The National Strategies website is continually improving, with a full search facility and easy access to e-learning. The current EYFS materials are complimentary to each other; the CD replaces the old EYFS website in terms of training materials, and the EYFS pack will continue to be available. Progress Matters is an e-learning course which supports the process of monitoring children's progress and offers a useful tool, Progress Monitor, to enable leaders and managers to review children's progress over time. Why not try out the course and monitoring tool and discuss your views in the Tracking Progress forum here

The FSF June competition can be found here Good luck!

New Local Authority Members. We're delighted to inform you that Manchester, Gloucestershire, Staffordshire and Windsor & Maidenhead local authorities have joined the FSF County subscription scheme. Milton keynes, Bath & NE Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Derbyshire and Herefordshire have renewed for a second year and Northumberland, Brighton & Hove, Stockton on Tees, City of York and East Sussex are renewing for the third year. A special welcome back for Middlesbrough, NE Lincs and Sandwell who have just renewed for a fourth year. If you work in any of these authorities and would like to take out a free subscription, please click here. Current members from these authorities need do nothing: their account subscriptions will automatically be renewed.

New: Jun 8, 2009

NVQ 3 Guidance: CCLD 302 (Part 2) Knowledge Specification
Part 2 of guidance for Unit 302, covering sections K3H192 - 194

New: Jun 4, 2009

Using "The Gruffalo" as a Focus for Activities
This is the first in a series of planning ideas using a big book as the starting point.

New: May 15, 2009

Beginning with Books
This article introduces a new series of planning ideas that use a big book as the starting point for a variety of experiences within the Areas of Learning and Development. 'Beginning with Books' examines early reading skills and attitudes towards how children learn to read, as well as how to prepare for planning with a focus book.

New: Apr 28, 2009

Child-initiated Learning
The last in a series of articles examining recent developments in our understanding of how children learn. Here, Juliet Mickelburgh looks at what is meant by child-initiated learning, its presence in the EYFS, and how it influences good early years practice.

Featured article: Thinking Creatively about Creative Development

"Imagination rules the world."
- Napoleon

"In order to have a real relationship with our creativity, we must take the time and care to cultivate it"
- Julia Cameron

Art had to be one of my favourite subjects alongside English at school and I'm fairly confident it was mainly because most of my teachers throughout the years of enjoying these subjects gave me the time, space and encouragement to express myself creatively. However, it did used to confuse and frustrate me at school when they called one style of writing ‘Creative Writing' in English lessons. It was my favourite kind of homework but whether you are writing a critical analysis on a poem, Shakespeare play or Jane Austin text, all writing is creative isn't it? You create something from nothing when you put pen to paper or tap letters on a keyboard, transforming a once blank screen, into something of substance.

"Another word for creativity is courage"
- George Prince

The now statutory Early Years Foundation Stage goes a long way in helping to clarify what creative development is and how essential a part it must play in each and every child's education. Therefore, before I look at what some children, a selection of practitioners and I think it means, let's flesh out and answer the important question:

What does the Early Years Foundation Stage say about Creative Development?

The requirements state that "Children's creativity must be extended by the provision of support for their curiosity, exploration and play. They must be provided with opportunities to explore and share their thoughts, ideas and feelings, for example, through a variety of art, music, movement, dance, imaginative and role-play activities, mathematics, and design and technology." Dance is a new addition and some may be surprised to see mathematics included in this inexhaustible list of examples, but it is right and a delight that these are included.

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Featured article: Schemas

What exactly are schemas, and how useful are they in providing the right learning environment for our very young children? This article brings together various definitions of schemas, followed by a brief description of named schemas. These include observations of children showing characteristics of the different schemas in their play, most notably recorded by Chris Athey (teacher and lecturer), and also by Cathy Nutbrown (teacher and writer). There will also be a brief look at the role of practitioners and parents in supporting children's schemas.

The term 'schema' was used by Piaget in the 1960s to mean "general cognitive structures in children under the age of five" (Athey, p.35). A further examination of schemas was included in the Froebel Early Education Project (1973 - 1978), directed by Athey, which intended to "provide information about the ways in which young children acquire knowledge" (Devereux and Miller p.118). It is the work of Athey, laid out in her book Extending Thought in Young Children (1990, and 2003) that defines how we think of schemas today.

The meaning of the term 'schema' has evolved since Piaget's use of it in the 1960s. Athey explains schemas as "patterns of repeatable actions that lead to early categories and then to logical classifications. As a result of applying a range of action schemas to objects, infants arrive at generalisations that objects are 'throwable', 'suckable' and 'bangable' " (Athey p.36). Schemas are the mental organising and categorising of experiences that help children to an increasing understanding of their environment. What makes something a schema rather than random activity is its repeating pattern. Ann Langston, an early years' consultant, describes a schema as "a repeated pattern of behaviour through which the child explores a particular interest" (Nursery World pullout 7th August 2003). Different schemas combine as a child develops: "The early schemas of babies form the basis of the patterns of behaviour which children show between the ages of two and five years and these in turn become established foundations for learning" (Nutbrown p.10). Learning in this way relies on the child's environment. Athey puts it concisely: "Increase experiences and schemas will be enriched" (Athey p.37). Exploring and practising their schemas in different situations allows the child to 'coordinate' their schemas and to become more knowledgeable about the world around them. "What is 'known' leads to what becomes 'better known'" (Athey p.37).

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