How do we move beyond recycling and ‘green’ activities to explore sustainability as care, connection, agency and responsibility? The setting - where children experience relationships, routines, resources and the environment – is a powerful starting point,...

How can practitioners help young children move from overwhelm to regulation? Prof Sam Wass and Dr Katie Daubney show how understanding what is happening in a young child’s brain can help practitioners respond most effectively

With the Government reforming how early years teachers are trained and assessed, Prof Verity Campbell-Barr and Dr Sam Hoyes ask how we quantify good graduate practice, using the recently updated graduate practitioner competencies framework to break it ...

How can we weave maths into the everyday? A new Family Maths project has some solutions. By Sue Gifford and Cath Gripton

After her own negative experiences of parenting books, early years lecturer Amanda Norman led a project investigating parents’ nighttime sleep routines using a Person Centred Approach to build relationships

Given that most settings currently have to fund SEND support themselves, the promise of more upfront funding in the SEND reforms is welcome. What different types of funding are there now, and how is this likely to change? By Catherine Mole

What can we learn from other countries about how to fix the UK's childcare workforce crisis, and does the recent Best Start in Life strategy go far enough? Sarah Ronan, Executive Director, Early Education and Childcare Coalition, outlines key findings ...

Feeling valued, shared attention, facial expressions, emotional commentating and familiarity all help build communication skills. Dr Katie Daubney, and Dr Sam Wass, from the Institute for the Science of Early Years, translates the science into practical ...

How can Malaguzzi's idea of children's ‘hundred languages’ help early years settings protect play, strengthen observation and make learning visible without narrowing it to a checklist? By Debi Keyte-Hartland

In the first of a new series from SEND charity Dingley's Promise, Meggie Fisher outlines the key proposals and explains why they are needed, and what the changes could mean for the early years sector

What makes a good early childhood placement for degree students? Lauren Pring, from University Centre Weston, gains insights from a student and staff from a setting dubbed placement provider of the year at the ECSDN awards

What makes a good early childhood placement for degree students? Lauren Pring, from University Centre Weston, gains insights from a student and staff from a setting dubbed placement provider of the year at the ECSDN awards

In the latest in our neuroscience series, Sam Wass and Katie Daubney from the Institute of the Science of Early Years explore the links between fussy eating, predictability and learning

What happens when remnants of children's play are left out to be returned to later? In response to a request from a child in Reception, one setting has changed the way they implement tidy up time. Lucy Fox reports

How can we create inclusive environments for physical play when increasing numbers of children are struggling with the foundational skills for movement? Dr Rebecca Duncombe, Dr Janine Coates, Helen Battelley and Kim Dean look at how to create ...

Risky play allows children to experience challenge and stretch their limits, which is an essential part of development, and includes playing outdoors and using tools. By Helen Battelley, Dr Karen Rhys-Jones, Dr Janine Coates, Dr Kathryn Hesketh

Creating and pretending are how young children process the world, yet many practitioners have limited training on teaching through the arts. A project called Space to Flourish aims to change this. By Debi-Keyte-Hartland

Research suggests that movement can influence children’s thinking. Paula Brown, play therapist and early years teacher, talks through various postures and how they can help and hinder learning

What do new childminders need to do before their first visit from Ofsted? Catherine Wakerley talks you through before, during and after the visit, including how to prepare the environment, safeguarding, food, recruitment and meeting the requirements for ...

Physical literacy - being able to move in different ways in a variety of places - is central to healthy development. Supporting this is crucial for helping the less physically confident, says Helen Battelley and Karen Rhys Jones of NEYASP

What is The Play Cycle and what does it teach us about how to respond to, and not ‘adulterate’, children’s play? Playworker and lecturer Dr Pete King has researched the six stages of play

What is The Play Cycle and what does it teach us about how to respond to, and not ‘adulterate’, children’s play? Playworker and lecturer Dr Pete King has researched the six stages of play

What do we want baby rooms to feel like, and why? Sara Bonetti asked practitioners to create a shared vision for quality as part of Middlesex University’s Baby Room Project, with some powerful results