Talking Early Years: In Conversation with Howard Roberts
The Curiosity Code What makes people tick? Why do we care about certain brands—or causes—more than others? And how do we spark genuine emotional connection, not just polite head-nods?…
LEYF News and CEO Blog
Read the latest news and updates from our CEO and the wider LEYF team.
Strengthening Practice Through Research – EECERA
LEYF at EECERA 2025 Wrapped up with a Bow for You! Attending an EECERA conference established by the wonderful Chris Pascal and Tony Bertram has become a LEYF ritual. …
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…
Politics is not welcome in the nursery
I write this blog with a sense of anger and despair. Even playing Verdi very loudly and a glass of wine could not quell my alarm. Why such gloom? Our…
Asking Robin Van Persie to kick the childcare football straight into the Equalities net
Childcare is flavour of the week and quickly becoming a political football. I wish we had an equivalent Robin Van Persie to either land the childcare ball in the…
The childcare cost mystery: is it time for Monsieur Poirot to visit the Treasury?
We are all aware that the cost of childcare is too expensive for many parents. Yet the Government says it…
Welcome to 2013: dump resolutions and LOL.
I have long rejected beginning the New Year with a hangover, and am even less keen to create a bunch of resolutions that rarely survive the month of January, let alone…
A fond farewell to 2012… or should that be ‘Au Revoir’?
As we rush to the end of a very speedy 2012, I thought I would review the year through the lenses of my 42 blogs. From…
Ofsted Annual Report? A great read, but please tell us something we don’t already know.
Last week Ofsted produced its Annual Report, the first from her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children Services and Skills, Sir Michael Wilshaw. It…
Will the arrival of a Royal baby raise the profile of Early Years?
Hurrah, the press finally have something new to focus on now the Duchess is having a Royal Baby. Poor old Kate, suffering not just morning sickness but…
What do women want? Better ask the Spice Girls.
The Margaret Horn Big Conversation happened last week on Social Enterprise…
Could more men in childcare have a real and lasting effect on the inherent prejudices of society (or only as long as the media take an interest)?
What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation. Cicero Was it fortuitous or bad timing…