Health and Well-being
Safeguarding focus on honour-based abuse/violence and forced marriage
Safeguarding comes in many different forms in all educational settings. We often have a focus on the children in our settings, but equally, there are young people in their teens and potentially staff in their early adult life who may need...
How to avoid spreading infection in your setting & the importance of vaccinations
It’s inevitable that wherever young children are together in a group, there will be a high chance that infections will spread. When working in early years, it’s an occupational hazard; with the children touching each other and the toys – often...
Do your children have a safe harbour to return to when things get stormy?
There are times in all our lives when we need that little bit of extra support. When things feel a little too tough to handle by ourselves we all need a safe place to return to. But for a child who may not have been with you for very long or who...
Taking singing home: how singing helps your health
One of my jobs involves researching the effects of singing on health, so this month, we are looking at what happens to your health when you take the singing home. There have been a few articles and TV programs on the benefits of singing for...
Stress management – coping mechanisms for you and your colleagues
In our November magazine, we talked about Stress Awareness Week and ways to help you a) notice the signs of stress, and b) combat stress, particularly in the workplace. As we move into February, with people feeling the pinch after Christmas, the...
Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week
It’s February, which means it’s time for Children’s Mental Health Week (CMHW) (6 – 12th). The week aims to raise awareness of children’s mental health issues, get people talking, and raise funds to help tackle the problem. It is run by Place2Be,...
Valentine’s is the time for self-love
Valentine’s is the time for romantics, but self-love comes first, and what is better than looking after your own heart? Make 2023 the start of a wonderful relationship with your own heart and help your little ones to begin theirs. The recent use...
Dealing with the death of a staff member – focus on parents and children
When a staff member dies, colleagues, children and parents are impacted. This impact is felt in varying ways and in differing levels of understanding. Our last article focused on the loss of an early years staff member called Mandy, how this...
Getting fit? Get musical: working out in the early years
Moving around can be and should be fun at every age, but the way we need to move can make a big difference to how enjoyable we find different activities. Knowing that we should move regularly and often is not usually enough to keep us motivated,...
Nurturing emotional well-being through mentoring
Mentoring people is a wonderful thing and done correctly, it can support someone with their personal and professional development. This process encourages growth and involves analysis of performance. However, to get the best results, we need to...
Getting through the cost-of-living crisis
There’s no doubt that 2022 has been a tough year. Just as we thought we were coming out of the financially turbulent years of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine took most of us by surprise. We then faced an energy crisis, rising inflation, a...
Love Your Liver Month
It’s January, the festive season is over and we are all taking stock of what the last few weeks have meant. Hopefully, they will be filled with lots of love, laughter and happy memories and we can start the year healthy and with renewed energy....
National Mentoring Month and the importance of having a role model
We all need a little help now and again, and starting a new job or a new role within an existing job is one of those times when the experience and advice of a colleague or mentor could make the difference between succeeding or failing. January...
Grief and loss in early years; dealing with the death of a colleague
It was a normal Monday morning at the nursery. Staff members came in to do the early morning shift; they prepared breakfast, opened the windows to let the autumn breeze refresh the rooms, set up tables that would capture the children’s interest...
The importance of developing healthy self-esteem
Self-esteem is something we often hear talked about, but it is a complex issue that can be difficult to unpack, to quantify, or to really know about ourselves. Self-esteem is then our personal evaluation of how good or bad we feel about...
Snuggle and sing: songs to keep you warm in the early years
Lullabies have been a curiously common feature in the history of humanity. In fact, it was found that in 315 societies, 28 languages, and 45 countries around the world, researchers found love songs, religious songs, healing songs … and lullabies...
Staying healthy over Christmas and New Year
It’s that time of year again when we can allow ourselves a few extra luxuries – a few more calories with the brandy butter and chocolates on the tree; a few more hours lazing in front of the TV; and a few more mornings under the duvet! Well,...
National Tree Week
Did you know? A ‘whip’ is a very young tree that hasn’t yet got any branches There is a bristlecone pine tree in California which is believed to be 5,000 years old There are 422 trees for every one person on earth National Tree Week is here,...
What does it mean to be “me”?
When a child is born, they have no understanding of themselves as a separate person, unable to differentiate themselves as somebody separate from the others around them. Developing this individualised sense of being someone different happens...
Identifying child grief stages & signs: what you can do to help
National Grief Awareness Week is coming up from December 2-8, and as this important week approaches, we need a reminder that adults are not the only ones who experience grief. Children are affected by grief too, though they show it in different...
Using music to manage feelings regarding death in the early years
Death is a tricky subject to manage in the early years. Often adults avoid it, not knowing how to approach children’s forthright and seemingly irreverent questions. Recognising that this discomfort comes from a place of personal fear and/or...
Primitive brain reactions to modern day problems
Have you ever experienced a very emotional moment and felt like you were both in it and at the same time, separate from it? Almost as if you were looking down at yourself. This is because when very strong emotions are triggered, the automatic...
What does leadership look like when… you’re feeling overwhelmed?
Feeling overwhelmed is something that affects us all and leaders are not immune. So how can you lead while you are feeling overwhelmed? In this article we will look at three practical steps you can take to find a way out of overwhelm and into...
Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
According to one cancer charity, 12 children and young people are diagnosed with cancer every day in the UK. That’s one every 2 hours and of those, only 10 out of the 12 will survive. Even then, a diagnosis of cancer in childhood can have...
FASD Awareness Day
FASD stands for Foetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder and is an umbrella term used to describe a group of conditions that can affect a person because they were exposed to alcohol in the womb. It is a spectrum disorder but is not well understood...
Supporting apprentices with peer-on-peer abuse issues
The issue of safeguarding is fundamental to everything we do in education, whether for our early years children or our older apprentices who may only be just out of school, and still legally classed as children themselves (under 18s). If you...
Talking to children about war
Recent events have reminded me of times from my own childhood. Growing up during the cold war, I remember hearing about the hostility between the then Soviet Union and the USA in particular and lying in bed at night worrying about the things I’d...
Road Safety Week
This is a vision of the world from Brake, the national charity who promote road safety, campaign for safer roads, and look after those who have been adversely affected by accidents on the road. Every 20 minutes, someone is killed or seriously...
Domestic Violence Awareness Month
It’s hard to imagine but in this day and age, there are still two women each week who are killed by a partner or former partner in England and Wales. In the Northeast, the area with the highest recorded rate of domestic abuse, there are an...
The National Veg Pledge
This year we have included some articles on the benefits of gardening with children, growing for health and wellbeing and most recently on the benefits of having an allotment associated with your nursery. This month, with the harvest completed...