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Posted by
Kathy Brodie on October 8, 2015.
I’m beginning to wonder if the government has forgotten the original purpose of schools.
First schools were able (expected?) to offer care and education for two year olds onwards to tackle the childcare ‘crisis’ (one news report here) so parents could leave toddlers during the ‘working day’.
Now comes the latest news from Nicky Morgan, who would like schools to offer wraparound care to cover a ‘working day’ (news report here). There have been doubts expressed by the Head Teachers Association (NAHT) whether or not this could even work, due to staffing and individual circumstances of schools.
I did think the original purpose of schools was for the education and care for children – not as somewhere to place children so parents could go to work.
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Posted byKathy Brodie on August 28, 2015.
This week my subscriber list broke through the one thousand mark, which made me sit back and reflect for a moment.
That’s an awful lot of people!
When subscribers sign up, I send them an email, just asking for their most pressing issues and finding out a bit about their concerns and achievements. I will admit at this point that I was a bit dubious about this bit (my husband talked me round though).
What if I was deluged with comments? What if no-one at all replied? What about questions I couldn’t answer?
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Posted byKathy Brodie on July 27, 2015.
When my son was only four, almost five, we saw a shrub full of spiders webs.
It had been raining the night before and every tiny web glistened with bright drops of rain. He was fascinated with this and we stopped for a long time, amazed at the different shapes and patterns that the webs made. We were a little late for registration at school, but it really didn’t matter – he still remembers that day and occasionally he will comment on it if we walk up that stretch of road.
This morning I spotted a spiders web on the fence that reminded me of that encounter and I had to smile.
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Posted byKathy Brodie on July 1, 2015.
I stumbled across the House of Lords TV feed totally by accident (via Twitter – the power of having social media!). It is a fascinating process to watch and listen to – and very, very encouraging.
The first debate I watched was on the 16th June, which was the second reading of the Childcare Bill (see link below). Lord Nash (the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education) opened up the debate with the Government’s party line, with nothing new or surprising. For example, how a ‘balance’ has to be struck when setting the hourly rate – between fair for providers and ‘value for money for the taxpayer’, how the increase in number of practitioners with NVQ3 will raise quality in settings and how the sector is ‘vibrant’ and growing.
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Posted byKathy Brodie on June 25, 2015.
I am incredibly delighted and excited to have as my guest blogger this week Rebecca McIntosh, from Brisbane, Australia. We started comparing notes about childcare in England and Australia some time ago – and found some fascinating differences as well as some similarities.
Here Rebecca gives us a history of Australian childcare. It is a surprising story I was totally unaware of and really shows how much childcare philosophy varies around the globe. It is well worth a read and a BIG thank you to Rebecca for sharing this history with us.
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Posted byKathy Brodie on May 7, 2015.
I was out with my husband, having coffee, and when we got to the till, there was a little sign. It said “which do you prefer? Girl or boy?” and an arrow from each pointing to two tip jars. For some reason, this really niggled me. Tips according to your gender? Really?
When we sat down with our drinks, I mentioned this to my husband, who said it was a marketing approach. Apparently people will give more often if posed a forced question, presumably because you have to engage with the idea of giving a tip if you think about the question.
However, this simply doesn’t work for me. I will tip according to the level of service I receive, from male or female. If the waiting staff tip a large glass of white wine all over me and into my handbag (and I wasn’t even drinking that night!) but then doesn’t offer even a free coffee as compensation, then there will be no tip.
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Posted byKathy Brodie on December 5, 2014.
It’s been a funny week.
First my youngest son fractured his finger (rugby!) on his writing hand, just before his mock GCSEs start. So we’ve had various A&E, fracture clinic and physiotherapy appointments.
Then my husband’s cough started to sound quite worrying and after a doctor’s assessment we ended up at an emergency clinic at short notice.
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Posted byKathy Brodie on October 23, 2014.
Simona McKenzie has posed another interesting question for me: “What should good documentation contain as a summary of children’s learning, that is focussed and shows exactly what the learning journey a child has taken?”
My first thought was that there are certain statutory, legal requirements that all childcare professionals need to fulfil. Namely:
The Department for Education’s Statutory Framework (DfE, 2014: 13) calls for on-going (or formative) assessments based on day-to-day observations of the children, without ‘excessive paperwork’ that is ‘limited to that which is absolutely necessary’. This is incredibly vague and open to interpretation, both by practitioners and Ofsted.
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Kathy Brodie on October 8, 2015.
