Blog

Reflection is a huge part of Early Years practice – from

the beginning of our training journey we are encouraged

to evolve and develop our own professional identity, by

exploring practice, making mistakes, and learning how to

be more effective in our roles. This principle is something

that truly is at the heart of the Lullabies ethos, and we

have recently embarked on our own journey as a team.

Lullabies Nursery and Pre-School opened in 2016, in the

centre of Glenfield, Leicestershire. The old Georgian

building lends itself perfectly to a nursery environment and

we worked hard to keep some of the original features to

stay true to the character of the building. We have four

classrooms across two floors as well as 3 outdoor areas for

the children to access, including a forest school. As the

nursery enters its third year our nursery Proprietor, Emma

Platnauer and nursery Manager, Chelsie Shaw, were keen

to reflect on the nursery’s journey so far, and our vision for

the fut...

Well hello there!

Many of you were be thinking about going back to work and how you can effectively support the transition into the school or setting for new children. So in this weeks blog I'm going to give you three ideas to try.

1. Create a Sense of Belonging

Here one of my fabulous members of the Hygge in Early Years Accreditation has reflected on ways she can create that sense of belonging during self registration. Look at these individual peg dolls that can be moved to show "I'm here!"

2. Why not recommend to parents reading this wonderful book 'A Kissing Hand for Chester Raccoon.' This is a beautiful story that's sure to help with separation anxiety. Can't wait to get your hands on the book? Head to this You Tube link (Turn the volume on mute) and read the book together. 

3. Ask your children to bring in a family photo or drawing that you can display in a frame or on the wall.

4. Why not record a video of you and your team telling the children how excited you are to se...

This week we have the fabulous Hollie (also known as Bags of Beans!) who will be giving us a wonderful insight into how she's created calm in her year 1 classroom. I'm sure you will see that there are many hygge elements to this as well!

My obsession with classroom environments began when I first visited St John’s C of E Primary School. From the moment I walked in I was struck by the calm atmosphere and serenity it brought to their children. My colleague and I whispered to each other is disbelief “it’s just so calm”. Upon walking back into my own classroom I was smacked in the face with bright colours and loud noises! Everything felt over stimulating and busy by comparison; as if there were balls of high energy bouncing around the walls! From then onwards I was hooked into finding ways of calming my classroom and moulding the environment to generate the same serene feeling I’d experienced at St John’s.

I began with the lights! First of all, I wanted to reduce the lighti...

I feel very fortunate to do the job that I do; work with a range of early educators and support them in their reflections to move practice forward. It’s great to see the transformation a setting has had after working so hard on areas of their practice.

Today I had the chance to visit one of the wonderful local nurseries I’ve been working with for the last year. This was a chance to hear and see the progress they’ve made in not only their ethos but how this has translated into their learning environment.

Emma is an inspirational leader who also leads with a love-based leadership style. Making sure she invests time in getting to know each member of her team and giving them opportunities to lead in areas that are their strength. At the same time, she also understands the importance of supporting staff and has a clear system in place for professional development. Over the last year the team have worked hard on creating a shared and consistent ethos across the three rooms of th...

Developing Cultural Capital in the Early Years

We are incredibly lucky to have a guest blog this week from Chloe Grey (AKA Miss Grey and Play).

Chloe studied her early years PGCE in Leeds and has since taught in Reception, Year 1 and Nursery in a range of schools. She has also worked as a nanny and spent time in schools in Australia and New Zealand including Montessori Settings. Chloe is currently studying for my Masters in Education and teaching in a school Nursery.

What is cultural capital?

Cultural capital is a term coined by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. He discussed ‘field’ as being like the cultural environment and ‘habitus’ as being the skills and attributes we possess relating to these cultural norms and values. This has been applied to education with the idea that some children would have had more culturally diverse experiences that may put them at an advantage. Ofsted have used the term in the new inspection framework e.g.“Cultural capital is the essential knowled...

We are so incredibly lucky this week to be joined by the highly creative Zoë a Reception Lead Teacher. We are going to be looking at how we can resource to create curiosity, intrigue and excitement and then use this as a hook to deepen levels of learning. 

Finding the perfect items to enhance my Reception setting has been a labour of love and turned into a real passion and perhaps a little bit of an obsession! I scour the second hand venues and sales, charity shops, local selling pages and car boot sales as well as eBay, Wish, Amazon. Wherever I am I consider how I can use these items to enhance my provision; to bring an element of wonder,  to create an aspect of curiosity that goes beyond picking something up for the first time. This intrigue will fuel imagination,  invite a friend along for the journey,  transform into something completely new or take them to a once uninhabited place. Sometimes it is an unbelievable bargain that cannot be passed up on. I think I have a collecto...

I'm blown away with how many of you have got in touch over the last week to share some of your photos of how you've made changes to you setting after taking part in my Hygge in Early Years Accreditation or after reading my book. 

We will be covering some of the fabulous transformations over the next few months on our blog but also in our new magazine Hygge in the Early Years.

Here is a little preview of how Daisy Chain nursery have added foliage to their sand area and made it feel more inviting....

Chloe and Bridgit at Pebbles Childcare have also made some changes to their provision....

Before

After

Grass Roots Day Nursery have been tuning into opportunities to ignite all of the senses...a key feature of hygge...