The Foundation Stage Forum Community
Welcome to the FSF – a community for early years professionals. Engage in conversations, offer and receive advice and support, make connections. Discover our library of education articles and podcast episodes to enhance your reflective practice. Working together to achieve high-quality early childhood education.
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Creative Diaries: Clay Work in the Early Years
by Ruksana Mohammed
“Only through the arts and by being creative can children explore the inner world of their imagination and feeling – the world that is uniquely them”.
Sir Ken Robinson, Patron of Earlyarts.
‘One day a grandma was a parent helper teaching in one ar…
Podcast: Exploring contemporary digital childhood and children’s play
Jules and Stephen chat with Dr Yinka Olusoga about children’s digital literacies, how children’s play is evolving, and how we can shift our mindset to recognise and participate in their digital and post-digital play.
View the full article
What does it mean to be antiracist? Education and racial literacy cons…
Education and racial literacy consultant, and former headteacher Orlene Badu explains that we need to focus on our own antiracist journey in order to be able to model how to challenging and disrupt racism to our children.
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What is the Archetype Approach?
You're very welcome! For those FSF members who didn't find themselves at the recent Cornish Early Years conference and therefore didn't hear Olli on a panel discussing what school readiness could/should mean, you can soon listen to the podcast recording from The Voice of Early Childhood. -
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What are you seeing?
One of the simplest ideas within The Archetype Approach is to create a little more space between what happened and what we decide it means. -
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What is the Archetype Approach?
I first came across Oliver Riddett's posts on Instagram and I was struck with how refreshing his approach is to understanding and supporting children's learning. Based on Jungian Theory (about which I know nothing!) I started to learn about different ways of observing, appreciating, and responding to children's patterns of behaviour, that Oliver's materials were describing. I bought his book- available here: https://www.archetype-approach.co.uk/product-page/the-archetype-approach-paperback and I find myself often referring to it when thinking about and reflecting on children (and adults, if I'm honest). I got in touch with Olli, found out more about the approach, visited his setting in Cornwall and we recorded a podcast for Tapestry, available here: I'm still learning and this will no doubt continue- it's not a quick fix to managing children's behaviour but a gentle, insightful, new way of seeing each child as a whole being. Oliver's own words in the book's first chapter: 'In most educational settings, performance has become the lens through which children are seen and valued. Whether it's through termly assessments, observations written for data purposes, or informal praise for finished work- adults are often trained to evaluate, not witness. But something is lost when we focus on what a child can show rather than how they show up. We lose their rhythm. We lose their intention. We lose the chance to meet them where they truly are. Children are not meant to be assessed for output. They are meant to be understood in process. Learning is not a product-it is a living, relational act.' I'm excited at this new way of supporting children and it hasn't come a moment too soon! The sector, and most of all our youngest children, really need this.
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