
D is for Disadvantaged: What Does that Mean?
“Disadvantage” is one of those terms we bandy about in policy papers and conference keynotes, but what do we mean by it? Do we understand the lived reality behind the…
Read the latest news and updates from our CEO and the wider LEYF team.
“Disadvantage” is one of those terms we bandy about in policy papers and conference keynotes, but what do we mean by it? Do we understand the lived reality behind the…
Talking Early Years: June O’Sullivan and Sue Egersdorff The world is changing fast. Technology is accelerating how we live, work and even care, but in that rush, you…
I am always happy to support staff who want to volunteer with organisations around the world especially when they are helping children. We have encouraged staff who wanted to use…
I rarely say no to an invitation to speak about Early Years in Ireland, and this weekend was no exception. I therefore found myself in Athlone, a small town…
Four LEYF staff recently attended the annual EECERA conference. This year it was held in the friendly hot and very humid city of Thessaloniki, a city suffering from the…
I operate in two worlds; Early Years and Social Enterprise. Every now and then they converge, and I find myself invited to a most unusual or unexpected event. That happened…
Last week, I had a panicky phone call from my friend Alice Sharp asking me to get on twitter and read about the Channel 4 programme which proposes using…
I recently found a letter I had written in 2014 to the London boroughs arguing that if we were serious about stemming childhood obesity we needed to work together to…
There is no poverty in the UK I hear you cry. Really? Let’s start by looking at what we mean by poverty and the statistics. There is currently no formal…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…