Support, not punish

Children's early years provide an important foundation for their future health and strongly influence many aspects of wellbeing. Children's tastes and eating habits are also formed early in life with consequences for growth, development, health and academic achievement in later life.1-4 Promoting the initiation and optimal duration of breastfeeding and good nutrition in the early years can reduce the prevalence of later obesity and associated chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some cancers.5 Hence, the most cost-effective nutrition interventions focus on this window of opportunity.6 With over 1.3 million registered early years places in England7 and an increasing number of full day-care places,8 early years settings provide an invaluable opportunity to help children to eat well and engage with families to encourage development of healthy eating habits at home. All regulated early years settings in England are required to follow the mandatory standards for learning, development and care of children from birth to five years as set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework.9 The framework includes a welfare requirement for the provision of 'healthy, balanced and nutritious' food and drink, but until recently, there was no national guidance in England to explain what this meant in practice.10Development of the 'Eat Better, Start Better' programmeIn April 2011, the Children's Food Trust11 was awarded a Department for Education grant to develop and deliver the 'Eat Better, Start Better' programme. This programme evolved from two recommendations made by the Advisory Panel on Food and Nutrition in Early Years,12 the development of national food and drink guidelines for early years settings and food and nutrition training for the early years and health workforce. The main aims of the programme are to support healthier food provision in early years settings and in families with young children, and increase the food, nutrition and healthy cooking knowledge, skills and confidence of early years and health practitioners and parents.The programme has been implemented over two phases. As part of Phase 1 (2011-2012), the trust developed the Voluntary Food and Drink Guidelines for Early Years Settings in England13 and practical support tools, and worked collaboratively with five local authority areas to develop and pilot an integrated food and nutrition training and evaluation package. Following successful delivery in Phase 1,14 the programme was rolled out to a further 20 targeted local authorities across England between April 2012 and September 2013.The 'Eat Better, Start Better' programme has been designed to support early years and health professionals to confidently cascade age-appropriate, nutrition advice to early years settings and families, helping to ensure that children and parents receive consistent messages around healthy eating.The programme includes two trainthe- trainer courses (how to use the food and drink guidelines; healthy cooking with families), dissemination of guidance and resources, and regular monitoring of impact using standardised evaluation tools. The Trust's training, accredited by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH),15 acknowledges the unique role health and early years practitioners have in delivering health and education services.Monitoring the impact of the 'Eat Better, Start Better' programmeEvaluation is an integral part of the programme. Following the training, each local authority undertakes baseline and follow-up audit visits in early years settings to assess the impact of the food and drink guidelines and practical tools on settings' approach to and provision of food. To assess the impact of the cooking sessions delivered to families, early years settings report what food was prepared, the skills developed and how many families were involved in the cooking sessions. This information informs an evaluation report for commissioning in local authorities and can be used as evidence of impact for health and wellbeing boards. …

This article considers policies and strategies employed to professionalise the early childhood workforce in England since the Labour government took office in 1997. The term ‘professionalisation’ is associated here with moves towards creating a graduate early years workforce, which could have implications for training, pay and employment conditions, the specific body of knowledge and the professional identity of early years practitioners. The new status of Early Years Professional is explored, which has its legal underpinning in the 2006 Childcare Act. The discussion is informed empirically by the views of a small sample of practitioners training as Early Years Professionals. It is argued that the concept of professionalism applied here does not meet the criteria employed within sociological theories of the professions. It also contrasts with that of other professions working with young children, such as qualified teachers and social workers. Finally, it conflicts with early years practitioners' own views on their professional identity. This process could therefore be regarded as representing a missed opportunity in professionalising the role of early years practitioners in England, but instead it is viewed as a work in progress, in the light of evidence for early years practitioners' professional attitudes and commitment.

Introduction: The article concerns the strategies in the work of early years practitioners in terms of the relationships they create with children, colleagues at work, management or parents. The description of tacit knowledge is presented in the light of the nursery’s resources, not its weaknesses. Research Aim: To show how relational tacit knowledge is visible in the work of early years practitioners in nurseries. Method: The study involved 20 early years practitioners in Warsaw, it was an in-depth interview. The study used the framework of Collins’ theory of explicit and tacit knowledge. The analysis of the interview data was carried out using the MAXQDA 2022 software. The part of the interview concerning the research results presented in this article contained 12 questions. Results: When analyzing the coded fragments about the strategies used in conversations and cooperation with the nursery management, they were divided into two parts. The first part of the strategy is applying them to a manager who is considered to be a trustworthy, helpful, committed, understanding person. The second part of the strategy is to apply them to a manager who is considered to be unpredictable, unorganized, unjust in financial management, unjust in managing employee resources, and uncommitted. Most early years practitioners declare an open strategy of conversation towards their colleagues and children, based on the directness of the message and honesty of expression. The early years practitioners declare that they use the sandwich method with their parents. Conclusions: It was observed that the greatest intensification of informal strategies occurs in the relationship between the early years practitioners and parents. In the statements of the respondents, it was noticeable that even if relational tacit knowledge tries to see the light of day, it is basically one-sided in the form of requirements for parents to meet the expectations of the nursery. It is difficult for parents to implement the rules prevailing in the nursery to the rules prevailing at home.

ABSTRACTEarly years care and education have been high on British political agendas. This includes partnership working between early years practitioners and parents. Yet, more research is needed to examine how childcare staff engage with parents and vice versa. This study addresses the role of position and positioning in parent–practitioner relationships, through two small-scale studies. Study 1 is a quantitative study with two groups of early years students (N = 74); study 2 is a qualitative study with parents and early years practitioners, drawing on ‘synthesised’ discourse analysis as a methodological framework. Although exploratory, in both studies parents are positioned as the infant's first and foremost educators. In addition to this, parents are positioned in terms of deficiencies, in relation to their priorities, and background. At the same time, practitioners are positioned as supportive and willing to cooperate. More research is needed, with a view to empowering both early years practitioners and parents.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine why the uptake of free milk in a particular nursery class was low, to explore the meanings children attribute to drinks given to them in school and those brought from home, and make suggestions as to what might be done to improve children's intake of free school milk.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on a case study of a nursery class attached to a primary school in West London. A total of 24 morning sessions were observed, comprising of 72 snack times. In addition, interviews were carried out with parents and early years' practitioners i.e. teachers and nursery nurses. Children's views were elicited through use of narrative observations and an activity using their drinks' cartons.FindingsThis study found that these young children linked drinks brought in from home to having choices whereas drinking school milk was associated with having little or no choice. Unlike school milk, drinks from home were linked to stories of personal identity and family life. The children seemed to exert pressure on their parents to provide them with a drink from home and appeared to be attracted to drinks that included representations of characters from popular culture as well as particular brands.Research limitations/implicationsThis research is based on one case study, therefore issues raised may not be generalisable to all nursery settings.Practical implicationsThis paper encourages early years' practitioners to look in detail at how they organize snack times and the way that this might contribute to negative perceptions of healthy foods/drinks. It offers practical suggestions around how the uptake of milk could be improved in a nursery setting, emphasizing the need for the active involvement of the children. In addition, the study highlights the importance of informal as well as formal discussions with parents about food and drinks. The study recommends that improvements need to be made to early years' practitioners' initial and subsequent training in this area, given the significant role they play in health promotion.Originality/valueThe value of this paper lies in the way it elicits the active participation of young children in the research as well as the focus on the minutiae of nursery practice and its implications for promoting healthy eating/drinking.

Research (Davis, Elliot, Hagglung, Johansson, Ritchie, Miller, Inoue, Chua, Sageidet, Young, Cutter-Mackenzie, Ji, Stuhmcke, Mackey, Ohillips, Enggahl, Arlemalm–Hagser, Barrat, Barrat–Hacking, Black, Chawla, Rivkin, Gorman, Sundberg, Ottander, Gilbert, Fuller, Palmer, Rose, Farrell, Danby, 2014) has indicated that very young children are capable of supporting the Agenda for Global Action through transformative and creative pedagogical approaches utilised through their environments, that are informed and practiced by knowledgeable early education practitioners and leaders. The early years offers multiple opportunities to surround young children with the awe and wonder of their world, linking to their local cultures, as they seek to question, challenge and access possibilities to transform their families and communities. Beach Kindy utilises the natural environment of the coastline, at sites that demonstrate the biodiversity of the planet. Water, for example, is recognised not only as an effective medium and tool for education for sustainable development but also its immense capacity to support holistic, interconnected areas within early childhood education. However, it is acknowledged that this approach is not without challenges. The four home nations that make up the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland Scotland and Wales) have distinct early years curriculum frameworks and this paper focuses on the English framework, The Early Years Foundation Stage (The Department of Education (DfE) (2014). The DfE (2014) imposes what is perceived by many as a linear statutory framework and policy makers must try to move towards embedding education for sustainable development and encourage more flexible, creative approaches to learning. The English Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS, DFE 2014) statutory guidance focuses on three Prime areas, (Communication and Language, Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Physical Development and four Specific areas including, Understanding the World (UW). This Specific area (UW), presents a renewed emphasis on a ‘concentric approach to learning’ (Tickell in The early years: foundations for life health and learning (Tickell review), DfE, London 2011, p. 104) where children are guided to ‘make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment’ (DfE 2014, p. 8). Children can become young scientists, utilising the coastlines and becoming “ocean literate”. Early education practitioners can thus provide “a platform to channel their infinite capacities for activism into the creation of a better world”. (2015, p. 12). This paper seeks to explore how Beach Kindy can help implement both the Sustainable Development Goals and the scientific approaches embedded within UW, whilst also recognising the challenges that it may bring.

This chapter discusses the doctoral research process that informed our teaching and learning practices. In recent years, social research has turned its attention to ‘the body’ (Waskul and Vannini, 2016). We consider the implications of such a turn on the ways in which we (re)position ourselves as teachers by reflecting on our experiences of teaching future early years practitioners and teachers. In the first part of the chapter Eva argues that teaching requires a considerable amount of emotional labour that is embodied in her professional practice. She focuses on how her emotions became ‘embodied’ and the ways in which her professional practice/performance has been influenced by her emotions. To demonstrate her subjectification, she used her reflective diary and fieldnotes written over a period of one year which recorded her experiences as a teacher and novice researcher. In the second part of the chapter Sandra reflects on her doctoral study relating to child poverty and how Foucault has informed her ideas of embodiment in relation to her analysis of interviews with early years practitioners and her teaching of child poverty to future early years practitioners and teachers. She draws on examples from both her data analysis and reflective notes on her teaching.

The Early Years Intervention Toolkit provides a range of ready-made activities to enable early years practitioners and health visitors to address observed difficulties in a child’s development prior to starting school. It includes a checklist of observed behaviours which links to a range of effective and engaging activities to support children’s development across the three prime foundational areas of learning: Communication and Language; Physical Development; and Personal, Social and Emotional Development. Activities focus on a variety of crucial skills such as speaking and listening, moving and handling, and forming relationships, making use of materials that are readily available in every early years setting. This toolkit offers: A time-saving approach to interventions, with additional guidance on planning, providing, and recording appropriate interventions Advice and activities to share with parents for them to try at home A framework to enable early years practitioners to identify specific difficulties in key areas of development Downloadable resources to support activities and interventions The Early Years Intervention Toolkit is an inclusive programme and all children in the early years will benefit from taking part in the activities. It will be an essential resource for early years practitioners to effectively identify and support learning needs in child development and will boost the confidence of young children as they prepare for Key Stage One.

This easy-to-read series provides an introduction to some of the most important early years philosophies and shows how they can be incorporated into your setting. Each book provides: an outline of the background to the approach clear explanations of the relevance to contemporary thinking suggestions to help you plan a successful learning environment examples of what the individual approach can look like in practice. These convenient guides are essential to early years practitioners, students and parents who wish to fully understand what each approach means to their setting and children. How has Forest School helped to change attitudes about risk and challenge in the early years? What are the benefits of using this approach for children’s development, health and overall wellbeing? Bringing the Forest School Approach to your Early Years Practice provides an accessible introduction to Forest School practice. It identifies the key issues involved in setting up, running and managing a Forest school environment and offers clear guidance on resources, staffing and space required for successful play and learning outdoors. Including links to the Early Years Foundation Stage and a wide range of case studies, the book covers: The beginnings of Forest School and how practice has developed Child centred play and learning that allows for risk taking and challenge Planning for children’s individual needs, learning styles and schemas The learning environment The role of the adult including health and safety and children’s welfare. Full of practical advice, this convenient guide will help practitioners to deliver new, exciting and inspiring opportunities for the children they care for.

This paper endeavours to make a contribution to the debate concerning early years practitioners' identity as a professional group and does so through the use of data from semi-structured interviews conducted in England and Finland with early years teachers. During these interviews, early years teachers working in Finland expressed different understandings of their professional role than early years teachers working in England. It is suggested that the educators working in Finland had adopted understandings of professionality that were based more closely on notions of complexity and democracy. In contrast, responses made by early years educators working in England indicated a more limited conception of professionality. In the paper the evidence is analysed and suggestions made about why these distinctions have occurred and suggests that extensions to professionality for early years teachers in both countries to include 'criticality' need to occur. Cet article tente d'apporter une contribution au débat concernant l'identité des éducateurs préscolaires en tant que groupe professionnel, par le biais de données recueillies lors d'entretiens semi-structurés avec des enseignants préscolaires en Finlande et en Angleterre. Pendant ces entretiens, les éducateurs préscolaires travaillant en Finlande ont exprimé une compréhension différente de leur rôle professionnel de ceux qui travaillent en Angleterre. Il est suggéré que les éducateurs travaillant en Finlande ont développé une compréhension de la professionnalité basée davantage sur des notions de complexité et de démocratie. Au contraire, les réponses des éducateurs préscolaires travaillant en Angleterre ont dénoté une conception plus limitée de la professionnalité. L'article analyse les résultats et présente des suggestions sur les raisons de ces différences, et suggère qu'il devrait se produire des extensions à la professionnalité des enseignants préscolaires dans les deux pays pour lui faire comprendre la 'criticalité'. Este artículo espera hacer una aportación al debate relacionado con la identidad de los profesionales de edades jóvenes como un grupo profesional y lo hace con el uso de datos obtenidos en entrevistas semiestructuradas realizadas en Inglaterra y en Finlandia con profesores de menores. Durante estas entrevistas, los profesores de menores que trabajan en Finlandia expresaron diferentes interpretaciones de su papel profesional que aquellas expresadas por profesores de menores que trabajan en Inglaterra. Se sugiere que los educadores que trabajan en Finlandia han adoptado interpretaciones de profesionalidad basadas más estrechamente en nociones de complejidad y democracia. Por el contrario, las respuestas aportadas por educadores de menores que trabajan en Inglaterra indican un concepto de profesionalidad más limitado. En el artículo se analiza la evidencia y se presentan sugerencias sobre el por qué han ocurrido estas distinciones y sugiere que deben producirse extensiones a esa profesionalidad para profesores de menores de ambos países a fin de que incluyan 'criticalidad'.

Early Years practitioners frequently use words like 'passionate' to describe themselves and their attitudes to working and playing with young children. But how is this emotive and emotional word to be interpreted by others? Given any evidence of real political influence or strength, this mainly female workforce cannot perhaps be said to be sufficiently passionate or forceful in justifying and promoting their beliefs and ideologies. Herein lies one of many paradoxes in early childhood: it seems impossible to work effectively with very young children without the deep and sound commitment signified by the use of words like 'passionate'. Yet this very symbolisation gives a particular emotional slant to the work of early childhood practitioners which can work for or against them in their everyday roles and practices, bringing into question what constitutes professionalism and what being a 'teacher' means in such diversified contexts. This paper will show that working in partnership with researchers, different groups of early years practitioners have shown themselves able to engage in high level, critical (and passionate!) reflection on their own practices, to link associated theory and to challenge political prescription.

The understanding of the significance of movement to learning benefits from advances in neuroscience. This study considered a neurophysiological perspective in relation to the educational theory of Accelerated Learning (AL) for which little empirical evidence exists. Childhood development themes and learning strategies from a neurophysical-psychological viewpoint were investigated through the use of developmental dance movement (DDM) as a kinaesthetic tool over an eight-session programme with three early years practitioners and two reception classes in two UK primary schools. The research strategy included both qualitative and quantitative methods to capture examples of accelerated learning and transfer. Qualitative data from three semi-structured interviews with early years practitioners was based on their observations of intervention sessions on a whole-group level and selected case studies of children in their class. The data were analysed with the aim of addressing their views on the children’s learning, which influenced and elucidated the practitioners own learning outcomes. Quantitative methods utilised the Goodenough–Harris draw-a-person test with participating children to explore change in visual-motor integration and developmental maturity as a measure of accelerated learning and transfer. Findings supported neuroscientific research and highlighted useful and contradictory aspects of AL theory. Practitioners were able to identify benefits for pupils with specific learning needs. Case studies demonstrated accelerated learning through observed changed behaviour. T-test results from Aston index pre-post scored drawings showed significant differences (p = 0.005) in visual-motor integration and developmental maturity. It is concluded that DDM can provide opportunity for physical/cognitive advancement for young children.

Play is crucial to the learning and development of children in the early years. The third edition of Play in the Early Years is a comprehensive introduction to the theory and practice of play for children from birth to 8 years old. Drawing on classical and contemporary theories, this text examines social, cultural and institutional approaches to play, and explores a range of strategies for successfully integrating play into early years settings and primary classrooms. This edition features a new chapter on conceptual playworlds, which demonstrates what conceptual playworlds look like to infants and toddlers, pre-schoolers, and children transitioning into school. The text features classroom vignettes and photographs designed to help students connect theory to practice, and reflection questions and research activities encourage in-depth reflection and extend learning. Highly regarded by early childhood researchers and practitioners alike, Play in the Early Years remains an essential resource for pre-service students.

This article begins by outlining the UK Government policy context, offering a brief critique before moving on to summarise recent research into ‘quality’ in the early years. The main body of the article locates the perspectives of early years practitioners within this context, drawing on data from an Economic and Social Research Council‐funded study of 18 early years settings, including interviews and focused group discussions with 165 practitioners. The findings reveal that practitioners’ understandings of ‘quality’ are influenced by government discourses but appear to be linked to the context of their setting together their personal and professional histories. In discussing the nature of ‘quality’, the authors focus on tensions inherent in the government discourses and draw out the implications for children's experiences and the training and development of early years practitioners.

This book gives teachers, student teachers and other Early Years practitioners a clear understanding of how science and design and technology contributes to children's learning. It will help teachers make more focused, diagnostic observations of young children's play by identifying the scientific and design concepts, skills and attitudes being developed. It gives clear guidance for planning experiences and interventions that will help move the children forward in their learning within specific areas of the foundation stage curriculum, while giving a critical insight into the implications of this approach for teaching and learning and assessment in Key Stage 1 and beyond. It includes a focus on young children's learning, covering what we know from research about how young children learn and the centrality of their early scientific and designing/making experiences to this learning. The authors also present case studies of successful Early Years practice in science and design and technology; examples of practical planning for learning, written by Early Years practitioners; an analysis of the contribution of Science and Design and Technology towards meeting the Early Learning Goals; and advice for adults working in different Early Years settings. Founded on both research and first hand experience, this practical and accessible book demonstrates how scientific and designing/making activities are natural to young children, and have the potential for contributing to all aspects of their learning.