The Friendship Quilt: Sewn with Stories, Kindness and Belonging
The year 2023 marked our 120th anniversary, celebrating a long and fascinating history that began in 1903 when a group of doctors and almoners came together to tackle poverty in…
LEYF News and CEO Blog
Read the latest news and updates from our CEO and the wider LEYF team.
Rights, Relationships and Respect: A Timely Book for EY Professionals
There are some books that arrive at exactly the right moment, and Babies’ and Toddlers’ Rights in Practice by Mary Moloney,…
Don’t’s Dump the EYFS, Just Tweak it
About a year ago, the Government suggested that it might need to refresh the EYFS and the Early Learning Goals. This elicited limited support from the sector. We were worried…
Volunteering is good for our social purpose
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…
Stand Up With One Voice
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…
Why It’s Worth the Effort of Bringing Your Practice to a Research Conference
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…
Should there be more Social Enterprises in Childcare?
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…
Train Your Baby Like A Dog?
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…
The Launch of the first Early Years Chef Academy
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…
Child Poverty Affects Us All… and that means YOU!
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…
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…