All eyes on Rio!

As the eyes of the world turn to Rio de Janeiro, the Olympics and Paralympics provide a fantastic opportunity for holiday clubs around the globe to engage in some lively themed activities… Opening ceremony Why not have your own opening ceremony?  Children could dress up and role-play a section of this year’s actual ceremony (you could […]

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U-turn on baseline assessment

Welcome to the early years blog. In our recent roundup of the latest early years hot topics, we discussed the controversy over the baseline assessment due to be brought into Reception classrooms from this September.  This would coincide with the currently used mandatory Early Years Foundation Stage Profile becoming non-statutory.  The intended purpose of the […]

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Latest hot topics at Early Years

Baseline assessment Assessment in UK reception classrooms is changing from this September.  It will no longer be compulsory for teachers to complete an EYFS Profile for pupils to assess final attainment at the end of the EYFS.  Instead, baseline testing will be introduced to assess children’s level of development at the beginning of their formal […]

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Planning for the New Year

Hello and welcome to the Early Years Blog, As the winter holidays approach schools will be thinking about planning for the New Year.  The Early Years Foundation Stage is non-prescriptive in terms of how this planning is carried out, so settings are free to develop their own methods.  However, planning must be effective and completed […]

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End of summer prep….

Currently, many early years settings will be helping their oldest children prepare for their upcoming transition to school.  While focussed on those all-important preparation activities – such as visits to the new setting, reading books about starting school and playing making friends games – it’s easy to forget about providing equally important opportunities for children […]

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