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…
An inspector calls… and the sector arrives to listen and ponder.
On Friday morning I traipsed up to Camden to hear Sir Michael Wilshaw, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills announce his…
Get on the train to Brussels and make new friends.
Reading documents from the European Commission require some preparation: firstly a cup of tea and a packet of Fig Rolls; secondly some good music…
The Power of Good Old Fashioned Care: Love, Chat and Adele
A few weeks ago Wave Trust in partnership with the DfE published its report Conception to Age 2 – The Age of…
Can the Genie of the Lamp help us find the best staff in Early Years?
There was a flurry of activity at our Central Office last week because we were interviewing for new staff. We need new staff because we have increased our capacity…
Mr Osborne, go to Ireland and talk Early Years over a cup of tea and a Kimberley
(While I am desperate to blog about our work with Europe and the recent Wave Trust report Conception to age 2 – the age…
To Inveraray for an Early Years Conference with Paul Brannigan…
(Alice Sharp, Mrs Patterson and Mr Patterson – but not Mrs Patterson Mr Patterson – also along for the ride!)…
Nurseries cost more than private schools. Well of course they do – duh..!!
I am breaking my rule of one blog post a week, because tweeting simply cannot give credibility to the confusion in the media elicited by the annual…
A visit from our Minister
This week LEYF hosted a visit for our Minister Elizabeth Truss MP. We were pleased to welcome her and…
Can President Obama supply the Haribo needed to bang out an Early Years investment proposition?
UK politicians and policy makers oscillate between venerating Europe and the US. We all now know of our Minister…
A Happy Valentine’s date in Paris with French nurseries!
Valentine’s Day in Paris. Yep, there I was. Not arm in arm with my beloved, but trudging across the otherwise romantic capital of France visiting nurseries. Part of a group of…
Remember the lessons of Stafford Hospital and listen to Florence Nightingale: don’t let the same happen to two year olds!
The Francis Report on the scandals of Stafford Hospital was published last week, and unless you have never been in the…
A swan and a lark: why the Government’s new childcare report may be the stone that kills both birds
The Government’s new childcare report was launched last week by Elizabeth Truss MP Parliamentary Under-Secretary for State (education and…