August is the high point of Summer – and this month’s magazine aims to make it one for your children to remember. We’ve got all the bases covered, from a wealth of seasonal, practical activities to a guide to how Understanding the World is changing in the revised EYFS. There are also plenty of in-depth reads on topical issues, including supporting LGBTQ+ families, an exploration of cultural perceptions of play and advice on helping children to make sense of bereavement.
Best practice features:
- EYFS reforms – Understanding the World
What do we mean by UTW in the context of the early years, and what do practitioners need to know about supporting it amid changes to the EYFS? Early years expert Judith Twani unpicks the changes and outlines the importance of firsthand experiences for children. - Inclusion: Supporting LGBTQ+ families in your setting
Julia Manning-Morton, with input from her daughter Billie, writes from her own experience of how settings can be welcoming towards all types of families and avoid the negative effects of stereotyping. - Building kind children
Author Helen Garnett explores how best practice through the co-regulation of adults can encourage children to develop kindness and empathy. - Coping with bereavement: Each year around 41,000 children experience the death of a parent. Nicole Weinstein examines how children can be helped to make sense of their feelings by speaking honestly and openly about death.
- Health and nutrition: Children’s natural antipathy towards many vegetables tends to be based on their bitter taste. But Meredith Jones Russell highlights why it is important to encourage them to become familiar with a wide range of vegetables from the age of two onwards
- Cultural perceptions of play: Caroline Vollans describes how in one East London setting, parents of Bangladeshi descent showed a cultural and generational divide in attitudes towards play and gender.
In our activity section: a project explores how children collaborated to create a rainbow shed while Julie Mountain'soutdoor calendar for August provides a wealth of unusual, creative activities. Diane Boyd examines the importance of an equitable jobs market as part of the sustainable development goals and Dr Lala Manners outlines why balancing plays such a vital role in physical develop for birth to threes. In essential resources we take a look at block play and recommend a wide range of different building blocks.
- In our management section:
Staff health and wellbeing part 5 – a look at how mental and physical health are closely linked, and how a wellbeing policy needs to focus on both. - Training: Our new series qualification levels investigates the latest developments in Level 2 qualifications, including the L2 Early Years Apprenticeship.
- CPD Outdoors part 8 – Engaging with the local community can support outdoor learning, but what are the best ways that early years settings can embrace this?
- Webinar: Ben Barbanel, head of debt finance at OakNorth Bank, and Cary Rankin, chief executive of Thrive Childcare and Education join NW’s editor-in-chief Liz Roberts for a frank discussion about the early years business outlook.
- News, analysis and opinion includes:
Analysis:With the pandemic having a disastrous impact on the funding of Nursery Schools, head teachers speak out about the urgent need for Government to find a solution.
Opinion: Sarah Brown, with Professor Pauline Rose, calls for more aid to be given to pre-primary education in the poorest parts of the world; Nanny Keziah Warne describes how she supported a family through bereavement.
Interview: Developer of the Oliiki parenting app, Clare Stead, and UCL researcher Laura Outhwaite, explain the thinking behind the development of the free app and what it offers to parents of young children.
