Interactive Magazine March 2019

Issue 52
MARCH 2019
FREE
INDUSTRY
EXPERTS
Supporting children to
process their emotions
now and in the future
Write for us
for a chance to
WIN
£50
p 29
“The Giants” in the world
of early years: part 2
Ways to support children
on the autism spectrum
in your setting
+ lots more
Our top tips
for promoting
British Values at
your setting
“I’M KILLING THE BADDIES!”
Tamsin Grimmer discusses using ‘superhero play’ to deal with
notions of killing and death within early childhood
HEALTHIER PANCAKE DAY • ST PATRICK’S DAY • TIPS TO ENCOURAGE YOUNG READERS

hello
Hello and welcome to the March edition of the Parenta magazine!
It looks as if spring has made an appearance already … in some parts of the country at least! March is a month
with many things to celebrate – the beginning of spring, Easter, books, women and mothers and pancakes - to
name but a few!
As usual, this month’s magazine is full with a variety of practical advice, tips and activities. All of our articles
have been written and designed to assist with the efficient running of your setting and to promote the health,
happiness and wellbeing of the children in your care.
International Women’s Day is on the 8th when people from all walks of life recognise and pay tribute to the contribution that women
make to their families, communities and countries. Turn to pages 8 and 9 for ways to get involved in this ever-growing global
celebration of women. The 31st marks Mothering Sunday, where traditionally, it is common for children to give their mother a gift,
flowers or a card … and a break from household chores! We have a really pretty sensory bottle activity for the children to take part in,
to commemorate both these days. We love to see how they get on when participating in the craft ideas that we suggest - please feel
free to share pictures of their creations on social media, remembering to tag us @theparentagroup.
National Apprenticeship Week runs from the 4th to the 8th and is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate and get involved in ‘all things
apprenticeships’! We also take a look at the importance of ‘British values’ and give our top tips as to how you can promote them within
your setting, and how you can make sure you’re meeting EYFS legislation.
On the 5th, the nation will be reaching for the frying pans to celebrate Shrove Tuesday by cooking, flipping and eating pancakes. We
look at the origins of Pancake Day and give our top tips for a holding a healthy pancake day, including ideas for various pancake
races that all staff and children can get involved in! In the same week, on the 7th, is World Book Day, when people all over the world
celebrate their favourite books and literary characters by dressing up, reading new books and passing on stories. Find out how you
can encourage children to read with our advice piece on pages 38 and 39.
Congratulations once again to Joanna Grace who has won our guest author competition. Her unusually titled article “Sniff your way to
mental wellbeing” explores how we can use our noses to support wellbeing and contains some great ideas and activities. If you have
written on a topic relevant to early years, and would like to be in with a chance to win £50 in vouchers, turn to page 29 for details.
We hope you enjoy this month’s magazine – please do share it with friends and colleagues!
Allan
“ THE
GIANTS”
Part 2 of Professor Sean
MacBlain’s reflection on
the key figures in the
early years sector who
challenged the thinking
of their time
KILLING
AND DEATH
WELCOME TO OUR FAMILY
18
26
Tamsin Grimmer discusses
using ‘superhero play’ to
deal with notions of killing
and death within early
childhood
BRITISH VALUES
24
We take a look at each of the British
Values, one by one, and give our top tips
on how you can promote them within your
setting
MARCH 2019 ISSUE 52
IN THIS EDITION
REGULARS
14 Focus on... the recruitment team
15 What our customers say
28 Mother’s Day sensory bottle craft
29 Write for us for a chance to win £50
32 Parenta job board
NEWS
4 Cultural connections
6 Parenta Trust news
ADVICE
8 Join the celebration - International Women’s Day
2019
12 How can you educate children through
gardening?
16 Celebrate St Patrick’s Day
20 National Apprenticeship Week
24 How to promote British values at your setting
30 Pancake Day – healthier options
34 How to get more visitors to your website
38 Tips to encourage young readers
INDUSTRY EXPERTS
10 New Year: New Start!
18 “The Giants”: part 2
22 Ways to support children on the autism
spectrum in your setting
26 “I’m killing the baddies!” Using ‘superhero play’
to deal with notions of killing and death within
early childhood
36 Supporting children to process their emotions
now and in the future
Healthier options for Pancake Day 30
How can you educate children through gardening? 12
Ways to celebrate St Patrick’s Day in your setting 16
Read about Toni & Debbie’s 10,000-mile round trip to deliver
a four-day, bespoke training workshop to fellow early years
professionals in Beijing, China
4

Cultural connections
British early years consultants, Debbie Gunn and Toni Buchan recently shared their
extensive knowledge and experience with early years practitioners on the other
side of the world. Debbie tells us of their cultural exchange here.
What an adventure! A 10,000-mile round trip to deliver a four-day, bespoke
training workshop to early years professionals in Beijing, China. The miles
themselves paled into insignificance as the connections with the Chinese
professional counterparts, now friends, had begun some years ago. This fantastic
opportunity was in December 2018 and we still talk with amazement of going from
Boughton to Beijing and back to Blean. So how did this happen to us?
Toni’s setting, Tiny Tribe was established
in 2016 and is set in four acres of beautiful
woodland just outside Canterbury. Her
early years journey began more than
20 years ago, and she has been, and
continues to be, a practitioner, manager,
academic, lecturer, consultant and
author. Toni has worked in a wide range
of capacities and roles within the field of
children’s services and education in early
years, at primary level and in HE and FE
contexts. Her personal pedagogy is based
on the significance of good wellbeing, play
and nature.
D-Dee’s Day Nursery, my setting, is a
reflective and ever-changing natural
playscape, a place where “unique” is valued.
I opened it in 1996 at just 23 years of age,
with 2019 marking my 27th year in early
years practice. I have been part of every role
within my award-winning setting and still
actively manage and support my team. I am
also the co-founder of the Nursery Owners
Hub Facebook group, and a member of the
leadership team of Champagne Nurseries
Lemonade Funding. My passion is “little
people” and how we can all make a choice
to work together to deliver a unique and
bespoke service which is the highest quality
possible within our settings.
After meeting at Canterbury University a
few years before, and finding connections
within our values and beliefs about the best
physical and psychological environments to
honour the uniqueness of each child that
we worked with, it really made us reflect
deeply on our own practice. Both of us
had by this time become known locally for
some innovative approaches and with our
committed ‘dream teams’ of staff providing
us with the time and space to be able to
share our practice beyond our own gates, it
was time for us to go further than before.
Over the following couple of years, we
engaged with several visits from Chinese
nursery owners, investors, early years
teachers, and even one Chinese region’s
Minister of Education. Their visits to our
respective settings further developed
our mutual understanding of similarlyheld
values across the cultural divide.
Discussions centered on children’s rights,
their individual uniqueness and the
significance of children being genuinely
advocated for. Language, culture and
politics melted away as we shared the
deeply-instinctive driving force behind our
shared pedagogies.
We were invited to link-up and make
connections with Hardoon International
Education Group last year. Hardoon
International currently provides over 3,000
places per day in nine nursery schools based
primarily in Eastern China, with its central
education centre in Beijing. Our programme
of training was created specifically for
their unique needs, linking our everyday
innovative practice from the UK with their
vision for a more creative, forward-thinking,
child-led and progressive model within
Chinese educational structures. We were
asked specifically about the ingredients of
contemporary UK early years practice and to
bring our own ideas.
We were lucky enough to have the
skills of two native-speaking Chinese
colleagues, who worked alongside us to
interpret, using both their knowledge of
our individual professional practice, and a
shared vision alongside their own unfolding
understanding of early years. This
supported and added cultural relevance to
our modules. We were overwhelmed with
the prestige and high regard with which
we were welcomed at all times. The entire
trip was amazing: from the start involving
an opening ceremony including song and
dance from the children themselves; the
signing of a wall to commemorate our
visit; to leading a rendition of ‘Happy and
You Know It’ - complete with Makaton
signing while on the Great Wall of China.
All of these will remain highlights of our
professional careers and are certainly
something that we will never forget.
While working with these amazingly
committed and talented early years
professionals so very far from home,
we quickly recognised some common
threads and values despite the language
barrier. The communist constraints on their
everyday practice were visible and many
of the teachers and practitioners grappled
with what innovation and creativity truly
are. As the passionate educators of their
generation, they understand the urgency
to begin to ignite these qualities in the next
generation of Chinese children, and place
significant value on the impact this could,
and would have on their little people. High
on their agenda was the need to respect
and harness the love for creativity that
comes from the essence of childhood.
Empowering the delegates with the tools to
question and reflect on their own practice
through a series of both practically- and
theoretically-based sessions, added the
most value. We even led a whole morning
of child-led, ‘in the moment’ planning,
whereby thirty children, aged from 2-6
years, were allowed to do activities
deemed ‘too messy’, ‘too noisy’, ‘too
unstructured’ and ‘too out-of-their-comfortzone’
prior to our visit. As we observed
the educators of Hardoon observing their
children, it seemed that we were indeed
sneaking in on their very own ‘eureka’
moments as they watched the real magic
of childhood unfold before their very own
eyes. It was a deep privilege for us to
have witnessed, and totally worth every
one of those 10,000 miles, along with the
experience of teaching in Beijing with a
body still on London time!
Since arriving home, our amazing Chinese
colleagues have continued their leap of
faith. They regularly send us pictures and
videos of their latest adventures and are as
proud of the journey that they are on, as
we are of them too. Sharing our pedagogy
and committing to our international
collaboration with these wonderful teams,
has validated nearly 50 years of our own
combined works, studies and research in
the very best of ways. We have learnt that
we can plan in the moment as well for
adults as for our little people, and that we
will always find it difficult to speak Chinese.
For now our attempts remain limited to
‘nihao’ (hello), no matter how hard we
try. We look forward to visiting again and
leading them on the next steps of their own
learning journeys.
Toni Buchan is the founder, owner and
lead Forest School practitioner of Tiny Tribe
Outdoors. She is the author of the awardwinning
book “The Social Child – laying
the foundations of relationships and
language” (Routledge 2013) and continues
to lecture and consult in all things early
years. www.tinytribeoutdoors.co.uk, info@
tinytribeoutdoors.co.uk
Debbie Gunn is the founder and owner of
the award-winning D-Dee’s Day Nursery.
She also works as an early years consultant
and trainer, delivering bespoke early years
services both within her own setting and
those of others. www.ddeesdaynursery.
co.uk, debbie@ddeesdaynursery.co.uk,
consultancy@ddeesdaynursery.co.uk
4 Parenta.com March 2019 5

Please join us on our annual Maidstone to Monaco
Rally on 26th - 30th June!
Check out our video here: bit.ly/ptrally2019
NEWS
Parenta Trust news
CALLING ALL CAR & MOTORBIKE
ENTHUSIASTS...
Don’t miss out on the road trip of a lifetime - come
and join us for an automotive adventure!
Here at Parenta Trust, we are raising vital funds to build pre-schools for young children in desperate need
of a quality education in deprived areas of the world.
For as little as 56p a day
YOU CAN
MAKE A
DIFFERENCE
Sponsoring a child provides
• A pre-school education
• Access to clean water
• A school uniform
• A daily hot meal
• School supplies
• The knowledge that
someone truly cares
To take part in this adventure and to help us make a
difference to hundreds of children’s lives, find out more and
register today at parentatrust.com!
The Rally:
»»
2000 miles. 8 countries. 5 days.
»»
Camp under the stars.
»»
Negotiate the winding roads of the Furka pass.
»»
Take part in crazy challenges.
»»
Absorb the stunning scenery of the Alps.
»»
Enjoy plenty of laughter along the way!
The Vehicles:
»»
All cars and motorbikes welcome.
»»
Teams or individuals can enter.
»»
Decoration is a must!
The Dates:
»»
26th–30th June 2019.
»»
Setting off from Maidstone, Kent.
The Mission:
»»
Raise vital funds to build pre-schools in the most deprived
areas of the world.
»»
Allow young children to break out of the cycle of poverty
and look forward to a bright future.
Now in its 6th year, the Maidstone to Monaco Rally is a
fantastic way to bring people together for a great cause and
have fun along the way. Our 5th school opens early in 2019
and in addition, funds raised from last year’s rally and our
two charity balls, means that we are now finalising funds
for our next school. Together, we can raise enough funds
to continue building a new pre-school year on year. With
every pre-school we build, we give another 200 children the
opportunity they deserve to have an early years education.
Register today at parentatrust.com
Together we can make a difference to hundreds of
children in the poorest areas of the world
Parenta Trust was founded by Allan Presland in 2013 after a
life-changing and heartbreaking trip to Kampala in Uganda.
He returned to the UK to set up a charity, leveraging his
existing network of contacts in the early years sector, and his
ambitious quest to build one pre-school per year began.
You’ll be able to see firsthand
the difference you’re
making with regular updates,
letters and drawings from your
sponsored child.
FIND OUT MORE
6 Parenta.com

Join the celebration -
International Women’s Day 2019
On March 8th, millions of people will come together to honour and celebrate the achievements
of women around the world on International Women’s Day. People from all walks of life will
recognise and pay tribute to the contribution that women make to their families, communities and
countries, and will highlight the work that still needs to be done in gaining equal recognition and
opportunities for women worldwide.
This year, the theme of International
Women’s Day is “#BalanceforBetter”
recognising the need for an improved
gender-balance across many
industries in which men still heavily
outnumber women. Business
board rooms, science and politics
are three areas where the gender
split is still not representative of
current population demographics. The
high-profile case of Rahaf Mohammed
al-Qunun, an 18-year-old Saudi woman
who recently locked herself in her hotel
room and was finally given asylum in
Canada, highlights the problems that
many women still face in seeking basic
human rights.
But IWD is also a celebration of women,
past and present, who continue to
‘champion the cause’ and defy the
gender stereotypes that still exist in
many communities. And it’s not just the
women who have made it to the top that
need to be celebrated. Women all over
the world, in every community and at
every level, make a huge contribution to
the education, care and smooth running
of their societies. Without them, much of
the world as we know it would not exist,
so why not look around your own setting
this IWD, give thanks to, and praise the
amazing women who are making such
a difference?
How to get involved in IWD
The IWD website at www.
internationalwomensday.com has a lot
of information on how to participate
and plan a campaign in line with this
year’s theme. You can register to set
up an account and purchase an event
pack including posters, banners, pens
and postcards - everything you need
to create an eye-catching display in
your setting. The packs usually sell out
though, so order early if you want to be
sure of getting one.
There is also a competition that you
can enter which will be announced
before the day, with last year’s event
attracting over 100 groups in the ”Best
Practice Competition” to showcase their
achievements in helping forge gender
parity.
The idea of #BalanceforBetter is that it
should be a year-long campaign, not
just for March 8th, so collaborations are
invited from groups to show how they
can tackle gender imbalance over the
year to make a tangible difference in the
longer term. Details of how to apply are
also on the IWD website along with lots
of inspirational pictures and stories of
groups who participated last year if you
need some ideas.
We’ve listed a few of our own thoughts
here too, to help you get into the spirit of
the event.
1
2
3
4
5
How to get involved
Advertise your involvement and celebration of the day by signing up for the IWD resource pack and then add logos,
branding and links to your own site.
Research some famous and inspirational international women and girls from history and the present day and
have a story-telling session or two to educate your children of some of the amazing things that women have done and
continue to do.
Think about inspirational women from your own local community. You could invite them to your setting, asking
them to give a short presentation about their work, the challenges they face and the solutions they find to overcome
them.
Write some ‘thank you’ notes to the women close to the
children in your setting, who tirelessly give of themselves to
support them. This could include their mothers, female family
members, carers, teachers, staff, friends and childminders
who the children admire, to show appreciation for the ‘every
day’ things they do.
Run a staff training session on challenging gender
stereotyping. There is a useful document from Stonewall
covering this issue, giving advice on the statutory requirements
of pre-schools to tackle gender stereotyping and offering practical
steps you can take to improve things in your setting. The document can be
downloaded free of charge here.
And in case you need some more incentives, here’s
a list of some wonderful women you could focus on:
Marie Curie – Polish physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research
on radioactivity and won the Nobel prize – twice!
Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters - Christabel Pankhurst and Sylvia
Pankhurst - leaders of the British suffrage movement whose campaigning eventually
helped win the vote for women, 100 years ago.
J. K. Rowling – author and screenwriter of the “Harry Potter” books who struggled as a
single mother to write part-time whilst raising her son.
Mary Wollstonecraft – 18th century British author and philosopher and advocate of
women’s rights - often considered the ‘mother of modern feminism’. She was also the
actual mother of another British writer, Mary Shelley, who grew up to write “Frankenstein”.
Rosa Parks – US civil rights activist who famously refused to give up her seat on the bus for
a white person and fought against segregation and oppression.
Dame Kelly Holmes – double Olympic gold medal winner in the 2004 Olympics.
Amelia Earhart – the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, fighting prejudice to become a
university adviser on aeronautical engineering and a pioneer for women pilots.
8 Parenta.com March 2019 9

New Year: New Start!
Many of you will be entering your settings hoping that one little person in particular has mellowed
in their behaviour over the holidays. This little person does not respond to the behavioural
approaches that work for the other children. The approaches you use are all super, well tried and
tested. It is just that one child. That child is the problem.
As you’re reading this you’re not
thinking that the child is the problem,
you are wondering why they don’t
respond. When we think about a
problem head-on like this, we see
the child separate to the problem. But
when we are just going about
our daily duties and that
child thwarts us yet
again, it
is easy for us, subconsciously at least,
to view the child as the problem. After
all, you are doing the right thing with
the behaviour strategy that you use,
so the fact that it doesn’t work for this
child must mean that this child is in
the wrong. They are “just
naughty” it is “just the
way they are.”
If you ever find yourself thinking that
bad behaviour is just the way a child is
or if you hear a colleague express such
a sentiment, take action. All behaviour
is communication and a child ‘acting
out’ is trying to tell you something.
That child is not a problem, they have
a problem and they are asking for your
help. It is hard when you are small
and do not have the language skills or
the emotional literacy to explain what
is going on. Lashing out through their
behaviour is often the only option some
children have when it comes to trying
to explain to you how hard they are
finding a situation.
On Exploring the Impact of the
Senses on Behaviour, my delegates
and I explore the underpinning routes
to sensory behaviour and look at
a variety of ways you can support
children who express their difficulties
with the sensory world through
behaviour. Many settings are beginning
to understand the need for sensory
provision, but that understanding often
goes little further than having a few
extra sensory toys around the place
and there is more to it than that. There
are simple changes we can make to the
language we use, the speed at which
we expect processing to occur, and to
our environment, that can make a big
difference to children struggling and
expressing their struggles through their
behaviour.
Sensory toys are just one part of
providing for children whose behaviour
you think could be motivated by sensory
needs or differences. Perhaps you have
some already and they’ve not been that
effective? Simply having a sensory toy
can help a little, the child may pick it up
and explore it, they may gain some
sensory pleasure from it, but
it is likely that other toys will
be more interesting. If you
know how to use things like fidgets, gak
or slime, search jars, or settle jars then
you can get more out of their presence
in your setting. Let’s take settle jars as
an example.
A settle jar is like a snow globe:
particles are suspended in fluid, you
can shake them up and watch the
particles settle. They are easy to make,
you just need: a glitter glue pen (you
can usually get a pack of 6 in your local
pound store); a container (clear drinks
bottles are good); and some glitter
or other bits to suspend in the water.
Squeeze the whole glitter glue pen
into the bottle and half fill with warm
water. Put the lid on and shake well
so that the glue mixes into the water.
Remove the lid and add the items
you want to the bottle, some different
glitters or sequins look lovely, you can
use a punch to cut pieces of coloured
cellophane and add them, a couple of
drops of ink can create a lovely effect
too (try using pearlised ink for extra
magic). Once you have all the particles
you want in the bottle, fill it up with
water and secure the lid tightly.
Here’s one way to use it that is a little
bit more than just giving it to a child to
explore. Have it to hand in your setting.
When you see a child beginning to get
wound up, take the bottle over to them
and attract their attention. Explain to
them that they are getting wound up
and as you explain this, shake the jar.
Little children often cannot articulate
their feelings, so doing it for them is a
wonderful way to help develop their
emotional literacy with something
like: “You feel all shaken up inside”
- empathise with them rather than
tell them off. “It’s not nice to feel all
annoyed” - use a range of language;
children have more emotions than just
happy and sad so give them all the
vocabulary they need. “You need to
calm down.”
The instruction to calm down is a very
difficult one for children to follow, it is
an abstract concept and means little
to them, you are asking them to do a
thing which is actually a ‘not’, it is an
absence of something else rather than
a thing in itself: it is very confusing.
Adding support to your instruction
to calm can help a child understand
what to do. Show them the settle jar all
shaken up and place it on a table top
as you say “You need to calm down.”
Model clearly how to do this: take a
deep breath in, look at the swirling
glitter particles and breathe out slowly.
Adding in the sign language for “calm
down” can create an extra layer of
support for this communication and
works well with the settle jar, as the
sign is to hold your hands with their
palms facing down one above another
a small distance apart and then press
them slowly down in turn (similar to the
action you would do if singing “Wind
the bobbin up,” only with your hands
going straight down rather than around
and around). As you press a hand
down, it mirrors the slow downward
motion of the particles and the
downward motion of your chest as you
breathe out.
Continue to watch the bottle and
model the calm breathing needed for
calming down, supporting this with the
sign. Our bodies naturally respond to
the rhythms of the bodies around us.
Screaming at a child to “CALM DOWN”
is far more likely to agitate them than
it is to inspire them to calm. Exude the
calm you are hoping to create, and
watch the glittering particles swirl, and
you will find their simple beauty really
does help you to calm down too.
Here’s to a peaceful new year! For more
tips and information, do join me on
Exploring the Impact of the Senses
on Behaviour which is currently open
for early bird bookings.
Check out
page 28 for our
Mother’s Day
sensory bottle
craft!
Joanna Grace
Joanna Grace is an
international Sensory
Engagement and Inclusion
Specialist, trainer, author, TEDx
speaker and founder of The
Sensory Projects.
Consistently rated as
“outstanding” by Ofsted,
Joanna has taught in
mainstream and specialschool
settings, connecting
with pupils of all ages and
abilities. To inform her work,
Joanna draws on her own
experience from her private
and professional life as well
as taking in all the information
she can from the research
archives. Joanna’s private life
includes family members with
disabilities and neurodiverse
conditions and time spent
as a registered foster carer
for children with profound
disabilities.
Joanna has published several
books: “Sensory Stories for
Children and Teens”, “Sensory-
Being for Sensory Beings”
and “Sharing Sensory Stories”
and “Conversations with
People with Dementia”. Her
latest two books, “Ernest and
I”, and “Voyage to Arghan”
were launched at TES SEN in
October.
Joanna is a big fan of social
media and is always happy
to connect with people
via Facebook, Twitter and
LinkedIn.
Website:
thesensoryprojects.co.uk
10 Parenta.com March 2019 11

How can you educate children
through gardening?
Technological advances mean that children are spending more time indoors. However, it’s
still vital that we inform them of the enjoyment that can be found outdoors….and you don’t
have to go far! It doesn’t matter if it’s summer or winter, there are plenty of opportunities to
get children out into the fresh air.
Play bark suppliers, Compost Direct, have come up with some tips for
childcare providers on how to educate children through gardening.
Early years development
Playing in the garden is a great way to develop the early years skills
in younger children. Messy play aids their sensory and cognitive
development, while allowing them to have fun. Research shows that there
are many advantages to messy play and that this form of activity, albeit
unstructured, can help a child develop immensely. It’s possible to do this
in the garden by using water, sand and mud. You must break down the
usual rules that may face a child, including being solely restricted to a play
mat. You should encourage them to draw shapes using a range of childfriendly
tools. This aids the development of finger and arm muscles which
can help when it comes to tasks such as holding a pen.
The garden also exposes a child to many new textures. It allows them to get
used to handling solid objects and if you let children be around mud, they
will also get used to softer materials which in turn will help them compare
and understand new textures.
General learning
If the weather allows, why not complete tasks outside? Children often spend all day behind a desk when they’re at
school, so change the environment and head outdoors wherever possible. A gazebo or table and chairs can be a great
investment. Eighty-five percent of teachers stated that teaching lessons outdoors led to a positive behavioural impact,
while 92% of pupils also said they preferred lessons that were held outdoors.
About healthy eating
According to studies, if a child embarks on the ‘grow your own veg’ journey, they are more likely to eat
fresh fruit and veg later in life. This means that getting kids outside can improve their diet. A selection of
simple fruit and veg you can grow include strawberries, cabbage, potatoes and radishes. Select a
size of patch you can use and ask the children to keep an eye on what is growing.
Jobs for little helpers
Children love to be in charge, don’t they? Give them some responsibility and set them
tasks to carry out each day. Doing this should see them become excited to spend time
in the garden.
An easy task could be to get them to grow a sunflower. They would have to check daily
how it’s progressing, and it can also help their maths skills as they can measure the
growth. Often, a sunflower will grow to be taller than the child, so this will also keep them
entertained.
12 Parenta.com Source: here | Credit: Jamie Roberts - copywriter at Mediaworks
March 2019 13

Focus on... the recruitment team
What our customers say
WHAT OUR CUSTOMERS SAY
Here at Parenta, we work in
partnership with thousands of
settings, supporting them with
upskilling their staff and recruiting
new apprentices. We also train
nearly 3,000 nursery staff every
year, helping them successfully
complete their childcare
apprenticeship training.
This month, we talk to Julie Allen,
Parenta’s Recruitment Manager
and discover how she and her
team manage these successful relationships with both recruiters and learners and get great results!
TRAINING
- JANUARY 2019
I’m not sure who to contact directly
about this matter but I would just like
to feedback my positive experience with
one of your assessors, Clare Long. I had 3
assessors throughout my time completing my
EYE course with your company, and Clare was
by far the best and most supportive. Clare was
so easy to communicate with and made my
time completing my course as stress-free
as possible, and I feel she is a real
asset to your team.
Isobel Westwood
TRAINING - JANUARY 2019
I would like to say a huge ‘thank you’ to
Jeanette for all of her hard work and patience
with me. I have been very lucky to have her
as my tutor she has been amazing and I don’t
think I would have completed without all of her
support. Thank you.
Betsy Wagland
SOFTWARE SUPPORT
- JANUARY 2019
What is the role of a Parenta recruiter?
The role of a Parenta recruiter is truly unique!
From liaising with students still in education,
right the way up to directors responsible
for a large chain of nurseries, no day is the
same … which is why the team have their
finger firmly on the pulse, and are always on
their toes!
How do you know what settings want?
We send each setting that comes to us for
assistance, a survey to complete. This allows
us to be able to advertise their vacancies
to meet their individual requirements.
No setting is the same and our bespoke
recruitment service is free of charge. We
will then screen the applications we receive,
and only submit candidates that meet the
setting’s requirements - this saves them
precious time. We also proactively search
for candidates that we know meet their
requirements.
How do you get in touch with potential
candidates?
The team engage with candidates via email,
telephone, SMS, and social media. We
also meet candidates within their current
education environment during careers talks
and events.
Do you help candidates before they go
for an interview?
Our recruiters conduct a mock interview over
the telephone with the candidates giving
them the very best chance of success at their
face-to-face interview.
What’s the most rewarding part of being
a recruiter?
Without a doubt, the most rewarding part
of being a recruiter within this industry
is changing people’s lives using our
exceptional AIG (advice, information and
guidance). From the moment they choose a
career in childcare, we fill candidates with
the passion we have for the sector, setting
them up for an outstanding and rewarding
career. There is nothing like giving a person
the lovely news that they have secured
themselves a job!
What is the most challenging part of a
recruiter’s role?
At times, being able to motivate the
candidates over the telephone. Every person
is different and some people are naturally
self-motivated, some verbally, and some
need to be motivated in person.
What are the biggest changes you’ve
seen over the past few years?
Within the industry, we have seen huge
changes - mainly implemented by the
government - so we as a provider have little
say in things like levy and contributions. Each
change always sets out a new challenge for
any provider, but we as a team are super
resilient and embrace them.
Talk to us!
Here’s some of the amazing feedback
our recruitment team have received:
“Parenta have been a wonderful help in our
search for nursery apprentices. Courtney
has always been extremely professional
and responsive and is a pleasure to deal
with. She has always maintained a good
level of contact with us and seems to have
a really good understanding of our specific
requirements as a nursery. Apprentices
play and important role within our setting
and it is so nice to finally find a company
that understands our needs and gives
exceptional customer service. Thank you
Parenta.”
“Could not recommend Caroline enough!
An extremely approachable and helpful
member of the Parenta staff. It is a
pleasure to deal with her on a regular
basis!”
“Rebecca was amazing at helping me to
find an apprenticeship and was so nice
and helpful and I am truly grateful for the
service.”
Ask Parenta’s recruitment team for information on anything to do with
apprenticeships if there’s something you’re unsure about. They are up-to-speed on
all legislation changes that occur - including funding, contribution, minimum wage,
off-the-job training etc.
Get in touch to find out more about how we work together with settings and help
them with their apprenticeship solutions.
0800 002 9242 hello@parenta.com
TRAINING - JANUARY 2019
I think the course was really well
laid out, particularly how it was a
mixture of practical observations,
written-word documents and
PowerPoint presentations. My
assessor, Angela, was also the
best assessor I could’ve asked for.
Shakira Newton - Noah’s Ark
Nursery
SOFTWARE
SUPPORT -
FEBRUARY 2019
Every time I have a question or
a technical problem the team are
there for advise and support.
They always know the solution!
Very easy, simple and
handy. Thank you Emma.
Carly - Seahorse
Nurseries, Wimbledon
Park
Georgie - Curious
14 Parenta.com
Caterpillars
March 2019 15

Celebrate St Patrick’s Day
Sunday 17th March is St Patrick’s Day – the patron saint of Ireland, but it is not only
in the ‘emerald isle’ that this day is cherished and celebrated as it’s reported that St
Patrick’s Day is celebrated in more countries than any other national festival.
MATHEMATICS &
LITERACY
Use the shamrock to learn to count in 3s
Since we are focusing on the number 3 in the shamrock, why not cut out and colour in some shamrocks, numbering the leaves?
If you have older groups you could count up in sets of 3 – for example, 1, 2, 3; 4, 5, 6; 7, 8, 9 and so on.
Gold coin hide and seek
Create a ‘treasure hunt’ around your setting with clues to follow to lead your children to the pot of gold….eventually. You can
use gold chocolate coins for a reward if they solve the clues correctly.
St Patrick’s Day was made an official Christian feast day
in the early 1600s and is observed by the Anglican and
Catholic Church alike. The Church lifted Lenten restrictions
and it became a traditional day of feasting and drinking
which has continued into the present!
Who was St Patrick?
St Patrick lived in the 5th century A.D. and was a British
Christian missionary who introduced Christianity to Ireland,
which at that time, followed mainly the Celtic pagan
religions. He was believed to have been kidnapped at the
age of sixteen, taken by Irish raiders and made to work as
a shepherd, during which time, he reportedly ‘found God’.
After 6 years, he escaped, returned home and became a
priest, vowing to return and bring Christianity to the county
that had enslaved him.
After returning to Northern Ireland, he converted many to
his own religion, and was eventually made a bishop. One
interesting myth says that St Patrick was able to drive the
‘snakes’ out of Ireland, but since Ireland has never had
any snakes, this is most certainly an allegory referring to St
Patrick driving the druids into the south of the country.
The significance of the three-leaf shamrock
The shamrock is a sprig of white clover that grows in the winter
and was used by St Patrick to explain the Holy Trinity because it
had three leaves, representing the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
It was also said to represent faith, hope and love too.
The shamrock has been used as the emblem of Ireland for
centuries but many people today, confuse it with a lucky
four-leaf clover, and you will upset many an Irish patriot if
you confuse the two on St Patricks’ Day.
How can you celebrate St Patrick’s Day in your
setting?
To help you celebrate St Patrick’s Day in your setting, we
have come up with 3 areas of the EYFS and suggested 3
activities in each. We hope they will help you celebrate the
day in true Irish style.
UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD
Hold a ceilidh or try some traditional Irish step
dancing
A ceilidh is a traditional Irish celebration involving dancing
with partners to traditional music. You can use skipping,
gallops and hops to move around the room in an anticlockwise
direction, and you can make up some simple
routines yourself or visit www.setdancing.com.au/freeresources/
for some more ideas and free resources.
If you want to try out some traditional Irish step dancing,
‘Riverdance’-style, have a look at this YouTube video for
some basic steps that all can enjoy.
Organise a St Patrick’s Day parade (inside or
outside)
Traditional St Patrick’s Day parades are held all over the
world so why not organise one for your setting? You could
make some green, white and orange flags and some
carnival-style floats using painted cardboard boxes with
different Irish symbols or images.
Irish-themed cooking
There are a whole host of ideas for St Patrick’s Day recipes
from green cupcakes to shamrock-shaped biscuits. A few
minutes spent searching the internet will reveal lots of
simple recipes for pre-schoolers but we like the ones here
which include lucky green pancakes and a green, white and
orange popcorn and pretzel party mix.
Use the idea of 3s to create a display
St Patrick used the number 3 to explain the Holy Trinity but you could create a display related
to the importance of the number 3 in everyday life: for example, different types of
triangles, March being the 3rd month; past, present and future; 3 primary colours of
red, yellow and blue – the list is almost endless.
EXPRESSIVE ARTS AND DESIGN
Decorate your setting in green using shamrocks, leprechauns
and rainbows
The mischievous little leprechaun, sitting with a pot of gold at the end
of a rainbow, is a traditional Irish image. Why not paint a large mural to
show the colours of the rainbow and make a ‘pot of gold’ for the end of
it, guarded by a leprechaun? But be warned, if you introduce a naughty
leprechaun into your setting, who knows what havoc he will wreak during
the week – so plenty of opportunity to have some mischievous fun with your
children here!
Make an Irish harp
A harp is a traditional Irish instrument and you can easily make some using
an old shoe box and some large elastic bands. Stretch the bands around
the box to create the strings. Investigate the difference in sound if you use
different sized boxes.
Sing some themed nursery rhymes
There are some wonderful nursery rhymes and songs on the theme of St
Patrick’s Day. One of our favourites is “I’m a little leprechaun”, sung to the
tune of “I’m a little teapot” which you can find here – guaranteed to have
you singing in the staff room! Find other song ideas here.
However you
celebrate, have
fun, and watch out
for those naughty
leprechauns!
16 Parenta.com March 2019 17

“The Giants”: part 2
In my previous article, I wrote about a number of giant figures whose ideas
in many ways, formed the foundations for much of what we see today as
best practice in the early years. In this article, I wish to look at the ideas of
four more giant figures who challenged the thinking of their time and came
to influence how we now think about children’s learning and development:
Rudolf Steiner, John Dewey, Maria Montessori and Susan Isaacs. Though
different, their ideas have, nevertheless, provided us with wonderful
insights into the minds of young children that continue to fascinate.
Prof Sean MacBlain
RUDOLF STEINER (1861 to 1925)
Rudolf founded his first school in
the city of Stuttgart after being
invited to do so by a wealthy
industrialist named Waldorf
Astoria, who at the time, owned
a large cigarette factory and
wanted a school where the
children of his workers could be
educated - hence the legacy by
which Steiner schools are also
sometimes known as Steiner-
Waldorf schools. Currently,
there are many Steiner schools
throughout the world and
despite the original philosophy
remaining constant, many of
these schools and settings have
developed in different ways. I
was fortunate enough to visit a
wonderful Steiner setting some
years ago and I was very taken
by the sense of calm and the
relaxed atmosphere in which
children and adults worked
closely alongside each other.
Rudolf viewed the purpose of
education as that of responding
to the evolving intellectual and
emotional needs of children
and learning as a continuous
process, with practitioners
applying patience as the
process of learning in each
child unfolds. Central to the
Steiner-Waldorf tradition is the
idea that young children learn
through imitation; adults model
behaviours that are beneficial to
children’s learning, and imitation
is seen as a natural process
in children’s development.
The tradition also embraces
the notion of establishing and
maintaining relationships
between practitioners and
children. It is possible to
observe many elements of
Steiner’s original thinking being
applied by practitioners in early
years settings today. We see
imitation in children’s learning
experiences, where adults
take care to actively observe
children and hold back from
hurrying them in their natural
development. Practitioners are
sensitive to how children learn,
the rate at which they learn
and the types of activities and
environments that facilitate
natural learning, and they
model behaviours that children
imitate and learn from, giving
them opportunities to develop
relationships that encourage
strong emotional growth;
creativity is encouraged together
with an appreciation of the
natural world.
JOHN DEWEY (1859 to 1952)
John was born in the USA in
the same year as the infamous
western outlaw ‘Billy the Kid’
and when Queen Victoria was
still monarch. John was a
controversial figure and whilst
his legacy has been embraced
by many, it has also been
rejected by others. It must be
remembered that children’s
learning at the time was defined
by strict codes of behaviour, with
lessons taking place in silence
and children’s learning being
mostly confined to memorising
facts; early years education was
poorly understood and even
more poorly resourced. Many of
John’s ideas were drawn from
his ‘Laboratory Schools’, which
he established in Chicago in 1896
for children from nursery age
through to 12th grade, and he
saw the school as an extension
of the home. John believed that
children require support with
structuring their learning and he
saw the role of teachers as that
of being a guide and facilitator
of new experiences. He believed
that we should understand how
children’s experiences impact
on their learning as no two
children learn from experiences
in the same way. We can see
examples of John’s ideas in
many early years settings where
practitioners work closely with
parents and structure children’s
learning in a way that the
children gain new learning
experiences, and where children
are encouraged to take the lead
in working on their own projects.
MARIA MONTESSORI (1870 to
1952)
Maria was born in Italy and
was the first woman in that
country to become a doctor. At
13 years of age, Maria chose to
attend a single-sex school for
boys as a means of educating
herself to take up a career as an
engineer. Maria took a special
interest in working with children
with learning difficulties who,
at the time, were often thought
to be uneducable; because of
her success with these children,
she was appointed Director of
the Scuola Ortofrenica, one of a
number of institutions that looked
after children with mental health
problems. Maria promoted the
idea of children learning to look
after themselves, as well as their
environments, and the need for
children to develop at their own
pace and be encouraged to see
learning as enjoyable. We can
see examples of these ideas in
all early years settings today.
Maria saw repetition as
important in laying foundations
for future learning, though she
believed that repetition should
promote creative thinking and
stimulate overlearning, resulting
in new understanding. She
placed emphasis on developing
children’s skills of observation
through all of their five senses
and introduced us to the notion
of the ‘Casa dei Bambini’,
or ‘Children’s House’ where
adults create environments that
stimulate children and where
the children are unrestricted
in their learning. She even
designed special furniture for the
Children’s Houses, examples of
which can be seen today in early
years settings. Maria’s influence
can be found almost everywhere
in early years practice where
environments are designed
specifically for children and
where substantial emphasis is
given to promoting creativity and
developing the senses.
SUSAN ISAACS (1885 to 1948)
Susan was born in Lancashire
and after working as an
educationalist, entered the
field of psychoanalysis. In
1924, Isaacs responded to an
advertisement from Geoffrey
and Margaret Pyke who wanted
to set up a nursery school for
children between the ages of
two and seven years, based on
new principles of learning and
development. Susan rose to
the challenge and created the
Malting House School, which she
designed in a way that would
support children’s physical and
social development. Space was
used to stimulate children’s
thinking and learning through
play, and like Maria Montessori’s
furniture, it was adapted for
young children. Places were
given over to quiet play and
rest, and materials were
readily available to stimulate
the children’s imagination
such as beads and blocks and
soft materials. The main room
opened to an outside area
with a playhouse, an area for
gardening, a tool shed and
sandpit. Susan believed strongly
in taking children outdoors to
experience other environments
and engage in different types of
activities. One only has to think
of the recent development of
Forest Schools.
Susan believed that at the heart
of early learning was the need
for children to develop their
emotions and that learning
environments were a necessary
resource in helping them
with this. Children were set
boundaries, and these were
demonstrated rather than
enforced with an emphasis on
consistency, which would build
the children’s sense of security.
She saw the importance of
careful observation of children
in different situations, which
is of course a key element of
practice in early years settings
today. Susan also believed
passionately that early education
should reflect the warmth and
love that children should ideally
receive in their homes, and offer
experiences that children might
not have in their homes; again,
we see examples of this today in
all settings.
Susan saw play as a means
of self-expression, which
enabled children to express
their true feelings and in ways
that allowed them to engage
in rehearsals for dealing with
difficult emotions that they did
not really understand; through
play children could find ‘mental
ease’ and work upon their
‘wishes, fears and fantasies’.
SUMMARY
It is always useful to pause and
reflect on how the practice we
see every day in early years
settings evolved and how key
figures who often devoted their
lives to challenging the thinking
of their time, ensured that young
children could have opportunities
to learn and develop in settings
that valued them as unique
individuals. We owe so much
to these ‘giants’, on whose
shoulders, countless others have
stood over generations.
For further information on the
‘giants’ mentioned in this article,
see the following link to Sean’s
most recent book: MacBlain, S.F.
(2018) Learning Theories for Early
Years Practice. London: Sage.
Professor Sean MacBlain
PhD, C. Psychol., C. Sci.,
FRSM, FHEA, AMBDA is a
distinguished author whose
most recent publication
is: MacBlain, (Sage, 2018)
“Learning Theories for
Early Years Practice”.
Other publications include:
MacBlain, (Sage, 2014)
“How Children Learn”;
Gray and MacBlain, (Sage,
2015) “Learning Theories in
Childhood”, now going into
its 3rd edition; MacBlain,
Long and Dunn, (Sage,
2015) “Dyslexia, Literacy
and Inclusion: Child-centred
Perspectives”; MacBlain,
Dunn and Luke, (Sage, 2017)
“Contemporary Childhood”;
Sean’s publications are used
by students, academics and
practitioners worldwide.
He is currently a senior
academic at Plymouth
Marjon University where
he teaches on a range of
undergraduate programmes
and supervises students at
masters and doctoral level.
Sean worked previously as a
Senior Lecturer in Education
and Developmental
Psychology at Stranmillis
University College, Queens
University, Belfast and for
over twenty years as an
educational psychologist in
private practice. Sean lives
with his wife, Angela, in
Somerset, England.
Readers can also find some of Sean’s other publications here.
18 Parenta.com March 2019 19

National
Apprenticeship Week
The 12th annual National Apprenticeship Week (NAW2019)
– which runs from 4th to 8th March 2019 - is a wonderful
opportunity to celebrate ‘all things apprenticeships’ and
how they benefit not only individuals and employers, but
communities and our economy as a whole.
It’s a chance to shout about all that is great
regarding apprentices and their training providers!
The week brings together
everyone who is passionate about
apprenticeships to encourage more
young people to choose this path
as a first step (and often fasttrack)
to a great career, and for
companies to promote growth and
personal development.
In a bid to challenge outdated
attitudes towards apprenticeships,
this year’s theme of ‘blazing a
trail’ and ‘fire it up’ recognises
and embraces the new changes
that apprenticeships can bring: for
employers “blazing a trail” to new
markets; apprentices to new career
opportunities; and for colleges
and training providers raising the
skills levels for everyone. It aims
to raise awareness of the benefits
and huge variety of apprenticeship
options available for people of
all ages, cultures, abilities and
backgrounds.
There are so many advantages of
hiring apprentices in your childcare
setting. You can watch them grow
and progress as you mould them
into your own style of practitioners,
helping you meet and secure your
future employment needs.
THERE ARE LOTS OF WAYS TO
GET INVOLVED!
• The NAW2019 events map
allows you to search for events
happening near you during
the most exciting week in the
apprenticeships’ calendar. You
can also submit your event to be
featured too! nawevents.co.uk
• Keep staff in your setting
motivated to continue their learning – talk to them about the benefits
that further training can offer them. Parenta offers Level 2 Team
Leading, Level 3 and 4 Management and Level 5 Childcare Leadership
as work-based apprenticeships, in addition to the Level 2 and Level 3
Childcare. Help your staff and learners know their options and realise
their earning power!
• Encourage your apprentices to get involved with the Young
Apprentice Ambassador Network (YAAN) to talk about the benefits of
apprenticeships in their local area and give them invaluable skills for
the workplace. amazingapprenticeships.com/yaan
• Encourage your apprentices to sign up for a NUS Apprentice
Extra discount card. Not only will they receive loads of discounts
at hundreds of shops, they will also receive emails on how they
can give feedback and help shape the future of apprenticeships.
apprenticeextra.co.uk
• Ask your Parenta assessor how you can best support your learners in
their early career journey.
Useful handles and hashtags for
NAW2019:
• #fireitup
• #blazeatrail
• @fireitup_apps
• @apprenticeships
Useful resources:
• www.parenta.com/
parentablog/staffing-andrecruitment/
Parenta is the UK’s largest vocational training provider
within the early years sector, offering apprenticeships at all
levels. With 20 years’ experience in the industry, we work
in partnership with thousands of settings, supporting them
with upskilling their existing staff, as well as recruiting new
apprentices to start their career in childcare.
Ask us about our free recruitment service and for advice to
help you invest in tomorrow’s generation of childcarers. Our
experienced team will be able to advise you on ‘all things
apprenticeships’ - from legislation changes to funding,
contribution, minimum wage and off-the-job training. To find
out more about how we work together with settings and help
them with their apprenticeship solutions, contact our team on:
0800 002 9242 hello@parenta.com
20 Parenta.com March 2019 21

Ways to support children on the
autism spectrum in your setting
Autism is a lifelong condition that affects how
people communicate and how they experience
the world. When working in early years, you
are likely to come across children that are on
the autism spectrum. Diagnosis is often made
at a very young age, therefore, as an early
years practitioner, you may find yourself in
the important role of supporting families that
have only recently discovered that their child
has autism. You may also find that there is a
child in the setting whom you suspect is on
the spectrum, however a diagnosis has not
yet been made. Either way, many of the steps
that you can put in place to support a child
with autism, are beneficial for all children, so
by making your setting as autism-friendly as
possible, you will be ready to meet the needs of
lots of different children.
It is important to understand that there is no one
typical child with autism. Individuals can display
different features of autism to different extents.
The following points, therefore, may be relevant to
one child but not to another. Here are some ways
that you can support a child that is on the autism
spectrum in your setting.
• Be aware of your language and speak very clearly,
keeping words to a minimum. Individuals with autism
often take things literally so expressions such as ‘hop in
the car’ or ‘break a leg’ can be confusing.
• Don’t expect this child to understand your body language.
Elements of social communication such as these don’t
come naturally to people on the autism spectrum.
• Allow processing time. Say something, then wait. The
child needs time to process what you have said, and
prepare their response. If you give an instruction in one
tone of voice, then give it in a different tone of voice a
few moments later, the child may have to go back to the
beginning of their processing, hence delaying a response.
• Use visual aids and any other non-verbal communication.
Children with autism find it hard to understand spoken
language and are often visual learners. Using clear,
simple signs such as Makaton or Signalong, can be really
effective and there are short courses you can do to learn
these.
• Display your routine and where possible, stick to it.
People with autism love routines. A child can find it really
distressing to not know what is happening in their day.
Use something such as a visual timetable to show children
what is going to happen in the day in order to ease their
anxiety.
• Following on from the above, deal with change sensitively.
Again, this is where your visual timetable comes in handy.
Whilst changes are sometimes unavoidable, you can help
the child cope with this change by showing them visually
what is going to happen.
• Recognise behaviour triggers (such as change). If
someone is struggling with communication, they are likely
to feel very scared, frustrated or angry at times. Try to
recognise the causes so that you may be able to relieve or
prepare the child for the upcoming trigger.
• Have a safe/calm place for your child to go if life gets too much. Recognise that it
is not wrong to be angry, but that our job is to teach the child the most appropriate
way to express that anger.
• Get to know any special interests that the child has. I’m sure they will make you
aware of them! Using these special interests is a great way to get them to learn
or to join in with something that they might otherwise not want to. For example, if
a child is really into trains, then put numbers on the trains to support recognising
numerals. Pretend to be a train when lining up with other children. Serve meals on
a train place mat if that means that the child will feel more comfortable joining in
with meal times.
• Be aware of any sensory needs that this child may have. People with autism
experience things differently to others. It could be that they really can’t stand
the feel of a certain material on their skin; they may not feel pain as easily as
someone else would; they may not be able to cope with a particular noise that
was otherwise unnoticeable to you, such as the hum of a light or the whine of a
radiator. If you can recognise these needs, then you can help eliminate distress.
• Use social stories – this is a short story that teaches a child how to deal with a
certain social situation. You can find out more about these here.
• Teach awareness and acceptance to others – use your circle times
to talk about the fact that everyone is different, that we all need help
with different things, and that this is OK.
• Build good communication with the child’s parents or
caregivers – perhaps a home/school diary so that you can
be aware of anything that may have bothered the child
at home, and so that you can share the child’s ups and
downs whilst in childcare. Be aware that the parents
may be on the autism spectrum themselves.
• Try to provide a calm environment.
Besides following the steps above, the most helpful thing
that you can do to support someone on the autism spectrum
is to demonstrate empathy – try to understand the world
from the perspective of that child. That way you will find
yourself in the best possible position to support them.
To find out more about autism and related conditions, I
recommend you visit the National Autistic Society’s ‘About
Autism’ page.
Gina Smith
Gina Smith is an
experienced teacher with
experience of teaching
in both mainstream and
special education. She
is the creator of ‘Create
Visual Aids’ - a business
that provides both homes
and education settings with
bespoke visual resources.
Gina recognises the fact
that no two children are
the same and therefore
individuals are likely to need
different resources. Create
Visual Aids is dedicated
to making visual symbols
exactly how the individual
needs them.
Website:
www.createvisualaids.com
Email:
gina@createvisualsaids.com
22 Parenta.com March 2019 23

How to promote British values
at your setting
“British values” - democracy, rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect for (and tolerance
of) those with different faiths and beliefs - have been embedded in EYFS since its inception over
10 years’ ago. However, since November 2014, childcare providers have to, by law, demonstrate
how they ‘actively promote’ these essential standards during their Ofsted inspections. This
obligation goes hand-in-hand with the legislation introduced in July 2015, which places
additional responsibility on early years providers to prevent children from becoming radicalised
(the Prevent duty).
We take a look at each of the British values, one by one, and give our top tips as to how you can promote them
within your setting, what’s involved and how you can make sure you’re meeting the legislation.
Democracy
• Ensure the children know that their views really
count by encouraging them to respect each
other’s opinions and thoughts. You can help
demonstrate democracy in action, for example, by
letting children discuss what activity should come
next with a show of hands.
• Provide activities that involve turn-taking, sharing
and collaboration.
• Give children plenty of opportunities to develop
their enquiring minds by creating an atmosphere
at your setting where questions are encouraged
and listened to.
Rule of law
• Ensure that children understand not just their
own but other’s behaviour and its consequences,
helping them to distinguish right from wrong –
you can play games with them to support this.
• Work with the children to create the rules and
codes of behaviour – such as agreeing a tidying
up rota – this way they will understand that rules
apply to everyone.
Individual liberty
• Provide opportunities for the children in your
setting to develop their self-knowledge, selfesteem
and increase their confidence in their own
abilities. For example, you could allow them to
take risks (within reason!) on an obstacle course,
talking about their experiences and what they
have learned from them.
• Encourage a range of experiences that allow
children to explore the language of feelings and
responsibility. Reflect on their differences, discuss
them in a group and allow them to understand
that everyone is free to have different ideas.
Mutual respect and tolerance
• Encourage and explain to the children about
the importance of tolerant behaviours, such as
sharing and respecting each other.
• Promote diverse attitudes and challenge
stereotypes, for example, by sharing stories
that reflect and value the diversity of children’s
experiences.
• Provide resources and activities that challenge
gender, cultural and racial stereotyping.
• Create an ethos of inclusivity at your setting
where beliefs, faiths, cultures and races are
valued.
• Arrange visits whereby the children can engage
with the wider community, for example, to a
nursing home, or different places of worship, if
appropriate.
• Encourage the children to acquire appreciation
and respect for their own and other cultures
by discussing with them the similarities and
differences between themselves and others; and
among families, faiths, communities, cultures and
traditions.
• Share and discuss practices, celebrations and
experiences.
This list is not exhaustive! However, it’s worth bearing in mind that if you take the ‘minimal’ approach, for example
only having notices on the walls or multi-faith books on the shelves, you will fall short of “actively promoting”
these values at your setting and you could get penalised during your Ofsted inspection.
Before your next inspection, an easy way of showing Ofsted how you’re meeting these requirements is to create
a page on your childcare website which addresses each of the British values. By the time you receive the call
that you will be having an inspection, Ofsted will have most certainly already looked at your website. With little
notice of an impending visit, keeping your site up-to-date and including information on how you implement British
values could save valuable time and hassle during that all-important visit countdown.
The team at Parenta has years of experience in designing childcare websites and working in
partnership with settings, helping them to become Ofsted-ready with their websites. They are on hand
to guide you if you are uncertain how you can achieve this essential Ofsted criteria.
Call them on 0800 002 9242 or email them at websites@parenta.com.
24 Parenta.com March 2019 25

“I’m killing the baddies!” Using
I’m killing the baddies!
‘superhero
Using ‘superhero
play’
play’ to
to
deal
deal
with notions
with notions
of killing and and death death within early within childhood early
childhood
There is something rather shocking about hearing a three- or
four-year-old shouting, “Die, die!” or “I’m gonna kill you!” Yet,
these cries are regularly heard within our early childhood
settings. When we are faced with notions of killing and death,
how should we respond?
Death is difficult for children to
understand. It is an abstract idea and one
which is hard for many adults to grasp.
Theorists 1 consider the concept of death
to be made up of five main components:
• Inevitability - we will all die one
day
• Universality - death applies to all
living things
• Irreversibility - it is permanent
• Cessation - when we die, our
normal physical functions will cease
• Causality - it is a product of cause
and effect
Pre-school-aged children are unable
to understand the ‘dead-ness of dead’
and children generally understand
more about this concept as they grow
older. For example, five-year-olds can
understand that death is inevitable
and irreversible, six- to seven-yearolds
can understand about universality
and cessation but children might not
understand the causality component
until they are nearly 10 years old 1 . This
fits with the idea that children learn in
different ways and at different rates,
making it difficult to generalise about
their levels of understanding. It is
generally accepted that the older the
child, the better their understanding
of death. In the light of this, we cannot
assume that young children fully grasp
what words like ‘kill’, ‘dead’ and ‘die’
mean, and therefore we must not be
concerned if children are using them in
their play.
Some educators may feel that talking
about death is one thing, but killing
is a whole different matter because
killing is about deliberately ending a
life. However killing and death cannot
be separated from each other and the
narrative of killing is commonly observed
within our children’s play. As educators,
we can use their play as an opportunity
to explore these difficult concepts.
When children engage in superhero
play, they are playing with the concepts
of killing and death, winning and losing,
goodies and baddies, good versus evil
and so on. With a few exceptions, most
superheroes fight evil and serve the
purpose of good, however, since some
children are experts on the backstories
of superheroes, be wary of generalising
that ‘all superheroes don’t kill people’
because this is not technically true and
you may stand to be corrected!
Some ideas of how to appropriately support
children in thinking about death include:
• Have an ethos of permission within the setting so that words like ‘kill’, ‘dead’ and ‘die’
are not banned from your vocabulary, but instead, prompt discussion
• Engage in socio-dramatic play in which children role-play events from their lives
• Read stories and books which include death or deal with bereavement and grief
• Provide opportunities for children to make up their own stories (e.g. helicopter stories)
• Use puppets and role-play to prompt discussion
• Introduce children to the idea of life-cycles, for example, butterflies
• Raise some chicks from eggs, butterflies from caterpillars, or look after a class/setting
pet
• Think about changes over time in the natural world e.g. growth and decay
• Share some memories about a special person that you know who has died, and
reminisce about the good times you shared together
• Answer any questions about death as honestly as possible remembering that it’s OK to
say, “I don’t know!”
• Use correct language: dead, death, dying, died, buried etc
Death is somewhat of a taboo subject with
young children, however we need to talk to
them in developmentally-appropriate ways
to help them to gain an understanding of this
difficult concept: the context of superheroes
can provide a useful introduction to this
subject. We have a responsibility to support
children to recognise death as the final part
of the life-cycle in order for them to grow into
well-adjusted adults, who understand that
death is a part of life.
Remember that playing at killing the
baddies, is indeed play and is not fully
understood in terms of the dead-ness
of dead. So we can use this play as an
opportunity to support children to develop
their understanding of death.
Reference
1 - Panagiotaki, G., Hopkins, M., Nobes, G.,
Ward, E., & Griffiths, D. (2018). Children’s and
adults’ understanding of death: Cognitive,
parental, and experiential influences. Journal
of Experimental Child Psychology, 166, 96.
Further reading
• Kübler-Ross, E. (1969). On death and
dying. New York: Macmillan Publishing
Company
• Slaughter, V. (2005). Young children’s
understanding of death. Australian
Psychologist, 40(3), 179–186
• Stickney, D. (1982). Waterbugs and
dragonflies - explaining death to
children. USA: The Pilgrim Press
Tamsin Grimmer
Tamsin Grimmer is an
experienced early years
consultant and trainer and
parent who is passionate about
young children’s learning and
development. She believes
that all children deserve
practitioners who are inspiring,
dynamic, reflective and
committed to improving on their
current best. Tamsin particularly
enjoys planning and delivering
training and supporting
early years practitioners and
teachers to improve outcomes
for young children.
Tamsin has written two
books - “Observing and
Developing Schematic
Behaviour in Young Children”
and “School Readiness and
the Characteristics of Effective
Learning”.
Website:
tamsingrimmer.co.uk
Facebook:
facebook.com/earlyyears.
consultancy.5
Twitter:
@tamsingrimmer
Email:
info@tamsingrimmer.co.uk
26 Parenta.com March 2019 27

Mother’s Day sensory
Write for us for a chance to win £50
bottle craft
You will need:
> > A clear plastic bottle with lid
> > Fresh or artificial flowers
> > Coloured insulating tape (yellow, green, blue)
> > Clear sticky tape
> > Extra bits to add inside the bottle (we have used: glitter, pompoms, gems)
We’re always on the lookout for
new authors to contribute insightful
articles for our monthly magazine.
If you’ve got a topic you’d like to write about,
why not send an article to us and be in with a
chance of winning? Each month, we’ll be giving
away £50 to our “Guest Author of the Month”.
Here are the details:
••
Choose a topic that is relevant to early years
childcare
••
Submit an article of between 600-900 words
to marketing@parenta.com
••
If we choose to feature your article in our
magazine, you’ll be eligible to win £50
••
The winner will be picked based on having
the highest number of views for their article
during that month
This competition is open to both new and existing
authors, for any articles submitted to feature in
our Parenta magazine for 2019. The lucky winner
will be notified via email and we’ll also include an
announcement in the following month’s edition of
the magazine.
Got any questions or want to run a topic by us? For
more details, email marketing@parenta.com
JANUARY’S WINNER
Joanna Grace
Congratulations to our guest author competition
winner! Joanna Grace’s article “Sniff your way
to mental wellbeing” was very popular with our
readers. Well done, Joanna!
1. Remove the stems from the flowers and pop them in the bottle.
2. Add all the extra bits you want to include, such as glitter and gems.
3. Fill the bottle with water and secure the lid.
4. Decorate the bottle with insulating tape. You can add grass on the
bottom or the sky with clouds on top.
BE AS CREATIVE AS YOU WANT!
SHAKE THE BOTTLE AND HAVE FUN!
28 Parenta.com March 2019 29

Pancake Day –
healthier options
On Tuesday 5th March, the nation will be
reaching for the frying pans to celebrate Shrove
Tuesday by cooking and eating some pancakes!
In Christian traditions, the 40 days immediately
before Easter (known as Lent), are observed to
remind Christians of the time Jesus was fasting
in the desert before beginning his ministry. In
earlier times, many Christians would forego
certain foods during this period including meat,
fish, eggs, fats and milk.
Lent officially begins on Ash Wednesday, so on Shrove
Tuesday (the day immediately before), people traditionally
held festivities to use up their stocks of milk, butter and fats.
Making pancakes was the perfect way to not only do this, but
to have a feast in anticipation of the fasting days to come, and
‘Pancake Day’ was born!
But whilst we all love a simple treat, how can we make our
Shrove Tuesday celebrations a little healthier this year? We’ve
put together some of our favourite options to help you keep up
the tradition but add a healthier twist to the day too.
1. Start with a healthier pancake mix 2. Make the toppings delicious but healthy
A simple and traditional pancake batter includes:
• 300ml (or half a pint) of milk
• 100g flour (plain or self-raising)
• 2 eggs
• A tablespoon of fat (e.g. vegetable oil or butter)
• Pinch of salt
The ingredients should be beaten together and then fried lightly
in a frying pan to create the pancake. The great thing about
pancakes though is that you can vary the amount of fat, eggs and
milk you use, depending on the texture you are trying to achieve.
Making a healthy pancake mix could include reducing the fat
content, changing the milk to semi-skimmed or skimmed milk,
and taking out any butter, but you can always experiment to see
which combinations you prefer.
Add some protein powder to the mix to increase the protein
content, needed by the body to build cells and it can help stave
off hunger-pangs too.
A great and fun alternative that children love too, is to add some
food colouring to the batter to create rainbow pancakes!
‘Sugar and lemon juice’ is a traditional topping which can pile
on the calories; especially if you are not watching how many
‘spoonfuls of sugar’ are being used! Maple syrup, full-fat
cream and ice-cream can have the same effect; but you could
increase your fruit (and vegetable) intake by trying one of these
alternatives:
• Bananas, berries and honey
• Greek or coconut yoghurt mixed with peaches and pears
• Baked apples with a dash of cinnamon
• Fresh strawberries with reduced-sugar jam or compote
• Blueberries, raspberries and a drizzle of chocolate sauce
Pancakes can be savoury as well as sweet, so why not try a
couple of savoury toppings such as?
• Ham, tomato and pineapple cubes
• Goat’s cheese, spinach and bacon
• Cucumbers, spring onions and carrots
• Cream cheese and smoked salmon
Remember that children love to make faces and pictures with
their food, so encourage some creative cookery art during your
sessions.
3. Gluten-free options
Many people nowadays have food
intolerances if not a full-blown allergy,
and simply feel better avoiding certain
foods such as flour, dairy or eggs. Since
flour is one of the 3 main ingredients, you
might think it difficult to replace flour in
a pancake recipe, but you can mash up
two large bananas, a pinch of cinnamon
and some baking powder together with
a whisked egg to form a batter that is
gluten-free.
4. Allergy-aware
Making your pancakes nutritious, whilst
being aware of any allergies that children
have within your setting does not have
to be difficult. If you are inviting people
in to your setting to create pancakes,
remind them of any allergies that you or
the children have and avoid those in your
recipes.
Eggs are one ingredient that can cause
problems for some people, but you can
easily get around this by using coconut oil
or vegetable oil instead of eggs.
However, be aware that this will
increase your fat content.
If people are allergic
to milk, swap to Soya
or Almond milk
for a tasty
alternative.
5. Vegan and vegetarian
options
If you want to create a delicious vegan
option, you can swap normal milk for soya
milk; use self-raising flour instead of plain
flour and 1 teaspoon of soya flour instead
of eggs.
6. And finally - increase
your exercise by running a
pancake race!
Pancake Day is not just about eating –
there’s always great fun to be had in a
traditional pancake race too!
In medieval times, the ‘shriving bell’ (from
the Latin word ‘shrove’ meaning ‘to confess
one’s sins’) would be rung on Shrove
Tuesday, calling people to church. Legend
has it that one local woman realised she
was late when she heard the bell, and ran
out of her cottage as fast as she could, still
clutching her frying pan of pancakes.
Ever since, people have held races up and
down the country; some in fancy dress,
some for charity, but all with a smile and a
lucky flick of the wrist! Holding a pancake
race is a great way to increase the active
play sessions for the children in your
setting.
You don’t have to use real pancakes
if you’d rather not be clearing up 20
dropped ones; it’s just as much fun if you
make a paper pancake or cut one out
of material. And you could cut out some
frying pan-shaped pieces of cardboard
to give to the children to run with. The
emphasis should be on having fun here,
so let your imagination take over and have
a happy and healthy Pancake Day!
30 Parenta.com March 2019 31

Parenta job board
Parenta job board
EYFS Learning
Journey Software
Personalised visual resources to support
communication and learning
32 Parenta.com
Our FREE job board is dedicated to all things early years. So, if you’re searching for a job in
childcare or you have a childcare job vacancy you’d like us to promote, we can help! To make use
of our FREE recruitment service, get in touch via contact@parenta.com.
Below is a selection of childcare apprenticeship vacancies we have currently.
More can be found at jobs.parenta.com
Childcare Apprentice Required:
Tiny Tots Preschool Cheshunt Hertfordshire EN7 6DX
Playdays Nursery Chiswick London W4 2ND
Playdays Nursery Wimbledon London SW19 7PB
Blue Pear Day Nursery Penge London SE20 8EU
Little Xplorers Day Nursery Edgware London NW9 9HL
Cubs Club Nursery Stockwell London SW9 9JB
Seahorse Nursery Wimbledon London SW19 6JP
Leap and Learn Bar Hill Cambridgeshire CB23 8DY
The Wendy House Histon Cambridgeshire CB24 9NG
Cornerstone After School Club Rainham Essex RM13 8PJ
Inside Out Nurseries Ltd Bubbenhall Coventry CV8 3BL
Benjamin Rabbit Nursery Chatham Kent ME4 6BA
Parenta (Business Administration) Maidstone Kent ME16 8PZ
Tudor Manor Day Nursery Northampton Northamptonshire NN5 6JU
Staple Hill Stars Pre-School Bristol Somerset and Avon BS16 4NE
Little Roos Day Nursery Taplow Buckinghamshire SL6 0QH
Blossom Day Nursery Basingstoke Hampshire RG24 9XA
Premier Nursery Iver Iver Buckinghamshire SL0 9NG
Young Friends Hove East Sussex BN3 1JP
Brighton College Pre-Prep Brighton West Sussex BN2 0AL
Goldcrest Day Nursery Billericay Essex CM11 2HQ
Claire Campbell Childminding Bromley Kent BR2 9EU
Maidenbower Preschool Playgroup Crawley West Sussex RH10 1EU
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If you have enjoyed reading Tamsin’s articles every
month, why not invite her to deliver bespoke
training at your setting? Tamsin and colleagues from
Linden Learning are experts in coaching, training
and consultancy and regularly share their expertise
at conferences, INSET meetings, CPD sessions,
workshops and seminars.
Tamsin has a keen interest in how young children
learn and develop. She has written two books
on early childhood education “Observing and
Developing Schematic Behaviour in Young
Children” and “School Readiness and the
Characteristics of Effective Learning”. She is
currently writing a third on “Superhero Play”.
Twitter: @tamsingrimmer
Facebook: www.facebook.com/earlyyears.consultancy.5
Websites: www.lindenlearning.org
www.tamsingrimmer.co.uk
Email: tamsin.grimmer@lindenlearning.org
Ring 07793 060 077 to see how Linden Learning can
support your setting to be the best you can be!

How to get more
visitors to your website
The world wide web is a never-ending source of information, and your website is one of the
first places prospective customers will go to find out more about you. So how do you stand
out from the crowd, and ensure you get more visitors than your competitors?
In the competitive world of early years education, marketing your setting is becoming more
and more important. It’s what gets you noticed and it’s what makes the difference between
your business “just about scraping through”, “breaking even” or in a few cases, even
“turning a profit”.
Here, we cover 7 top tips to help you increase traffic to your website.
Content, content, content – get blogging
Pay attention to SEO
(search engine optimisation)
A blog is the single best way to attract new visitors
to your website. It can increase your online visibility
when parents look for childcare providers using
search engines like Google. The result? Increased
occupancy levels without spending a penny!
Not sure where to start? Check out our blogging for
beginners guide.
Get social
One of the best ways to increase traffic to your website
is to use your social media pages.
On most platforms you complete a bio as part of your
page set up, this is the ideal place to add a snippet
about your setting and what makes you unique, it’s
also the perfect spot to drop in the link to your website.
Use your social channels to promote your blog content.
If you’ve taken the effort to write something, share it
and link the post back to the article on your website.
Reuse old posts and ensure you are using relevant
hashtags that relate back to the topic covered.
Making sure your website’s SEO is on point will help
ensure you’re visible in those all-important Google
searches carried out by prospective parents.
How do you optimise your website?
• Include keywords in page titles to help drive more
traffic to your site
• Include meta-descriptions (up to 150 characters)
to summarise the pages content
• Include keywords in your content
Keep your site up-to-date
Every update you make to your website affects the
way search engines interact with and rank your site.
Frequent updates with fresh, original content will
help your site rank much higher on Google and keep
visitors coming back.
Conversely, a website which is infrequently (or never)
updated will be viewed by search engines as ‘dead’.
Why does this matter? It means that your website will
rank much further down in the search results than any
of your competitors who regularly update their pages.
Make sure your site is responsive
Having a fully responsive website means that the
content of your pages will adapt to the device it is
being viewed on. This doesn’t mean two separate
versions of your website – rather, it’s an intelligent
way to present the same information whether the
visitor is using a desktop, mobile or tablet. This is
important because, in 2015, Google started giving
preference to websites which are fully responsive.
If yours isn’t, you’ll struggle to rank highly in search
engine results pages.
Get on 3rd party websites
Make sure you are listed on 3rd party websites
dedicated to childcare such as daynurseries.co.uk.
By ensuring your business is listed on search
platforms such as this, including a full profile about
your business and linking back to your website, you
can easily generate more traffic.
Don’t neglect email marketing
Although a more traditional method, email marketing
can still be a great tool and is an ideal way of
directing traffic back to your website.
Whether you are mailing out your new blog or
information on upcoming events etc., you can still
generate a strong amount of traffic to your site.
View the full guide
on How to... get
more visitors to your
website here.
34 Parenta.com March 2019 35

Supporting children
to process their
emotions now and
in the future
Everything a child consistently hears, sees and
feels creates a blueprint for how they view
themselves, the world and their place within it.
The programming that we receive throughout
our early years acts like a ‘default setting’ that
subconsciously controls how we respond to the
world around us.
Only 5% of what we do is
conscious, meaning that
95% of the time we are on
autopilot, with the majority
of our actions, reactions and
decisions being guided by our
subconscious mind, which is
made up of belief systems
that we acquire throughout
our formative years.
It’s therefore crucial that
we look at the consistent
messages that our actions
and words are giving to
children in our care. Our
intentions are always from
the right place. However, the
subconscious mind takes
on the literal messages it is
receiving. Even though our
hearts are in the right place,
these literal messages can
actually have the opposite
effect of what was intended.
An example of this is a family
who want to mould a little
winner and instil a growth
mindset in their child. They
might say things like: “We
are winners. If we come
second, we may as well
come last” or “Failure isn’t
an option – we are going to
win!”. They might also only
ever reward their child when
they come first. Here, their
hearts are in the right place
and they are clearly trying
to plant positive thoughts
into their child. However, the
literal message that is being
given is that failure is not
an option. By programming
a child with this belief, their
subconscious mind is going
to view failure as something
to avoid. This actually creates
the opposite of a winning
mindset, because failure is
a part of success. In order to
reach our brilliance, we have
to step out of our comfort
zone. However, by doing
this, we also risk failing. If a
child’s subconscious mind
is programmed to avoid
failure, they are most likely
never going to fully reach
their potential, because 95%
of what they do is silently
guided by a belief that
prevents them from being
in situations where they can
fail. They might also become
a perfectionist or cope badly
with failure, which will impact
on their resilience and again,
prevent them from soaring to
great heights.
It works the same way for how
children process their thoughts
and feelings, therefore it is
crucial that we look at the
programming that is being
given to children through
our words and actions. If
we want children to process
their emotions in a balanced
way when they are older, we
need to make sure that the
literal messages they receive
when they are younger are
conducive to this happening.
It’s best to look at how we
want our children to function
as teenagers and then ask
ourselves if what we are
doing now is teaching them to
respond in the same way.
We want teenagers to:
• Know that we are there
to support them and
to help them with any
problems they have
• Know that their feelings
are important
• Know that no problem
is too big or small and
that we will help them to
work through things no
matter what
• Come to us, rather than
isolate themselves
The list goes on. However,
if we want children to do all
of these things when they
are teenagers, we need to
programme them with beliefs
that facilitate these actions
when they are younger.
I have a three- and fiveyear-old
and at times their
reactions can be so hard
to navigate. They go into
meltdown over the smallest
things. However, it is also
important to remember
that problems are relative.
Cast your mind back to your
14-year-old self. The problems
you had then will seem
trivial now. However, you will
remember your emotions
being big and painful. This
is because as we get older,
our problems get bigger.
However, the emotion that
we feel in relation to those
problems is pretty consistent.
It is the same with toddlers.
They might lose it over being
given a red pen instead of
a blue pen. However, this
problem to them is huge and
painful. A three-year-old’s
problem through the eyes of
an adult, will always seem
trivial. However, it’s important
to remember that problems
are relative and the emotion a
toddler feels in that moment
will be the same as the
emotion we felt at 14 when
our friend blanked us, or the
emotion we feel in our thirties
when something goes wrong
in life. If we want teenagers
to know that their feelings
are important, we need to
consistently teach children this
when they are younger. It can
be so easy to say things like
“It’s not the end of the world”,
but to them, it is. I have to
remind myself constantly
that although whatever my
children are losing it over is
not a big deal to me, it is to
them, and it’s important that
I acknowledge that and help
them to find a solution.
Now I’m not sat here on my
high horse professing to be
perfect! I am far from it. We
all have bad days, make
mistakes and sometimes react
in ways we shouldn’t. If we
do, this is a great opportunity
to teach children about taking
responsibility and saying
sorry. Modelling perfection
is not great as it creates
the same ‘fear of failure’
belief that I talked about
earlier. The key word here is
‘consistency’ because it is the
consistent messages that will
create a default setting for
our little ones. It’s important
to have strong boundaries
and to teach children about
consequences. However, it
is also important to look at
how we are we doing this
and to make sure that the
literal messages are creating
a blueprint for how we want
children to act in the future.
Stacey Kelly
Stacey Kelly is a former
teacher, a parent to 2
beautiful babies and the
founder of Early Years Story
Box, which is a subscription
website providing children’s
storybooks and early years
resources. She is passionate
about building children’s
imagination, creativity and
self-belief and about creating
awareness of the impact
that the early years have
on a child’s future. Stacey
loves her role as a writer,
illustrator and public speaker
and believes in the power of
personal development. She is
also on a mission to empower
children to live a life full of
happiness and fulfilment,
which is why she launched
the #ThankYouOaky Gratitude
Movement.
Sign up to Stacey’s premium
membership here and use the
code PARENTA20 to get 20%
off or contact Stacey for an
online demo.
Website:
www.earlyyearsstorybox.com
Email:
stacey@earlyyearsstorybox.com
Facebook:
facebook.com/earlyyearsstorybox
Twitter:
twitter.com/eystorybox
Instagram:
instagram.com/earlyyearsstorybox
LinkedIn:
linkedin.com/in/stacey-kellya84534b2/
36 Parenta.com March 2019 37

Tips to encourage young readers
Helping young children discover the joy of reading is one of the great pleasures of being an early years
practitioner. Sharing stories, discovering letters and learning the alphabet and phonics are the first steps in
helping each child on the path to becoming a competent and independent reader.
March 7th is World Book Day, when all over the globe, people will celebrate their favourite books and literary
characters by dressing up, reading new books and passing on stories. But what can you do in your own
setting to help encourage children to read? We’ve listed a few things here to help you.
1 Have a dedicated story-time and reading corner
Make sure you have dedicated time set aside for listening
to stories and learning reading basics – e.g. story-times, a
dedicated space for books and areas that children can retire
to, to read undisturbed. Teaching the alphabet and phonics
also comes under the remit of the EYFS.
2 Show that reading is a part of everyday life
Try to make reading an essential part of the children’s
everyday lives by letting them read a variety of things: this
could be street names, road signs, book covers, posters
and menus for example. Model good reading yourself by
pointing out new words and spelling things out.
3 Set up a book club
Book clubs give people a chance to share their ideas about a
particular book or article and to learn about new books. It’s
a great way to not only encourage reading, but to help with
comprehension and self-expression too and you’ll be surprised
at how much children can say about things they’ve read.
4 Have a book of the week/month
One easy way to encourage more reading is to have a book
of the week/month. You can incorporate some craft activities
into this by making a display in a corner of your setting, and
getting the children to draw certain characters or situations
from your chosen book to display.
5 Explore different genres
We are all different, so why not encourage your young
readers to firstly read books on a genre that they enjoy, and
secondly, try something new. We’ve created a table of book
genres that might interest some of your children, but you
could always add some genres of your own.
Adventure Animals History Illness
Science fiction Fantasy Bullying School life
Holidays Nature Real life Fairies
Information Mystery Suspense Scary
Funny Friendship Plays Comics
Gardening Travel Add your own Add your own
6 Start a lending library or book swap
Books can be expensive, so think about setting up a lending
library in your setting. Ask the children to bring in any books
that they no longer read or like, and to leave for others to
borrow and enjoy.
7 Run a competition or reading challenge
Everyone likes a challenge, so consider running a reading
challenge in which children are encouraged to read different
things over a certain period of time. Local libraries often
hold reading challenges over the long summer holidays,
giving out badges or bookmarks to those who complete the
challenge, and you could offer something similar in your
setting to your oldest children. It doesn’t have to be whole
books, but could be a series of words, phrases or letters.
8 Encourage children to write/tell their own stories
Reading about different topics can stimulate young minds
and inspire new ideas. You can help their creativity by asking
questions about books they’ve read (or listened to) and help
them explore alternative endings or what they think could
happen next in the characters’ lives.
9
Get the parents on side – encourage
bedtime reading
Encouraging reading in your setting is one thing, but getting
the parents of your children to help and continue reading at
home, is another. You could produce an information sheet
with tips to help them encourage reading, which could
include many of the items on this list for starters.
10 Use technology to help – e-readers
Get your children off their tablets and into some books –
that’s usually the advice we expect to see to encourage
reading! Equally, you can help encourage young readers by
using specially-designed apps and services to teach reading
skills. There are some great e-readers which can help
children begin their journey to independent reader status, by
reading words aloud that the children get stuck on, or that
they’ve not seen before.
11 Choose age-appropriate books
Help students access reading by making sure that you
have plenty of age-appropriate books in your library. Ageappropriate
means that not only are topics relevant to a
young person’s understanding of the world, but also that the
balance between words and pictures is fitting, and the text
size is large enough.
12 Encourage acting-out and dressing up!
Everyone loves dressing up, so you could easily invite your
children to dress up as their favourite character to celebrate
World Book Day. Be prepared for lots of Postman Pats,
Fireman Sams, fairies, princes and princesses – and don’t
forget to get your staff to dress up too!
13 Visit your local library
What better way to encourage children to read than taking
them on a visit to your local library? You could research times
when they have ‘parent and toddler’s’ reading sessions or
story-times.
14
Sing songs and nursery rhymes showing the
words as you go
Think about other ways that you can help children read –
you could find some karaoke words to nursery rhymes on
YouTube for example, that will highlight the words of your
favourite songs and rhymes as you sing along.
Whatever you do, find time to encourage this most basic
communication skill and you will be opening the minds of your
young people to a whole world of opportunity and wonder.
38 Parenta.com March 2019 39

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