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…
Cleaning my teeth with Laura Henry & other surprises from a Trip to Froebel’s Birthplace
Recently, I wrote about the importance of visiting other nurseries so I was delighted when I was given a “golden ticket” by Community Playthings to visit…
Visiting Each Others Nurseries Brings Many Benefits – From Social Enterprises to Fairy Gardens
Recently, I was lucky enough to enjoy the company and conversation of a number of Early Years colleagues; I met colleagues from OMEP Ireland and…
Balancing Good Intentions with Reality? Another Challenge for Childcare.
The Government wants to upgrade the calibre of staff entering the Early Years profession. So indeed does the sector, so what’s the problem?…
Why we need to learn from the past and become Black Box Thinkers
It’s been a while since I went to a sector event so I decided to attend an event hosted by PACEY last week to hear if our Minster had anything…
Baby You’re Amazing
Action research is very important for quality improvement and at LEYF it’s the basis of self reflection. We believe that practitioner led research is an often underused method of ensuring quality…
Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves…
March is women’s month. Starting with Mother’s Day on the 6th and International Women’s Day on the 8th – it means that we can look forward to enjoying and participating…
Aspiring Leaders; Can you afford to ignore this opportunity?
‘If you want to be an emotionally intelligent leader you need to do the aspiring leaders course.’ Mursal Great leadership is an essential ingredient to making an organisation, whether it’s outstanding nurseries…
London Ofsted Big Conversation
London Ofsted Big Conversation – 19th January 2016 (Hosted by Ofsted at Aviation House & Chaired by June O’Sullivan) In attendance from Ofsted Mike Sheridan Regional Director…
Are you afraid of Policy Makers?
I began this year with an irrational fear of getting locked into loos. It was brought on by an incident on Christmas Eve when I got locked in the nursery…
Will 2016 be the year the Government will Properly Fund Childcare?
We return from the Christmas break to all the usual doom and gloom, including the usual diets and a ban on alcohol forever. Clearly, the person who suggested this has…
The Twelve Days of Christmas
On the first day of Christmas the Minister sent to me:‘A Partridge in a Pear Tree’ – actually no… ‘A promise to make childcare truly free?’…
The 30 Hours Costing Conundrum: Is it time for the Big Childcare Conversation? #BCC
For those of you who have just landed after living on Mars for the last few years here is a summary of the 30 hours promise by…