Talking Early Years: In conversation with Frank Cottrell-Boyce
If you have been frog marched through books, why would you ever read for pleasure? The award-winning author and screenwriter Frank Cotterell-Boyce is the 13th Children’s Laureate of…
LEYF News and CEO Blog
Read the latest news and updates from our CEO and the wider LEYF team.
Lessons We Must Learn to Better Protect Our Children
In Memory of Genevieve Meehan Tonight, BBC One North West and Yorkshire will air an investigative programme titled How Safe Are Our Nurseries? It follows the heartbreaking story of Genevieve…
Ready, Steady: The New Education Inspection Framework has Arrived
It was the longest and largest consultation Ofsted has ever undertaken (four months with 100 focus groups and 250 pilots across the sector) and consequently 15,000 people replied. Lesson to…
Whatever happened to lifelong learning?
The debate about what is education continues unabated. The DfE annoyed and baffled many last month when they announced that they did not advocate using the word learning because…
Cultural Capital in Action
Last week, one of our LEYF nurseries curated a pop-up art exhibition at a central venue in London’s Soho. The art which was auctioned by the manager…
Social Enterprise: using ethical fashion to change lives and save the planet
Many will have watched the Extinction Rebellion unfolding on the streets of Westminster with probably a mixture of bemusement, support and irritation. In the last week I have experienced all…
What is Cultural Capital?
To be honest, cultural capital is not the usual conversation piece. But it is both a conscious and unconscious part of our everyday lives. Now that Ofsted has introduced the…
Going to Bath for a Bath
I arrived on Friday evening (15 March) in a wet Bath for the Firm Foundations Conference. A wet bath was also just perfect metaphor for my life at the…
Save the Curly from Losing Its Wurly
I have taken Brexit like the rest of the UK, a bit like a grief response, shock, anger, fear, sadness and gradual acceptance but a small piece of satirical…
Happy International Women’s Day
Everything starts somewhere, and as the notices for International Women’s Day (IWD) started to proliferate, I wondered about its origins and its purpose. IWD can be traced back to…
Enjoy Books on World Book Day, Don’t Worry too Much about Dressing Up!
I grew up in a world where reading was a normal pastime. I didn’t have access to many books at home but I was an avid library fan. I went…
Reclaim the Outdoors For Children
I was invited to talk to Eamonn Holmes at talkRADIO the other week about a news story that commented on our intention to try and ensure that of the…
Don’t Call Me Sweet: I am a Fast, Furious and Fabulous Early Years Teacher
I was visiting a LEYF nursery on the Wandsworth Bridge Road and Shandrika the deputy manager was engaging a in a deep pedagogical conversation with me. Then she stopped, sighed…
The London OBC: Consulting on the Consultation
Ofsted has a strategic objective to be a force for improvement through intelligent, responsible and focused inspection and regulation. To do this we must ensure we understand what we mean…