(At Least) 50 Fantastic Ideas To Try At Home…Can You Help?

Alistair Bryce-CleggBoys Learning, Child Initiated Learning, construction, Continuous Provision, Creativity, Environment, Malleable Materials, Mark Making, mathematics, Messy Play, Mud Kitchen, Music, Outdoors, Play, Water Play44 Comments

As more people are self-isolating and schools and childcare settings across the world are closing, we thought we would contribute to easing the burden by providing another place you can direct parent’s /carers to for support. We are part of a wonderful, international community of Early Years practitioners who have a wealth of knowledge and a HUGE bank of ideas and activities. So, let’s gather together and share them! As a starting point I am going to use my blog to share activities that can fairly easily be done at home. I’ll gather a collection of ideas each week and post them on the website – with links from social media. If you would like to contribute please email me … Read More

A Key Stage 2 Teacher in the Early Years.

Alistair Bryce-CleggChild Initiated Learning, construction, Continuous Provision, Outdoors, Uncategorized1 Comment

This week I have a guest blog post from Kirsty Cooper who is the Headteacher of Grayrigg CE Primary School and also teaches in Key-Stage 2 …I will let her explain… A Key-Stage 2 teacher in the Early Years. First of all, I should tell you all a little about my school. We’re a small (but growing) school on the outskirts of Kendal, not far from the Lake District, in a very beautiful location.  I’m the Head Teacher but have a 0.7 teaching commitment, which basically means I teach every morning and two afternoons. I actually teach the KS2 class which we know as the Oaks – so why am I writing a guest blog for the lovely Alistair? The … Read More

Sand Tray Inspiration…

Alistair Bryce-CleggBoys Learning, Child Initiated Learning, construction, Continuous Provision, Creativity, Environment2 Comments

I have been in Leicester City all of this week finishing a year long project looking at  effective EYFS practice and its impact on progress and attainment. It has been great to see some of the amazing things that the children have achieved. I was talking (a lot) about the importance of sand and water play in EYFS and beyond and how it can be a vehicle for unlimited learning. It can be really easy to get ‘stuck’ when it comes to provision for these areas that takes learning forward rather than children just ending up doing the same old thing. Well, here is a bit of sand/texture tray inspiration from one of my favourite blogs. If this doesn’t want … Read More

I hope that’s not a gun!

Alistair Bryce-CleggBoys Learning, Child Initiated Learning, construction, Creativity, Role Play, Talk, Weapon and Superhero Play27 Comments

When I first trained to teach in Early Years, gun play was definitely off limits. We were told that there should be a zero tolerance to it as it encouraged children to be rough and aggressive. Any sign of a child wielding any thing that might have even been slightly mistaken for a gun had to be dealt with quickly and sternly. I remember being left worth the feeling that if I ignored this behavior then I would be turning all of my gun making children into thugs in later life. It occurred to me after a few years that no matter what sort of cohort the children were, no matter which school I was teaching in, superhero and weapon … Read More