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With the summer holiday in full flow the Forum is a little quieter than usual! If you're enjoying a long break, hope the weather remains better for you than July's! And if it doesn't, recall some words from the immortal Dr Seuss: "I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny, but we can have lots of good fun that is funny!".
Thanks to all of you who responded to the request by the DCSF Primary National Strategies team for feedback on the new EYFS - we're hoping for an overview of the responses they got in the near future. And if any of you have been selected to be part of their 'stakeholder panel' we'd be very interested in hearing about your experiences.
We're delighted to welcome Northumberland LA and Solihull MBC early years providers to the FSF. Teachers, practitioners and other providers from these authorities are now able to join free of charge. Additionally we're delighted that North East Lincolnshire, Worcestershire, Hillingdon and Hartlepool authorities are renewing their participation in the scheme for the second year, and Cambridgeshire is renewing for the third year. Current members from these authorities need do nothing; their account subscriptions will automatically be renewed.
Educational Pioneers: John Dewey
The fifth article in our series exploring Educational Pioneers.
Educational Pioneers: Rudolf Steiner
The fourth in the series on educational pioneers with relevance to Early Years education
Posting new topics and managing your email subscriptions
A slightly unusual article, this is a 'How to' guide for posting messages in the FSF. Some members find it tricky to make the first few posts in the Forum, so we've put together this guide in MS Word format as a reference to get you kicked off!
Quieter than usual, did I say? Well, not that quiet. We managed to hit 100,000 posts in July, with the last 200 coming alarmingly quickly (about 2 days, since you ask) and ran a competition to see who would post and spot the one hundred thousandth. Here's a selection of conversations that have caught our eye this month:
Pre-school practitioner required in Brighton
If you're working in East Sussex (or intending to move there!) here's a vacancy opportunity!
Snack time policy - do you use plates?
"...Does anyone know of any official policy that say that children should NOT eat snack directly from the table? Just something I am trying to find out about!
Anyone offer any suggestions?..."
EYFS - to theme or not to theme
"...just received my EYFS pack and was told by the training bod that we were not to use topics with the EYFS. However I have just clicked on a link to www.bromleycma.org.uk who are advocating just that.
I have always used standard long/medium/short term topic lead planning but this has never been rigid and really just used as a starting idea which the children develop. Any comments?..."
Record of Transfer
"...In Kent, pre schools complete a record of transfer which is given to the parents when their child moves onto school and also sent to the teacher of their new school. This summarises which level stepping stone the pre school practitioner feels the child is operating at along with a brief comment about their achivement in each area of learning and a suggetsion for the 'next step'. Do any other areas have a similiar record and if so do you moderate these at all- and more importantly- how?..."
And at the end of the academic year, why not join in with those celebrating their academic success! Foundation Degree and EYPS along with a description of someone's graduation day!
It's been mentioned before but bears a repeat - try to avoid 'teaser titles' in your topics. Putting the first half of a sentence followed by 'dot dot dot' is essentially meaningless, and many people don't actually read a topic unless they have some idea from the title of what it is about. If you would like as many people as possible to read your topic, make it as meaningful as possible!
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