The Voice of Early Childhood

Enya Last talks to Angelica about educator and employee wellbeing. Enya is the co-owner of Enya's Childcare which she started with her husband. She shares with us her personal journey as a business owner and leader, and provides us with tips on how to support your team's wellbeing.

This episode is in partnership with Edufeel - Edufeel is committed to increasing the mental health literacy of our workforce and creating zero stigma to safeguard the wellbeing of educators for the present and the future. Learn how your educators feel through daily check-ins and get the analytics you need to increase well-being, build a better setting culture and improve outcomes for children. To find out more visit: https://thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/partners/

Episode break down:

00:00 - Why are we talking about educator wellbeing? 01:30 - Building your team is a labour of love 02:20 - You're not interviewing just an educator but a human being 03:30 - Bringing your whole self to work 04:50 - We care for our employees - without your team you don't have a nursery 05:20 - You have to be the pillar of strength 100% of the time as a leader 06:45 - Leaders should show their vulnerability 08:40 - The team supporting the leader 09:40 - Why did you create Edufeel? 10:25 - Daily check-ins 11:55 - Unspoken dialogue is important 12:45 - Baboons and humans - what do they have in common? 14:00 - Educators come across as unicorns with no problems 15:15 - Stress is contagious - both for other adults and children 16:15 - It's not always about offering solutions all the time 17:30 - Stigma is suffocating 18:30 - The cycles of mental health 19:40 - The 'Sunday scaries' and seasonal depression 21:30 - Leaning into mental health cycles and patterns 22:20 - But are we opening up a can of worms? 22:50 - Focus on the long term with your team 24:20 - Don't allow bottling - create space for challenging conversations 25:10 - A wellbeing category for every staff meeting 26:00 - Staff meeting tip 1: What do you admire about yourself? 26:50 - Staff meeting tip 2: Silent human knot challenge (constant unspoken problem solving) 27:55 - Staff meeting tip 3: The power of play for adults and not just children 29:00 - Staff meeting tip 4: Show and tell 30:39 - Self-care is not always the nice fluffy stuff 31:50 - Help your team to get things off their shoulders 32:40 - A wellbeing evening: Allowing your team to take time for themselves 35:00 - Employees, ask yourselves: Is this a healthy place for me to be? Does it have a detrimental effect on me? 36:07 - Employers, ask yourselves: What is making people stay here? How consistent are you with your wellbeing approach? 37:00 - Is your wellbeing approach embedded? 37:40 - 1 in 4 of the early years workforce are considering leaving the sector due to stress or mental health difficulties 39:00 - If you can't self-regulate then how on earth are you going to co-regulate? 39:50 - Passionate, well qualified, amazing educators are leaving the sector 43:30 - Sharing your feelings or your mental state provides a sense of releif 45:15 - Knowing your team's love language 46:00 - Praise and feeling valued is vital: Send a letter of appreciation 48:00 - A happy team is good for business 49:00 - Knowing your team's individual needs, just like the unique child 50:50 - Identify emerging patterns in the team e.g. do you need to arrange a sleep workshop for your team? 52:00 - Looking at individualised and wider team data you can rely on as an owner or manager 54:00 - Does this feel intrusive? 54:50 - Return on investment? The proof is that your team is staying: You can't put a figure on wellbeing and mental health 56:15 - The need to feel heard and know that people are aware of how you are feeling 01:00:50 - Supporting new members of staff to settle and feel welcome 01:02:40 - You are within your rights to have wellbeing support from your employer

For more episodes visit The Voice of Early Childhood website: https://www.thevoiceofearlychildhood.com

Anne Brass and Jan Dubiel introduce the Durham Early Years Curriculum Project. This project involves 26 schools across Durham, focusing on strengthening purposeful curriculum design and implementation, and empowering leaders and educators in creating meaningful contexts for progressive teaching and learning.

This episode is the first in a series on Education Durham, an ongoing project with Durham Education and Coram Hempsall's. Upcoming episodes and articles will include project progress through educator voices. To find out more about the project visit: https://thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/projects/education-durham-project/

Episode break down:

00:00 - Curriculum project introduction 07:00 - Senior leadership teams understanding early years curricula 08:50 - Increasing number of 2-year-olds in school provision 13:00 - Educator agency, autonomy and confidence in curriculum development 16:10 - Defining and understanding the term curriculum 17:20 - A curriculum is not just 'planning' 19:00 - Understanding sequencing of learning 22:15 - What we can all learn from special educational needs schools 23:20 - Network meetings within the project 26:35 - Learning behaviours within the curriculum 30:20 - The EYFS is about teaching children how to learn 32:30 - Developing the architecture of being a learner 34:32 - Curriculum project session 2 35:00 - Educator voices as part of the project 39:00 - Ongoing project progression

For more episodes visit The Voice of Early Childhood website: https://www.thevoiceofearlychildhood.com

Greshma Momaya and Angelica Celinska discuss gender equality in early childhood classrooms and settings. Greshma shares practice from her school in India, providing examples and tips on how to ensure we not only promote gender equality, but also notice when we unknowingly might place or communicate gender bias. They discuss a gender neutral curriculum, challenging your own deep rooted, subconscious gender biases and much more.

Episode break down:

00:00 - Greshma's 'why' 02:37 - Children's understanding of gender roles 08:34 - Gender stereotypical story characters 10:00 - An overfocus on physical appearance 12:10 - A gender neutral curriculum 14:54 - Educators checking in on their own gender bias 17:57 - Addressing behaviour inconsistently 21:25 - Are we living up to our values and beliefs? 22:40 - Professional challenge and creating safe spaces 24:21 - Representing diverse family structures 28:05 - Aligning the curriculum with children's direct experiences 31:00 - 'Give children global boots with local roots' - Sugata Mitra 32:50 - Working with resource companies and book publishers 34:50 - Challenging traditional language 36:50 - The current context in India 38:30 - Respecting families' choices and preferences 41:15 - Famous and historical figures being more gender equal 43:55 - Setting boundaries and systems to promote gender equality 45:40 - 3 steps in checking your own gender bias

For more episodes visit The Voice of Early Childhood website: https://www.thevoiceofearlychildhood.com

Dr Stella Louis provides an overview around the grounding elements of the Froebelian approach. This includes unity and connectedness, observations and the role of the adult. The key messages are: starting from the child by observing what they already know and can do, having a good understanding of children's development and focusing on how children learn rather than what children learn.

To learn more about Friedrich Froebel and the Froebelian approach visit: https://thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/early-childhood-pioneers/friedrich-froebel/

Episode break down:

01:25 - Unity and connectedness: Building on what children CAN do and already know 04:06 - Educational resources: Froebel's gifts and occupations 07:58 - The mother songs: Froebel's biggest contribution 10:43 - Physical development through the mother songs 13:00 - Childhood is a stage within its own right 16:15 - The role of the nurturing adult 19:26 - Real, tangible, first hand experiences 20:44 - Thinking beyond children's interests 24:10 - Respecting the process and not just focusing on the outcome 25:48 - Teachable moments come from knowing the child and community 28:35 - Knowledge of child development in curriculum building 30:06 - A summary of this episode 31:55 - Dr Stella Louis' new book: Let's talk about race in the early years

For more episodes visit The Voice of Early Childhood website: https://www.thevoiceofearlychildhood.com

Adam Marycz and Angelica Celinska discuss the divisive narrative between the early years sector and the Department for Education (DfE) and Ofsted. They discuss the challenging, unpleasant and damaging recent events around the education sector and Ofsted, including the case around Ruth Perry, the headteacher who took her own life, as well as the silencing of influential voices in the early years sector by the DfE.

This is a podcast episode which is a challenging discussion, but it is highly required, as the time for change is now. This episode is steeped in shared reflection, challenge of both sides, critical analysis and pressing considerations for all stakeholders involved in early childhood.

Read Adam Marycz's articles here: https://thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/ofsteds-and-the-dfes-voices-must-be-heard-whether-we-like-them-or-not/

Share your voice with Ofsted here: https://us18.list-manage.com/survey?u=0b942007e0712713ed7c55937&id=c5d3c16df0&attribution=false

The Voice of Early Childhood (TVOEC) will be collating voices from the sector to share with Ofsted as part of our advocacy stance.

Some of the thought-provoking points discussed are:

01:20 - Ofsted's impact on educators 03:45 - Pausing inspections only for schools 07:10 - Childcare vs education? - Language matters! 16:40 - Banning early years specialists from speaking at events 20:10 - Is the sector's response helpful? 21:10 - Ofsted need to attend events as delegates too 23:00 - Influential figures need to model professional dialogue 26:34 - Humanising Ofsted and the DfE 30:20 - Do we refuse Ofsted access to our settings? 32:54 - Chief Ofsted inspector Sir Martyn Oliver's response to pausing inspections 37:10 - How do we prevent anxiety around inspections? 37:40 - Let's listen to all voices and be uncomfortable in conversations 40:30 - We are inviting Ofsted onto The Voice of Early Childhood Podcast 42:40 - Ofsted's priorities - 'The Big Listen' 45:50 - Ofsted involving the early years sector in decision making processes 54:40 - Has a line been crossed too far? 59:37 - Share your views with Ofsted through The Voice of Early Childhood (TVOEC) 01:00:44 - Let's challenge each other and have active dialogue and professional debate

You can find more podcast episodes and articles on The Voice of Early Childhood website: https://www.thevoiceofearlychildhood.com

Dr Kathryn Murray talks us through the Brain-SET Environments Formula, which is all about creating a calm learning environment through a skills based pedagogy. Dr Murray explains that it is much more than where you put the furniture; she shares with us a deeper look at creating learning environments with brain development at the centre.

Some of the thought-provoking points discussed are:

00:30 - Dr Kathryn Murray's background 02:25 - The beginnings of Brain-SET 05:58 - Aesthetics of the learning environment 07:20 - Considering furniture in designing a learning environment 07:50 - Brain development as a big part in creating environments 10:00 - The environment is the 3rd teacher 12:13 - The structure of the brain 15:00 - What is 'foggy brain'? 16:00 - A calm brain is a thinking brain 17:09 - Multiple defined spaces are less threatening 19:20 - Using the language of learning 21:10 - Impacts of training in a 2-year-old room 23:50 - The brain doesn't do boring! 25:00 - Small spaces teach self-regulation/soft skills 27:15 - Decrease in behaviour issues 28:00 - Using interests to pull children into learning spaces 31:00 - Environments underpinned by research 52:58 - Freeflow rather than carouselling/rotation 36:11 - Brain-SET is a skills-based formula 37:35 - Learning ocurring naturally 38:15 - Continuous provision for repeating learning behaviours 39:50 - Carefully curating spaces to encourage skill development 42:52 - Seeing Brain-SET in action: The Astrea Academy Trust action research project

Read Dr Kathryn Murray's article and find out more about Brain-SET here:

https://thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/aligning-learning-environments-with-the-needs-of-the-brain/

You can find more podcast episodes and articles on The Voice of Early Childhood website: https://www.thevoiceofearlychildhood.com

For 10% off our conference tickets visit: www.thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/early-years-conference-2024/

If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like -

• PE in early years with Josh Candy - www.thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/pe-in-early-years/
• Physical Development Early Learning Goals: What are they for? With Dr Lala Manners - www.thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/physical-development-goals-eyfs/

Dr Nalda Wainwright, Associate professor and Director of applied research academy for physical literacy at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, talks us through her research on the importance of motor skills development in early childhood for all future development and health.

Some of the thought-provoking points discussed are:

00:50 - Dr Nalda's research 02:00 - Introducing object control skills? 05:50 - A structured approach to physical development: The SKIP 08:30 - How has the SKIP programme affected children's development? 11:00 - The effects of chronic physical delay 14:17 - What are object control skills? 17:20 - The complex systems involved in learnng to catch 20:50 - Higher physical competence = higher academic outcomes 23:55 - Why are physical delays a new problem? 26:00 - What about formal sports activities? 33:40 - Training educators rather than bringing in external sports coaches 36:40 - Physical perception is one of the strongest drivers of self-esteem 37:30 - Children can't just do sport... 39:07 - Broad movement vocabulary 42:55 - Stillness is a skill 43:00 - Understanding children's development is VITAL 45:53 - Children judge play or work through physical activity 47:50 - CPD in children's development needs to be embedded in practice

Find out more on The Voice of Early Childhood website: www.thevoiceofearlychildhood.com

For 10% off our conference tickets visit: www.thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/early-years-conference-2024/

In this episode Jordan Tully, an experienced Head of Operations in early childhood, discusses business and profit in education, specifically focusing in on what growth and sustainability looks like, seeking out investment, staff recruitment, retention, working with your local community and marketing your setting. Some highlights include:

• Retention reducing unnecessary spend on recruitment
• Look at the person and not just the position you want to fill
• You can teach someone about the EYFS, you can teach someone to carry out observations...You can't teach someone how to care.
• Seeing your staff as an investment in your setting - they are your biggest asset
• Providing parents with a service they can only say positive things about...
• Parents are the best advocates for your setting - positive parent partnerships affect so many parts of the business.
• Understanding your local community - it's vital to do research on your local community - is your setting a right fit for your community?
• A recruitment success story

Take a look below at all of the thought-provoking points addressed in this episode...

Episode breakdown:

01:45 - Profit is a dirty word in education... 05:14 - How to secure funding 10:10 - Defining what business sustainability looks like 11:40 - Staff retention: A holistic approach 16:00 - Your staff are your biggest asset 18:07 - Enabling your staff to grow 19:30 - A recruitment success story 21:00 - Recruiting staff who are willing to learn 28:14 - Word of mouth is the best advertising 29:50 - A parent is a customer - a consumer of our services 33:10 - Recruiting staff from your local community 36:50 - Settings closing their business 39:25 - The employee has the greater say 40:45 - Part-time vs full-time staff 44:15 - Are other settings competition? 49:21 - Running a business is hard...

Find out more on The Voice of Early Childhood website: www.thevoiceofearlychildhood.com

Book onto Prerna Richards' Online Webinar and Q+A on The Voice of Early Childhood www.thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/the-brain-behaviour-and-learning-connecting-the-dots

For 10% off our conference tickets visit: www.thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/early-years-conference-2024/

Prerna Richards is an early childhood education consultant who helps educators and parents/carers to understand children's behaviour and support their development of new skills required to change challenging behaviour. Prerna shares with us some 'aha' moments through real life examples of children, educators and parents, and offers practical solutions to try. The main takeaway from this episode is that you can't use shame or punishment to change children's behaviour, to change behaviour you need to teach a skill. Essentially, replacing an unhealthy or challenging behaviour with a learnt skill...but how do we do this?

Take a look below at all of the thought-provoking points addressed in this episode...

Episode breakdown:

00:49 - The 3 brain states 02:50 - The 7 F's displayed through behaviour 06:50 - Empowering children in communicating their need for space 09:25 - Dealing with biting 13:35 - The more you correct, the less you connect... 14:50 - You have to DSD... 20:00 - You have to play detective! 21:24 - Supporting a frightened child 22:44 - Fear creates a frozen brain 25:00 - Children lie when they are scared 25:35 - Fawning/people pleasing as a fear response 28:05 - 'You are safe, I'm here to help you' 29:58 - Switching from the survival to the emotional brain 31:25 - Asking for the child's voice 32:15 - Struggling as a mother and a teacher 34:15 - The problem with gentle parenting 35:25 - The need to be seen, heard, loved 36:50 - The 9 minute magic for parents and educators 39:32 - The learning brain - an evolving space 40:40 - 'Download your calm, don't upload their stress' 41:12 - Asking the 3 vital questions to 42:18 - The power of 'SAIL' 42:45 - The power of 'yet' 43:40 - Reflecting on a more personal level 45:44 - Children are born capable and intelligent 46:15 - Equipping children with life skills 47:00 - Changing the world by starting with the early years 47:25- Language to articulate, to understand and to be aware

Find out more on The Voice of Early Childhood website: www.thevoiceofearlychildhood.com

If you liked this episode you might also like 'The brain that loves to play' with Dr Jacqueline Harding: https://thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/the-brain-that-loves-to-play/

Ben Kingston-Hughes will be presenting a keynote session at The Voice of Early Childhood Conference on 16th March 2024. Be sure not to miss out!

For 10% off our conference tickets visit: www.thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/early-years-conference-2024/

Ben Kingston-Hughes talks about giving children the chance to be children through experiencing more moments of joy in their lives. Ben gives us insight into the work he does with vulnerable children and the knowledge he has from neuroscience as he explains the power of play, humour, laughter and imagination.

Take a look below at all of the thought-provoking points addressed in this episode...

Episode breakdown:

00:41 - Why children need joy 01:40 - The English curriculum - EYFS - doesn't mention the word 'joy' 03:12 - A real example of joy changing lives 05:30 - The catastrophic effects on children who don't experience joy 06:20 - Humour and laughter helps to embed learning 09:20 - Immersive narratives: What does this mean? 12:50 - Supporting children's confidence through imagination 14:38 - What's the difference between creativity and imagination 21:24 - The pleasure of writing books 22:30 - The healing power of imagination 25:44 - Why adult's should initiate play, particularly for vulnerable children 27:54 - Creating an environment which makes children feel secure and comfortable 30:52 - Have you forgotten to tell your face to smile? - Consciously checking your body language

32:41 - A funny and embarrassing story from Ben to make us all laugh!

Find out more on The Voice of Early Childhood website: www.thevoiceofearlychildhood.com