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Assessment in the early years

In the second CPD event, our aim was to provide space for professional dialogue about current issues in early years and to provide professional development inputs about specific areas of child development. The event started with small group discussions about current priorities for assessment and identifying potential professional development activities for future . The second aspect focused on primitive reflexes and was led by Sally Pearse.  There were some fascinating insights into these reflexes role in gross motor development. The event finished with updates relating to EY in general and issues around assessment.  The participants requested for an opportunity for a face to face hands on professional development day for the next event. We would like to invite you to the first early years CPD event of what will be a programme of events across 2021/22. We realise that the last twelve months have been one of unprecedented work and pressure due to the pandemic and we have also had to contend with policy and practice changes and difficulties with recruitment and retention. To provide support the CPD programme we are developing will be shaped by you and your concerns and we hope will provide a space to network and have professional discussions. This means the events will look different with short inputs from a variety of people but with time to talk as well. We do have an overarching theme for the CPD series initially which is assessment processes as this is an aspect of change and priority in the EYFS. At this first session we would also like to hear your views about future CPD events on this issue and others. The session format will be as follows: 5:00 – 5:15 Welcome: Fufy Demissie 5:15 – 5:45 Small group discussions: sharing your current priorities for assessment and identifying potential professional development activities for future CPD events: Fufy Demissie 5: 45 – 6:00 An input on child development theory related to practice ‘What are retained primitive reflexes and why do we need to know about them? Sally Pearse 6:00 – 6:15 Updates relating to EY in general and issues around assessment. Rachel Summerscales

Early language and development

The first EYCRC CPD event took place on June 22nd , 5 – 6:30pm. The focus was on approaches that support young children’s language and thinking as this focus forms the bedrock for children’s learning and development across all areas of learning.

The first part of the event was led by Dulcie Norton-Smith who is an early years teacher from Cumbria.  In this fascinating talk, Dulcie shared the the strategies she uses to develop young children thinking based on her book :  ‘Beautiful Thinking: A Philosophical Approach to Parenting and Teaching From Birth to Five – Metacognition in the Early Years

In the second part of the session Suzi Flinders, an early years practitioner from Grace Owen nursery school in Sheffield shared their experiences of taking part in the TWiTCH (Thinking with Tales for Children) project and the impact this approach has had on the children’s language development.

Overall the session was very positively received, with comments such as the following:

“Thought provoking, really want to think how this could refresh of our family support/children’s centres”

“it really has been a challenging my mind thinking session”

“That was really interesting and inspiring, thank you! Will be feeding back to our team and look at implementing some of these ideas into our practice.”