TEY 13.2

CPD BOOKSHELF THREE READS THAT WILL IMPROVE YOUR PRACTICE… 100 Forest School Activities (Button Books, £14.99) The Inclusive Early Years Educator (Routledge, £17.99) 50 Fantastic Ideas for Co-regulation (Bloomsbury Education, £9.09) From den-building and fire-lighting to measuring sticks, camouflage capes and story stones, this large-format paperback is packed with lively ideas for creative challenges and controlled risk- taking in a natural environment. The authors are experienced leaders specialising in bushcraft and Stone Age skills, and every page reflects their knowledge, commitment and enthusiasm. Visit buttonbooks.co.uk Subtitled A Reflective Toolkit , this is an incredibly powerful book, which will be most effective when the reader truly engages with the questions it poses – thinking deeply about aspects of their practice they may never have previously considered, and asking themselves what a genuinely inclusive setting really looks like for children with learning differences and disabilities. Visit routledge.com Part of a series of books edited by Alistair Bryce-Clegg, and written by Kerry Murphy, this dip-in-and-out guide will help early years practitioners provide the strongest foundations for children and to give them the best emotional start in life. It offers meaningful and inclusive ideas for co-regulation that can be embedded into everyday practice and used for a broad range of emotional needs, without being tokenistic. Visit .bloomsbury.com NURSERY MANAGEMENT to account, challenge it, and ask lots of “why” questions. If your answers include “because we have always done it like that”, then be open to think again. If you are a reluctant planner, or it feels overwhelming, get help from a trusted and skilled supporter. POSSIBILITIES All of this work will put you in a far better position to consider, with an open mind, the possibilities, opportunities, and risks for your setting. Write a long list – you don’t have to do everything; you can create a shortlist later. ACTION PLAN All that exploration and identifying the possibilities now informs your action plan. Set out what you are able to do in the short to medium terms and what you need help with. Make sure you include the groundwork for all the longer-term actions as well as the easier things to do. They will bear fruit later. REVENUE With new sources of government funding as income, settings know that this will either add to the existing income streams or replace some of those that may have been chargeable to parents before. This all needs thinking through for financial sustainability and strength, charging policies, and for contractual compliance with local authorities. Families appear more motivated to engage with Tax-Free Childcare than before, so this would be an excellent time to reinvigorate your strategy around all of that as an important source of additional funding for you and families. EXECUTE Finally, this is about delivery of your plan and making the changes needed to adapt and respond to the changing environment, families’ needs and demands, and new financial models. Keep on top of it, keep it under regular review, celebrate the things that are working, and revisit the things that aren’t. For more information, visit coramhempsalls.org.uk. You can find out more about the PREPARE model on the Childcare Works HUB: childcareworks.org.uk 85K Extra places needed to deliver the September 2025 rollout SOURCE: NDNA Teachearlyyears.com 65