Early Years

Friday

14th Oct 2022

‘Kindergarten stage’ in Scotland: what must happen to make it work
Finland has 9 children per teacher in pre-primary education – in Scotland, it’s 130. If we want to emulate the Nordic countries ‘kindergarten stage’ it’s going to take massive investment, writes Emma Seith
Young Einstein

Monday

10th Oct 2022

SNP members back motion to raise school starting age
Scottish government’s policy of testing pupils in P1 comes under fire as case made for a kindergarten stage from 3 to 6
SNP members back motion to raise school starting age

Friday

23rd Sep 2022

Why we need a mongrel curriculum in EYFS
In the early years, curriculum shouldn’t be either play-based or adult-led, but a mixture of both, writes Julian Grenier
Mixture

Saturday

10th Sep 2022

The best (and worst) bits of planning a school trip
Rising costs are making school trips more difficult, and money’s not the only barrier, says Helen Pinnington, who shares her advice on how to find the ‘magic’ in planning a trip
The best (and worst) bits of planning a school trip

Wednesday

7th Sep 2022

New plans for free preschool education in Northern Ireland
Minimum of 22.5 hours’ funded preschool provision would be offered to every child in Northern Ireland
New plans for free preschool education in Northern Ireland

Friday

2nd Sep 2022

‘Nursery premium’ proposed to help primary school starters
The disadvantage-related attainment gap emerges before children even start school, so action is needed early in their lives, say Scottish Liberal Democrats
'Nursery premium' proposed to help primary school starters

Tuesday

16th Aug 2022

How to develop number sense
In EYFS children need lots of opportunities to explore and play with numbers in order to develop number sense - here one early years lead shares the activities she uses
Playing blocks

Thursday

28th Jul 2022

What every teacher can learn from prehistoric school
Looking at the way children learned thousands of years ago may be the key to encouraging today’s EYFS pupils to drive innovation and fight the climate crisis in their later lives, says Paul Howard-Jones
Dig

Wednesday

27th Jul 2022

Why raising the school starting age isn’t a silver bullet
If Scotland wants a successful ‘play-based kindergarten stage’ the key will be highly trained staff – and plenty of them
Why raising the school starting age isn’t a silver bullet

Monday

25th Jul 2022

Why it’s time to drop cursive writing 
As long as children write in a legible way, is it really necessary to teach them to write in cursive? Definitely not, argues trainee teacher Aimee Robinson
Why it’s time to drop cursive writing

Friday

22nd Jul 2022

How to support EYFS children to develop story-making
Developing children’s oracy, imagination and sequencing skills is the key to supporting them to become great storytellers, says Jess Gosling
How to support EYFS children to develop story-making

Monday

18th Jul 2022

Five ways to teach foreign languages in key stage 1
It may not be statutory to teach foreign languages in key stage 1 but there are simple things teachers can do to embed language in their classrooms, writes Dr Elizabeth Malone
How to teach foreign languages in KS1