Welcome to Inspirational Insights - The monthly modicum of meanderings from MBK Training. GDPR & the EYFS Of the many questions being asked about the GDPR changes, a couple stuck out to me: Can we have children's names on the wall with their artwork? Can we have information about children (such as an allergy) on display for staff? These questions are interesting, they err on the side of ridiculous - should we meet GDPR while … [Read more...]
STEM at Madresfield Early Years Centre
May 24, 2018 by Leave a Comment
I promised that in my next blog (here and then here for the previous two) I would start to give some suggestions of how I would incorporate STEM subjects into Early Years. I've not quite finished that off yet, and something exciting came along that makes an exciting interlude. I was lucky enough to be invited to speak (about STEM of course!) at Madresfield Early Years Centre during their special event to celebrate 25 years of being open on … [Read more...]
STEM – Why is it important in Early Years?
May 3, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Not that long ago, I wrote a brief blog explaining what STEM meant, you can find it here. Today I'm going to list the reasons why I think it is an important area to work on in Early Years. I'm going to make a special effort not to waffle on for ages, so I'm going to keep it to shortish bullet points! STEM subjects are criminally under represented in the EYFS. For subjects that give children a greater understanding of the world around … [Read more...]
Inspirational Insights 37th Edition
April 23, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Welcome to Inspirational Insights - The monthly modicum of meanderings from MBK Training. We find it hard to deal with change, like most people we presume, so when they changed the size and price of soft drinks, we had a good moan in the office. The sugar tax may be used to add £26 million to support breakfast clubs though, so that's something! But maybe some things should change; NCTs (SATs) in KS1 for example, or the amount of … [Read more...]
STEM – What’s it all about?
April 18, 2018 by Leave a Comment
I've been very excited recently as something important to me has started turning up in Early Years. And by turning up, I mean I have started to see the term used in Ofsted reports and Early Years publications. So what is it? (You should be able to guess from the blog title!) STEM in Early Years Settings STEM is simply an abbreviation for four subjects; Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. It's a term that has been used in schools for … [Read more...]
Blended Learning in Paediatric First Aid
April 5, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Update: 24th April 2018 Since we wrote and published this blog, the HSE have changed the document that is referenced in the EYFS. The new document states that blended learning is an accepted method of training for workplace first aid. You can view the new version on the same link below, or here. Point 24 is the one of interest. This is obviously a fundamental change to their policy, and one that may cause us to change our position on … [Read more...]
Inspirational Insights 36th Edition
March 19, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Welcome to Inspirational Insights - The monthly modicum of meanderings from MBK Training. Something we haven't talked much about in Inspirational Insights before, is just how hard it is to find staff at the moment! A recent survey by the NDNA shows that there are almost 20% less L3 qualified staff than there were in 2015. And with the 30 hours 'free childcare', nurseries are as poor as ever so this doesn't look set to … [Read more...]
Inspirational Insights 35th Edition
February 13, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Welcome to Inspirational Insights - The monthly modicum of meanderings from MBK Training. As is becoming the custom, after the second half of 2017, not a great deal has happened in the News. We had a reshuffle of the government, naming Damian Hinds (pictured) as the new Education Secretary. We will keep you informed how that works out! Without much news, we spent our time (or rather Matt spent his) writing about the key topics that … [Read more...]
Supervisions – What’s in them? Part 4
February 5, 2018 by Leave a Comment
So we are already on to the 4th and final part of our series of blogs about the content that we believe should be included in a supervision, you can find the previous articles here, here and here. If you have read the previous posts, then jump right in below, but if this is your first one, then here is what you have missed... Including moderation allows you to make sure that staff are all looking for the same things and that children continue … [Read more...]
Supervisions – What’s in them? Part 3
January 15, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Last year (Happy New Year everyone), I started a series of articles about the different subjects that should be covered during a supervision, you can find the previous articles here and here. Information about what should be included in a supervision doesn't seem to be forthcoming from any of the usual sources, and that means settings are all doing it a bit differently. We thought it was about time to get some alignment. This time, I will be … [Read more...]
