Health and Well-being
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...
Malnutrition Awareness Week and the need for better nutrition
When we think about malnutrition, what comes to mind often are images from news reports of starving children across the world. We automatically think about those harrowing images in which children appear little more than ‘skin and bone’ as their...
Migraine Awareness Week
At some point in our lives, we have all had a headache, and know how painful and debilitating they can be. But if you are one of the 1 in 7 people in the population who suffer from migraines, then you will understand the misery caused by this...
National Fitness Day
Six months ago, the state of the nation’s fitness industry was looking good. The 2019 State of the UK Fitness Industry Report revealed that 1 in every 7 people belonged to a gym, the total market value was £5.1 billion, and the number of fitness...
Raising awareness of sepsis
When a child (or indeed adult) has an infection, the body’s immune system automatically kicks into gear to fight it off. When faced with a viral infection (like a cold or flu) or a bacterial infection (like ‘strep throat’) a child, in...
Childhood Cancer Awareness Month: be bold, go gold
Imagine having to tell someone that they have cancer, and that they may or may not recover. It would be difficult, heart-wrenching and you’d know that your words would change that person’s life forever. Now imagine that person is only a child,...
The lowdown on sunscreen by the Melanoma Fund
The lowdown on sunscreen The summer is here (we think!), and naturally you are keen to spend the day outdoors. The first thing that many of us do (if we care about our skin health) is to reach for a hat and the sunscreen. However, if you are...
Mental Health Awareness Week
According to the Mental Health Foundation: • 1 in 6 adults experiences a common mental health problem • Common mental health problems include stress, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia and bipolar • 1 in 5 adults have considered taking their own...
Take yourself from ‘distress’ to ‘de-stress’ during stress awareness month
Stress. n. “A state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances”. A definition that almost certainly resonates with many – particularly during this unprecedented period of dealing with the outbreak...
Talking about difference: profound disability
In our settings, we explore many differences with the children we support: we talk about the changing seasons, we explore different cultures and ethnicities, we celebrate festivals and we talk about growing up and growing old. Difference is a...