environment leaflets that intends to unpack learning across the continuous provision and support early years practitioners.
1. Add autumnal loose parts to the mud kitchen
Autumn provides lots of natural loose parts that can provide open-ended learning opportunities for children as they use their imagination in play. Here are some examples of things you can collect:
Acorns
Conkers
Different types and colours of leaves
Twigs and sticks
Chestnuts
Helicopter seeds
Fir Cones
A top tip for displaying them is to put them in open bowls or baskets so that the children can see what is inside.
A webinar recording for early years practitioners who want to unpack the why behind using loose parts in your settings. Do you want to understand the theory and ideas behind the practice, that makes it more than just a current fad or trend to follow. This webinar focuses on the reasons we encourage loose parts play with children in the early years, how it supports development and learning across the early years foundation stage. As well as some practical ideas for introducing loose parts into your continuous provision.
2. Add balancing scales
Balancing scales are a great addition to the mud kitchen. Supporting children to develop an early mathematical understanding of weight and making comparisons; without needing to have developed their numerical understanding yet. Providing lots of opportunities for children to develop a rich mathematical language alongside peers and adults support learning and developing. And with all your autumn treasures you will have lots of things to compare of different weights, shapes and sizes to encourage children’s critical thinking and problem solving.
3. Mud kitchen recipes
Support children’s early literacy and mathematical development through having some special mud kitchen recipe cards designed for using in autumn. These cards have been developed and presented in different ways to support children in phase 2 or 3 phonics; and early mathematical skills e.g. number recognition or counting practise.
Support children’s early literacy and mathematical development in the mud kitchen this autumn, using our crunchy conker cake recipe card. This is available as a pdf and your download includes 3 versions:
A pictorial version encouraging counting.
Pictorial and number version.
Phase 2 phonics version.
A great addition for any mud kitchen.
4. Seasonal vegetables and Fruit
Add seasonal vegetables, such as pumpkins, butternut squashes, crab apples and blackberries to the mud kitchen. Alongside safety knifes so that the children can explore cutting them up and adding them to their recipes.
5. Embrace the rain and dampness!
Along with warm autumn sunny days, we can also experience some lovely very damp and wet autumn days. Consider add a water butt or some kind of vessel that can collect the rain water each day (remember to empty at the end of the day to avoid legionnaires). And jugs and cylinders so that children can begin to measure, and mix in lots of water in their play.
10 Top Tips for Helping Children to Settle into a New Academic Year
With September just around the corner and the summer nearly over, we thought we would share our top ten tips for helping children to settle into their new class or room this September.
With September just around the corner and the summer nearly over, we thought we would share our top ten tips for helping children to settle into their new class or room this September. Whether you have completed visits to other settings, home visits, all about me books, or settle sessions. Or feel like you haven’t quite done enough yet. There are still practical things that we can do in the first few days to help children to settle quickly into the new year.
1. Make sure that all children have a named peg (or photo on a peg) for their first day to help them feel settled and like they belong.
2. Set-up an activity or guide them to an area of the room based on what you know about their likes and interests. For example, on the get to know you teacher day, Amelia’s mum said she loves to play with babies at home. On her first day make sure that the babies are out in the role-play area for her to play with.
3. For children who have English as an Additional Language make sure that you know keywords in their home language or have pictorial cards to help them communicate. For example, toilet, home, snack, food, drink. To ensure that they are able to communicate their basic needs with you.
A recorded version of our webinar, ‘Supporting Children with English as an Additional Language’. The webinar that looks at how professionals working within the early years can support children who have English as an additional language (EAL) with lots of current and practical ideas. As well as useful resources that settings ad early years practitioners can access to support their practice.
You receive a copy of the PowerPoint presentation and a 45 minute webinar recording, that can be watched as many times as you like and at your own convenience. Upon purchase you are sent a link to you to securely download the recording and handout onto your device.
4. Spend time in the first few days establishing the routine with your children. Use a visual time table to help the children know what is coming next in the day.
5. Try and ensure the same person if possible greets them in their first week, offering consistency and a familiar face.
6. Take time to agree class or room rules alongside the children, giving them ownership for the space as co-owners. Not an adults space that they are stepping into.
With children’s mental health week 2024 focusing on the theme ‘My Voice Matters’. We have developed an audit resource to be used in early years settings to ensure that we are capturing the voice of the child through our practice. This tool has been designed to support early years staff reflections and evaluations that can feed into the continuous development of the setting.
This audit tool contains 3 easy to use audits, breaking it down into bitesize chunks.
Key Person Voice of Child
Enabling Environment Voice of Child
Safeguarding Voice of the Child
This document comes in a pdf, allowing you to print and use the pages as and when you need them.
7. Spend time with children 1 on 1 and in small groups to help establish good positive relationships early on. For example, it might be sharing a book together or sitting and drawing together.
8. For children with special educational needs or disabilities, ensure that you have planned and prepared as a team how you are going to meet their needs. If they need additional support with tasks - what will that look like? Who will lead this?
9. Ensure that you have an environment, resources and interactions that promote emotional literacy. For example, emotion resources, opportunities to talk with children about how they might be feeling. Some children may not have the vocabulary yet and might need resources to help them communicate with others there feelings.
10. Get the parents to send in a photo from home of something that the children have done over the summer holiday’s. This can be a great talking point and then can be displayed or made into a book of our summer holiday’s.
What are your top tips for helping children to settle into a new room or class this September? We would love to hear them.
A recording of our popular webinar that looks at unpacking what is emotional intelligence. As well as looking at practical ways that we support children’s emotional intelligence. Supporting children to develop an understanding of their emotions and how to deal with their emotions is a really important part of our role in the early years!
Raising a Generation that is Emotionally Literate
“He is sad, because the happy one hit him. And there are sad clouds above him! Cos that is what sad feels like! Grey clouds above you!” John Aged 4 years.
In recent years we often speak about the importance of emotional literacy and learning from a young age to become emotionally literate. Emotional literacy can be defined as an ability to be able to identify, share, understand, develop empathy; and talk about our emotions (Sharp 2001). With the growing understanding and theoretical ideas around emotional literacy, we see the value to children’s development, self-confidence, self-worth, well-being and indeed the necessity of becoming emotionally literate so the future generation fully succeed and reach their full potential.
A recording of our popular webinar that looks at unpacking what is emotional intelligence. As well as looking at practical ways that we support children’s emotional intelligence. Supporting children to develop an understanding of their emotions and how to deal with their emotions is a really important part of our role in the early years!
For a few months now I have had a little example, knocking around in my head that has given me lots to think about on the topic of emotional literacy, how far we have come and what does this look like in young children. I was participating in some painting with a couple of children who were painting happy and sad faces; completely child-led this was not an adult designed activity or outcome of painting! None the less we were identifying and talking about what they were feeling. We were even talking about what might be making them sad or happy. For example, the boy is sad because there is a monster in his bedroom. Even though we were already having this amazing conversation, I remember, being taken back by J’s (age 4) response to, “tell me about your picture”. I never expected such a profound and articulate response that many adults I know may struggle to express.
“He is sad, because the happy one hit him. And there are sad clouds above him! Cos that is what sad feels like! Grey clouds above you!”
Wow! Right, this is emotional literacy, knowing what feelings are but also developing an ability to express what that emotion feels like to us ourselves. But it is even more, there is a next step to emotional literacy that goes beyond identifying, showing, empathy and talking about emotions. This is a great first step and we do a lot of it in the early years, through our enabling environment and positive relationships. For example, we often have picture books that label emotions with young children within the story area. Or us ourselves as part of our pedagogical approach will say things such as, “I wonder how you are feeling?”, “You look very sad. When I am sad, everything feels heavy”. These are discussions that skilful early years practitioners often have. Supporting children through, open questioning, modelling language and giving them space to explore their emotions in a non-judgemental space.
However, beyond this there are other elements to emotional literacy. Claude Steiner (1979) was one of the first theorists to talk about emotional literacy and he identified 5 elements to emotional literacy. These were:
· Knowing your feelings,
· Empathy,
· Managing your emotions,
· Repairing emotional problems,
· Developing emotional interactivity.
I personally, love this model for breaking down the different aspects of emotional literacy and how the different elements work alongside one another. With the addition of what do we do beyond knowing our feelings, which traditionally has been a massive focus of Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) in the early years. Over the next coming weeks, we are going to use Steiner’s framework of the elements of emotional literacy and break them down and look at them in relation to the first 5 years of children’s lives. What does that element look like, but also how can we support our children through our curriculum and pedagogical approach.
References:
Sharp, P. (2001) Nurturing Emotional Literacy. Oxon: Routledge.
In an ever-changing world we want to see a future generation who have resilience in the face of uncertain circumstances. This package contains several resources for practitioners working in the early years explores what we mean by the term resilience, current research on resilience in early childhood and how as professionals we can support children to develop resilience. As well as making impactful changes to our settings and practise to support the resilience of the setting.
The package includes the following:
Recording of our webinar ‘Emotional Resilience in Early Childhood’ and accompanying PowerPoint presentation.
A certificate to say that you have watched the recording to add to your CPD file.
Emotional resilience in childhood questionnaire.
Impactful training document - allowing individuals to reflect on the webinar and make sure it is impactful to their setting.
Indicators of resilience poster in both pdf and png format.
Resilience intent, implementation and impact reflection form.
4 resilience quote posters in both pdf and png format.
15 Water Play Activity Set Ups
Water play is a fantastic way of supporting children’s development and learning that is fun, exciting, and engaging for children. It also does not have to be elaborate and can be done on a budget. This blog post contains 15 simple water play activities that are easy to set-up in an early years setting or even at home.
Water play is a fantastic way of supporting children’s development and learning that is fun, exciting, and engaging for children. It also does not have to be elaborate and can be done on a budget. This blog post contains 15 simple water play activities that are easy to set-up in an early years setting or even at home.
1. Add sponges and loofahs to water play – This activity is great for developing those muscles in their hands that is crucial for early writing. It also provides the children with a different sensory experience.
2. Add different size containers and bottles from the recycling bin – This is a great way to develop hand-eye coordination as they practise pouring from on container to another. Children will also be developing a simple understanding of capacity.
3. Water balloon painting – Fill water balloons with coloured water and throw them at a canvas or sheet of paper. Great for exploring colour and making marks and developing their gross motor skills.
(Example, of a tea making tray from my own experience. )
4. Have a tea party – Set up a cup of tea tuff tray. Have cups, saucers, teapots, milk pots, sugar bowl and teaspoon and teabags. Great for supporting early mathematical skills, hand-eye coordination, understanding of measuring and capacity e.g., half water half milk.
5. Add tubing and guttering to water play to explore movement – Adding tubing and guttering as loose parts for children to explore and arrange how they like can support problem-solving. It will also really engage those children who are in the trajectory schema and are interested in the movement of themselves and other objects.
This is a recorded version available for teams or individuals of our popular webinar, ‘Again, Again, Again: Schema’s in the Early Years’ for those who cannot attend a live event.
Have you ever wondered why children do certain things again and again? This interactive webinar explores schematic learning, when children repeat certain patterns of behaviour over and over again. We aim to support parents and practitioners in identifying the schema’s that their children may be in and ways to support the different schema’s in our environment, activities and play opportunities.
6. Splat the sound – Write sounds on the playground floor. Fill up water balloons and get the children to say the sound as they splat it. To adapt it for phase one phonics you can have a picture and you need to do the sound it makes, e.g., tick tock for a clock.
7. Add water animals – Add animals to the water tray to support children’s small world play and development of imagination. You could die spaghetti green and use it as seaweed, add stones etc for scenery.
8. Float or sink – I personally love to use a plastic see-through cereal container for floating or sinking. As it helps to illustrate to the children floating and sinking well, as it is much clearer to see sinking goes down to the bottom and floating means sitting on top of the water. Collect a different range of objects. Support children’s STEM skills encouraging them to make predictions, talk about their observations and share ideas with others.
9. Painting with water – Is a mess free way of exploring large scale mark-making. Whether it be on the outdoor walls, fence, or flooring. Think about allowing water painting on different surfaces and angles, e.g., under an outdoor table, laying on the floor or painting on a fence as this will support the development of those all-important elbow pivots and gross motor skills. You can also add different size brushes, rollers, add natural paintbrushes e.g., lavender on the end of a stick or sponges.
10. Potion mixing – Have a range of different pots, pestle and motor, spoons, different coloured water, flowers/greenery, collected petals and have fun mixing potions. Fantastic for developing children’s imagination and creativity as they think of ideas and develop their own interests. Rich in mathematical learning, and a great sensory experience.
11. Bathing toy babies – This is a lovely activity for children to extend on their role-play. As they bath wash and learn to look after their babies. Extending it with having towels and clothes ready to also dry and wash their babies.
12. Paint them, clean them – This is always a firm favourite especially for children who are in the enveloping schema (who like to paint a lovely picture then cover over their carefully painted picture). Simply have different items they can paint, e.g., the tray below has vegetables, but it could be plastic animals or anything of their interest. They get to paint them and then have a bowl of water and clothes next to it, so they can then wash them afterwards.
(Photo taken at Brakey Woods Parent and Child Nature Group)
13. Syringe and pipette play – This is fantastic for supporting fine motor skills, and for developing an interest in the movement of water. You can also add small piping to learn about force and movement through the tubes.
14. Coloured water – Enhance the mud kitchen with different coloured water as the children mix and make their wonderful mud creations.
15. Uh-oh there are holes in the bottles – This is a great one for younger children who are developing their problem-solving and curiosity. Simply collect lots of plastic bottles clean them out and add holes in different places and sit back and watch the children work it out.
International Tiger Day
International Tiger Day happens on the 29th July 2023. It is a chance to celebrate Tigers, and educate around conservation and natural habitats. This blog post explores ways early years settings can get involved in this day.
What is International Tiger Day?
International Tiger Day is a global celebration that happens every year since 2010, to raise awareness about tiger conservation and natural habitats. People around the world celebrate International Tiger Day in a variety of ways, from information sharing too big events. As a company we are passionate believers that children are our future and that we need to teach them about the incredible world that we live in from a very young age. This is why we are supporting International Tiger Day as a company.
When is International Tiger Day?
International Tiger day is celebrated on the 29th July 2023.
A pdf document that includes activities for 4 weeks of finger gym in the early years. It comprises of 20 different activities for you to try with the children in your setting.
Why Celebrate International Tiger Day?
There are many reasons why people celebrate International Tiger Day and below are some of them:
· In 2010 when International Tiger Day was launched, 97% of all wild tigers had disappeared (National Today)
· To protect endangered species and to tackle illegal poaching (National Today)
· To empower the future generation with knowledge about tiger conservation and natural habitats.
· Because children within their early year’s settings are interested in tigers or animals.
· To teach children about our ecosystem.
Ways of Celebrating International Tiger Day in the Early Years?
Raise money to sponsor a tiger as a setting:
One of the things that you can do as a setting is hold a fundraising event to raise money to either sponsor a tiger a setting or support a tiger conservation project. There are lots of things you can do to fundraise money and below are just 5 ideas:
1. Hold a cake sale.
2. Save 20 p’s in a smarties tube – just send smartie tubes home.
3. Pre-loved clothes sale – ask parents to donate their outgrown preloved clothes and sell them to parents that need them for a donation.
4. Sell produce to parents from the nursery’s allotment or vegetable patch.
5. Have a summer fete with hook the duck, splat the rat and traditional games.
Five of our favourite tiger books:
The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr
Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright by Fiona Walters
The Last Tiger by Becky Davies
Never Touch a Tiger! By Rosie Greening
That’s Not my Tiger by Fiona Watt
Three activities to go with the story The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr:
Set up a tea-making tuff tray with cups, saucers, milk, sugar, jugs, tea pots, tea bags and coffees. For the children to develop their physical skills and communication and language through imaginative play. It also gives lots of opportunities for natural mathematics through exploration e.g. exploring capacity such as full, half-full and empty. Or counting how many spoons full of sugar you would like.
Have a tiger tea party and make invites for your friends and make some yummy treats such as cupcakes and sandwiches. Through setting up a tea party and cooking/making food with the children you can cover all areas of the early years foundation stage in a fun and interactive way. From problem-solving how many chairs you need around the table, to practising physical skills as they mark-make their invites, pour ingredients or learning to retell what happened in the story. The possibilities are really endless.
Make tiger masks so that you can be the tiger who came to tea. Whilst doing this activity you might want to look and talk about the patterns on tigers, how are they different to other animals? Can you get the toy small world animals out and look closely?
(Photo Credit: Chestnut Nursery School 2021 - The Tiger Who Came to Tea - Tea Party).
Paint pictures of tigers and have a tiger art gallery:
Use photos and toy tigers as a stimulus to encourage children to have a go at painting their own picture of a tiger. Host a tiger art gallery exhibiting all the children’s amazing artwork.
(Photo credits left to right: Queensway Infant Academy and Nursery (2023), Ducklings Nursery at Middleton Manchester (2021) and Monkey Puzzle Day Nursery Loughton (2021).
India:
70% of the tiger population is in India (National Today), so why not do a mini topic looking at India with the children. Here are five inspirational ideas to get you going on a journey to India:
1. Make passports and tickets, as well as setting up a role play airport and catch a plane to India.
2. Use non-fiction texts to find out information about tigers in India and set up a little news station for the children to share the information they find.
3. Look at different maps and globes and find India.
4. Set up a tuff tray of a tiger habitat and have pictures and information to go with it about tigers in India.
5. Share with children the folktale from India – The Tiger Child. You can find a video of the story here.
We would love to hear how your setting celebrated International Tiger Day. Why not leave us a comment below and let us know?
This is a pdf card that can be used with children in the early years. This recipe is pictorial and has simple instructions. It allows the children to use a balancing scale so that they can independently measure their own ingredients.
School Readiness Report - June 2023
We would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who participated in our school readiness survey, we could not have written and published our first ever official report from Growing Together Developing Early Years…
We would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who participated in our school readiness survey, we could not have written and published our first ever official report from Growing Together Developing Early Years. As a company we feel that it is important that we give back to the early year’s community, but also that we ground what we do in research, developmental theory and lessons from high-quality practice.
Our school readiness report had 3 aims:
· What are early years practitioner’s perspectives of what school readiness is?
· How many children in early years settings are perceived to be school ready?
· What challenges do children face in the area of school readiness?
Over the coming days and weeks, we will be sharing snippets of our findings from the school readiness report via blog posts and our social media channels. Also, raising interesting comments and thoughts about where to go next with the recommendations and what does the early years sector need. You can access and download the full report for free.
This is a piece of explorative research of early years practitioner’s perspectives on school readiness with England. The research found that nearly half of all practitioners felt that 50-74% of their cohort starting school in 2023 are ready to start school. Practitioners discuss that children’s school readiness is impacted by a factor of developmental issues such as delayed speech and language, increase in screen time and the covid-19 pandemic. There are increasing concerns that children’s communication and language development and personal, social, and emotional skills are below the expected level to be school ready; and this has had a detrimental effect on the children who are starting reception class in September 2023.
Abstract
This is a piece of explorative research of early years practitioner’s perspectives on school readiness with England. The research found that nearly half of all practitioners felt that 50-74% of their cohort starting school in 2023 are ready to start school. Practitioners discuss that children’s school readiness is impacted by a factor of developmental issues such as delayed speech and language, increase in screen time and the covid-19 pandemic. There are increasing concerns that children’s communication and language development and personal, social, and emotional skills are below the expected level to be school ready; and this has had a detrimental effect on the children who are starting reception class in September 2023.
Building on children’s curiosity of all things creepy crawly
National Insect Week 2023 is a fantastic week to celebrate in early years settings. Children are often curious, mystified and very interested in our creepy crawlies that we can find outside in our outdoor provisions. There are many ways that we can support and build upon children’s interests in everything insect related.
Children are often curious, mystified and very interested in our creepy crawlies that we can find outside in our outdoor provisions. There are many ways that we can support and build upon children’s interests in everything insect related. This blog posts shares lots of ideas and inspiration for anyone who is participating in National Insect Week 2023 or just have insect loving children!
Bug Box Carrier
The Carrier Contains
bug books
bug pots
identification cards
clipboards
notepads
pens
pencils
magnifying glasses
rulers
mini microscope
multilink for non-standard unit measuring
paintbrushes (to be gentle when moving insects)
This is a great resource to create for children on the go, to take wherever they find their creepy crawlies. It also keeps everything together and in the same place so you can easily find things in the moment to follow on children’s interests.
The very hungry caterpillar recording is a quick 30 minute webinar, looking at the story of the very hungry caterpillar and how this can be used as a stimuli to support cross curricula learning across the early years. With the story being dusted of on many early years bookshelves this spring across the country, we thought it was a good time to bring this webinar back as a recording, meaning you can watch it at a time that suits you. And also as many times as you like with the accompanying PowerPoint presentation with all the ideas.
Bug Themed Nursery Rhymes and Songs
Rhymes and songs are fantastic for children’s learning and development and there are lots of insect themed songs out there. Here are one of my favourite nursery rhymes for an insect topic. It is a fantastic song that can incorporate finger play for young children, supporting their physical development, as well as their proprioception and vestibular sense.
Here is the beehive.
But where are all the bees?
Hiding away where nobody sees.
Here they come flying out of their hive.
One, two, three, four, five!
Here is the beehive.
But where are all the bees?
Hiding away where nobody sees.
Here they come flying out of their hive.
One, two, three, four, five!
Buzz up high. Buzz down low.
Buzzing fast. Buzzing slow.
Buzz to the left. Buzz to the right.
Buzz all day but sleep at night.
Here is the beehive.
But where are all the bees?
Hiding away where nobody sees.
Here they come flying out of their hive.
One, two, three, four, five!
Insect and Bug Books
Sharing books with children has a variety of benefits from supporting their communication and language development, extending their vocabulary. Developing attachment and relationships as you share books together. To developing early literacy skills and a love for reading. They can also be a great source of information gathering for young children.
These are five of my favourite bug related books to share with children under five years old.
Insect Tuff Trays
(Photo credits: Images 1-3 from Growing Together Developing Early Years, Images 4 and 5 Happy Feet Nursery Watton, Image 6 My Environment Family Day Care on Facebook 30.09.2021, Image 7 Bear Hugs Nursery, Image 8 Active Learning Childcare).
Tuff trays like the images above can support children’s learning through tactile experiences, promoting sensory placed learning. They can also help to develop their communication and language skills and imaginations as they play and explore in the different trays.
Feed Slugs and Snails
Pop out some cucumber or lettuce out and sit back and observe how snails and slugs eat. You can look closely using a magnifying glass and have bug books close to hand for information. A top tip for when moving bugs/insects is to move them gently using a paintbrush to avoid squishing or hurting them,
Science Experiment - Hovering Butterflies
What do you need:
tissue paper,
scissors,
cotton,
tape,
stapler or paperclips,
magnetic wand.
Instructions:
Cut out small butterflies using tissue paper.
Staple or paperclip one end of the butterfly to the piece of cotton and stick the second end using tape to the table.
Use a magnetic wand above the butterflies. You should be able to get the butterfly to hover below in the magnetic field.
Insects and Clay
Push toy insects into clay, so that you get a nice print of the different insects. You can then leave them to dry before painting and decorating how you wish.
Movement Game
Support children’s physical development and listening attention and understanding through a simple adult-led instruction based game. Ask the children to move like different insects for example, scuttle like a beetle, flap like a butterfly, march like ants and so on. You can also differentiate the game up encourage children to move like an insect in response to different music or instruments. Thinking about what insect does it sound like?
Please note that this blog was originally written for National Insect Week 2023 and updated in 2025.
5 Top Tips for Parents: To help their child be ready to start school.
As a parent or carer, we can often feel a lot of pressure around getting our children ‘school ready’. We might have well intentioned parents, grandparents’ friends, who start conversations with “When so-so started school they were writing their name!”…
As a parent or carer, we can often feel a lot of pressure around getting our children ‘school ready’. We might have well intentioned parents, grandparents’ friends, who start conversations with “When so-so started school they were writing their name!”. As we live in a society that loves to compare and shows everyone’s best lives not their struggles this can often leave people feeling unsure, or like we are not doing good enough.
In our previous blog what is school readiness (read here), we discussed how school readiness is much more then perhaps the societal perceptions that have been held for many years. But actually, it is making sure that children have the underpinning communication and language, personal social and emotional and physical development in order to be ready to start school. So, for example, they can listen and follow instructions, they can express their wants and needs to others, they have good large and small physical movements, and they can play alongside others.
1. Share books – Books are a great way of supporting children’s communication and language development. Also, it can help to create a love for literacy from a young age, is great for supporting personal, social, and emotional development as you bond with your child as you read. Also, books can help to support your child’s listening and attention skills.
2. Sing nursery rhymes – There is lots of research out their showing how fantastic nursery rhymes are for supporting children’s communication and language development. As well as their early literacy development. Meme Fox is often famously quoted for saying that children who know 8 nursery rhymes by the age of 4 years old are some of the best readers at the age of 8 years old.
3. Visit the park – Visit the local park and climb tree, roll down a hill, play on the swings, climb on the climbing frame and apparatus. Or take your bikes and scooters and go for a ride. Children need to have developed their proprioception, vestibular senses, and gross motor skills before they are ready to sit and show control over a pencil.
4. Support your children to dress themselves – Practise doing fastenings for example, zips and buttons on clothes so that children can do this independently themselves. Encourage children to dress themselves in the morning. Teach them how to know which way round they put their shoes on, for example, using a sticker cut in half that they have to match up to get their shoes the right way round.
5. Practise your route to school – Familiarity can help with the transition to school. So whether you will be walking, biking or taking the car practising the route to school and talking about what you see on the way can support children to become familiar and confident with the experience.
School Readiness Series: How Can We Support Children to be School Ready?
So, the big question is what does this look like in reality? What is the support we give our children, so that we help them to be ready with the very best start through our early year’s provisions. We are going to break down the understanding of school readiness into areas, allowing us to discuss practical examples for each one.
Our last blog that you can find here, discussed what is school readiness regarding supporting our children to be ready to start reception class. This blog is going to consider how early years practitioners, from childminders to nurseries or preschools can support children within their care to become school ready. When we are thinking about school readiness, we want children to be confident, resilient, independent and to be managing their own self-care when they start school and children who have a good level of development in the prime areas of development.
So, the big question is what does this look like in reality? What is the support we give our children, so that we help them to be ready with the very best start through our early year’s provisions. We are going to break down the understanding of school readiness into areas, allowing us to discuss practical examples for each one.
Supporting Self-Care
When we think about self-care in the early years we are thinking about those physical skills or actions children develop to look after their bodies. For example, being able to dress themselves, feed themselves or brush their teeth. These everyday life activities that crucial to a healthy body and mind. Self-care is also about learning to look after our emotional well-being to be kind to ourselves and learn to regulate or behaviour and respond to our emotions and what we might do (we discuss supporting emotional well-being later in the blog when we look at supporting PSED).
Ideas to support children with their physical skills to support their self-care:
1. Busy fastening boards – that include a range of different cloth fastenings for children to practise.
2. Practise using knife and forks in playdough.
3. Self-service snack and encouraging children to pour their own drinks.
4. Sticker shoe trick to help children put their own shoes on. Cut a sticker in half and stick half inside each shoe, the children have to match it up to put their shoes in the right feet.
5. Cooking activities with children that encourage them to use tools and knifes.
6. Finger gym and fine motor activities, developing the muscles and coordination in those hands.
7. Water play to develop children’s all important hand eye coordination.
8. School uniform dress up – (great for also supporting children’s emotional well-being, as well as giving them the opportunity to practise)
Ideas for supporting children to learn about their hygiene needs:
1. Nose wiping stations.
2. Visuals in bathrooms showing children when they might need to wash their hands and how to wash hands.
3. A curriculum that promotes oral health (see our previous blog here).
4. Role-play, e.g. washing, dressing and looking after the baby dolls.
Supporting Physical Development
When children start school we often have a societal view of wanting them to be able to hold a pencil correctly to form letters. But what we want for our children goes far beyond this, because actually there is so many skills that children need before they are ready to write. For example, we need to have developed our gross motor skills, our shoulder pivots, elbow pivots and wrists pivots. Before we then go on to strengthen the muscles in our hands and fine motor skills. We need to have developed our core-body strength and stability so that we can sit and write. We need to have hand-eye coordination, and developed our vestibular and proprioception sense.
Therefore before we challenge children to form letters and hold a pencil we need to be working on those skills through encourage active play, climbing running, dancing, parachute games. We need to give children the opportunity to explore large scale mark-making such as mop painting, painting with rollers using those gross motor skills. As well as mark-making at different angles in order to develop elbow pivots. We need to roll down hills, squat and listen as we look at bugs and have endless opportunities to be physical within our enabling environments.
Here is a recorded version of our webinar, ‘Before I Can Write’. For individuals or teams to watch together as part of your continuous professional development. There is the opportunity to pause for discussions or self-reflection within the webinar. This recording has been made for those that have wanted to attend a live event but have not been able to.
This webinar explores how we cannot simply force children to write, before they are ready to learn to write there are many skills that they need to develop. This includes their communication and language, physical skills and imagination. This webinar begins to introduce some of the skills children need before they can write.
Building Children’s Confidence, Resilience and Independence
Starting school is a big transition for most children and they are likely to be feeling a variety of emotions, big and small, good and bad. All emotions are okay and what we want is for our children to be resilient and be able to bounce back from different and difficult situations and show autonomy over their learning. For example, it is okay if I have to wait for my turn on the red bike; because I can apply the skills I have learnt in preschool, such as I can ask someone when they finish to let me know. Or we could use a timer to help us take turns. Also, when children are independent in their learning we see higher levels of motivation and learning, as they take ownership over what they are doing.
So we want to work on building children’s confidence, so that they are willing to have a go, see what happens and develop their own curiosity. This can be fostered through a curriculum and pedagogical approach that is open-ended, child-initiated and that promotes curiosity and enquiry based learning. For example, Harry found a ladybird in the garden and was talking to his friends about it. He looked closely at the dots and wings. This led onto a discussion about where we should put the ladybird and the children use non-fiction texts alongside a member of staff to find out about where ladybirds live and to make a home for it. The children also went on to do more bug hunts and insect related activities.
In an ever-changing world we want to see a future generation who have resilience in the face of uncertain circumstances. This package contains several resources for practitioners working in the early years explores what we mean by the term resilience, current research on resilience in early childhood and how as professionals we can support children to develop resilience. As well as making impactful changes to our settings and practise to support the resilience of the setting.
The package includes the following:
Recording of our webinar ‘Emotional Resilience in Early Childhood’ and accompanying PowerPoint presentation.
A certificate to say that you have watched the recording to add to your CPD file.
Emotional resilience in childhood questionnaire.
Impactful training document - allowing individuals to reflect on the webinar and make sure it is impactful to their setting.
Indicators of resilience poster in both pdf and png format.
Resilience intent, implementation and impact reflection form.
4 resilience quote posters in both pdf and png format.
Personal Social and Emotional Development
By the time children start school we want them to be able to begin to take turns with others. Remember this is a hard skill and sometimes, especially if it is something very important to us, we still may need a little bit of support with sharing. But we want to to be able to share those resources, take turns in games and also in conversations, understanding that is a two way flow of information. There are many games or activities out there that we can do to support children with turn-taking throughout our continuous provision and adult-led activities:
Orchard toys games - orchard toys have a variety of games designed for this age range that are great for promoting simple turn taking.
Taking it in turns to be helpers - for example, snack helpers.
Using timers with popular toys as a resource to help children take turns.
Games such as sound lotto.
Puzzles that children have to work collaboratively together to achieve.
We also want children to be able to express their emotions and share how they are feeling with others, and to be able to self-regulate their behaviour. For example, I know that I am feeling cross, I cannot control this feeling, but I can take a break from my friend or do something physical to help me manage this feeling. This is also, going back to self-care helping children to learn to respond to their emotional needs and to take care of themselves.
A recording of our popular webinar that looks at unpacking what is emotional intelligence. As well as looking at practical ways that we support children’s emotional intelligence. Supporting children to develop an understanding of their emotions and how to deal with their emotions is a really important part of our role in the early years!
Communication and Language Development
When children start school we want them to have the basic communication and language skills to be able to communicate effectively with adults and peers. To be able to listen and follow simple 2 part instructions, to enjoy listening to books and rhymes and join in retelling stories and singing nursery rhymes. We want them to be able to listen and focus on a conversation, staying on topic and following it and to be confident to communicate their wants and interests to others.
There are many ways that we can support children’s communication and language skills, through sharing a range of books or singing nursery rhymes. To making sure that we have language rich environment and communication friendly spaces. For children we have concerns about we can use intervention tools such as WellComm to support their communication and language development. High quality interactions between staff and children are also crucial in supporting early communication and language development. As well as offering a variety of phase one phonics activities that is going to help children to begin to listen, tune in and talk about different sounds that they hear.
School Readiness Series: What is School Readiness?
With last week being the day that expectant parents across the UK find out what primary school their children had been accepted into the term ‘school readiness’ has come back into focus. ..
With last week being the day that expectant parents across the UK find out what primary school their children had been accepted into the term ‘school readiness’ has come back into focus. As schools, nurseries, childminders, preschools, and families get ready for those all-important transitions into reception in September 2023. And teachers in primary schools and families across the UK are helping children to prepare and become ready for their transition into Key Stage One.
School readiness has been a term that has been widely used in the past several years, particularly alongside the focus of concerns that more and more children across the UK are not ready to start school. For example, Watkins (2018) from Save the Children discussed how the UK government claims that 1 in 4 children are not meeting the expected level of development before starting school and how we are already letting them down. This has shockingly increased in the covid-19 pandemic where reception class teachers reported in a government survey that more then half their children were not ready to start reception and 88% of teachers and teaching assistants were having to spend more of their time with children who were not reaching their developmental milestones (Lawler 2022).
So, this leaves us with the question of what does school readiness actually look like? PHE (2015, p.4) defines “School readiness is a measure of how prepared a child is to succeed in school cognitively, socially and emotionally.” Although, it is worth noting that there is no national definition of school readiness and is somewhat a debate of what age group school readiness applies to; is these children starting school in reception or is it getting them ready to begin their journey into the national curriculum and key stage one? (Ofsted 2014). This is before the then criteria differ from setting to setting as to our own pedagogical beliefs, curriculum and what we view as being school ready.
For the sake of this blog series, we are considering what school readiness looks like for those children that are going into reception class in September. Below is an image of page 6 from the document Improving School Readiness Creating a Better Start for London by Public Health England (PHE) (2015). Highlighting their views of what school readiness at the age of 4 looks like and the skills, development, and experiences we are expecting our 4-year-olds to have.
This document is also a very useful document for highlighting the why (intent) behind focusing on school readiness in the UK and the benefits of investing in school readiness to support children’s development, learning and the impact on future outcomes.
Another, popular poster that is commonly used with early years settings is The Road to School poster by Nursery Resources. This poster shares similar skills and attributes that as an early year’s community we are looking for children to be able to do to be school ready. As well as the steps to starting school from PACEY.
Find a downloadable version of this here from PACEY.
To me as an early year’s consultant being school ready is having a good level of development in the prime areas, communication and language, physical development, and personal, social and emotional development. As well as having begun to develop a lifelong love for learning, based in being curious and inquisitive. It is being able to talk about your own emotions and coregulating alongside experienced teachers. It is being independent for example, dressing yourself, feeding yourself, being able to make choices, having confidence to talk to others that are in your class. It is having the basic communication and language needs to listen and pay attention, to communicate their needs and to share ideas and make friends. It is also about have good gross motor and fine motor skills ready for learning. Everything else will come at the time that is right for the children. Because these3 areas of learning are going to underpin everything, so being school ready is making sure children are strong and confident in these areas of learning!
References:
Lawler (2022) Half of all children are not ready for school [accessed online 28.04.2023]
PACEY (year unknow) Steps to Starting School, [accessed online 28.04.2023]
https://www.pacey.org.uk/Pacey/media/Website-files/PACEY%20general/Steps-to-starting-school.pdf
Public Health England (2015) Improving School Readiness Creating a Better Start for London [accessed online 28.04.2023] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/459828/School_readiness_10_Sep_15.pdf
Watkins (2018) Mind the Gap Getting Our Children Ready for School [accessed online 28.04.2023]