Parent Advice Feed
National Christmas card recycle
Did you know? The first person known to receive a written Christmas greeting was James I in 1611. He and his son were sent a decorated manuscript with a Christmas and New Year greeting by Michael Maier, a German physician Over 200 years later,...
Human Rights Day
What do you consider to be the most important words ever written? Are they in the Bible, the Quran, the Torah, The Vedas or other holy book? Or are they the words used in your marriage service, at a family member’s funeral, or those in your...
A look into parenting through a pandemic
2020 has been the year that has brought families together in ways we would have never expected. Forced to the confines of our home to protect those who are vulnerable and to stop the spread of this unwelcomed virus, and hurled into one another's...
New support for working parents
The information below, including all links and attachments has been provided by HMRC and the Department for Education. We hope that you find it useful – please feel free to share with settings and parents. HMRC and DfE have recently announced...
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...
Bonfire Night and Guy Fawkes
As the days get shorter, and with Halloween past, communities around the country finalise their preparations for a family event that has been celebrated in England for over 400 years – bonfire night! Autumn hedges are trimmed and carefully...
World Kindness Day
What if? What if our tongues could speak only good? What if we solely spoke that which we should? How would we change and grow in reaction? And would this result in less dissatisfaction? If we held true to our vision and dream Holding each other...
Armistice, Remembrance Sunday and the 75th anniversary of VE Day and VJ Day
Unfortunately, over the millennia of human history, war has been an uncomfortable fact of life. We humans have not always been the best at solving our differences around the negotiating table and, inevitably, this has often led to armed conflict...
Stress awareness… and top stress busting tips for your setting
Back in April, as the country went into a national lockdown, we were just beginning to comprehend the potential impact the coronavirus pandemic could have on the world. We marked Stress Awareness Month and discussed how important it was to...
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...
National Baking Week
“Ready, steady, BAKE!” Have you missed hearing these words over the summer? Are you wondering where the next ‘soggy bottom’ will come from or which overbaked celebration cake could be the cornerstone of your foundations? Or have you indulged...
World Space Week
One word that you currently see everywhere nowadays is “space”. Only last month, the Government in England changed their coronavirus tagline to read “Hands, Face and Space”. We are told to maintain our distance between each other at every...
Speech and Language Therapy and International Stammering Awareness Day
Question: What do Michael Palin, Ed Balls and Colin Firth have in common? Answer: They are all Vice Presidents of the charity, Action for Stammering Children AND… they have all been affected personally by stammering – Michael’s character, Ken,...
The Big Draw – the world’s biggest drawing festival
Reach for the children’s chalks and paint pots, sharpen your colouring pencils and check your felt tip pens are shipshape…the world’s biggest drawing festival is here!What is ‘The Big Draw’? ‘The Big Draw’ festival is a month-long worldwide...
International Literacy Day
If you are reading this, you are one of the lucky ones, because it means you have a good level of literacy which unlocks many aspects of life that you probably take for granted, such as being able to decipher a menu, read a road sign or get the...
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...
European Day of Languages
If someone came up to you and said “Snak med mig”, what would you do? a) Run? b) Eat what they offered you? c) Be offended? d) Answer “Jeg ville elske at” and continue with a conversation in Danish? “Snak med mig” means “talk to me” in Danish,...
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...
Hiroshima Peace Day: Sadako Sasaki and the paper cranes
Hiroshima Peace Day is held each year on 6th August, the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.Who was Sadako Sasaki? Sadako Sasaki was only two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. She developed leukaemia as a...
How to respond to accidents, injuries, and emergency situations
An accident is an adverse event that is unintended, unplanned or unexpected; it may lead to an injury or an emergency situation. But just because something happens that is unplanned, does not mean that it is unplanned for! In responding to...
National Allotments Week: growing food for health and wellbeing
Have you ever fancied a shot at “The Good Life” – following in the footsteps of TV couple, Tom and Barbara Good, dropping out of the rat race and exchanging your daily commute for some wellies, a spade and bag of seed potatoes? Maybe you’ve done...
Playday: everyday freedoms everyday adventures
The first Wednesday in August (5th August 2020), is national Playday and we promoted it last year with suggestions of how to join in with big events organised across the country to encourage children to play. This year is different, due to the...
Activities to help children understand equality and diversity
When it comes to teaching the early years, we don’t “do” equality and diversity - it’s more about how as practitioners, we set a good example with the ethos adopted in our settings. It’s our responsibility to ensure we are being inclusive, that...
Four things you can do to help your children get used to learning
Getting children to learn can be tricky, but the lessons they can pick up outside of a nursery or early years provider are also vital in preparing them for life when they get to school. Many schools set homework as soon as children begin primary...
World Population Day
On Saturday 11th July the United Nations marks World Population Day, an initiative to focus attention on the urgency and importance of the population issues which threaten our planet, our resources and ultimately, our very survival. “All our...
Mark-making in early years
What is mark-making? The term ‘mark-making’ refers to the creation of different patterns, lines, textures and shapes – in effect, the ‘scribbles’ - that young children make with various tools (pens, pencils, chalk, paintbrushes, crayons etc.) It...
Plastic Free July
In the children's film, "WALL-E", the waste pollution on planet earth grows so bad that it forces all the humans to evacuate on a spaceship, leaving behind robots to clear up the mess, periodically sending back probes to see if the planet has...
World Youth Skills Day
What are you good at? DIY? Cooking? Construction? Designing? Or are you great at customer service or organising things? Everyone is good at something and we all possess at least one skill or talent that we can share with the world and use to not...