Running a Setting
KCSIE 2026 Guide: Proven Early Years Safeguarding Steps
KCSIE 2026 is here. Discover what it means for your early years setting and how Parenta can help your team prepare.
New Apprenticeship Funding Could Transform Your Nursery
New apprenticeship funding rules mean 100% funded training for under-25s from August 2026. Find out what it means for your nursery.
Interpreting Policy in Early Years – Everyday Leadership
Interpreting Policy: The Everyday Leadership Work That Brings Policy to Life How leaders translate national expectations into everyday practice that truly works for children and teams. Interpreting policy is one of the most important and least...
The Magic of Childminding – Why It Deserves Recognition
The Magic of Childminding The magic of childminding was put in the spotlight during Childminding Week this year, which gave a much needed lift to the work that childminders do, and Coram Pacey's extensive report, The Magic of Childminding,...
Safer Sleep Guidance in Early Years: What’s Changed and What Ofsted Will Now Inspect
Safer sleep guidance in early years is changing - and if you care for babies or children under 2 in your setting, you need to know exactly what's new. In March 2026, early education minister Olivia Bailey confirmed that the government is writing...
Smarter, faster observation and assessment techniques in early years
Smarter, faster observation and assessment techniques in early years Observation and assessment involve watching, listening to, and reflecting on what children do as they play, learn and interact and are central to early years practice. They...
Supporting your staff and apprentices with SEND to thrive
Supporting Staff with SEND When we think about SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities), our focus is often, quite rightly, on the children in our care. However, SEND does not stop at childhood. Children with ADHD, autism or dyslexia,...
Keeping your nursery safe from cyber threats
Keeping your nursery safe from cyber threats In today’s early years settings, safeguarding is no longer just about physical safety. Increasingly, it also means protecting the digital information we hold about children, families and...
2026 DBS guide for early years professionals
2026 DBS guide for early years professionals In early years settings, safeguarding is at the heart of everything we do. One of the key ways we protect children is by ensuring that the adults working with them are suitable, safe, and...
The Schools White Paper: What it Means for Early Years Educators
The Early Years White Paper For so long, the UK’s early years education policy has felt like a story that starts at the school gates. The Department for Education’s recent Schools White Paper: Every Child Achieving and Thriving, however, gives...
Supporting Neurodivergent Colleagues, part 3
Supporting Neurodivergent Colleagues Greetings, fellow travellers, and welcome to my third instalment on how to support neurodivergent colleagues at work. Neurodivergent Timekeeping Time can be a tricky thing to grasp when you have a...
The Whole Child in Motion: Why Holistic Learning Begins with Movement, Connection and Play
Why Holistic Learning Begins with Movement, Connection and Play Step into any early years setting, and you might see a child spinning with a scarf, completely absorbed in their own rhythm, while others begin to watch, copy, and join in their...
Leadership That Lifts the Team: Small Actions, Big Impact
Leadership That Lifts the Team If you work in early years, you already know that leadership isn’t about big speeches or grand plans. It is the small, consistent behaviours that shape how a team feels, works and copes with the realities of the...
Leadership and Management in the Early Years: Shaping Culture, Quality and Confidence
Leadership and Management in the Early Years Leadership and management in the early years are often spoken about together, yet they are not quite the same. Management provides structure, organisation, and accountability. Leadership creates...
Self-evaluation for early years educators
Self-evaluation for early years educators In early years education, we focus on observing and assessing children’s development. But how often do we pause and turn that same thoughtful lens back onto ourselves? The practice of self-evaluation is...
Outdoors and reconnecting with nature
Reconnecting with nature and the outdoors The simple act of stepping outdoors can feel surprisingly powerful, especially in a world that is increasingly fast-paced and digital. For young children, the outdoors is not just a place to let off...
Culture as a Constant
Culture as a Constant The one thing that we, as early years professionals, know is that change is constant. Legislation, staff, Ofsted requirements, costings and the changing cohort of children are a moveable feast, and we realise we are...
Do Babies Belong in Schools?
The early years sector is no stranger to change. Over the past few years, we’ve seen reforms to funding, ratios, qualifications and curriculum expectations. Now, another question is gaining momentum both online and in staffrooms up and down the...
Language and Music: ESOL for the Early Years
Music has long been considered an activity that transcends language, something that people everywhere can understand, like love, smiles and laughter. In fact, its composition has been explored in terms of understanding links between rhythm and...
Nurturing the Nurturers: Why Staff Well-Being Matters
Early years practice is deeply relational work. Every day, practitioners respond to children’s emotions, support families through transitions and challenges, and create environments where young learners feel safe, confident, and curious. This...
The Social Power of Play: Activating Children’s ‘Social Engagement System’
Anyone who has watched a group of young children immersed in imaginative play will recognise the energy of connection that fills the room. Voices rise with excitement, children mirror one another’s movements, and friendships begin to form...
Supporting Neurodivergent Colleagues, part 2.
Greetings, fellow travellers! Last month, I began offering ways in which neurotypical early years workers can support their neurodivergent colleagues. This advice is particularly aimed at managers (who have the most power to shape the...
Mentoring in the workplace: Supporting apprentices, practitioners and leaders
The early years sector continues to face significant workforce challenges, including recruitment pressures, retention difficulties and increasing professional demands. In this climate, mentoring is not a luxury but a strategic tool that settings...
Ofsted updates: A reminder of what you need to know
Ofsted inspections have long played an important role in maintaining standards across the early years sector. They provide reassurance for parents, accountability for providers, and guidance for improvement. However, in recent years, the...
Succession planning
Across the early years sector, many settings are facing increasing workforce challenges - succession planning being one of them. Recruitment remains difficult, staff retention can be unpredictable, and experienced leaders are often carrying...
The ‘hidden curriculum’ or what children really learn when we are not ‘teaching’
When we think about learning in early years settings, we often focus on planned activities, structured play, and the areas of learning set out in curriculum guides and the EYFS. Practitioners carefully plan experiences that support children’s...
The Creativity Myth
Why Are Some Children “More Creative”? They’ve Just Had More Opportunities Walk into any early years setting and, at some point, you will hear it said: She has creativity, or he’s not really a creative child. And often, quietly, staff can feel...
Wearable Music: 5 Ways Haptic Instruments Help Early Years
Wearing Music: How Haptic Instruments Revolutionise Early Years Learning Traditional music education often relies on sound alone. However, for many children, experiencing music through touch provides a deeper connection to rhythm and melody....
Baby Music and Sensory Play
Music and sensory - from the very earliest stages of life, movement shapes who we become. In the womb, the first spontaneous movements emerge, initiating not only physical development but also the earliest form of communication, a way of...
Keeping Quality Strong Through Pressured Times
Exploring how strong team support protects quality when pressures are high By the time March arrives, many early years settings feel as though they’ve already run a marathon. Winter illnesses, recruitment gaps, rising needs in children and...
