February 2023 Parenta magazine

Issue 99 

FEBRUARY 2023 

FREE 

Industry 

Experts 

Dealing with the death of 

a staff member - focus on 

parents and children 

COVER 

Getting fit? Get musical: 

working out in the 

early years 

Top tips for the terrific 

twos - tip six: timing 

transitions 

+ lots more 

EYFS activities 

inside! 

This month… 

Communication 

& Language 

Valentine’s is the time for 

self-love 

Make 2023 the start of a wonderful relationship with your own heart and help your little ones to begin theirs. 

STRESS MANAGEMENT • SAFER INTERNET DAY • NATIONAL APPRENTICESHIP WEEK

10 

Top tips for 

the terrific 

twos -Tip six: 

timing transitions 

hello 

welcome to our family 

Hello and welcome to the February edition of the Parenta magazine! 

There is much to think about and discuss this month surrounding the welfare, well-being and safety of our 

colleagues and the children in our care. Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week (6th – 12th) gives us a perfect 

opportunity to learn more and engage in the debates and activities surrounding this incredibly important topic, 

while Safer Internet Day on 7th arms us with resources and tips to ensure our colleagues and younger members 

of the team are aware of online dangers. We also take a good look at stress-coping mechanisms for ourselves 

and our teams – turn to page 26 for more on this. 

We celebrate all things fantastic about apprenticeships during National Apprenticeship Week from 6th – 12th - turn to page 12 to find out 

how you can support and get involved in such a crucial part of early years childcare. We spoke to our Parenta learners to find out what 

they love about doing an apprenticeship and what life skills they are learning, and we feature some of their ideas inside the magazine! 

Also featured in this month’s edition – Dr Sarah Moseley poses the question; “Why is learning to write so difficult for so many learners?”, 

Frances Turnbull gets us singing and working out at the same time (not an easy task for some!), Gina Bale talks ‘self-love’ to mark 

Valentine’s Day, and Dr Kathryn Peckham continues to show us how to help develop self-esteem in children. Joanna Grace is exploring 

the “terrific” twos and really helps us with the children’s ‘timing transitions’, Pam McFarlane continues with the sensitive topic of 

dealing with the death of a staff member (focusing on parents and children), and Dr Mona Sakr begins a fascinating new series about 

‘organisational culture’ in nurseries. 

As usual, everything you read in the magazine is written to help with the efficient running of your setting and to promote the health, 

happiness and well-being of the children in your care. 

Please feel free to share the magazine with friends, parents and colleagues – they can sign up to receive their copy at www.parenta.com/ 

magazine. 

Allan 

FEBRUARY 2023 ISSUE 99 

IN THIS EDITION 

Regulars 

8 Write for us for the chance to win £50! 

34 EYFS Activities: Communication and 

Language 

News 

4 Childcare news and views 

6 Small stories 

16 Celebrate National Apprenticeship Week 

with our Parenta learners 

39 Congratulations to our Parenta 

learners! 

Advice 

12 Celebrate all things apprenticeships this 

month during National Apprenticeship 

Week! 

18 Children’s Mental Health Awareness 

Week 

22 Safer Internet Day 

26 Stress management – coping 

mechanisms for you and your 

colleagues 

32 International Day of Women and Girls 

in Science 

Industry Experts 

National Apprenticeship Week 14 

Safer Internet Day 22 

Stress management 26 

Two-year-olds are famous 

for shouting ”No”, with small 

puffed out chests... 

Dealing with 

the death of a 

staff member 

12 

When a staff member dies, 

colleagues, children and 

parents are impacted in many 

ways. 

2 February 2023 | parenta.com 

Getting fit? Get 

musical: working 

out in the early years 

20 

Moving around can be and should be 

fun at every age, but the way we need 

to move can make a big difference to 

how enjoyable we find different activities. 

10 Top tips for the terrific twos - 

Tip six: timing transitions 

12 Dealing with the death of a staff 

member - focus on parents and children 

20 Getting fit? Get musical: working out in 

the early years 

24 Why is learning to write so difficult for so 

many learners? 

28 How does self-esteem develop and how 

do we get that for our children? 

30 Organisational culture in nurseries: what 

is it and why does it matter? 

36 Valentine’s is the time for self-love 

Valentine’s is the time for self-love 36

Energy bill support for businesses 

to be reduced from April 

The Government has announced 

that the amount of support given to 

businesses to help with energy costs 

will reduce from April 2023, after 

warning that the current level of help 

was too expensive. 

Under the new scheme, business 

customers will get a discount on 

wholesale prices of energy. This is 

a reduction of the current support 

scheme, which caps the cost at a 

lower price. 

Some sectors that use a high amount 

of energy, such as manufacturers, will 

receive a “substantially higher level 

of support” but there is no targeted 

support for early years providers. 

Purnima Tanuku, Chief Executive of 

National Day Nurseries Association 

(NDNA) said: “The fact that the 

Government plans to spend £5.5 

billion on this scheme for the next 

twelve months compared with £18 

billion over the past six months tells 

you that individual businesses will 

see the amount of support drop 

quite significantly. For early years 

settings, who are already closing at an 

alarming rate, this could be disastrous. 

“Early years settings like nurseries 

provide a warm and nurturing 

environment as well as hot meals 

for our youngest children. With 

Government funding increases well 

below inflation and rising costs they 

are facing serious, real-terms cuts. 

Childcare news 

and views 

These providers are being put between 

a rock and a hard place with the only 

options being raising fees to parents or 

closing their doors. 

Neil Leitch, CEO of the Alliance, 

commented: “While the continuation 

of some energy support is better than 

nothing, the harsh reality is that the 

level of support announced today 

is unlikely to do much, if anything, 

to improve the current situation, 

especially given that the rising cost 

of energy is only one of a myriad 

of challenges affecting early years 

settings. 

“With providers also facing severe 

staffing shortages, record increases in 

the national minimum and living wage 

and wider inflationary pressures, it is 

clear that urgent action is needed to 

prevent the collapse of our vital sector. 

As such, it is absolutely vital that the 

government commits to the investment 

and financial support needed to 

safeguard the future of the early years. 

Ministers have dragged their feet for 

long enough.” 

The Government has also not 

announced any targeted support for 

home-based businesses, such as 

childminding professionals, who will 

be domestic energy customers. 

Neil commented: “We know that 

many childminders are having to take 

extreme action, such as not heating 

their own homes in the evenings and 

weekends to ensure that children 

attending their settings can remain 

warm during the week, as the result of 

soaring energy bills. 

The fact that childminders work out of 

their homes does not change the fact 

that they are businesses. As such, it 

is vital that they are given additional 

support to ensure they can cope the 

rising cost of energy. Anything less 

would be incredibly short-sighted, 

especially given the Government’s 

current efforts to increase the number 

of child-minding professionals 

operating in the sector.” 

Information on the Government’s 

Energy Bill Relief Scheme for 

businesses can be found here. 

The full story, as reported by the BBC 

can be found here. 

HRH The Princess of Wales visits 

outstanding Early Years Alliance 

setting in Luton 

The Princess of Wales has visited an 

outstanding early years setting in Luton 

as part of her ongoing work to elevate 

the importance of early childhood to 

lifelong outcomes. 

Educators, children and parents at 

Foxcubs in Luton, which is run by the 

Early Years Alliance, were delighted 

to be introduced to The Princess 

and shared their experiences of the 

early years, and the importance of 

these years for shaping children’s 

development. 

Alliance CEO Neil Leitch, who also 

attended the visit, said: 

“It was an absolute privilege to 

welcome The Princess of Wales to 

Foxcubs Nursery this morning. 

We know that early education is a key 

focus for The Princess and the work of 

the Royal Foundation Centre for Early 

Childhood has been pivotal in changing 

perceptions of early childhood and 

raising awareness of the critical 

importance of the early years. 

Given that our current campaign, 

#WeAreEducators, is all about shining 

a light on our fantastic educational 

professionals, we are incredibly 

grateful to have had the opportunity to 

showcase the outstanding early years 

provision at Foxcubs to The Princess 

today.“ 

Further information on 

#WeAreEducators can be found here. 

You can read the full story on the Early 

Years Alliance website here. 

Prime Minister’s New Year Speech 

fails to mention early years 

Rishi Sunak addressed the nation in 

the PM’s annual New Year speech to 

outline government priorities for the 

year ahead, but he omitted to address 

several key priorities for children and 

young people. Referring to education, 

he included a desire to “re-imagine our 

approach to numeracy” by ensuring 

school pupils study maths up until the 

age of 18. Both education and family 

were frequently cited in the Prime 

Minister’s speech, which stated: “Family 

runs right through our vision of a better 

future.” 

However, Sunak has faced criticism 

from experts who claim he omitted 

several key priorities for children from 

this vision, including the challenges 

facing the early years and social work 

sectors. 

The National Day Nurseries (NDNA) 

called it a missed opportunity for the 

Prime Minister to outline his ambition 

for early education and care, while 

the Early Years Alliance argued that 

a “functioning childcare and early 

education system is just as much as 

part of our social infrastructure as the 

railways and the NHS”, and therefore 

should have been included as a key 

priority for the year ahead. 

Purnima Tanuku, Chief Executive 

of NDNA, said, ‘It is shocking that 

the Prime Minister did not even 

acknowledge or mention in his speech 

how crucial early education is to 

children and families. 

“Although he highlighted every other 

aspect of education, stressing it was 

the closest thing we have to a silver 

bullet, he missed the opportunity to 

outline his ambition for early education 

and care. Getting the first five years 

right is crucial to any ‘world class 

education system’, it must not be 

brushed off as babysitting or treated 

as a nice to have. This lack of focus on 

those key pre-school foundation years 

shows a lack of understanding about 

their importance in later life.” 

Chief executive of the Early Years 

Alliance Neil Leitch commented, 

“How can it be that at a time when 

thousands of early years providers are 

closing every year, staff are leaving the 

sector in droves and parents are facing 

crippling costs, the Prime Minister 

gives a key speech about priorities for 

the upcoming year and doesn’t even 

mention the early years beyond a 

passing reference to family hubs? 

If encouraging more people back into 

work is a key Government aim for 

the years ahead, perhaps tackling 

our broken early years system and 

ensuring that mothers aren’t priced out 

of the workforce as a result of spiralling 

early years costs might be a good 

place to start. And if a quality education 

is so important, why not invest 

adequately in the sector that supports 

children’s learning during their most 

critical period of development?” 

The Prime Minister’s speech can be 

found in full here. 

The full story, as reported in Nursery 

World, can be found here. 


parenta.com | February 2023 5

A round-up of some news stories that 

have caught our eye over the month 

Source and image credits to: 

Nursery World, BBC News, Early Years Educator 

Teachers in England and Wales to 

strike over pay dispute 

Members of the National Education 

Union (NEU), the UK’s largest teaching 

union, are to take strike action over pay 

in February and March. 

Reduction in energy support 

raises childcare funding fears 

Providers fear a reduction in business 

energy rates from the end of March will 

not be enough to safeguard childcare 

settings. 

Researchers to study how 

toddlers learn to communicate 

using technology 

Parents are being invited to take part in 

a new research project into how toddlers 

learn to communicate using technology 

in their everyday lives. 

Kindred Nurseries acquires North 

London group 

Kindred Nurseries has acquired the four 

Bright Stars Nurseries, based in London. 

The deal takes the expanding nursery 

group to 31 early years settings across 

London and the South of England. 

Parents storing their old Barbies, 

Rubik’s Cubes and Fisher Price 

Toys to pass on to their children 

Adults have an average of 20 childhood 

toys ‘stashed away’, including Fisher 

Price telephones, Hot Wheels and Rubik’s 

Cubes, reveals new research. 

Busy Bees to offer Sky employees 

nursery discounts 

Busy Bees is joining forces with Sky 

to provide work-place childcare to 

parents. The new partnership offers Sky 

employees a 10 percent discount on 

childcare at all Busy Bees nurseries. 

Click here to send in 

your stories to 

marketing@parenta.com 

DfE seeks views on changes to 

L3 EYE criteria 

The sector is being urged to respond 

to the DfE’s consultation on proposed 

changes to the Early Years Education 

(EYE) Level 3 criteria, which closes on 23 

January. 

Government responds to petition 

calling for more early years 

funding 

The Department for Education (DfE) has 

issued a response to a petition calling 

for a funding increase for early years 

settings. 

Milton Hall Montessori Nursery 

School Performs ‘BaaRmY 

Bethlehem’ 

The children & teachers at Milton Hall 

Montessori Nursery School decided 

to take a slightly crazy and colourful 

approach to the Nativity Show this term! 



Write for us! 

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 

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read can be of the most rewarding and enjoyable 

skills that we can learn, yet we know that it can 

also be one of the most difficult to achieve. 

Well done Sarah! 

A massive thank you to all of our guest authors for 

writing for us. You can find all of the past articles 

from our guest authors on our website: 

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Top tips for the terrific twos - 

Tip six: timing 

transitions 

My second son recently turned two. Friends have commented that my first son skipped the terrible twos. They presume my professional 

skill set will get us through them again. I don’t fancy my chances. This series of articles presents ten tips for negotiating this time with 

small ones. Know that with every strike of the keys, I remind myself that advice is easy to give and hard to follow. I will be attempting to 

practice what I preach this coming year: wish me luck! 

Joanna Grace 

Imagine you are watching your favourite 

TV show, you are half way through an 

episode and your partner walks in and 

tells you to go and put your shoes on. Or 

you are talking to a friend on the phone, 

deep in conversation and your partner 

shouts at you from the other room to get 

into the car. Or you are writing a letter to 

someone, and mid-sentence your partner 

announces that you have to eat dinner. 

Said partner would be walking on thin ice 

wouldn’t they? Who would want to stick 

around for this sort of treatment? The 

disregard for your life as you’re living it. 

The lack of social niceties ahead of making 

these demands. No explanation. Just 

orders! 

Might you shout back? Might your level of 

shout match your level of indignation at 

how unreasonable they are being? 

Two-year-olds are famous for shouting 

“No!”, with small puffed out chests and 

hearty indignation. In those “no” answers 

they are saying “What I am doing is 

important” “What I want for my life counts”, 

“I am in charge of me, not you”. And when 

you are the person who loves that twoyear-old, 

that sort of sense of self worth is 

not something you want to crush. But…. 

you do need them to put their shoes on, to 

eat their dinner, to get in the car. So how 

can we achieve that without triggering 

their need to self protect? 

Those of you who have read articles 3 and 

4 will be thinking “But you said I could only 

use a couple of words, how can I explain 

and reason if they’re not able to process?” 

Those of you who have read article 2 

might be thinking Align-Attune-Invite. And 

I stand by all of those things; in this article 

I’m adding in another layer. 

This layer is to add the building blocks 

to reason in behind our instructions and 

invitations. Whilst getting alongside and 

aligning, attuning and inviting works well 

for shifting a two-year-old from one activity 

to the next, our choice of next activity can 

still seem fairly arbitrary. And whilst they 

cannot take in reason in a sentence with 

lots of key words in it (see the previous 

article for an explanation of this), they can 

begin to appreciate that the actions of 

adults are generally rational not random! 

In my last article, I talked about processing 

time and how it can take a while for things 

to settle into a small person’s brain, so 

what we are aiming to do with this tip 

is pop all the information relevant to the 

rationale for our action into their brain with 

enough time for them to settle in before 

we need them to be used. This will all 

make much more sense with an example: 

It is breakfast time - a very popular activity 

for my two-year-old! Breakfast ends and 

he is lifted out of his highchair to the floor. 

“Let’s get dressed” I say. “No!” comes the 

reply. He needs that no to be firm, because 

he knows what adults are like with their 

sudden demands to do dull things, he 

has plans, he is a busy soul, he is off to 

terrorise the dog, to ‘gently’ scratch the cat 

under the chin, to build train tracks with his 

big brother. Clothes? Don’t be ridiculous 

Mummy, now is not the time for clothes! 

The alternative 

It is breakfast time, as my two-year-old 

chows down with great enthusiasm 

on his own breakfast, my breakfast, 

Daddy’s toast and any bits of his brother’s 

breakfast he can beg, I start to talk about 

his day. “You’re going to see Grandma 

today”. “Grandma” he replies. “You will 

need clothes on to see Grandma.” (No 

reply, just eating). I put the washing up 

away, and say: “At Grandma’s house we 

wear clothes”, I muse to the forks. “In a bit 

we will put clothes on to go to Grandmas” 

I remind myself out loud as I sort out his 

bag for the day. You get the idea. By the 

time he has finished breakfast he has 

heard the Grandma-clothes combination a 

thousand times. It is there in his mind. I lift 

him down from his highchair. “Shall we get 

dressed to go and see Grandma?” “Yes!” 

comes the reply and he races off towards 

his clothes. 

At a glance this can be misunderstood for 

me giving him the reason in the sentence. 

So let’s be clear, if in the first example I 

had offered “If you put clothes on you can 

go and see Grandma”, it wouldn’t have 

worked because he cannot process that 

reasoning in the time it takes to utter a 

sentence. But with a good run up, and 

time for the information to sink in, he can 

make the link and is more than happy 

to oblige. With any luck, if he is quick, 

Grandma and Grandpa will still be eating 

breakfast when we get there, and he can 

have a fourth meal of the morning! 

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 special school 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 four practitioner 

books: “Multiple Multisensory 

Rooms: Myth Busting the Magic”, 

“Sensory Stories for Children and 

Teens”, “Sensory-Being for Sensory 

Beings”, “Sharing Sensory Stories 

and Conversations with People with 

Dementia” and “The Subtle Spectrum”. 

Plus three inclusive sensory story 

children’s books: “Spike and Mole”, 

“Voyage to Arghan” and “Ernest and I” 

which all sell globally and her son has 

recently become the UK’s youngest 

published author with his book, 

“My Mummy is Autistic” which was 

foreworded by Chris Packham. 

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 



Dealing with the death of 

a staff member - focus on 

parents and children 

When a staff member dies, colleagues, 

children and parents are impacted. This 

impact is felt in varying ways and in 

differing levels of understanding. Our last 

article focused on the loss of an early 

years staff member called Mandy, how this 

affected her colleagues and the integral 

role a manager can play during this time. 

This article will look at how parents and 

children are affected in the case of a staff 

member dying and how, as managers 

and leaders, we can ensure they feel 

supported. 

It’s good to know what we mean when 

we use language that expresses grief. A 

good explanation of terms we use at these 

times is the following: 

‘Bereavement is what happens to us, grief 

is what we feel and mourning is what we 

do.’ 

How then do children understand and 

respond to bereavement? There are many 

helpful articles about how children deal 

with the loss of a parent or loved one and 

some of these links can be found at the 

end of this article. The www.babycentre. 

co.uk site has some very informative 

thoughts concerning pre-schoolers and 

grief. They say: 

“Pre-schoolers are aware of death from 

early on. They hear about it in fairy tales, 

see it on TV, and encounter dead bugs, 

birds, or squirrels on the sidewalk or 

roadside. Some children may have already 

experienced the death of a pet or a family 

member. 

Despite this, there are aspects of death 

that kids this age still can’t understand. 

For example, they can’t grasp that death 

is permanent, inevitable, and happens to 

everyone. 

Kids this age react to death in a variety 

of ways. Don’t be surprised if your child 

becomes clingy, regresses in toilet training, 

reverts to baby talk, or suddenly balks at 

going to her familiar pre-school. 

On the other hand, she may not show 

any reaction to the death at all, or her 

responses may be intermittent, mixed in 

with her usual cheerfulness and play. 

This is normal, too. Children process grief 

in bite-sized chunks, not all at once.” 

The above applies mainly to the deaths 

of close loved ones. When it comes to the 

death of a child’s teacher or key person, 

children may still show similar signs of 

grief. However, their responses to this 

are based on how close they were to this 

person, their age, their experience of life 

and loss and on their own family’s culture 

and beliefs. As managers, leaders and 

owners, we are very aware that our early 

years families come from a rich variety of 

cultures and faith beliefs, so a one-sizefits-all 

response is not the way to go. 

So, revisiting Mandy’s setting, the question 

for the manager was – how do we tell the 

children at nursery about Mandy? 

It was clear that Mandy’s key children and 

many others understood that she was no 

longer at the nursery as they were used 

to seeing her smiling face, hearing her 

infectious laugh and feeling her teacherheart 

as she encouraged them, tenderly 

placed plasters on small cuts and scrapes 

and opened up the world by examining 

ladybugs and butterflies in the garden 

together. 

They missed her. Some asked questions 

about when she was coming back. The 

concept of ‘never, forever’ is not something 

they can grasp; indeed, many adults can 

hardly fully understand this notion. 

It was very important to the manager that 

parents should take the lead in explaining 

Mandy’s passing to their children. This 

approach evidenced high regard for each 

family’s values and customs. 

She sent an email to all the parents, 

informing them of the tragedy and giving 

them the option as to how they should tell 

their children. This was a measured and 

thoughtful thing to do, not only for cultural 

reasons, but because parents know 

their children best of all. They know their 

characters, their level of understanding 

and their life experiences, which would 

give them the soundest foundation on 

which to share this information. 

An excerpt of this email reads: 

“In the meantime, we encourage you to 

approach the passing of Mandy with your 

children according to your own family’s 

culture and beliefs. 

Child Bereavement UK is a helpful website 

for knowing how to share this information 

with children. 

We will be following their advice when 

speaking with the children here should 

the children broach the subject with us as 

individuals. Their advice is to use honest 

and clear language. We will answer 

questions honestly with them, appropriate 

to the children’s age and to your family’s 

preferred response.” 

A few parents chose not to say anything 

to their children as they deemed them too 

young to understand this concept. 

For those who did, staff members were 

able to answer their children’s questions 

appropriately, following the parent’s 

guidance. Sometimes, the children asked 

the same question over and over, as 

they processed this information over 

time. Keeping to the parent’s preferred 

responses helped staff members’ 

language to be consistent. 

A practical matter also had to be 

addressed. Some parents were visibly 

shocked and sad when they dropped off 

their children in the mornings following 

the sent email. The manager made sure 

that children were greeted warmly, before 

ushering them into the play area to join 

their friends. She then led parents who 

were distressed into a small area away 

from the door where she could provide 

comfort and reassurance. This ensured 

that parents felt heard and children were 

protected as much as possible during 

those difficult days. 

The apple tree commemorating Mandy 

will soon be planted in the nursery garden. 

Parents and children are invited to join staff 

members in remembering Mandy and 

paying their respects. This unifying act will 

be a fitting conclusion to a period of deep 

loss within this early years community. 

Life will go on. The tree will root and grow. 

Apple blossom will perfume the air. In 

time, the children will play underneath its 

shade. 

And staff members, parents and children 

will all have played a meaningful part. 

Helpful links:

Celebrate all things 

apprenticeships during 

National Apprenticeship 

Week! 

Now in its 16th year, National 

Apprenticeship Week (NAW) returns this 

month from 6th to 12th February. The 

week provides such a great way to bring 

together businesses and apprentices 

across the whole of the UK to showcase 

how apprenticeships can really transform 

lives, help businesses recruit and train their 

employees of all ages to have a positive 

impact on the wider community. 

This year, the theme is ‘skills for life’, 

and looks at how apprenticeships can 

help individuals to develop the skills and 

knowledge required for a rewarding 

career, and businesses to develop a 

talented workforce that is equipped with 

future-ready skills. 

What are 

apprenticeships, why 

are they important, and 

how do they work? 

Despite some encouraging figures*, the 

early years sector is facing a staffing 

shortage crisis and is in desperate need 

of more qualified staff, this means that 

more staff need professional training 

in childcare. According to a report 

commissioned by the Early Years Alliance, 

more than eight in 10 early years providers 

(84%) are finding it difficult to recruit staff. 

The report, Breaking Point: The impact of 

recruitment and retention challenges in the 

early years sector in England, also found 

that 49% of providers have had to limit the 

number of places at their setting or stop 

taking on new children as a result of the 

crisis. 

If you don’t already recruit apprentices 

and you are unsure where to start, read 

our handy guide ‘How to hire your perfect 

apprentice’. However, in the meantime, 

here are a few facts to get you started:

We celebrate National 

Apprenticeship Week with 

our Parenta learners! 

5% 

NON-LEVY CONTRIBUTION 

We asked our wonderful Parenta learners what they love most about being a childcare apprentice, and what skills for life they have 

learned so far. It is so encouraging to read such amazing words about life as an apprentice. Here is just some of the fantastic feedback! 

“I am learning how to help children thrive and develop and discovering signs to look out for in regards to any form of abuse as well as 

signs of potential SEN.” 

Caitlin W 

“I love learning new things and the overall experience of an apprenticeship. My communication skills have grown, and I feel more 

confident when I talk to people I do not know. My creative thinking has expanded when it comes to setting activities for children.” 

Kara L 

“I am continuously learning new skills and adding to my existing knowledge which is important in helping to improve my own practice.” 

Lizzy H 

“Online lessons and teachers are very helpful. During master classes, you get the chance to discuss topics with people that work in 

different nurseries. There are very good free webinars to attend and lots of reading resources to use for the task uploaded in the online 

portfolio. I am finding confidence in asking for help from my mentor, tutor and teacher.“ 

Majlinda D 

“I particularly enjoyed looking at pedagogy and the different theories that are linked to child learning and development. I find the live 

lessons really beneficial, meeting other people doing the same course, whom we are able to share ideas with. All the trainers and my 

tutor are approachable and supportive. The main skill I think I have learnt is confidence in my own ability.” 

Helen T 

“Watching the children grow each day and learning new skills that will help them through life. The skills for life I have learnt since 

becoming an apprentice are learning signs if someone is not very well, and learning how to overcome difficult challenges.” 

Amy W 

“I’m earning and learning at the same time and my apprenticeship helps me build towards my career goals and it’s something I’m 

passionate about. I love that I am supported by my managers and colleagues. I have learnt communication skills, planning and 

instruction, decision-making skills and also problem-solving skills.” 

Natasha R 

“I enjoy watching the children develop confidence and seeing them play with each other. I like them achieving little things such as trying 

new food, I love seeing them respect each other and learn from one another and being able to teach them about different cultures and 

experiences. I learnt to balance my job and social life, my free time and my course and to be patient and calm around young children. As 

I am on the autism spectrum and find change difficult though I learnt not to get upset when my rota changes when I don’t expect it to. I 

learnt to bring creative ideas about what I could do with the children.” 

Noreen M 

“What I most enjoy about my apprenticeship is understanding the challenges my colleagues face and coming up with good ideas to help 

them. Being able to use my initiative, commit and develop skills in communication also my strategic thinking.” 

Zoi T 

In addition, our Parenta tutors have been telling us just how amazing all their learners are, and a special shout-out goes to the following 

Parenta apprentices: 

Eleanor M, Natalia J, Emma H, Abi P, Hayley H-B, Sophie B, Barbara A. 

You are all doing so well, going above and beyond so that you can complete your apprenticeship and gain your qualification 

- well done all! 


Let us help you with your training needs - call us today 

By providing training 

for your staff, you will: 

Improve morale 

Support 

children's safety 

Enhance your 

setting's reputation 

Reduce staff 

turnover 

Did you know... 

You can now access government funding for up to 10 staff members - instead of 3 

- to help get your staff qualified and keep them motivated 

0800 002 9242 hello@parenta.com 

We have secured funding available and 

are enrolling learners on to our courses 

every day! 

Take advantage for you or your staff! 

Payment plan available for your 5% 

contribution

Children’s 

Mental Health 

Awareness 

Week 

It’s February, which means it’s time for 

Children’s Mental Health Week (CMHW) (6 

– 12th). The week aims to raise awareness 

of children’s mental health issues, get 

people talking, and raise funds to help 

tackle the problem. It is run by Place2Be, 

a UK charity that provides counselling and 

mental health support and training in UK 

schools. This includes in-school support, 

expert training and free resources that 

schools and organisations can access. 

They also run a Mental Health Champions 

Foundation programme which is a free 

course for teachers, trainee teachers and 

other school-based staff running over 5 

weeks and qualifying as a CPD-accredited 

course. 

This year, the theme for CMHW is “Let’s 

Connect” and the team are trying to 

encourage people involved with children 

and young people, to make “meaningful 

connections for all” for the week and 

beyond. According to their website: 

“Human beings thrive in communities, and 

this connection is vital for our well-being, 

and our survival. When we have healthy 

connections – to family, friends and others 

– this can support our mental health and 

our sense of well-being. And when our 

need for rewarding social connections is 

not met, we can sometimes feel isolated 

and lonely – which can have a negative 

impact on our mental health.” 

Over the course of the week, the aim is to 

help connect people in healthy, rewarding 

and meaningful ways, something that 

many children (and adults) may have 

found difficult over the last few years due 

to COVID restrictions. 

According to the Barnardo’s website, 

children in England are facing a “mental 

health crisis”. 

They report that:

Getting fit? Get musical: 

working out in the 

early years 

Moving around can be and should be 

fun at every age, but the way we need 

to move can make a big difference to 

how enjoyable we find different activities. 

Knowing that we should move regularly 

and often is not usually enough to keep 

us motivated, especially when the benefits 

are not immediately seen but if it is 

enjoyable, that should make it easier to 

continue. But does it make a difference 

whether we are good at it or not? 

People come in different shapes and 

sizes, even little people in nurseries, 

and this impacts the types of activities 

that we are able to do and enjoy. Some 

people are more flexible or more sturdy 

than others, giving us all different 

strengths and weaknesses, and when 

put in a competitive environment, this can 

build different levels of confidence and 

insecurity. So it stands to reason that the 

better you are at an activity, the more you 

will do it. Doesn’t it? 

This is, in fact, one of the factors that 

researchers have investigated. They 

looked at the relationship between motor 

competence and physical activity – does 

being good at activity lead to doing more 

activity? To test this idea, 550 children 

aged between 2-6 years were studied in 

Switzerland, where their movements per 

minute were counted, as well as minutes 

of activity per day, and then adjusted for 

age and gender (Schmutz et al., 2020). 

Researchers found a little evidence that 

more-able children engaged in moderate 

to vigorous activity, but while these moreable 

children remained more-able over 

time, it did not change how often they 

took part. So, more-able children did not 

necessarily take part in more vigorous 

activity. 

at physical activity, do not have to win 

competitions, and do not have to be “the 

best” in order to take part and stay fit and 

healthy. It really is more important to take 

part, rather than win! 

The songs below include different levels 

of physical activity, indicated by the 

song words. And none of them have a 

competitive level, giving everybody a 

chance to participate, regardless of ability! 

Teddy Bear 

Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around 

Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground 

Teddy bear, teddy bear, jump up high 

Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the sky 

Teddy bear, teddy bear, bend down low 

Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch your toes 

Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn off the light 

Teddy bear, teddy bear, say goodnight 

This lovely action song states the 

movement directions in the song, making 

it more of a game. It also allows children 

to relate the words to actions by reacting 

to the words as they sing them. Children 

can be inventive in how they do things 

(e.g. imaginary light switch in the air or on 

a nearby wall), or follow agreed actions, 

depending on the group. 

Skip To My Lou 

Fly in the buttermilk, shoo fly, shoo 



Skip to my Lou, my darling 

Skip, skip, skip to my Lou 



Skip to my Lou, my darling 

This old favourite develops skipping skills, 

which some children naturally learn, but 

is difficult for others. Skipping tip: start 

by hopping on one foot, then the other. 

Once that is secure, hop-hop on the left, 

hop-hop on the right, and once you add 

movement, presto! You can skip! 

Old Brass Wagon 

Circle to the right, old brass wagon 



You’re the one, my darling 

Circle to the left, old brass wagon 




Everybody up, old brass wagon 

Everybody down, old brass wagon 

Everybody up, old brass wagon 


Everybody in, old brass wagon 

Everybody out, old brass wagon 

Everybody in, old brass wagon 


This circle song helps to develop spatial 

awareness – keeping in a circle with a 

wide internal space slows down the quick 

or anxious child and speeds up the unsure 

or unmotivated child. Again, this song 

uses the lyrics to guide the actions and 

associate words with movement – move 

right, move left, move up and down, move 

forward and back. “You’re the one my 

darling” can be children pointing to each 

other or giving themselves a little hug! 

How Many Miles to Babylon 

Line 1: How many miles to Babylon? 

Line 2: Three score and ten 

Line 1: Will I get back before you do? 

Line 2: Yes and back again 

Line 1: Open the gates and let us through 

Line 2: Not without a beck and bow 

Line 1: Here’s the beck 

Line 2: Here’s the bow 

Line 1: Open the gates and let us through 

Line 2 lifts their held hands for Line 1 to 

walk underneath. 

This little gem is almost an introduction to 

line dancing! Children hold hands facing 

each other in two lines, a little like “Red 

Rover.” They alternate singing lines until 

the end, where Line 1 releases hands to 

walk under Line 2’s held hands lifted up. 

And if Line 2 walks forward, they end up 

swapping positions! Great fun! 

Movement is an important life skill that 

may or may not be encouraged at home 

for many different reasons. When children 

see the value, they may develop their 

own interest in finding a sport, activity or 

exercise later in life to keep themselves fit 

and healthy. Keeping things fun while they 

are young gives them a better chance at 

finding the joy in taking part for life without 

feeling like a failure for not coming first. 

Reference 

Schmutz, E. A., Leeger-Aschmann, C. S., 

Kakebeeke, T. H., Zysset, A. E., Messerli- 

Bürgy, N., Stülb, K., Arhab, A., Meyer, A. 

H., Munsch, S., Puder, J. J., Jenni, O. G., & 

Kriemler, S. (2020). Motor Competence and 

Physical Activity in Early Childhood: Stability 

and Relationship. Frontiers in Public 

Health, 8(39). https://doi.org/10.3389/ 

fpubh.2020.00039 

Frances Turnbull 

Musician, researcher and author, 

Frances Turnbull, is a self-taught guitarist 

who has played contemporary and 

community music from the age of 12. She 

delivers music sessions to the early years 

and KS1. Trained in the music education 

techniques of Kodály (specialist singing), 

Dalcroze (specialist movement) and Orff 

(specialist percussion instruments), she 

has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology 

(Open University) and a Master’s degree 

in Education (University of Cambridge). 

She runs a local community choir, the 

Bolton Warblers, and delivers the Sound 

Sense initiative “A choir in every care 

home” within local care and residential 

homes, supporting health and wellbeing 

through her community interest 

company. 

She has represented the early years 

music community at the House of 

Commons, advocating for recognition 

for early years music educators, and her 

table of progressive music skills for under 

7s features in her curriculum books. 

Frances is the author of “Learning with 

Music: Games and activities for the early 

years”, published by Routledge, August 

2017. 

www.musicaliti.co.uk 

This is good news for both children and 

grownups – we do not need to be “good” 



Safer Internet Day 

The growth of the internet has been a 

double-edged sword. On the one hand 

it makes our lives easier – we have a 

vast array of knowledge at our fingertips, 

we can work from home more easily, 

we can buy things from the comfort of 

our armchairs and we can connect with 

friends and family on the other side of the 

world as if they were in the same room. 

But on the flip side, we worry about the 

safety of our children, the security of our 

financial transactions and the impact that 

screentime is having on the development 

and well-being of the next generation. 

Safer Internet Day (SID) is coordinated 

by the UK Safer Internet Centre and is a 

campaign which takes place in February 

every year with the aim of alerting us all to 

the risks and dangers inherent in using the 

internet, and how we can make it a safer 

place for children and young people. 

In 2023, the SID theme is: “Want to 

talk about it? Making space for 

conversations about life online”. The 

day takes place on Tuesday 7th February 

although the real work of the Safer Internet 

Day campaign is year-round and consists 

of a range of organisations linking with 

educational establishments, government 

institutions and other NGOs to tackle some 

of the issues of internet use. A lot of work 

will be done using the internet too, such 

as on social media, with companies like 

Facebook and Twitter using the hashtags 

#SaferInternetDay and #SID2023. The 

aim is to “promote the safe, responsible 

and positive use of digital technology for 

children and young people.” 

Research 

Data on attitudes and behaviours of children and parents in 2022 reported YouTube and 

TikTok as the most popular online activity among children aged 3-17 (95%). 

According to the report: 

Children aged 3-4 Children aged 5-7 

17% had their own mobile phone 28% had their own mobile phone 

50% used messaging sites/apps 58% used messaging sites/apps 

24% have their own social media profile 33% have their own social media profile 

89% use video sharing platforms 93% use video sharing platforms 

Of 8-11-year-olds, 32% reported seeing 

something worrying or nasty online and 

64% said they had more than one profile 

online. More worryingly, the main reason 

given for multiple profiles was so that they 

could have one to show their parents and 

family. And significant numbers of this age 

group claimed to have set up their profiles 

themselves, despite the age restriction 

being 13 for even joining social media 

sites. 

When talking about the risks for children 

going online, experts usually talk about the 

4 Cs, being:

Why is learning to write 

so difficult for so many 

learners? 

How do we support young children 

with this complex task, especially those 

learners with SEND or more complex 

significant needs? With an increase in 

technology available, do we need to 

continue to focus on teaching young 

children who struggle to write? Where and 

how do we begin, and when do we stop? 

These are questions I am asked regularly 

and I’m sorry there is no magic answer! 

Firstly, every child is different, and if I have 

learned anything during my 30 years in 

mainstream and special education topped 

off with my role as mother to a 7-year-old, 

these differences change and develop 

uniquely! 

The completion of my first book this 

summer taught me many things, the most 

interesting was that the technical aspect 

of writing is not the most important. Our 

internal emotional state plays a huge part 

in ensuring we are motivated, engaged, 

and able to communicate what we want 

to say. 

Arthritis pain in my wrist during the final 

editing stages of my book led me to 

experiment with alternative methods to 

get my ideas onto paper. I learned how 

to use the dictate function within Word to 

convert speech to text. I was amazed at 

how different the final few pages sounded. 

The process of putting pen to paper 

(or finger to keyboard) had a massive 

influence on what was produced. By 

speaking the book, I produced text with a 

different tone, used longer sentences, and 

required more editing to make it clear for 

readers. I realised that as I typed or wrote 

the previous pages, I used my internal 

monologue to organise my ideas more 

concisely. 

For learners with SEND/complex needs, 

the task of getting ideas onto paper has 

many barriers. It’s up to us to provide 

as many ways to reduce these. I am 

constantly surprised and impressed by the 

resilience and persistence of children in 

the face of conquering the complex task 

of learning to use the English language. 

We are not prewired to read or write and 

English, unlike Italian or French, which can 

be learned in 3 months, takes at least 

3 years to learn for the average child or 

young person (Dehaena 2016). I realised 

that access to assistive technology had 

made it easier to physically write but it did 

not help me to structure my ideas or when 

I lacked the motivation to write. 

If we view the process of writing as 

consisting of several key areas, we can 

support children more effectively. Put 

simply - as Jane Farrall states - learners 

require: 

✏ Something to write with 

✏ Something to write on 

✏ Something to write about! 

I recommend checking out the work of 

www.janefarrall.com/ and her webinars 

on writing for all https://www.janefarrall. 

com/writing-with-all-tools-continuumwebinar/ 

Irrespective of any additional needs, 

all children need to be motivated and 

engaged to communicate their ideas. They 

need to be provided with opportunities for 

the physical act of writing/mark-making 

(fine, gross motor issues), and experiences 

that will develop core strength as well as 

muscle isolation skills. They need support 

to understand how to shape ideas and 

share them in a way others can access 

them. It is through this motivation and 

feedback gained from interactions with 

those around us, as well as the sensory 

feedback gained from playing, banging, 

feeling, and creating marks that are key. 

So where do we begin? 

Widen our definition of 

writing 

The starting point is we must widen our 

definition of writing, and look at providing 

all learners with an ‘alternative pencil’ 

(a term developed by Hanser 2009). We 

need to consider everybody as a writer 

and provide opportunities to play around 

with, record, and gather ideas in many 

ways. We should provide access to markmarking/alphabet 

and early emergent 

writing activities irrelevant of any additional 

need (use the keyboard to scribble with 

the alphabet!) Catherine Cookson used a 

Dictaphone to dictate her stories while she 

gardened, we must consider all ways of 

mark-making and recording ideas as valid. 

There are some great resources and 

websites available to support learners 

with complex needs, the Teach us Too 

charity has lots to explore https://www. 

teachustoo.org.uk/. 

It is important to ensure the easiest 

method for learners to get ideas onto 

paper (consider this in its widest sense), to 

take the fear away so learners can enjoy 

writing. Throughout, we should provide 

feedback and add meaning to these 

ideas, to support the shaping and refining 

of what children have produced. 

Use a flexible toolbox of 

strategies 

It is crucial that we are flexible, and that 

we adapt our approach using a toolbox of 

strategies based on an understanding of 

literacy/child development, good practice, 

and fun! It is important to remember the 

sensory feedback that learners will gain 

from using and exploring a multitude of 

tools, so provide texture, sound, light, 

movement, and more to add to this 

sensory experience. 

✏ Create a rich literacy environment 

where language is seen, heard, 

brought to life, and enables children 

to be immersed in its magic (use light, 

sound, and movement to act out, role 

play, and make up their own stories, 

songs, poems) 

✏ Model and demonstrate and discuss 

print and communication through 

writing (write labels, lists, or read 

directions, instructions, take photos, 

make videos, use augmented reality) 

✏ Make sure there are many different 

mark-making tools available including 

within continuous provision, outside, 

sensory spaces, and shared areas 

✏ Provide children with ways to play, 

experiment, adapt, and make their 

own tools (make and use different 

grips, create stamps/writing tools, use 

technology (low and high tech) 

✏ Model, share, encourage and 

promote a have-a-go culture – play 

and experiment 

Make it fun! 

Ensure that children are engaged and 

motivated. Get children moving, using big 

muscles as well as smaller fine muscles. 

Use observations to gain a greater 

understanding of things children enjoy and 

share this knowledge. 

✏ Do you know what children like, and 

what their passions or motivators are? 

✏ What are they good at? Use these as 

ways into areas they may not be as 

confident with 

✏ Use games as ways into recording, 

mark-making, and print referencing 

✏ Use dance, PE, and music to create 

big movements, patterns, and small 

movements 

Is Universal Design for 

Learning (UDL) evident? 

UDL is a way of thinking, it’s a framework 

where barriers to learning are considered 

from the start for all teaching and 

learning opportunities. All children have 

equal opportunities for success as from 

the beginning, thought is given to how 

learning will be presented, how children 

will engage with these, and how we will 

find out what they know. 

If we consider this in terms of the 

teaching of writing, we will ask, are there 

opportunities for all learners to indicate a 

choice or demonstrate an opinion? Do we 

provide a variety of access methods for 

all? (Include switches, joystick, keyguards, 

posture support, eye gaze, mouse, touch 

screen, symbols, text, mark-making 

tools, stamps, etc.) Do adults/peers have 

the knowledge needed to be effective 

communication partners and understand 

what children are trying to say or express? 

To find out more about UDL and hear 

from some inspiring professionals check 

out https://lgfl.planetestream.com/View. 

aspx?ID=7095~4v~6fmKEP7c, https:// 

national.lgfl.net/home and 

https://www.readingrockets.org/article/ 

universal-design-learning-udl-what-youneed-know 

Finally, we must make sure that all children 

have the opportunity to publish and share 

their writing with the world. It is important 

that children understand and see the 

purpose of putting their ideas into a format 

that can be shared with others, enabling 

them to be active participants in the 

fabulous world of literacy. 

References 

S. Dehaene (2010). “Reading in the Brain: 

The New Science of How We Read” 

Penguin books 

Hanser, G. (2009). “Write from the start... 

with an ‘alternative pencil.“ Developed 

by The Center for Literacy and Disability 

Studies. Retrieved from http://www.med. 

unc.edu/ahs/clds/products/available-forpurchase. 

Useful websites 

http://alternativepencils.weebly.com/ 

Sarah Moseley 

Dr Sarah Moseley is an Educational 

Consultant and speaker specialising in 

raising outcomes for all learners with 

SEND. She works with a wide range 

of organisations, as well as families 

and learners, providing face-to-face 

and online training, coaching, keynote 

presentations, information, and support. 

Sarah is passionate about making a 

positive difference to the lives, attitudes, 

and outcomes of those who may 

struggle to learn, based on a belief that 

every action can make a difference. She 

aims to bridge the gap between theory 

and learning, to create a culture where 

high expectations thrive, improving 

outcomes for all pupils. 

Sarah has over 30 years’ knowledge 

and experience within special and 

mainstream education from teaching 

assistant to Headteacher, as well being 

a parent of a 7-year-old. She has a solid 

research background rooted within the 

psychology of learning. Her Masters 

and PhD were in Special Education and 

focused specifically on the teaching of 

reading and self-esteem. Sarah has 

presented nationally/internationally and 

is a published author. 

The Teaching of Reading to Learners with 

SLD 

Her forthcoming publication on the 

teaching of reading to learners with 

complex needs is due March 2023. 

Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram - Dr Sarah 

Moseley 

Twitter @drsarahmoseley 



Stress management 

– coping mechanisms 

for you and your 

colleagues 

In our November magazine, we talked 

about Stress Awareness Week and ways 

to help you a) notice the signs of stress, 

and b) combat stress, particularly in the 

workplace. 

As we move into February, with people 

feeling the pinch after Christmas, the costof-living 

crisis firmly sitting at everyone’s 

front door and energy subsidies set 

to reduce in the near future, it is more 

important than ever that we are aware of 

how we are coping with the stresses in our 

lives. 

In the last article we used the analogy of 

the ‘stress bucket’ and the importance of 

emptying the bucket to keep stress levels 

manageable. In this article, we will look a 

bit closer at some coping mechanisms you 

can use as a team, and as individuals. 

As a team 

Good communication between team 

members and encouraging people to 

talk more and share problems can help 

manage workplace stress. Add an agenda 

item to team meetings to discuss stress 

awareness or staff mental health. You 

could have this as a permanent item to 

let people know that this is something 

that you take seriously and are willing to 

support as management. You could try 

regular check-ins with members of staff at 

various points in the week or by doing a 

short survey at regular intervals. If people 

feel that their concerns will be taken 

seriously, they are more likely to open 

up, and discuss when things are getting 

tough. 

Also: 

Consider training some of your staff 

in Mental Health First Aid. There are a 

number of reasonably priced courses 

online which people could undertake 

to help them spot the signs of mental 

illness or unhealthy levels of stress 

Set up a buddy/mentor system and 

give people time each week where 

they can check-in with each other 

Give staff more autonomy in their 

jobs – one of the greatest causes 

of workplace stress is when people 

don’t feel they have any control over 

situations or circumstances 

Set up some group activities to bond 

as a team or wind down at the end of 

the week. These could include some 

ideas for stress reduction, or just be 

for fun: 

- Yoga or meditation 

- A craft workshop 

- Early finish one day a week 

- Group exercise class – running, 

tennis, badminton 

- Karaoke session 

- Cookery club 

- Games night 

As individuals 

Sharing problems and working as a team 

can be great ways to let go of stress, 

and the old adage of “a problem shared 

is a problem halved” works well in this 

instance. However, there may be times, 

when you want to take a more individual 

approach to stress management and 

to identify things that will reduce your 

individual stress levels. 

Everyone is different and will have their 

own favourites but the main thing is to 

find things that help you relax and reduce 

stress. For some, this could be making 

more time to do gardening, whilst others 

might find solace in reading or playing 

golf. There are some generic things that 

have been shown to help reduce stress, 

but the trick here is to find your own 

personal version of things. For example, 

exercise is well known for having stressreducing 

benefits, but if you start paying 

for a gym membership and never go, 

or buy an exercise bike that you never 

use, the chances are that these things 

will cause you more stress. So, before 

investing your time and money, work out 

what it is you really love doing, and follow 

your heart. If you hate gyms but love 

dancing, look for a local salsa or jive class; 

or if you always wanted to learn to bake, 

knit or do life drawing, check out local 

adult education classes. 

The key here is taking time out for YOU, 

which can be difficult if you work full-time 

and have other family commitments too. 

Sometimes you have to think about looking 

after yourself and keeping yourself healthy, 

before agreeing to do one more thing for 

somebody else! 

Work out what helps you relax – here are 

some ideas to personalise: 

Music – listen to it, go to a concert, 

learn to play an instrument 

Nature – gardening, walking and 

hiking, volunteering at an animal 

shelter 

Arts and crafts - painting, drawing, 

sculpture, dance 

Exercise – dancing, wild swimming, 

aquarobics, gardening, bowling, 

Tai Chi, climbing, horse-riding, iceskating, 

couch to 5K 

Create “Me time” – set up a rota 

for chores at home so the burden 

is shared, go to bed half and hour 

earlier and read, invest in a cleaner, 

have a regular ‘date night’, switch 

off your mobile at a certain time and 

don’t look at it until the morning, give 

yourself a pamper night, have an 

occasional ‘duvet day’ 

Join a local friendship or other 

specialist interest group – e.g. 

volunteering, arts, history, First Aid, 

theatre group, bridge club 

Friends – make time to see your 

friends more often (you’ll probably 

find that they need to de-stress too) 

Work out what makes 

you stressed and put 

safeguards in place 

Identifying things that cause you stress 

can help because once you know what 

the problem truly is, you are well on your 

way to finding solutions. So be honest with 

yourself and go through the list below, 

giving yourself a stress score out of 10 for 

each category. 

Money 

Time management 

Logistics – things like transport and 

childcare which may be especially 

problematic at the moment with the 

current strikes 

Health worries 

Family worries 

Relationships (intimate, family, friends, 

work) 

Career 

You will not be able to tackle everything at 

once – indeed that is likely to lead to more 

stress. But by being honest with yourself, 

you can then start with the most important 

or most stressful ones and sort out these 

first. And if you need help – ask! It is 

better to go and see your GP at the first 

signs of stress, than to be taken to hospital 

in an ambulance later! 

Other techniques you 

could use 

STOP – an acronym for when things 

get overwhelming which stands 

for: S – stop; T – take a breathe, 

O – observe your body, mind and 

emotions for a few minutes, then P – 

proceed with what you were doing, 

but with the knowledge you have from 

your STOP technique 

Breathing – slow breath in through the 

nose and slow breath out though the 

mouth 

Yoga – breathing and movement 

Mindfulness – taking the time to 

observe yourself in the moment (a bit 

like STOP) 

Tapping – sometimes called Emotional 

Freedom Technique that has been 

proven to help anxiety and PTSD 

sufferers 

Guided meditations – search on 

YouTube 



How does self-esteem 

develop and how do we 

get that for our children? 

We would all love to think that we are 

caring for children in ways that help value 

and support their self-esteem. But how 

exactly can we be sure? You may have 

built a child’s self-confidence through 

opportunities to see how well they can do 

something. And you can get a good feel 

for how confident they are feeling through 

their words and actions. But building a 

faith or trust in themselves, their selfesteem, 

can be far trickier. 

A child’s self-esteem is all about the value 

they put on themselves; how good they 

judge themselves to be. It has links to 

their sense of satisfaction and happiness, 

as well as improvements in their mental 

health, their schoolwork and physical 

health. But whilst their outward displays of 

confidence may be high, their self-esteem 

may be anything but. 

When we judge anything as good, we are 

essentially assigning a value to it. What 

makes it good? What criteria are we rating 

it against? When it comes to a good choice 

for a morning snack, these criteria might 

be around healthy choices or something 

warm on a cold day. But when it comes to 

judging a person, where can you possibly 

start? And where are children taking their 

lead from? 

A study at the University of Denver 

proposed that self-esteem goes through 

different developmental stages. From 

the “look at me” stage when children 

are 2- to 4-years old, when it tends to be 

unrealistically high. To the “on my way” 

stage from age 5- to 7-years when they 

are beginning to see themselves as good 

at some things more than others. So, 

while your 3-year-olds may tell you they 

can beat you in a race or happily accept 

a challenge to build a tower to the moon, 

how these experiences are managed is 

heavily influencing the ways they value 

their abilities going forward. This is equally 

true of the conversations they hear around 

them and the messages they are being 

given. 

⭐ Do you offer praise when children sit 

quietly? 

⭐ When they wait patiently? 

⭐ Or when they can perform certain 

skills? 

The trouble with assigning value through 

these criteria is that they are fluctuating. 

They depend on the demands of the 

moment and the person asking them. And 

when you think about it, have little basis 

on the important qualities we may want 

for our children as they grow into capable, 

well-rounded adults. Maybe they are not 

sitting quietly because they have had a 

great thought that they need to share 

with you. Maybe they can’t wait patiently 

because their young bodies are desperate 

to get outside and run and jump. And 

don’t we want them to have a voice, an 

opinion and be excited to explore the 

world? 

Fluctuating ideas of what is right and 

good can cause many children to find 

their self-esteem dampened. Children are 

looking to connect with the people around 

them; to receive your acknowledgement, 

reassurance and acceptance. These 

positive human connections can be offered 

through a kind word, a smile or a nod of 

reassurance to let them know that they are 

doing okay and that they belong. This is 

a basic human need for all of us and one 

that is so powerful children will do almost 

anything to get it, which is why peer 

pressure is so powerful. 

Understanding a child’s needs in the 

moment can be tough when they are 

changing at a rapid rate. But when we fall 

into habits of noticing the children who 

need “bringing back into line” or praising 

those who meet today’s expectations, 

many children slip through the net. And 

with studies consistently showing that 

a child experiences all kinds of benefits 

when their self-esteem is boosted, this is 

something we need to be offering to all 

our children. 

So how do we go about doing this? 

While self-confidence is built through 

experience; the more opportunities a 

child has to practice, the more confident 

they can become. Self-esteem is more 

about who the child believes themselves 

to be. Children are frequently directed, 

in their actions, their location and their 

experiences. But as you go through the 

day, try to connect with them on their level 

as you listen with empathy and interest. Be 

careful of the language you use, mindful 

that your children are not tying their selfworth 

to narrow, unrealistic or fluctuating 

ideals that will ultimately harm their selfesteem 

when they need to feel unique, 

loved and valuable, just for being them. 

⭐ Take delight in them as they crave 

your attention and approval. And give 

it freely 

⭐ Be gentle with corrections as you 

redirect toward desired behaviours 

⭐ Support them to master new skills 

and be enthusiastic about their 

progress 

⭐ Help them resist automatically looking 

to others for approval, as they learn to 

value their own judgement 

⭐ Find something they genuinely 

care about and help them to see 

their strengths as well as areas of 

improvement 

⭐ Then help them realistically set goals 

and recognise their achievements 

⭐ Help them trust when they feel good 

about something, regardless of 

popular opinion 

Children will experience difficult times 

growing up – it is a part of the journey. But 

you have a unique opportunity while they 

are with you, to offer them a protective 

influence on these difficult times. When 

you actively see and hear a child, you 

are showing them they matter. Even if 

you cannot understand the magnitude of 

feelings they might be expressing. 

When you focus your comments on their 

behaviours which they can change, rather 

than assigning labels which they cannot, 

you avoid limiting their expectations, 

the belief they have in themselves and 

how they see their identity. All the while 

remembering that children need to be 

loved and valued exactly as they are, not 

how they could be. 

Next time, as we continue our reflections 

of “The Happy Child”, we will consider 

child anxiety and how you can support the 

children in your lives. But in the meantime, 

bring focus back to nurturing all of 

children’s growth and development with a 

Nurturing Childhoods Accreditation. 

Whether you are looking for a setting wide 

approach to reflective practice and active 

CPD or a more personalised approach 

with the Nurturing Childhoods Practitioner 

Accreditation, gain recognition for the 

nurturing practice you deliver. Through 12 

online sessions through the year join me 

and hundreds of nurturing practitioners as 

together we really begin developing the 

potential of all children in their early years. 

Kathryn Peckham 

As Founder of Nurturing Childhoods, 

Dr Kathryn Peckham is a passionate 

advocate for children’s access to rich and 

meaningful experiences throughout their 

foundational early years. Delivering online 

courses, training and seminars she 

works with families and settings to identify 

and celebrate the impact of effective 

childhood experiences as preparation for 

all of life’s learning. An active campaigner 

for children, she consults on projects, 

conducts research for government bodies 

and contributes to papers launched in 

parliament. Through her consultancy 

and research, she guides local councils, 

practitioners, teachers and parents all 

over the world in enhancing children’s 

experiences through the experiences 

they offer. A highly acclaimed author and 

member of parliamentary groups, Kathryn 

also teaches a Masters at the Centre for 

Research in Early Years. 

For more information and practical 

guidance on developing the features of 

lifelong learning, Kathryn has published 

a book: “Developing School Readiness, 

Creating Lifelong Learners”. 

Get in contact at www.kathrynpeckham. 

co.uk or email info@kathrynpeckham. 

co.uk. 



Organisational culture 

in nurseries: what is it 

and why does it matter? 

They say that culture eats strategy for 

breakfast. What this means is that 

without an intentional and strong culture 

in your nursery, it doesn’t matter what 

action plans you have in place – it 

will be impossible to implement the 

improvements and developments you 

want to see. 

So what exactly is culture, how does it 

work and why does it matter so much? 

In this series, we will be zooming in on 

organisational culture in the context of 

nurseries to understand more about how 

to make it work as a fundamental part of 

leadership. In this first article, we consider 

how to think about organisational culture 

in your nursery and the influence it has 

over all of the everyday interactions that 

make up the work of the nursery. 

What is organisational 

culture? 

We can define organisational culture as a 

set of values, practices and expectations 

that guide day-to-day practice at work. 

In the nursery, we can see culture in the 

way that everyone interacts with everyone 

else. Every interaction is an indicator of 

the culture of the organisation – whether it 

is an interaction between two educators, 

an educator and a child, two parents as 

they drop off their children, how managers 

speak to the employees of the nursery, 

how they pick up the phone and so on. 

Beyond interactions, we can see culture 

in the organisation and upkeep of the 

physical environment. Longer-term, 

culture will impact on the support that 

children and families feel and the progress 

that they can make in the learning 

environment. 

Why does culture matter? 

Any development that you want to see 

happening in the context of a nursery 

will depend on the culture of the nursery. 

You can think about culture as the grease 

around the levers. If organisational culture 

is stuck and people are resistant to 

change, improvements will be extremely 

difficult to make happen. It would be like 

struggling with a lever that has rusted 

over. 

If, on the other hand, the organisational 

culture is one that values continuous 

improvement, individual development 

and a collaborative approach, pulling 

on an improvement lever will be much 

more straightforward. This means that 

a fundamental part of leadership is 

about establishing and maintaining an 

organisational culture that constantly 

enables development, rather than just 

coming up with a stream of potential ideas 

for improvement. 

I recently spoke to a nursery manager who 

had been keen to shift how mealtimes 

were done in the baby room of their 

nursery. They wanted to move away from 

high chairs and instead introduce low 

tables and chairs, which enabled freer 

movement among the babies. They had 

been influenced by a piece they had read 

about the importance of independence 

and choice for baby room practice. One 

of the examples in the article they had 

read was this change in the equipment 

for mealtimes. In a team meeting with the 

baby room staff, the manager introduced 

the change that they wanted to make and 

explained that the new tables and chairs 

would be arriving in less than a week. 

What happened next was much more a 

consequence of the organisational culture 

than whether or not this particular change 

is good or bad. The baby room staff felt, 

understandably, that the abrupt change 

was a sign of how little their experience 

with the babies was appreciated. They 

could understand the rationale for 

increasing babies’ independence at 

mealtimes, but when the new tables and 

chairs arrived, they found the reality of 

each mealtime hugely frustrating. They 

struggled to help the babies to sit in the 

chairs for long enough to actually eat 

a decent amount and the noise of the 

babies pushing the chairs around was 

over-stimulating for everyone, babies 

and educators alike. Despite sharing their 

frustration with each other at the end of 

every lunch time, they did not feel able 

to express their concerns to the nursery 

manager who had been so determined to 

implement the change in the first place. 

This scenario is symptomatic of an 

organisational culture which is overly 

hierarchical, where everyday experiences 

are not adequately valued and where 

frustrations become a ripple of discontent 

through the organisation, rather than 

a starting point for positive change. If 

instead the organisational culture in this 

particular nursery had been one that 

prioritised collaborative reflection, the 

change would never have been introduced 

in the way that it was. If the staff had come 

together in a discussion about babies’ 

independence – and whether this was a 

value that they could develop further in 

their practice – the specific changes to 

mealtimes could have been decided and 

monitored by all and frustrations would 

have been an essential part of learning, 

rather than a demotivating force for the 

staff. 

The lesson here is that leaders’ good 

ideas are only good ideas if they are 

embedded in an organisational culture 

where everyone’s ideas and experiences 

are valued and where change is a process 

that all are a part of. 

Envisioning the 

organisational culture 

A leader’s first job is to foster a strong and 

powerful vision of what the organisational 

culture should be. It is not as simple 

as ‘good culture’ versus ‘bad culture’. 

A positive culture can look and feel 

different from one nursery to the next. The 

foundation for establishing a distinctive 

and effective culture in a nursery is to 

imagine what this culture will look like. 

It can be helpful to practise visualising the 

organisational culture you want to build in 

your nursery. As a starting point, you can 

close your eyes and imagine the following 

interactions. Once you have them in your 

mind, write down the key aspects of what 

you saw. 

✏ A team meeting 

✏ Parents on a show-around 

✏ Mealtimes 

✏ Staff saying goodbye to each other at 

the end of the day 

✏ Catch-ups between staff and parents 

at the beginning and end of the day 

✏ Children and educators interacting 

during free play 

✏ An appraisal of a staff member after 6 

months of being there 

What does imagining these interactions tell 

you about the organisational culture you 

want to create? What values, expectations 

and practices do you most want to 

prioritise in your nursery’s organisational 

culture? 

Mona Sakr 

Dr Mona Sakr is a Senior Lecturer in 

Education and Early Childhood. As a 

researcher in Early Years (EY) provision, 

she has published extensively on 

creative, digital and playful pedagogies 

including the books “Digital Play in 

Early Childhood: What’s the Problem?” 

(Sage) and “Creativity and Making in 

Early Childhood: Challenging Practitioner 

Perspectives” (Bloomsbury). 

Mona’s current research is an 

exploration of pedagogical, 

organisational and community 

leadership in EY and how leadership can 

be more effectively developed across 

EY. Current funded research includes a 

Nuffield Foundation project looking at 

online leadership development across 

the EY sector, a BELMAS project looking 

at leadership in the baby room of 

nurseries and a BERA project examining 

ethnicity in the early years workforce. 

Forthcoming books (include an 

introduction to social leadership in early 

childhood education and care (written 

with June O’Sullivan, CEO of London Early 

Years Foundation), and an edited volume 

on EY pedagogical leadership around 

the globe. 

Email: m.sakr@mdx.ac.uk 

Twitter: @DrMonaSakr 



International Day of 

Throughout history, the field of science, STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) and STEAM (plus arts) have been dominated 

by men and for years and women have been under-represented on university courses and in occupations not only in the UK but 

throughout the world. Now, whilst women in the UK (unlike some countries), can be grateful that they have a right to an education and 

we have laws preventing discrimination based on gender, it is still true that data from UCAS, HESA and WISE campaigns show that only 

35% of university science undergraduates are women. So there is still some way to go before women are fully represented in these 

professions. 

Number of women students in higher education in core STEM subjects (2017/18) 

COURSES 2017-2018 

Women and Girls 

PHYSICAL 

SCIENCES 

MATHEMATICAL 

SCIENCES 

COMPUTER 

SCIENCES 

ENGINEERING & 

TECHNOLOGY 

The United Nations have identified 

gender equality as goal number 5 in 

their Sustainable Development Goals, 

and in 2015, they adopted a resolution 

setting up the first International Day of 

Women and Girls in Science. On Friday, 

February 10th 2023, everyone is invited 

to the 8th International Day of Women & 

Girls in Science to celebrate the work and 

achievements of visionary and remarkable 

women across the globe and throughout 

history. 

There are four main agendas for the day: 

1. Be heard – people are encouraged 

to attend a free assembly discussing 

the issue at the UN Headquarters in 

New York, and whilst this may be a 

tall order for many, “never say never” 

is a good motto 

in Science 

19 

19 

39 

37 

% PERCENTAGE 

2. Pledge to equality – this is a call for 

businesses and related organisations 

to develop partnerships with the aim 

of empowering women and girls in 

science 

3. Join the global network – this 

strand aims to recognise the role 

of women in science as “agents of 

change in accelerating progress 

towards the sustainable development 

goals” 

4. Register events and activities – 

join in on Saturday February 11th to 

add your voice to the collective voice 

calling for equality in science 

The focus this year is on how women 

and girls in science can contribute to the 

61 

63 

81 

81 

Sustainable Development Goals, and 

there is a large focus on sustainability in 

industry, clean energy and clean water 

supplies. 

What does it all mean for 

early years settings? 

Whilst some of these goals and ambitions 

are very much routed in United Nations 

‘speak’, they are essentially asking for 

everyone to contribute what they can to 

help encourage more women and girls 

into science. And that can start in the 

early years with nurseries and settings 

lighting ‘fires of desire’ in young children to 

investigate the world around them, and to 

positively promote these aspects amongst 

girls. 

What can you do in your 

setting? 

This year, we have researched 3 women in 

science who have embodied, or currently 

embody the ideas being promoted that 

you can use as role models in your setting, 

telling their stories to the children and 

explaining how they have helped our 

world. 

We’ve also come up with a simple 

experiment that you can do with the 

children to spark their imaginations and 

get them to ask questions about the 

world and how it works. We hope you like 

the ideas we’ve suggested, but you can 

always think of your own ways to celebrate 

the day in your setting by researching 

women in science and scientific 

experiments for early years. 

Three amazing women in 

science 

1. Marie Curie (1867 – 1934) is one 

of only four people (and the only 

female) to have won a Nobel Prize 

twice; in 1903 for Physics for her 

work on isolating radium, and in 1911 

for Chemistry for work on a way of 

measuring radioactivity. She became 

a Professor at Sorbonne University 

in Paris, France and her work led to 

radiation therapy which is used today 

to help people with cancer. You can 

see a children’s version of her story on 

YouTube here. 

2. Helen Sharman (1963 - ) was 

the first British woman into space. 

She studied Chemistry at Sheffield 

University and later gain a PhD at 

Birkbeck. Her chemical expertise 

helped perfect ice cream bars for 

Mars Confectionery. She later heard 

a radio advert saying, “Astronaut 

wanted – no experience necessary” 

and after being one of 13,000 

applicants, she was chosen to be the 

first privately-funded British woman in 

space as part of Project Juno in May 

1991. She later published a children’s 

book called “The Space Place: Making 

Sense of Science” in 1993 which could 

be used in your storytime sessions. 

3. Alice Roberts (1973 -) is an English 

biological anthropologist, biologist, 

television presenter and author who 

is Professor of Public Engagement 

in Science at the University of 

Birmingham. She trained as a medical 

doctor and has taken her passion for 

science to the masses through TV and 

books, as a presenter on “Time Team” 

and “Coast” amongst others and has 

been involved in the Royal Institution 

Christmas Lectures and you can here 

her talk about women and girls in 

science here. 

We’ve focused on 3 amazing women, but 

there are many, many more you could talk 

about too. 

An easy science 

experiment to do with your 

children (girls AND boys) 

Melting ice 

What you will need:

EYFS activities: 

Communication 

and Language 

Listening bottles 

This is a popular use of sensory bottles to 

develop children’s early listening skills 

• Fill some small bottles or containers with 

different items, ensuring there are two 

bottles filled with the same contents for 

each item/s. You could use, rice, pasta, 

sand, water etc. 

• Cover the bottles so the contents aren’t 

visible. Then, shake the bottles, and ask 

the children to use their listening skills to 

identify which two bottles sound the same. 

• What do they think could be in the bottles? 

Image credit here. 

With spring just around the corner (the clocks go forward 

next month!) why not choose a selection of books 

about this wonderful season and all the new beginnings 

that come with it, focusing your activities around 

communication and language? 

‘Spring’ into reading! 

• Using picture books about spring e.g., 

“Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring” by Kenard 

Pak, introduce the idea of spring, and the 

changes it brings (days getting longer, 

spring bulbs starting to flower, animals 

creeping out of hibernation and the colour 

green spreading over the ground) 

• Encourage the children to look around for 

signs of spring outside in the garden at the 

setting, or in the park with their family and 

ask them to share what they see 

Circle time 

Dressing up time - A firm favourite with the children! 

• Let the children choose various items of 

clothing and toys from the dressing up box 

• Encourage roleplay and use effective 

questioning – letting them live their own 

story. Occasionally ask them questions such 

as, “what’s this?”, “what are you doing?” to 

encourage their communication 

• Above all, let their imaginations run wild! 

• Show the children pictures of animals that 

hibernate through the winter 

• Explain what each animal is and where it 

might be hibernating 

• Encourage the children to name the animal 

and describe it, how it looks, how they 

think it might feel and how big they think it 

might be 

You can find these and more activities at Early 

Years Educator here.

Valentine’s is the time 

for self-love 

Valentine’s is the time for romantics, but 

self-love comes first, and what is better 

than looking after your own heart? 

Make 2023 the start of a wonderful 

relationship with your own heart and help 

your little ones to begin theirs. The recent 

use of technology, that focuses on mental 

activities, has led to the reduction of 

physical activity. 

There is so much evidence that aerobic 

(raising your heart rate) fitness can help 

you stay happy and healthy. Isn’t that 

the ultimate in self-love? Don’t worry, you 

don’t need to carve extra time out of your 

already jam-packed day. 

The minute you roll out of bed, raring to 

go, your heart is already beginning to 

respond. Every time we move, our muscles 

force the heart to respond and deliver 

oxygen. 

It seems that everyone focuses on 

exercise to prevent obesity, but it does so 

much more. You are not only improving 

your physical fitness, as movement 

also benefits your mental health and 

well-being. Just think of all those happy 

hormones whizzing around the brain, 

giving you positivity, that then feeds down 

to your little ones. When we are fit and 

healthy, it makes things easier. The more 

we increase the efficiency of our muscles 

in using oxygen, means over time, we can 

move more easily and with less effort and 

not get so tired. 

It’s not just the exercise that will help your 

heart but making healthier and better 

choices with food too. 

Helpful hint… Don’t overdo it when you 

start, as you may not be able to maintain 

it. It’s about creating good habits for you 

and your little ones. These good habits will 

have a huge impact on their outlook on 

life, relationship with their body, food, and 

long-term health. 


There are so many resources out there to 

help you and your little ones get active. We 

are all guilty of this going to the bottom of 

the list when we have so much to do and 

fit in our day. 

The key to success is… 

Make movement fun for everyone and 

weave it throughout your day. The aim is 

for it to become part and parcel of your 

normal day. If it’s fun, you won’t notice 

that you are, in fact, exercising! Those 

seconds will turn into minutes and before 

you know it, your goal will be reached. 

Even your babies will be joining you as you 

encourage them to be active. Grasping, 

pushing, pulling and tummy time activities 

are the perfect way to engage with them 

and keep them active. You can join in 

tummy time as well, by using it to practise 

your cobra pose. 

Ultimately, we want you and your little 

ones to huff and puff. This shows you 

are all pushing yourselves physically. 

Improving cardiovascular fitness does take 

a bit of effort but if you are consistent and 

build activities into your day, you will see 

so many benefits. This is done through 

active play such as hide and seek, running 

around, dancing, swimming, ball games 

and climbing over and under things. 

There are so many ways of increasing their 

activity ranging from messy play to ball 

games. 

Don’t forget you need to join in as well and 

not sit out on the side lines as you are their 

greatest role model. 

Make 2023 your year of activity, fun and 

imagination and show them how to take 

care of, and love their own hearts. 

A little bit of Valentine’s 

fun 

Activity 1: Find the hearts 

❤ Set up an activity area for the children 

to make lots of hearts 

❤ Hide hearts around your setting and/ 

or outside space 

❤ The children then must find as many 

hearts as they can 

❤ For older children or adults, make it 

time sensitive 

❤ Adapt as appropriate for your little 

ones 

Did you know…. 

Physical activity grows the brain through 

the Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor 

(BDNF) release which stimulates the 

growth of new neurons. You are literally 

growing the brain through movement 

and physical activity. 

Activity 2: Scavenger hunt 

❤ Create a Valentine-themed scavenger 

hunt 

❤ For example, find something red, 

heart-shaped etc 


ones 

Activity 3: Lava and hearts 

❤ Create some hearts that are big 

enough for your little ones to be able 

to place a foot on 

❤ Spread the hearts evenly across the 

floor. Check you can make it across 

the floor on the hearts as you don’t 

want it to be too tricky to start with 

❤ The floor has turned to lava and the 

only way across is to step (or crawl) 

on the hearts 

❤ You can then progress by moving the 

hearts further apart and then adding 

jumping and leaping 

Activity 4: Heart twister 

❤ Place different coloured or numbered 

hearts on the floor 

❤ Play Twister using the hearts either by 

colour or number 


ones 

Gina Bale 

Gina’s background was originally 

ballet, but she has spent the last 27 

years teaching movement and dance 

in mainstream, early years and SEND 

settings as well as dance schools. 

Whilst teaching, Gina found the time to 

create the ‘Hi-5’ dance programme to 

run alongside the Australian Children’s 

TV series and the Angelina Ballerina 

Dance Academy for Hit Entertainment. 

Her proudest achievement to date is her 

baby Littlemagictrain. She created this 

specifically to help children learn through 

make-believe, music and movement. 

One of the highlights has been seeing 

Littlemagictrain delivered by Butlin’s 

famous Redcoats with the gorgeous 

‘Bonnie Bear’ on the Skyline stage. 

Gina has qualifications of teaching 

movement and dance from the Royal 

Ballet School, Trinity College and Royal 

Academy of Dance. 

A little something to think 

about…… 

The neuroselection hypothesis paper “Early 

life cognitive function and health behaviours 

in late childhood: testing the neuroselection 

hypothesis” from the BMJ, suggests that 

higher cognitive skills in early life (3-7) is 

associated with the avoidance of hazardous 

behaviours (smoking and alcohol) but also the 

avoidance of sport and exercise. 

“How Lifestyle Factors Affect Cognitive and 

Executive Function and the Ability to Learn in 

Children” discusses lifestyle and its impact 

on Cognitive and Executive function. In their 

research on movement and physical activity, 

the researchers have seen that there are 

several changes in the volume of brain 

structure and that movement could enhance 

cognition and learning in children.

Testimonials 

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Brishing Barn 

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Old MacDonalds 

Congratulations 

to all our Parenta learners! 

Congratulations to all our Parenta learners who completed their apprenticeship 

and have now gained their qualifications. 

These range from Childcare Level 2, Childcare Level 3 and Team Leading 

to Level 3 and Level 5 Management – that’s a huge achievement in the 

current climate. 

All that hard work has paid off – well done from all of us here at Parenta Training! 

Did you know?... Parenta has trained over 20,000 apprentices within the early years sector! 

Our Level 3 success rate overall is almost 10% higher than the national average. 

That’s down to great work from you, our lovely Parenta learners! 

If you have a learner with us who has recently completed their apprenticeship, please send in 

a picture to hello@parenta.com to be included in the magazine. 



Transform your childcare business, reach your local community and 

increase your occupancy with our Ofsted targeted websites. 

We can set up your social media accounts and 

get you started with your first posts. 

Get Our FREE Social Media guides with every package 

The Parenta website 

team is amazing. The email response 

time is always extremely 

quick and efficient, as are the requests 

for alterations & amendments. I 

cannot fault Samantha and her team. 

Diane Crew 

Tiddlers Nursery Ltd 

We know what your childcare website needs and we’ll build it right. With high-powered features 

to meet the specific needs of your childcare setting, we can build you a website that is truly 

unique. Call our friendly team on 0800 002 9242 or drop us a line at hello@parenta.com

February 2023 Parenta magazine

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