The magic of childhood as an effective learning tool

A Play Chat With...

8/7/2018

It's always good to talk and it's even better to talk to others who get 'you' and understand that play is such an important key to effective child development. So imagine my surprise when the fab Vanessa Dooley from Jigsaw Early Years Consultancy invited me to share my thoughts on the reasons behind my passion and my approach to Early Years.

The recording of our discussion is below and I hope it inspires you to reflect on your own personal 'why'. I also hope you enjoy the moment where we compare sheds and muse over the word 'mizzling'...

Vanessa Dooley link

8/22/2018 09:43:49 pm

It was a delight to chat in the shack
😀

Debbie Thornton

8/23/2018 12:05:30 am

Great to listen to, thank you. Inspiring and so reassuring to share the passion and absolutely agree with seeing the magic in children. Sadly, I can see so many people working in education who just don't see it! Thank goodness for social media forums to find others with 'fire in their belly' to strive to spread the word of the importance of play. Brilliant!

P.s. I reckon the Cornish came up with the word MIZZLE first...😉

Paula

8/23/2018 08:54:09 am

Amazingly inspiring, so much resonates as true, find it so frustrating from my experience as an Early Years Practitioner that young people (and some older people )without 'the passion ' are still being channeled into childcare as 'an easy option'! How can they inspire and enthuse 'our' children if they don't feel that passion and the value of 'play'.

Paula J

1/30/2019 11:41:51 am

I went into Headship to bring about playful learning for our children not because I wanted to come out of an EYFS & KS1 classroom, far from it. I was frustrated as a teacher being told what wholeschool topic my Reception pupils must do every term or being asked what's the learning when I was in the middle of a wonderful story cafe with my parents. I remember once when SLT were completing a learning walk I was asked for the children's history books, they were Reception! This was only 5 years ago! So I thought if I want to be in the right school for me and my teaching philosophy, I need to go and create it for myself. so I made the jump. It has been wonderful bringing about spontaneous planning, continuous provision, enrichment, playful learning, reading roleplay areas etc beyond the Reception class - into all year groups to Year 6. My stumbling block was the other way round, trying to educate teachers to embrace this philosophy. Getting teachers away from rigid formal classrooms where worksheets were the daily diet for example. I would think. I would have loved to have a Headteacher encourage me to embrace the joyfulness of EYFS into KS2. Interestingly, I know many of these teachers are ones that step up into SLT roles. So the battle commences, I'm still in the same situation but the role has flipped. I have left my school in a good place this but I needed a change of context, so am looking to seek another school to lead so that I can start again with and if you are reading this Norfolk Teachers and agree, please join me so I can build the best team ever to teach our children. As Greg says: Be the change that you want to see.
Thank you for your wonderful book Greg just the reading I needed at this transitional point in my life o get me back on track.

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