If You Want To Improve Your Phonics – SING!

Alistair Bryce-CleggCreativity, Phonics, Play, Talk1 Comment

I love a bit of singing in the Early Years. In fact I love a bit of singing in general! A couple of years ago at my boys school Christmas Carol Concert, during a particularly rousing rendition of ‘Oh, Come All Ye Faithful’, my eldest son turned to me and hissed ‘Pipe down Bublé!’ On the whole, regardless of your ability as a singer children will always join you in a chorus of whatever you fancy warbling. Also, there are some brilliant songs out there (have only just got Cauliflowers Fluffy (Paintbox) out of my head!). When I first became a teacher my wife bought me a guitar, I learned 4 chords over the summer holidays and I have never … Read More

Deconstructed Role Play – A Practitioner’s Story

Alistair Bryce-CleggUncategorized5 Comments

I am really pleased to be able to share this guest blog post with you from St Margaret’s Nursery School Barnet. All about how they introduced deconstructed role play into their setting. We had the opportunity to watch the online role play training on @abcdoes website and were immediately inspired by this idea. Our nursery is a place of possibilities where we believe in free play in an environment where every child is empowered to take the lead in their play, have their own ideas with adults scaffolding their learning. We have a large outdoor loose parts area and have seen how well our children play and learn in this area so knew a deconstructed role play inside would be … Read More

The Awe and Wonder of Light (and Dark).

Alistair Bryce-CleggChild Initiated Learning, Creativity, Environment, Talk2 Comments

The Awe and Wonder of Light (and Dark).We talk a lot in the Early Years about the concept of Awe and Wonder. Two fairly small words that promote some huge emotional responses. When words are used a lot, they can sometimes come to lose their meaning and be used in situations that don’t do them justice. But true moments of awe and wonder can have significant impact on children’s engagement with their environment and their potential for learning. Although awe and wonder are similar, they are not the same. We will often talk about being ‘in awe’ of something which means that we recognise its grandeur and see it as greater than us. We might be in awe of someone’s … Read More

School Readiness or Society’s Readiness? Supporting Young Children to ‘Catch Up’ Following the Covid Pandemic?

Alistair Bryce-CleggUncategorized3 Comments

As some of you know, I am currently studying for my Doctorate at Manchester Metropolitan University. Although the study can be challenging, I love the fact that it allows me to read things I would never normally read and meet people I would never normally meet. This week my guest blog post comes from Visiting Research Fellow Martina Street. Have a read and see what you think.     Martina is employed by Manchester City Council and has over 20 years’ experience working in the Early Years sector in low‐income areas. She is also an Associate of the Early Intervention Foundation, and a Visiting Research Fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University where she was recently seconded to support the development and … Read More