The outdoor area is now an integral part of many early years settings and schools, but is it being used to its full potential? This book clearly explains the learning potential of the outdoor environment and practically demonstrates how the "Outdoor Classroom" can be developed in early years settings and schools. Drawing on the Forest…

There is a limited literature on pre-school children's experiences with "digital technologies" at home and little discussion of the ways in which children harness these technologies for their own purposes. This paper discusses findings drawn from three studies that investigated the role of "domestic technologies" and…

Understanding how we can support children through their learning life course has become a policy imperative, particularly those children from poor homes who would normally be facing a low achiever trajectory. The paper reports on 50 in-depth Child and Family Case Studies (CFCS) that were conducted as part of the Effective Provision of Pre-School,…

The most rapid and significant phase of development occurs in the first three years of a child's life. The "Supporting Children from Birth to Three" series focuses on the care and support of the youngest children. Each book takes a key aspect of working with this age group and gives clear and detailed explanations of relevant theories…

"Understanding the Danish Forest School Approach" is a much needed source of information for those wishing to extend and consolidate their understanding of the Forest School Approach in Denmark and how it is used in the teaching and learning of young children. It will enable the reader to analyse the essential elements of this Approach…

As our world becomes increasingly diverse and technologically-driven, the role and identities of teachers continues to change. "Cases on Teacher Identity, Diversity, and Cognition in Higher Education" seeks to address this change and provide an accurate depiction of the teaching profession today. This thought-provoking collection of…

The introduction of the Foundation Stage and its associated legislation has constituted a radical innovation that is transforming early childhood education. In this paper we show how the Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) research programme continues to contribute towards achieving these improvements in practice. In focusing upon…

This book makes explicit connections between young children's spontaneous repeated actions and their representations of their emotional worlds. Drawing on the literature on schemas, attachment theory and family contexts, the author takes schema theory into the territory of the emotions, making it relevant to the social and emotional development…

This study explores preschoolers' real life engagement with music in everyday life, examining the choices that they have over music listening and the engagement that they show in relation to music in different contexts. A total of 32 children from the United Kingdom aged 3.2-3.9 years participated with their families, nursery teachers and other…

Communities in the UK are seeing a sustained shift in the balance of care of babies and the youngest children from families to nurseries, with a particular emphasis being placed on early learning. Yet a basic question of whether nurseries should be modelled on the intimacy and spontaneity of family interactions or the more professional and planned…

In this article, we explore distinctions between creative practice and a practice which fosters creativity, drawing on case study data from an English nursery and a first school. We suggest that, in practice, these distinctions are very blurred.

This article describes a change initiative which began in 2002: "Woolwich Reach and Plumstead Pathfinder Action Zones" (WRaPP). WRaPP has involved 17 primary, secondary and nursery schools in a deprived part of Greenwich, South London, and although nationally funded (through the UK Government's Education Action Zones), it has been…