Packed lunches: I just want the right to say no!
Do you want the right to ban packed lunches from your setting because of Health & Safety concerns? The recent legal challenge to the Early Years in February, was…
LEYF News and CEO Blog
Read the latest news and updates from our CEO and the wider LEYF team.
Supporting ECEC for Infants Under Two
What We Learned from the Nursery World Webinar The Governments policy to expand “childcare” for children from 9 months by funding 30 hours ECEC is driving demand and anxiety in…
Early Years inspiration amidst the gathering of the clans in Leeds
I have just come back from a two day NDNA conference in Leeds, accompanied by two of our nursery officers – Audrey Grant from Lisson Green and…
Science, culture and the great outdoors: the rights of every child
We have it in our power to build the world anew.” Thomas Paine 1737 -1809 To celebrate 25 years of wedded bliss (well, most of the time), my…
Early Years, Dragons and Dolly Parton… or how bankers became our new best friends
The last few weeks have been a bit of an intellectual whirlwind, which always gets me really excited. So for those people who think working with children is all about…
So we are all Social Enterprises Now? LOL!
I read in this week’s Third Sector magazine that Kevin Carey chair of the RNIB told the Charity Finance Directors Group that the charity…
Child poverty: will this new strategy finally make progress stick?
This weekend, I spent some time helping my sister (also in Early Years!) go through her old teaching resources in readiness to move them into a new space. Amongst the…
Is happiness the greatest gift we can give our children?
This weekend the TV presenters continually referred to the joy and happiness created by the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. Images…
Social franchising and the LEYF Experience
For those wonderfully supportive people who follow this blog, you may have noticed a gap in production; this is because I have been staying in the Shropshire…
EYFS: the real values behind our ‘nappy curriculum’
This week we received the official recommendations from the Review of the Early Years Foundation Stage led by Dame Clare Tickell. It’s quite a…
No half measures when it comes to social impact
There is much talk at the moment about the importance of measurement, including a reference to it in many of the speeches I listened to during the…
Big society grants: plus ça change…
I have learned that if I am to truly avoid all contact with the world of work, then I need to go abroad without a phone or internet access. To…
Down on the farm, cultivating an organic approach to Big Society
Alongside the delight of being Chief Executive of LEYF, I am also chair of Paddington Farm Trust. Established as a charity 20 years ago…
Ready to grasp the nettle of our ‘hands-free’ future?
What would Lord Shaftsbury, Mary Carpenter or Dr Barnardo make of the ongoing political battle of what to cut and what to save? …