Children are the true Kings and Queens of themes! Guest Post by Denita Dinger.

Alistair Bryce-CleggUncategorized3 Comments

For this weeks blog I have the pleasure of sharing the thoughts of Denita Dinger. For those of you who haven’t come across Denita’s work, she  is an internationally-known speaker and author from the USA who loves to share humorous, intentional and inspiring keynotes and workshops about the value of child-led learning to anyone who has young people in their lives. In this blog post for ABC Does, she is talking about her journey from adult led to child led learning and the many moments of magical learning that can happen in one short day. For more information, contact her at:  playcounts.denitadinger@gmail.com   I am a former “Queen of Themes” who has proudly stepped down from her thrown.   For … Read More

Self-regulation in the EYFS: Unfit for Purpose. Guest Post from Mine Conkbayir

Alistair Bryce-CleggABC Does A Blog, Boys Learning, Child Initiated Learning, Continuous Provision, Environment, Ofsted, Outdoors, Uncategorized, Weapon and Superhero Play18 Comments

Self-regulation in the EYFS: Unfit for Purpose.  I have been writing and talking about the fundamental importance of understanding self-regulation (SR) and the neuroscience of early brain development for well over a decade and in this time, I am disappointed to have not seen it feature in early years (EY) qualifications or training as mandatory practice. However, recently, things have changed and SR (which simply put, is the individual’s ability to manage big emotions and their resulting behaviours and to return to a state of calm) has become the ‘’buzzword’’ in the EY sector. ‘What’s the problem?’ you may well ask. Based on my observations, a few key issues come to mind including the proliferation of unscrupulous consultants who have … Read More

We have evidence! Tales Toolkit helps close gender literacy gap…

Alistair Bryce-CleggUncategorized1 Comment

We have evidence! Tales Toolkit helps close gender literacy gap… Hello, we’re back again! Alistair has been supporting us right from the start, so it seemed fitting that now we have evidence to shout about this would be the place to spread the word. Lots of you have heard of us already. Tales Toolkit provides interactive, child led resources for early years using easy to remember symbols representing story structure. Provided with online training and on-going support our resources give children the independence to create stories about the things that interest them using anything to hand from a Spiderman toy to a pine cone! But I won’t spend lots of time telling you about Tales Toolkit as there are lots … Read More

Common Play Behaviours – A Continuous Provision Tool.

Alistair Bryce-CleggABC Does A Blog, Child Initiated Learning, Conferences, Continuous Provision, Creativity, Environment1 Comment

I talk about Common Play Behaviours in my Excellence in Early Years training. Lots for people say that they find it really helpful when it comes to establishing their Continuous Provision. It takes a bit of thinking about, but is well worth the effort! Have a read and see what you think… Good Continuous Provision can be tricky – all too often children will just visit in an area of provision that they like, where they will choose a resources that they are familiar with and then engage in low level tasks, often for a considerable period of time. This is great for their levels of engagement, but not so much for their levels of progress or attainment. Of course, we … Read More