Magazine September 2018

Issue 46 

SEPTEMBER 2018 

INDUSTRY 

EXPERTS 

Outdoor play 

and children’s 

mental health 

The unexpected truth 

about colour and 

number recognition 

A sensory look at 

the fussy eater 

+ lots more 

Write for us 

for a chance to 

WIN 

£50 

p 34 

TALE TRAILS 

A creative take on storytelling that encourages children to 

use their imagination and extend their vocabulary 

WIN A 1000 PIECE CRAFT HAMPER! SEE p29 FOR DETAILS

hello 

WELCOME TO OUR FAMILY 

Hello and welcome to the September edition of the Parenta magazine! 

It seems the honeymoon period for the 30 hours has come to an end for parents, as the NDNA have 

received reports from settings that parents are increasingly unwilling to pay additional charges to access 

the flagship scheme. One year on from its introduction, settings still have a lot of work to do to ensure 

that parents understand that the 30 hours are ‘funded’ rather than ‘free’ as advertised by the Government. 

Read more about this on page 5. 

On a lighter note, in this month’s magazine, we’ve brought you some top tips from Tamsin Grimmer to breathe life into 

story walks. We’ve also featured an article from Helen Garnett which may make you think twice about the method you use to 

teach numbers and colours to your children! 

How would you like to be in with a chance to win an incredible 1000-piece craft hamper for your setting? We’re running a 

spooktacular Halloween-themed competition for you to bag this one-of-a-kind prize – full details on how you can enter are on 

page 29. 

Talking of winners, congratulations to Joanna Grace whose article on messy play received the highest number of views for July. 

She received a £50 voucher as her prize! If you’d like to share your thoughts with us on a topic relevant to Early Years, we’d love 

to feature your article in the next edition of the magazine. 

This month we’ve also created a sensory bin for you to try, themed on the popular children’s book “We’re Going on a Bear 

Hunt” on page 12. Why not have a go at making this and tag @TheParentaGroup on social media to show us your sensory 

masterpiece? 

SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE 46 

IN THIS EDITION 

REGULARS 

12 How to create a “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” 

sensory bin 

14 The Adventures of Rocket Rabbit & Sidekick 

Squirrel Part 2 – The Badger’s Trap 

22 What our customers say 

28 Spotlight on... Daniel Spencer 

34 Write for us for a chance to win £50 

NEWS 

4 Children’s charity warns of shortage of 11,000 

early years teachers 

5 Parents increasingly unwilling to pay extra 

charges to access 30-hour scheme 

6 Parenta Trust news 

8 Nottingham nursery completely transformed 

under new ownership 

ADVICE 

13 World Heart Day 2018: The importance of a 

heart-healthy lifestyle 

Activities to mark the changing seasons 32 

Nursery transformed under new ownership 8 

Best wishes, 

Allan 

TALE TRAILS 

Tamsin Grimmer 

shares a creative take 

on storytelling that 

encourages children to 

use their imagination 

and extend their 

vocabulary 10 

HEALTHY 

It’s World Heart Day 

on 29th September. 

We look at top tips 

to keep your heart 

healthy along with 

ideas to try out in 

your setting 13 

FUSSY EATERS 

36 

Joanna Grace takes a sensory look 

at fussy eaters and shares her advice 

on breaking the challenge down into 

its tiniest parts 

18 Très bien fait! Promoting bilingualism in the Early 

Years 

26 EYFS activity ideas to try today 

32 How to mark the changing of the seasons 

during the autumnal equinox 

38 World Car Free Day – Will you be doing your bit? 

INDUSTRY EXPERTS 

9 The importance of outdoor play for children’s 

mental health 

10 We’re going on a bear hunt…literally! 

20 The unexpected truth about teaching colour and 

number recognition 

24 Empowering children to embrace failure 

30 Bronfenbrenner: children’s learning in a wider 

context 

36 A sensory look at the fussy eater 

Win a 1000 piece craft hamper! 29 

Helen Garnett explores whether there is a better way 

to teach colour and number recognition to children 20

Children’s charity warns of shortage 

of 11,000 early years teachers 

Parents increasingly unwilling to pay 

extra charges to access 30-hour scheme 

Analysis by the charity Save the Children has revealed that there is an acute shortage of early 

years teachers in PVI settings in England. 

Nurseries and childminders have stated that parents are questioning charges for extras and are 

now more likely to say they want the advertised 30 ‘free’ hours. 

The figures obtained from a Freedom 

of Information request sent to the 

Department for Education revealed that 

325,000 two-, three- and four-yearolds 

in funded places in PVI settings 

in England have no access to qualified 

early years teachers or someone with 

Qualified Teacher Status. 

The Freedom of Information request 

asked for: 

• the number and proportion of 

childcare settings in the private, 

voluntary and independent sector 

who employ an Early Years Teacher 

(EYT), Early Years Professional (EYP) 

or someone with Qualified Teacher 

Status (QTS), and; 

• the number of children accessing 

funded hours who go to a setting 

with an EYT or equivalent. 

The charity used the information 

obtained to work out the number of PVI 

providers who do not employ an early 

years teacher or equivalent and the 

number of children in funded places who 

do not have access to one. 

The charity’s analysis found that 10,731 

settings out of 21,041 do not have staff 

with qualified teacher status, early 

years teacher status, or early years 

professional status. 

Save the Children’s analysis of the data 

also showed wide regional variations, 

finding that the East Midlands had the 

lowest percentage of pre-school children 

with access to graduate teachers. Inner 

London, however, showed as one of the 

top-performing regions, alongside the 

North East. 

Save the Children director of UK Poverty, 

Steven McIntosh, said: “Children who 

start behind, stay behind. But highquality 

childcare, led by graduate early 

years teachers, can ensure children are 

ready for school. So instead of lowering 

ambitions for childcare quality, the 

Government should keep its promise to 

address the crisis in training, recruiting 

and retaining these underpaid and 

undervalued teachers. All of our little 

ones should have access to nursery care 

led by an early years teacher. Without 

action, we’ll be letting down our next 

generation.” 

Save the Children’s findings come in the 

wake of the Government’s decision to 

abandon proposals to grow the early 

years graduate workforce in poorer 

areas and to change the rules to allow 

those with Early Years Teacher Status 

(EYTS) or Early Years Professional Status 

(EYPS) to lead classes in maintained 

settings. 

Last month, an open letter penned to 

children and families minister Nadhim 

Zahawi from 12 leading early years 

figures stated that they were ‘alarmed’ 

at the Government’s decision to drop its 

commitment to grow the graduate early 

years workforce, calling for action to 

reverse this decision. 

Nadhim Zahawi said of the charity’s 

analysis: “Save the Children’s claim is 

misleading, university study is just one 

route into the early years workforce. 

There are over 250,000 dedicated 

professionals in the private or voluntary 

early years workforce, with many coming 

from apprenticeship or on the job 

training routes. 

“Most recently the secretary of state 

announced a £20 million fund to provide 

training and professional development 

for early years staff in disadvantaged 

areas to increase their ability to support 

children’s early speech and language 

development.” 

According to the National Day Nurseries 

Association (NDNA), there have been 

reports that some settings in deprived 

areas have experienced parents who 

can’t or won’t pay for meals, and who are 

refusing to send their children in with a 

packed lunch. 

In some cases, parents have moved their 

children from one setting to another if it 

means not having to pay for extras. 

Spokesperson for the Champagne 

Nurseries on Lemonade Funding campaign 

group and manager of Playsteps Day 

Nursery in Swindon, Jo Morris-Golds, said: 

“As we go into the second year of full 

roll-out, CNLF is hearing from providers 

that more parents are refusing to pay 

[for extras] as they say it is free. We are 

coming out of the honeymoon period. 

“For our nursery, the vast majority of 

parents are happy to pay, but we are 

getting some parents who are dictating 

when they want their funded hours, which 

goes against our model of delivery. We 

can only be flexible to a point. 

“I don’t blame parents at all, as the 

offer has been advertised as being free 

nationally and locally. 

“This has acted as a reminder that 

educating parents about the 30 hours is 

an ongoing process. I didn’t realise how 

much work it would be.” 

The 30-hour childcare scheme for working 

parents of 3- and 4-year-olds was rolled 

out in September last year. Under the 

previous 15-hour scheme, nurseries could 

make up the shortfall in funded hours by 

charging parents more for additional hours. 

Andrea North, a childminder based in 

Derbyshire, said: “Parents are increasingly 

finding loopholes so they can take up 

their 30 hours place without having to pay 

anything. As a result, I lost one child to a 

nursery in July and am set to lose another 

in December – both of them have been 

with me since they were babies.” 

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of 

the NDNA, said, “Our recent research 

shows charging parents for extras is 

now commonplace, with only a quarter 

of nurseries not charging for meals and 

extras. 

“This is largely because the whole scheme 

is underfunded – delivery costs have gone 

up while funding has stagnated. This 

year, 87 per cent of nurseries say funding 

doesn’t cover their costs. 

“While we haven’t been aware of nurseries 

experiencing widespread problems with 

asking parents to pay for meals and 

extras, nurseries have been put in a very 

difficult position by Government. Most 

providers can only make this work by 

charging parents for meals and extras. 

“Ministers must acknowledge that there 

is a problem and either increase funding 

so parental charges are no longer crucial 

or allow nurseries to make mandatory 

charges. 

“Either way, the Government must stop 

marketing 30 hours as ‘free’ – they are 

not free for either the parents or nurseries 

and never have been.” 

Parents must not be required to pay 

additional fees as a condition of taking 

up the 30 funded hours, a Department 

for Education spokesperson said. Where 

parents purchase additional hours 

of childcare or pay for extras such as 

consumables or other activities, it is a 

private matter between them and the 

childcare provider. 

4 Parenta.com September 2018 5

NEWS 

MAKE A DIFFERENCE 

sponsor a child... 

For as little as 56p per day, you can change a child’s life. 

Becoming a sponsor can truly change lives! It gives children the opportunity 

to reach their full potential, receiving opportunities they may otherwise 

miss out on. Sponsorship brings real hope to the children who need 

it most, helping them feel loved and safe in the knowledge that 

someone truly cares. 

You’ll be able to see firsthand the difference you’re making with regular 

updates, letters and drawings from your sponsored boy or girl. 

Each sponsored child benefits from a pre-school education, 

a school uniform, a daily hot meal, school supplies and the 

knowledge that someone really cares. 

CHANGE A LIFE TODAY 

Walking for Dan 

On 5th July, Brookfield Infant and Junior School in Larkfield, Kent held a special Ugandan Day. This 

included a sponsored walk around the school field and collecting water, bread, rice and recycled 

school equipment to illustrate how children in Uganda have to walk miles in order to gather food 

or access a basic education. 

parentatrust.com 

The day was called “Walking for Dan” 

and was held in memory of former 

Parenta head of marketing and trustee 

of Parenta Trust Dan Carlton, who sadly 

passed away in December 2016. His 

mother Rowena taught at the school 

for over 26 years and the teachers and 

pupils wanted to continue the legacy of 

Dan’s fantastic fundraising. They raised 

£2000 on the day! 

These vital funds will be put towards 

the build of the charity’s sixth preschool 

in Uganda. Each pre-school can 

accommodate between 140-250 children 

and is designed to ensure they get the 

best possible start in life - one that every 

child deserves. 

Over the period of a decade, Parenta 

Trust has pledged to build 250 schools 

for children living in disadvantaged 

areas of the world. 

We’re excited to announce that we’re holding 

two charity balls this year – one in Maidstone 

and the other in Bath. 

2018 

SEPTEMBER 

22 

Mercure Great Danes Hotel, 

Maidstone 

Parenta Trust invites you to our 

third black-tie fundraising event 

in our hometown of Maidstone. Join us for a 

sparkling evening with food, drink, dancing 

and of course, a charity raffle brimming with 

prizes. Tickets are already selling fast! 

OCTOBER 

2018 

20 

SAVE THE DATE FOR PARENTA 

TRUST’S CHARITY BALLS! 

Hilton Bath City, Bath 

This year, we’re excited to 

announce that Parenta Trust will 

also host a charity ball in Bath for 

the very first time. Dust off your best dinner 

jacket or gown to join us for a special evening 

raising money for a great cause! All proceeds 

will help us fund the build of our next school. 

Don’t miss out! Get your tickets here: 

www.parentatrust.com/store 

6 Parenta.com 

www.parentatrust.com

Nottingham nursery completely 

transformed under new ownership 

The importance of outdoor play for 

children’s mental health 

A new nursery opened last month next door to the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, taking 

the place of a setting which was previously rated as “Requires improvement” by Ofsted. 

Children in modern day society are exposed to stressful environments, pressurised tests from the 

early age of 6 and a vast range of new and exciting technologies; it is no surprise that negative 

statistics about children’s mental health are increasing year on year. 

The outdoors is where children can fully 

be themselves. With fewer restrictions, 

there is something about the outdoors 

that is exciting and exhilarating for 

them and creates a form of escapism. 

This feeling of freedom in open space 

brings with it a sense of happiness and 

well-being that is hard to beat. 

Healthier and happier minds 

Whether it’s watching television or 

playing with their latest gadget, 

children are spending less time 

outdoors than ever before. 

The setting, formerly called Young Ones 

Day Nursery, was bought by paediatric 

nurse and former health visitor Liz 

Hudson. The new owner is in no way 

affiliated with the old nursery. 

Liz completely refurbished the nursery, 

including revamping the garden area. 

The setting now has spaces for up to 

50 children in different rooms, including 

a baby room (Cygnets), toddler room 

(Swans) and a pre-school room (Wise 

Owls). It cares for children from 6 weeks 

right up to 5 years old. 

The outdoor space has a mud kitchen, 

covered play area and a woodland area 

complete with wooden climbing frame. 

The setting currently employs 5 

members of staff, including nursery 

manager Rachel Allsopp. 

Although Liz has prior experience 

working with children as a nurse, this 

is the first time she has ever bought a 

nursery and made a go of running a 

childcare business from scratch. 

The refurbished setting - now called 

Tiny Robins Day Nursery – was officially 

opened on the 18th June. 

Setting owner Liz said: “We are very 

proud of our new nursery and welcome 

all potential parents and carers to come 

and have a viewing of the nursery. The 

feedback we have had is amazing and 

we look forward to meeting more new 

families. Our ethos is to nurture each 

child to their full potential in a caring and 

supportive environment.” 

Nursery manager Rachel said: “I’m 

so surprised by the nursery, I saw 

the setting before Liz started the 

transformation and cannot believe 

what an amazing environment 

she has created. The nursery is so 

welcoming and really feels like a family 

environment. When parents view the 

nursery they give incredible feedback, 

some are even booking in advance for 

next year.” 

Find out more at 

http://www.tinyrobinsdaynursery.co.uk 

Without regular exposure outside, 

children are struggling to keep 

engaged during school especially 

when they are expected to absorb so 

much information for regular tests and 

assessments. 

Spending time walking, running, 

jumping, climbing or simply connecting 

with nature outside will bring endless 

benefits to children’s overall well-being. 

A study by Open University’s 

OPENspace Research Centre found that 

outdoor play increases life expectancy, 

improves well-being and reduces the 

symptoms of mental health problems. 

Further findings from the study included 

higher concentration levels and an 

improvement in children’s ability to 

function during school. 

Vitamin D levels 

The outdoors provides natural sunlight, 

helping children produce Vitamin D 

which releases serotonin into the body. 

Due to the fact that Vitamin D is not 

found in many foods, children need 

sunlight exposure to give themselves 

a greater chance of responding to 

negative emotions and self-destructive 

behaviour. 

With demanding routines, school and 

homework, children are always learning 

new information that they are expected 

to absorb daily. 

Allowing children to play freely outdoors 

will remove them from any stressful 

environment and give their minds a 

break from their hectic routines. 

Using this approach will result in 

children feeling balanced, refreshed 

and ready to learn rather than 

drained, unhappy and fed up from an 

overloading of information. 

Why sleep is important 

Sleep directly impacts a child’s mental 

health as they need to give their brains 

a rest to recover and process all the 

information they have learned during 

the day. 

Outdoor play improves a child’s sleep 

as physical activity releases endorphins 

and helps produce melatonin which 

makes children feel sleepy. Sleepdeprived 

children are often less active 

and irritable which impacts their mood 

and mental wellbeing. 

During a recent study within the UK, it 

was discovered that just five minutes 

of physical activity in a natural outdoor 

environment can rapidly improve a 

child’s self-esteem, mental health and 

wellbeing… it’s time for children to 

embrace the outdoors. 

8 Parenta.com September 2018 9 

This article has been written by Pentagon Play who design and install outdoor learning environments for schools across the UK.

WE’RE GOING 

ON A BEAR 

HUNT 

... LITERALLY! 

We’re going on a bear hunt…literally! 

We all enjoy reading lovely books like The Gruffalo or Rosie’s Walk with our young children, but 

a great way to really get the children engrossed is to dramatise these stories by actually walking 

with the mouse through the wood or strolling with Rosie around the farmyard. 

We could call this approach story 

walks or tale trails! Drama and 

creatively enacting tales are old forms 

of storytelling which have engaged 

both adults and children alike over the 

ages. Children have the opportunity to 

be creative and use their imagination, 

extend their vocabulary and develop 

their social skills whilst re-enacting 

a familiar story. Telling stories on 

the move is also a lot of fun, children 

become totally engrossed and it can 

happen inside or outside, whatever the 

weather! 

Depending on the age and stage of 

development of the children in your care, 

you may want to prepare the props for 

the story walk in advance. However, 

you can have a lot of fun setting up the 

story props with the children too. For 

example, when I was childminding, we 

had been reading We’re Going on a Bear 

Hunt by Michael Rosen and I suggested 

we went on our very own bear hunt. We 

talked through the different terrain that 

the children in the story visit and thought 

about how we could recreate the story 

for ourselves. On this occasion, we stuck 

to the order and specifics of the book as 

a frame but the more familiar children 

become with this method of storytelling, 

the more creative you can all become; 

inventing your own additions to stories 

or even making up your own. 

The children decided that we would 

swish and swash through the grass 

outside (which was probably taller 

than it should have been, having not 

been cut recently) to begin our bear 

hunt. We then thought about what we 

could use as the river – we didn’t have 

a paddling pool or real stream nearby, 

but I remembered that I had a blue 

blanket and showed it to the children. 

Thankfully, they thought it would make 

a perfect river! They then decided to 

pour some water on the patch of muddy 

grass under the swing to make the 

squelchy mud and found that we could 

‘stumble trip’ under the apple tree for 

the dark forest. Our snowstorm was a 

white sheet pegged on the washing line 

and the dark cave was a small play tent. 

Unbeknown to the children, I had hidden 

a large teddy bear in the tent. So we set 

off on our bear hunt together, visiting the 

various places in the story, and when 

we started tiptoeing into the cave, the 

children all shrieked with joy when they 

discovered our very own bear! We then 

had to run back through all the places 

we’d visited and run into the house… 

we had a large throw on the sofa which 

was perfect for us to hide under as we 

escaped from the bear, exhausted but 

exhilarated from our adventure! 

You can dramatise any story with a few 

basic props in hand, although some 

stories perfectly lend themselves to this 

sort of story walk, for example: 

• We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by 

Michael Rosen 

• Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins 

• The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson 

• Whatever next? by Jill Murphy 

• Emma Jane’s Aeroplane by Katie 

Haworth & Daniel Rieley 

• Captain Duck by Jez Alborough 

• Up, Up, Up by Susan Reed 

• Walking through the Jungle by Julie 

Lacome 

Traditional tales like The Three Little 

Pigs or Goldilocks and the Three Bears 

are also great stories to act out with 

young children. This type of storytelling 

is not static - where children act out a 

scene on a stage - but active, where 

children physically move from scene to 

scene through the setting. The addition 

of movement encourages 

attention and listening 

skills to keep the 

children engaged 

but also supports 

their physical 

development. 

Story walks are simple 

and really good fun 

– so grab your 

wellies and go 

on a bear 

hunt 

today! 

Tamsin Grimmer 

Tamsin Grimmer is an 

experienced early years 

consultant and trainer and 

parent who is passionate 

about young children’s 

learning and development. 

She believes that all children 

deserve practitioners who 

are inspiring, dynamic, 

reflective and committed to 

improving on their current 

best. Tamsin particularly 

enjoys planning and 

delivering training and 

supporting early years 

practitioners and teachers to 

improve outcomes for young 

children. 

Tamsin has written two 

books - Observing and 

Developing Schematic 

Behaviour in Young Children 

and School Readiness 

and the Characteristics of 

Effective Learning. 

Website: 

tamsingrimmer.co.uk 

Facebook: 

facebook.com/earlyyears. 

consultancy.5 

Twitter: 

@tamsingrimmer 

Email: 

info@tamsingrimmer.co.uk 


How to create How a to “We’re create aGoing on a Bear Hunt” 

sensory “We’re bin Going on a Bear Hunt” 

1 

2 

sensory bin 

This is a great sensory bin based on the popular children’s 

story by Michael Rosen. 

To start, take a cardboard box and cut away the top 

and one side, giving a nice open area to play with. 

Paint the interior of the box white to use as a base. 

YOU WILL NEED: 

►► 

A box to hold all the items 

►► 

Grass - shredded green paper 

►► 

River - dyed orzo pasta 

►► 

Mud - playdough 

►► 

Forest - paper trees 

►► 

Snowstorm - cotton wool 

►► 

Cave - cardboard 

►► 

Pond - hair gel and more blue 

orzo pasta in a sandwich bag 

► ► A teddy bear 

►► 

Scissors 

►► 

Glue stick 

►► 

Paintbrush 

►► 

Sellotape 

World Heart Day 2018: The 

importance of a hearthealthy 

lifestyle 

World Heart Day is celebrated on the 29th September each year. 

The day focuses on what measures can be taken to prevent 

cardiovascular disease (CVD), which kills 17.5 million people every year 

– approximately a third of all deaths globally. By 2030, this figure is 

expected to rise to 23 million. 

3 

“Bear cave!” - Fold a 

piece of cardboard to make 

a shelter and secure to 

the base of the box using 

sellotape. 

Snow - Simply add chunks of 

cotton wool to the box. 

4 

Now you can add the following onto the white base: 

Mud - Roll out brown 

playdough, flatten this and lay 

it across the bottom of the box. 

Finally, settle the bear proudly into his home. 

Tip: You can use a variety of age-appropriate 

sensory materials, adding whatever you think 

would encourage children to play and explore. 

You can use alternatives to what has been used 

here, maybe even using real water with food 

colouring - it’s entirely up to you! 

Trees - Cut out the trees on 

green paper and use the glue 

stick to glue around the edges. 

You could also use broccoli to 

represent the trees. 

River - For the river, dye orzo pasta blue. You could use watereddown 

paint for this, but food colouring would work just as well. Take 

half a kitchen roll tube and fill this with the blue flowing orzo river. 

Grass - Take green sheets of 

paper and used a shredder to 

create grass. Sprinkle this around 

different areas of the box. 

Pond - Take a sandwich bag, fill 

this with clear hair gel, add some 

leftover blue orzo pasta, mix this 

all together and seal in the bag. 

Add this to the base of the box. 

Don’t forget to share your bear hunt sensory bins with us! 

Tag @TheParentaGroup in your Facebook / Instagram 

posts - we look forward to seeing your take on this 

wonderful sensory craft. 

‘Cardiovascular disease’ is 

a term which describes all 

diseases relating to the heart 

and circulation. It includes 

everything from conditions 

that are diagnosed at birth to 

conditions developed later in life 

such as coronary heart disease, 

heart failure, and stroke. 

The World Heart Day initiative 

was founded in 2000 by the 

World Heart Federation as a 

platform for raising awareness 

of CVD. The day seeks to 

promote ways to keep hearts 

healthy such as exercising 

regularly, eating and drinking 

well, and stopping heartdamaging 

habits such as 

smoking. 

The World Heart Federation 

wants everyone to make a 

heart promise this September 

– a promise to look after your 

heart and those of the people 

you care about. There are a 

number of ways you can do 

this, from making improvements 

to your diet to taking part in 

regular physical activity. 

Want to get involved with promoting 

awareness of heart health for World Heart 

Day 2018? Find out more and download 

the free resources available from 

www.world-heart-federation. 

org/world-heart-day 

TOP TIPS TO KEEP YOUR HEART HEALTHY 

Try to eat 5 portions of fruit and 

vegetables each day (fresh, tinned or 

frozen all count towards this) 

Choose unsweetened beverages and 

water instead of sugary drinks 

Limit the consumption of processed and 

pre-packaged food which can be high in 

fat, salt and sugar 

Walk and cycle short distances rather 

than taking the car 

Aim to do 30 minutes of moderate activity, 

5 times per week – walking, housework 

and dancing all count 

Take the stairs instead of using a lift or 

escalator 

Track your progress using a pedometer or 

exercise app on your phone 

INITIATIVES YOU CAN TAKE WITHIN YOUR SETTING 

Teach the children about how their heart 

works. Help them locate where the heart 

is in their bodies, then explain what it 

does and how to keep hearts healthy 

Let children listen to their hearts through 

a stethoscope before and after an 

exercise activity to hear how different 

they sound 

Look at the different foods which help 

hearts stay strong such as spinach, 

tomatoes, blueberries, strawberries, 

broccoli and fish like tuna 

Hold a fundraising day to raise money 

for a relevant charity such as the British 

Heart Foundation. This will help fund 

important research to help treat heart 

and circulatory diseases in the future 

Today in the UK.. 

• 545 people 

will go into 

hospital due to 

a heart attack 

• 180 people 

will die from a 

heart attack 

• 12 babies will 

be diagnosed 

with a heart 

defect 

September 2018 13

The Adventures of 

Rocket Rabbit & 

Sidekick Squirrel part 2 - 

The Badger’s Trap 

“Is it possible that there 

are others like 

us?” Rocket Rabbit 

asked, unsure if 

she wanted to know 

the answer. If there were 

naughty animals running 

loose who were as clever 

as them – it would be a 

disaster! 

Previously on Rocket Rabbit & Sidekick Squirrel…. 

Following their many school visits, our heroes returned 

to their hideout - possibly hoping for a little rest. Instead, 

they got a call and took a mission – to stop a baddy! 

Rocket Rabbit got dressed into her suit and found all 

of the things she needed for this important mission. 

She has a belt with all kinds of gadgets in it. All sorts 

of useful things, designed and built by her best friend 

Sidekick Squirrel. 

There was a special tool that could open any lock and 

even one that held a parachute – in case they ever 

needed to jump from somewhere up high. 

There was a special remote control for controlling the 

Super-Car and the Super-Jet from far away. And there 

was even a special tool for keeping track of where all 

the special tools are! 

The two superheroes were soon dressed in their 

superhero costumes and were in the Super-Jet ready to 

head out on their mission. Sidekick had taken some time 

to gather all the various computers and tablets she may 

need whilst on the flight. 

Although she still did not know where they were 

heading…or why! 

Rocket Rabbit helped Sidekick Squirrel to steer the Jet 

down the runway …out of the hideout … through the 

secret door …and into the air. 

Once they were flying at a nice steady height, Rocket 

pressed a button so that the Jet was flying itself, as if by 

magic. 

“Where are we going?” Sidekick Squirrel asked. 

“Ah,” said Rocket Rabbit, twitching her long ears. “We 

are going to stop a baddy who is trying to steal some 

jewels!” 

Sidekick didn’t look very excited at all by that news. 

Stopping a baddy stealing jewels was something they 

did every day! 

“It’s a big one.” Rocket said, quickly. “One of the biggest 

in years and the really exciting bit is that the police do 

not know who the baddy is. People who saw it said that 

it is a creature. Not a human!” 

That got Sidekick’s attention. Apart from the two of 

them, no other animals could talk or dress up or 

think about stealing things. This was going to a very 

interesting mission. 

Sidekick Squirrel put on her thinking 

face, with her left paw rubbing her chin. It was 

something that she had not thought about before. 

Rocket Rabbit was not used to seeing her friend like 

this. She waited patiently to the side, leaning on one of 

the Jet’s walls, munching on a carrot, as it took them 

smoothly towards where they were going. 

After a while, Sidekick Squirrel looked up and nodded. 

“Yes…There could be others like us.” 

The Jet sounded an alarm right at that moment. The two 

heroes jumped back in their seats. Sidekick took hold 

of one of the Jet’s control levers, Rocket grabbed the 

second. 

“We are about to find out if there are others.” Rocket 

shouted over the noise of the wheels coming out of the 

bottom of the Jet. 

“Let’s land over there!” she pointed to a small field next 

to a huge jewellery shop. 

Once they landed, the two hero animals leapt from 

under the Jet’s huge window, which slid completely into 

the main bit of the spacecraft. They left it open, in case 

they needed a quick escape. 

No-one else could fly the Jet, so it was safe. 

a broken tap and litter blew about the 

street from a knocked over bin. 

They quickly saw the front of the shop – It was a 

complete mess with rubbish everywhere! 

Rocket Rabbit took control. She held her finger to her 

lips, instructing Sidekick to keep quiet. Then she pointed 

left. Sidekick positioned herself to the left of the messy 

shop, listening for any sounds inside. 

Rocket crept round to the other side, crouched down, 

crawling with her ears down. 

When she was on the right of the shop, her ears shot up 

trying to listen hard for any noises. But she couldn’t hear 

anything. 

Suddenly, a thunderous crash! 

Someone or something was inside the shop! 

Both heroes jumped out of their hiding places, ready for 

a fight. 

Rocket Rabbit and Sidekick Squirrel were creeping slowly 

and carefully towards the shop. There were all kinds 

of alarms going off and in the street ahead of them, 

several cars were upside down, water sprayed from 

‘This is what heroes do’ thought Sidekick to herself. ‘Run 

towards the loud noise instead of running away like a 

normal person!’ 


They entered the main room of the shop and saw the baddy. A giant badger! 

Nearly as tall as a person. She was simply stood in the middle of the room. Like 

she was waiting for something. 

NEW AND IMPROVED 

“Finally!” The badger shouted. “I’ve been waiting for you two to get here.” 

EYFS Software 

Rocket grabbed the big bag of jewels from The Badger’s paws, before she even 

saw it coming. 

The Badger did not even seem to care. 

Before the heroes realised what was happening, The Badger had pressed a button 

and used a magic jetpack to fly out of the shop. 

She escaped…just. 

As her jetpack steered her out of the completely messy shop and away from our 

superheroes, they could just about hear her saying…”You’d better watch out you 

two, my boss wants to see you!” 

Richard Dodd 

Richard has been writing for 

as long as he can remember. 

English was a subject he 

enjoyed in school as it just 

made sense to him. He loved 

to read and requested his 

own bedroom so that he could 

have a bookcase! His favourite 

childhood authors included 

Enid Blyton, R. L. Stine, M. D. 

Spenser, and Charles Dickens. 

Characters, stories and even 

words he has taken in through 

all of those books have stayed 

with Richard for two decades. 

He firmly believes that books 

are integral in a person’s 

upbringing and that those 

experiences will stay with them 

throughout their lives. 

He can recall parts of those 

books in their entirety, from 

the tone of voice described by 

the author to certain scenes 

from The Famous Five or Secret 

Seven. Richard loves fiction 

and the idea of escaping and 

therefore creating an escape 

for a reader is the very reason 

he writes. 

Richard has written four books, 

three in the Fluffy the Magic 

Penguin series and a standalone 

book called ‘The Secret 

Passageway’. 

contact@parenta.com 

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blurring 

0800 002 9242 

Plan activities which can be 

converted into observations, 

saving you time 

BOOK A 

FREE DEMO 

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part of observations 

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Email: 

Richard.dodd@upburypress. 

co.uk 

Website: 

www.upburypress.co.uk 

PART 3! 

16 Parenta.com Make sure you read the October edition of the Parenta magazine for part 3! 

If you missed the first installment you can read it in our August magazine - visit parenta.com/magazine 

We’d love to hear yours and your children’s feedback on the story so far - please email us marketing@parenta.com 

View key information at a glance 

for all of your children 

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Très bien fait! 

Promoting bilingualism 

in the Early Years 

Here in the UK, we enjoy a melting pot of different cultures and 

languages. No doubt you’ll have children in your setting who are 

growing up in homes where English is not the first language. In 

fact, it has been reported that over 1 in 5 primary school children 

use English as an additional language. For these children, their 

initial exposure to English may come from their experiences 

within a childcare setting. 

The diverse range of languages used 

today in the UK is astounding. This can 

lie partly in the fact that immigrants 

from Europe and further afield have 

successfully settled in the UK and made 

a new life for themselves. The most 

widely spoken immigrant language is 

Polish, with 546,000 speakers. This is 

followed by Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali and 

Gujarati. 

Being able to speak more than one 

language has many educational, social 

and economic benefits. It can open up 

doors for children, especially in a job 

market where international companies 

are looking to hire bilingual candidates. 

It may surprise you to learn that bilingual 

employees can earn between 5%-20% 

more per hour than their monolingual 

counterparts. 

Crucially, though, maintaining fluency in 

a child’s native language provides them 

with a link to their family’s own culture 

and heritage. 

Research suggests that 54% of people 

in Europe are bilingual. However, it is 

widely known that Britons have a poor 

track record when it comes to their 

reputation for being monoglots (only 

able to speak one language). And, 

whilst English is the most widely spoken 

language in the EU, there’s no better 

way to strike up a rapport with people 

from other cultures then attempting to 

speak the local language. 

Acquiring and speaking multiple 

languages for children in the Early Years 

is relatively easy compared to adulthood. 

Whilst there seems to be a lot of debate 

as to the ‘peak window’ for learning a 

second language, there seems to be 

some consensus that the earlier a child 

learns a second language, the more 

quickly they’ll attain native-like language 

proficiency. So, whilst children are laying 

down the foundation for communication 

in infancy, what better time to introduce 

them to another language? 

The results of a quick Google search 

reveal that there are lots of franchises 

such as La Jolie Ronde, providing 

language learning support for 0- 

12-year-olds. The typical format of this 

learning combines a weekly lesson with 

a fluent speaker as well as storytelling, 

songs and games in the target 

language. 

As a setting, you may be able to afford 

to run a weekly class like this or offer it 

under the provision that parents pay an 

additional fee. But in what ways can you 

encourage bilingualism at your setting? 

Follow our tips below: 

• Introduce songs, nursery rhymes 

and games in other languages to 

the children 

• Invite parents of a child whose first 

language isn’t English to come into 

the setting and talk about their 

culture and traditions, perhaps even 

introducing a few simple words in 

their home language to the children 

• Display words in different languages 

around the setting 

• Identify and learn some key phrases 

in the child’s first language such as 

needing the toilet or being thirsty. 

Ask the parents to check your 

pronunciation of these phrases 

• Share songs in multiple languages. 

An example of this is singing a good 

morning song with a verse in every 

language in the setting. Parents can 

help with this by sending home the 

verse in English and asking them to 

translate it into their home language 

• Choose books in different 

languages 

• When a new vacancy arises, 

consider employing bilingual 

childcare practitioners 

• Widen the learning opportunities 

for children by labelling parts 

of a flower (for example) in two 

languages, with the help of a 

bilingual child 

Exposing all children (whether or not 

they’re monolingual) to a range of 

languages is important, so that they 

can appreciate linguistic diversity and 

differences in culture from an early age. 

Practitioners can model positive 

attitudes towards language learning 

by making the effort to speak to a child 

whose first language isn’t English in 

their native tongue and by embracing 

parents’ help with aspects such as 

word pronunciation. Taking this further, 

there are plenty of opportunities to 

help monolingual children learn a 

second language by including foreign 

languages as a normal part of your 

setting’s routine and activities, using 

some of the ideas above. 

If young children see the value of 

bilingualism from an early age, they’re 

more likely to want to pursue the love 

of learning a language and become 

interested in finding out about people 

from different cultures. This is of vital 

importance in preventing them from 

adopting an attitude of segregation or 

separation to those who they encounter 

or perceive as markedly ‘different’ in the 

future. 

Did you know? 

Every year on the 26th 

September, the European Day of 

Languages is held. Organised by the 

European Union and the Council of Europe, it 

aims to celebrate both the cultural and linguistic 

diversity within Europe and to encourage and 

promote language learning. There are 24 

official EU languages and around 60 

minority languages!

The unexpected 

truth about 

teaching colour 

and number 

recognition 

Have we got it wrong? 

A small group of pre-schoolers are playing 

at the sand table. Some exciting props have 

been added, along with a dozen or so brightlycoloured 

diggers, tractors and trailers. The 

children are engaged and happy, and the 

practitioner is modelling talking about colours, 

numbers and position. 

“Look, your blue tractor is going up the hill!” 

“You’ve got two tractors!” 

This is certainly how I 

have presented colours 

and numbers in my own 

practice. But it seems 

that I may well have been 

misinformed. According to a 

recent study, such traditional 

intentional colour and 

number recognition teaching 

is more likely to confuse 

children than help them. And, 

considering that pretty well all 

practitioners present colours 

and numbers in this way, it 

may be a very good thing to 

explore this a little further. 

The obstacles of English 

grammar 

English colours are 

particularly difficult to learn. 

Our rules of grammar put the 

colour firmly before the noun, 

“I’ve got a red balloon.” When 

we name colours like this, 

they resemble proper nouns: 

Red Balloon, a bit like Peter 

Smith. 

Likewise, with numbers, 

English grammar places 

the number word before 

the object: “We’ve got 

three biscuits.” This socalled 

prenominal naming 

of numbers or colours is 

the confusing part. We are 

drawing a child’s attention 

to the object while asking 

them to recognise the colour 

or number at the same time. 

As a result, their attention 

becomes divided, and the 

number or colour word can 

get lost. 

An unexpected result 

A study i a few years back 

considered how young 

children learn colour words. 

They conducted a series of 

tests on two-year-olds to see 

if they could correctly identify 

colours in a three-colour 

line-up. 

There was an unexpected 

result. Almost all of these 

two-year-olds could not pick 

out the right colours. Their 

parents were astonished! 

Surely their child would pass 

the test with flying colours, 

if you’ll pardon the pun. 

But of course, the contextfree 

testing environment 

totally stumped the children. 

While they were more than 

capable of producing colour 

words in familiar contexts 

like “Yellow banana!”, they 

simply could not reliably use 

colour words in unfamiliar 

contexts. 

This testing of colour 

recognition was followed up 

with postnominal training to 

one group of children (saying 

the colour after the noun) 

and prenominal training 

(saying the colour before 

the noun) to another group. 

It was discovered that the 

postnominal group improved 

significantly, learning colour 

words rapidly. The other 

group showed no signs of 

learning. 

This is an eye-opener. 

The children’s colour 

recognition was significantly 

strengthened when adults 

modelled putting the colour 

name after the noun: “I’ve 

got a balloon that is red.” 

The same principle applies 

to number recognition 

Another study ii tested 

number recognition in 

children aged between 

30 and 40 months. Half 

the children were given 

prenominally phrased 

questions (number before 

the object) and the other 

half postnominally (number 

after the object). 

The group with the 

postnominally phrased 

questions did significantly 

better. Following on from 

this piece of research, the 

two groups were given some 

prenominal or postnominal 

‘training’ time (hearing 

the number words either 

before or after some familiar 

objects). Once again, the 

postnominal ‘training’ group 

significantly improved. The 

other group did not. 

Testing the hypothesis in 

our settings 

How about we investigate 

this in our own settings? 

Within highly appealing and 

familiar contexts, let’s talk 

postnominally with children 

about numbers and colours 

(number/colour after the 

object). For English-speaking 

children, we use colour 

words prenominally about 

70% of the time. Presumably 

the same applies for 

number words. Imagine the 

difference we can make by 

changing our approach. 

Haul out the tuff box and 

fill it with different coloured 

wooden blocks. Create an 

irresistible world of diggers, 

tractors and lorries with sand 

play. Put lots of ocean small 

world into the water tray, 

delivered with a whole load 

of greenery that looks like 

seaweed. 

And then, enjoy the number 

and colour chitchat you can 

share with the children. 

You may occasionally find 

yourself talking a bit like 

Yoda from Star Wars, but 

your efforts will not be in 

vain. 

“Your blocks, you have 3!” 

“Let’s find the tractor that is 

blue.” 

Can something so simple 

make such a difference? Go 

ahead and find out! 

Helen Garnett 

Helen Garnett is a mother 

of 4, and a committed and 

experienced Early Years 

consultant. She co-founded 

a pre-school in 2005 

and cares passionately 

about young children and 

connection. As a result, 

she has written a book, 

‘Developing Empathy in 

the Early Years: a guide for 

practitioners’. She has also 

co-written an Early Years 

curriculum and assessment 

tool, at present being 

implemented in India. Helen 

is also on the Think Equal 

team, a global initiative led 

by Leslee Udwin, developing 

empathy in pre-schools and 

schools across the world. 

i 

Michael Ramscar, Kirsten Thorpe and 

Katie Denny (2007) Surprise in the learning 

of colour words 

ii 

Michael Ramscar, Melody Dye et al (2011) 

The Enigma of Number: Why children find 

the meanings of even small number words 

hard to learn and how we can help them 

do better 


What our customers say 

WHAT OUR CUSTOMERS SAY 

RECRUITMENT 

SOFTWARE SUPPORT 

Rosie is always so customer-focused 

and always makes everything better, 

when my user error has made it go 

wrong. Thank you. 

- Debbie, D-Dee’s Day Nursery 

JUNE 2018 

CAREERS ADVICE 

Really useful to inspire students and 

motivate them to consider [a] career 

in childcare. 

- Orla Gallagher, Wanstead High School 

MAY 2018 

Rebecca was amazing at helping me to find an 

apprenticeship and was so nice and helpful and I 

am truly grateful for the service. 

- Mollie Rose 

JULY 2018 

SOFTWARE SUPPORT 

I usually speak to Amy & Ellie and 

they are absolutely amazing. So helpful, 

professional, polite & patient. A big thanks 

to them both. 

- Diane, Tiddlers Day Nursery Ltd 


CAREERS ADVICE 

Parenta attended our recent annual 

Careers Fair. Amelia was professional and 

interacted well with all our students. Many students 

requested further information on apprenticeships and 

we will continue to work with Parenta especially between 

September 2018 and February 2019 when our Year 11 students 

will be choosing and finalising their post-16 plans. We will ask 

Parenta to attend next year’s fair. Thank you, your support 

of our students is much appreciated. 

- Heulwen Davies, St Bernard’s High School 

MAY 2018 

TRAINING 

I am feeling confident that with continual support 

from Angela that I will succeed in completing my 

course. I know I can contact her and she will help 

me with anything I need. 

- Paula Stoyles, Growing Places 



Empowering children to 

embrace failure 

We all want children to succeed in life and it is human instinct to want to protect them from pain 

and to stop them from repeating the same mistakes that we made in our younger years. We have 

all failed at some point and it is never pleasant. However, failure is a part of success and it is 

important that we teach our children how to use failure as an opportunity to grow, rather than it 

being something they should avoid. 

Praising a child only when 

they ‘win’ or using phrases 

such as ‘Failure isn’t an 

option’ or ‘Coming second 

is the same as coming 

last’ often stems from 

well-intentioned people 

(usually who have quite a 

competitive nature) who 

want to mould a child with 

a positive and winning 

mentality. The problem with 

this is that these phrases 

and actions teach children 

that failure isn’t acceptable, 

which in turn, actually 

achieves the exact opposite 

and programmes their brain 

to play it safe. 

Every successful person 

has failed 

People never reach their 

brilliance without stepping 

out of their comfort zone 

and stretching themselves. 

However, in order to do 

this, it involves being in 

unfamiliar situations and 

therefore increases the risk 

of failure. Every successful 

person in the world failed 

multiple times before they 

perfected their craft and 

had their breakthrough 

moment. By telling children 

that failure isn’t an option, 

we are simply teaching 

them that they must be 

perfect at all times. Not 

only is this completely 

unrealistic, but it also gives 

them a warped idea of what 

success actually looks like. 

Belief systems are created 

95% of what we do is 

completely subconscious. 

Throughout childhood 

what we see, hear and 

feel on a repeated basis 

creates belief systems that 

then become an internal 

blueprint. One of the roles 

of our subconscious mind is 

to keep us safe. But by ‘safe’ 

We need to teach 

children that 

failure is a part 

of success, that it 

is an opportunity 

to learn and 

grow and a 

positive stepping 

stone towards 

their goals 

this means keeping us in 

line with our internal beliefs 

(even if these beliefs don’t 

result in happiness). If a 

child is repeatedly told that 

failure is not an option, their 

subconscious mind (95% of 

their mind) will do whatever 

it takes in later life to keep 

them in alignment with that 

belief. It will see failure as 

‘danger’ and will result in a 

person who avoids it at all 

costs or at, the very least, 

deals with it badly when it 

happens. 

Here are some examples 

of how a belief that ‘failure 

isn’t an option’ could affect 

someone. They might: 

►► 

Always stay in their 

comfort zone to avoid 

being in unfamiliar 

territory and getting it 

wrong 

►► 

Become so much of a 

perfectionist that they 

procrastinate and spend 

too long messing about 

rather than just getting 

their projects seen by 

the right people 

►► 

Suffer from anxiety when 

things do go wrong and 

have all of the wind 

knocked out of them 

Our subconscious mind is 

very literal, so it is important 

that we programme it with 

beliefs that are conducive 

to success and happiness. 

Although people’s intentions 

usually stem from the ‘right 

place’, it is important as 

practitioners and parents to 

listen to the literal message 

that our words are giving 

children and what that 

means if there is a higher 

power keeping them in 

alignment with it. 

Failure is a stepping 

stone to success 

Everybody fails. It’s how 

we deal with failure that 

determines the outcome. We 

need to teach children that 

failure is a part of success, 

that it is an opportunity 

to learn and grow and a 

positive stepping stone 

towards their goals. We 

also need to praise effort, 

motivation and tenacity, 

rather than focusing solely 

on the outcome. By doing 

all of these things, we will 

instil the belief that ‘failure 

is okay’ and we will also 

encourage the qualities 

needed to truly succeed. 

If the subconscious mind 

is programmed to see 

failure in a positive way, it 

will be more likely to allow 

someone to take risks 

and to step out of their 

comfort zone, which is 100% 

necessary for anyone to 

reach their true potential. 

It won’t take away the 

disappointment that comes 

with failure, but it will give 

children balance around the 

inevitable pitfalls on their 

journey to success and a 

growth mindset that will 

support them to spread their 

wings rather than play it 

safe. It will also give them 

the freedom to explore their 

own limitations and to pick 

themselves up every time 

they fall, knowing that they 

have become one step 

closer to achieving their own 

breakthrough moment. 

Programme their mind for 

success 

One of my favourite quotes 

from P.T. Barnum in the film 

The Greatest Showman 

is ‘Comfort, the enemy of 

success’. It really is! Let’s 

programme our children 

with belief systems that 

allow them to have the 

confidence to step out of 

their comfort zone and to 

become the best version of 

themselves that they can be. 

Stacey Kelly 

Stacey Kelly is a former 

teacher, a parent to 2 

beautiful babies and the 

founder of Early Years Story 

Box, which is a subscription 

website providing children’s 

storybooks and early years 

resources. She is passionate 

about building children’s 

imagination, creativity and 

self-belief and about creating 

awareness of the impact 

that the Early Years have 

on a child’s future. Stacey 

loves her role as a writer, 

illustrator and public speaker 

and believes in the power of 

personal development. She is 

also on a mission to empower 

children to live a life full of 

happiness and fulfillment, 

which is why she launched 

the #ThankYouOaky Gratitude 

Movement. 

Sign up to Stacey’s Premium 

Membership here and use the 

code PARENTA20 to get 20% 

off or contact Stacey for an 

online demo. 

Email: 

stacey@earlyyearsstorybox.com 

Facebook: 

facebook.com/ 

earlyyearsstorybox 

Twitter: 

twitter.com/eystorybox 

Instagram: 

instagram.com/ 

earlyyearsstorybox 

LinkedIn: 

linkedin.com/in/stacey-kellya84534b2/ 


EYFS activity ideas 

to try today 

All of the following activities are suitable for 

children aged 22 months – 60 months. 

Communication and Language 

Physical Development 

Personal, Social and Emotional Development 

Literacy 

Mathematics 

Understanding the World 

FIND THE MISSING 

NUMBER 

MAKE SHADOW SHAPES 

TOGETHER 

Expressive Arts and Design 

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1. Find a picture book or story which is popular with 

the children, then start collecting items you think 

represent different aspects of the story. You could use 

soft toys or puppets to represent certain characters 

2. Seat the children around you, either on the floor or 

around a table 

3. Ask the children to guess what story might be in the 

sack – you could pull out a familiar soft toy character 

which will help them guess. Even if it’s obvious, you 

don’t need to confirm to children which story it is 

straightaway 

4. Let the children take it in turns to feel in the sack and 

pull an item out 

‘GUESS THE STORY’ SACK 

Story sacks are a great way to engage children, particularly those who may struggle with literacy or 

who share books with reluctance. The puppets and props in your story sack will help bring stories to life 

and children will love the element of surprise involved in guessing what’s in the sack. 

YOU’LL NEED: 

• A storybook 

• A soft sack 

• Props or puppets to represent the story 

AREAS OF THE EYFS: 

Understanding 

Reading 

Speaking 

The world 

30 - 45 

minutes 

Instructions: 

5. Explore the item in detail and ask the children what it 

looks like, smells like and feels like 

6. Ask the children to match the item from the sack to 

a particular passage of the story or help them flip 

through the pages to try and find it 

7. Revisit the story and run through the role that the 

item plays in it. Ask the children if they can find 

other examples of the same thing within the room, if 

they’ve seen it before and what they think its purpose 

is 

8. You could end the session by retelling the story, using 

the props from the story sack to bring it to life 

15 - 30 

minutes 

This missing number game is fun for 

children and can be adapted depending 

on the age/skill level of the group. Children 

can reinforce their knowledge of numbers and 

practice counting. It’s also a great activity to 

help children develop their fine motor skills, by 

opening and closing the peg. 


• A Sharpie pen 

• Craft or lolly sticks 

• Wooden clothes pegs 


Moving & handling 

Numbers 

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1. Write the numbers 1-10 along the length of a stick, 

leaving a gap for one of the missing numbers each 

time 

2. Write the numbers 1-10 along each of the clothes 

pegs so that the part that normally attaches to 

clothes is showing on the outside 

3. Mix the pegs and sticks up a little, so it’s not 

obvious which ones are matching 

4. See whether the children can attach the right peg 

to the right gap for each stick 

5. You could also try missing out 2 numbers on some 

sticks instead of 1, to make it more challenging for 

the children 

15 - 30 

minutes 

Children have a fascination with 

shadows but don’t often get the chance 

to explore why they appear and how they can be 

changed. This is a great activity to help children 

explore dark and light, as well as learn new 

vocabulary like shadow, light, dark and shape. If you 

don’t have a dark corner of your setting, you can 

create a DIY fort using blankets covering a dining room 

table or chairs. 


• A dark corner or makeshift fort 

• Torches 

• Music 


Listening and attention 

Self-confidence 

Exploring and using 

media and materials 

Speaking 

Technology 

The world 

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1. Find a dark corner of your setting or make your 

own DIY fort using blankets and chairs 

2. Take a small group of children at a time and hand 

them torches 

3. Let them experiment with darkness and light by 

turning the torches on and off 

4. Show the children how to make shapes in the 

torchlight 

5. You could also play music whilst the activity takes 

place and see how the children make their shapes 

move to the beat of the music 


Spotlight on... 

Daniel Spencer 

Every month, we put the spotlight 

on a member of the Parenta team. 

This time around, it’s our new 

administration manager. Daniel plays a key part in 

heading up our admin team which currently comprises 

5 members. The team processes learner data to comply 

with our contractual requirements as well as assisting the 

business by providing timely administrative support. 

How has your role changed 

since you started at Parenta in 

2012? 

I started at Parenta as an admin 

apprentice before gaining a 

permanent job a few months 

later in the admin team. I then 

worked my way up to being the 

team leader for the admin team 

and I have recently started in 

my role as admin manager. It 

is a very different role to being 

an apprentice, as I now get to 

work on the procedures the team 

follow and help to make the 

team run more efficiently and 

effectively. I also support them 

with the knowledge I have gained 

over the years. 

How has the company invested 

in equipping you with the 

qualifications and training 

you need to succeed in your 

career? 

During my time at Parenta, I 

have completed 3 different 

apprenticeship courses - gaining 

my Level 2 NVQs in Business 

Admin & Team Leading as well as 

my Level 3 NVQ in Management. 

Each has given me knowledge 

that I use in my job role on a daily 

basis, especially the team leading 

& management courses which 

really helped to develop my skills. 

Helping people to 

solve a problem 

is always very 

rewarding for me, 

personally 

What do you find most 

rewarding about what you do? 

I really enjoy being able to 

support the team and help 

them to grow and achieve their 

goals. Helping people to solve a 

problem is always very rewarding 

for me, personally. 

You took a career break for 1 

year – what made you decide 

to come back to the Parenta 

family in April? 

I had been at Parenta for almost 

5 years when I decided to leave 

as I felt it was time for a bit of a 

change and to experience some 

new environments, as I’d never 

worked anywhere else doing 

admin. The opportunity to return 

to working with a lot of great 

people and to continue growing 

my skill set was too good to pass 

up and it has been absolutely 

lovely to come back! 

In the coming months, what 

do you hope to achieve in 

your new role leading the 

administration team? 

First and foremost, I will be 

supporting the team as much 

as I can because they are an 

awesome team of hard-working 

people! I have a lot of ideas 

in my mind to help move the 

administration team along in 

terms of streamlining some 

procedures and I want to work 

with the team to come up with 

ways of making us more efficient 

as we continue to grow. It should 

hopefully be a very exciting time 

ahead! 

What do you enjoy doing in 

your spare time? 

I’m a gamer and a geek at heart, 

so you can often find me either 

on my PS4 or watching superhero 

films! Aside from that, I enjoy 

cooking, reading and walking my 

dog, Mika. 

win a craft hamper in our 

spooktacular halloween 

competition! 

Enter our Halloween competition with the chance to win a hamper crammed with 

1000 craft items! 

To enter, download the Halloween craft templates from our website, available here and 

get ready to create ghoulish decorations for your setting. 

Once you’ve completed your ghastly crafts, send a photo of these displayed in your setting 

to marketing@parenta.com by Friday 2nd November 2018. 

We’ll upload this photo to our website and social media pages for a national vote – the one 

with the most votes will win our incredible prize! 

Happy Halloween crafting and good luck! 


Bronfenbrenner: children’s 

learning in a wider context 

Children are now growing up in a world that is globally interconnected and increasingly shaped by 

technology and social media. This increase in digital technology and social media means that the 

social nature of learning for many children is now very different to how it was in previous decades. 

One theory that helps us understand and explain how this increasingly complicated world impacts 

on children’s learning and their development is the Ecological Systems Model, now known as 

the Bioecological Model offered by Uri Bronfenbrenner. Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005) was born in 

Moscow in 1917 and at six years of age moved to the USA with his family where he later became 

a co-founder of the hugely important Head Start programme in the USA, which sought to support 

disadvantaged pre-school children. 

Bronfenbrenner’s theory has placed a 

much greater emphasis on how wider 

economic, political and cultural factors 

impact upon children’s learning and their 

development. Here, we might reflect on 

how different governments in the UK 

have influenced and shaped the direction 

of schools and early years provision. 

Bronfenbrenner also emphasised how 

the unique biology of each child not 

only plays a significant part in their 

development but importantly, on their 

learning. His ideas can perhaps be best 

understood as the relationship between 

each child’s unique biology and the 

environments in which they grow up. An 

example would be where brothers and 

sisters born into the same family, who 

attend the same playgroup and same 

school and who have the same wider 

family networks will experience all of 

these in different ways. 

Figure 1 Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model of 

individual development 

Bronfenbrenner suggested that 

children’s development and learning 

can be understood and explained by 

thinking in terms of a number of the 

layers that encompass children as they 

grow and develop, with the closest 

layer to the child being the Microsystem 

(Figure 1) – these are often thought of as 

being like a Russian Doll. 

The Microsystem refers to 

those most immediate 

contacts in the child’s 

life. Examples 

would be the 

child’s family, 

their nursery or 

playgroup, their 

neighbours 

and their local 

community. 

Bronfenbrenner 

Microsystem: This refers to a child’s immediate environment, for example, their 

family, playgroup, neighbourhood, and peer group 

Meosystem: This refers to the connections children make between their immediate 

environments, for example, their home and their playgroup 

Exosystem: This refers to the external settings in the child’s environment that impact 

indirectly on their development, for example, their father and mother’s workplaces 

Macrosystem: This refers to the child’s wider cultural context, for example, the 

economy and changes in government 

Chronosystem: The patterns of events and transitions in the child’s life 

MICROSYSTEM 

stressed how a two-way process or 

what he referred to as ‘bi-directional 

influences’ within the Microsystem 

can have quite powerful influences on 

young children (see example). What he 

is suggesting here is that whilst young 

children are influenced by the actions 

of others they also, in turn, directly and 

indirectly influence the actions of 

others with whom they 

come into contact 

with. 

M E O S Y S T E M 

M A C R O S Y S T E M 

E X O S Y S T E M 

C H R O N O S Y S T E M 

Example: Bi-directional influences 

An infant is lying in her pram and for 

no obvious reason makes a loud and 

delightful cooing noise. Her mother, 

who is in the next room, hears the noise 

and runs in and picks her infant up in 

her arms; the infant then receives lots 

of hugs and attention from her mother. 

Whilst the infant initiated this interaction 

by making the noise, it is the mother who 

has responded. In this way, the infant 

has influenced and directed her mother’s 

behaviour. 

Bronfenbrenner would interpret this 

pattern of behaviour between the infant 

and her mother as being bi-directional. 

Such bi-directional influences, he 

believed, are very strong and can set up 

patterns of behaviours in adults as well 

as children. 

The Meosystem relates, for example, 

to those connections that are formed 

between parents and staff in their 

child’s nursery. Parents will often talk 

with staff about things such as their 

child’s sleeping patterns and what 

they like doing at home. Likewise, staff 

will share with parents examples of 

activities where their child has gained 

success and so on. Children also start to 

make simple comparisons between the 

experiences they have in their nursery 

and those they have at home. They also 

begin to make comparisons between the 

friends they are making at nursery and 

friends in their own local community, as 

well as their siblings. The Exosystem is 

to do with those wider social systems 

in which children grow up, for example, 

the commitments their parents have 

to their jobs and their parents’ level of 

income, all of which will have a direct 

and/or indirect impact on children. An 

example is where recent increases in 

early years provision brought about 

by successive governments over 

the last decades have given 

parents much greater choice 

about early years provision. 

The Macrosystem refers to the 

child’s wider cultural context, 

for example, the economy 

and changes in government, 

children’s cultures and the 

values of the communities 

and wider society in 

which they live, the 

legal structures that 

have been put in 

place by successive 

governments and so on. Here, one can 

think of how austerity over the past 

ten or so years have influenced the 

lives of many children who have found 

themselves living in families with much 

lower incomes than previously and the 

impact this might have had on their 

lives. Bronfenbrenner identified a further 

layer, the Chronosystem in which he 

attempted to explain how time relates to 

the environments in which children grow 

and develop. 

Summary 

Bronfenbrenner’s theory has much to 

offer early years practitioners; it provides 

a much wider focus on those vast and 

often unseen environmental influences 

that impact indirectly on the lives of 

children. Though Bronfenbrenner’s 

theory has been criticised on the 

grounds that it does not pay sufficient 

attention to the individual development 

of children it, nevertheless, offers a 

very useful means of thinking about 

how wider and often unseen aspects of 

society in which children grow up impact 

on their development and learning. 

For further information on how an 

understanding of Bronfenbrenner’s 

ideas and those of other theorists can 

support practice in the early years, 

see my latest book: MacBlain, S.F. 

(2018) Learning Theories for Early Years 

Practice. London: Sage. 

Sean MacBlain 

Dr Sean MacBlain is a 

distinguished author whose 

most recent publication 

is: MacBlain (Sage, 2018) 

Learning Theories for 

Early Years Practice. Other 

publications include: 

MacBlain (Sage, 2014) 

How Children Learn; Gray 

and MacBlain (Sage, 

2015) Learning Theories in 

Childhood, now going into 

its 3 rd edition; MacBlain, 

Long and Dunn, (Sage, 

2015) Dyslexia, Literacy and 

Inclusion: Child-centred 

Perspectives; MacBlain, 

Dunn and Luke (Sage, 2017) 

Contemporary Childhood; 

Sean’s publications are used 

by students, academics and 

practitioners worldwide. 

He is currently a senior 

academic at Plymouth 

Marjon University where 

he teaches on a range of 

undergraduate programmes 

and supervises students at 

Masters and Doctoral level. 

Sean worked previously as a 

Senior Lecturer in Education 

and Developmental 

Psychology at Stranmillis 

University College, Queens 

University Belfast and for 

over twenty years as an 

educational psychologist 

in private practice. Sean 

lives with his wife Angela in 

Somerset, England. 


How to mark the changing of the 

seasons during the autumnal equinox 

September 23rd is the autumnal equinox when there are equal hours of daylight and darkness. 

Equinox literally means “equal night”. It’s the time when we notice the change in the astronomical 

seasons from summer to autumn; harvests are gathered in, days become shorter, birds migrate 

south and many animals begin a period of gathering food for the leaner months ahead. 

It’s interesting to note that the northern 

and southern hemispheres celebrate 

equinoxes and solstices as opposites. 

When the UK is celebrating autumnal 

equinox in September, our friends in 

Australia are welcoming the return of 

spring in their vernal equinox. 

Wherever you are in the world, 

equinoxes and solstices have been 

marked for millennia by different cultures 

and religions. The autumnal equinox is 

also associated strongly with apples as 

the symbol of life and immortality and 

it’s the time to celebrate reaping what 

you have sown. 

Whichever culture you are from, the 

autumnal equinox is a time of harvests, 

celebrations and giving thanks for the 

abundance of nature. So here are 10 

easy-to-implement ideas to help you 

mark this important time in your own 

setting. 

1 

2 

3 

4 

Make a sun and moon mobile 

Since the equinox marks a time of equal daylight and darkness, have fun making 

a mobile which has an equal amount of suns and moons on it. You can also 

add the earth, stars or even some galaxies or planets as a reminder of the 

astrological basis of the equinox. 

Go outside and investigate the changes in the leaves 

The trees are wonderful in September and it’s a perfect opportunity to get out 

into nature at a local park or in your own outside space. You can have great fun 

exploring the natural elements, kicking through leaves, looking at their different 

shapes and colours or even try a spot of leaf rubbing. 

Make a giant tree picture 

This is a seasonal way to decorate your space as well as being creative. You can 

either use a branch, secure it in a plant pot and then decorate it with ‘leaves’ that 

the children make, or create a giant tree mural. Use handprints for the ‘leaves’ 

and remember to use autumnal colours such as reds, oranges, yellows and 

browns. You could also add images of fruit to represent the harvest by cutting 

apples in half and making apple prints. 

Create a piece of wild art 

Collect some leaves, twigs, acorns and conkers, or whatever you can find in your 

local park or garden space and use them to create some autumnal pictures. You 

can use the theme of autumn to create a tree or landscape image, or why not 

create a picture of a woodland fairy of elf? You can also leave the art in situ for 

others to enjoy but take a camera to record the pictures for your space too. 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

Celebrate with a harvest festival 

Communities across the northern hemisphere give thanks for their harvests 

in September. You could ask parents to donate one small item and then make 

hampers to give to local people in need, as a way of saying ‘thank you’ for the 

abundance you have, as well as giving something back to your community. 

Have an equinox-themed dressing-up day 

Everyone loves dressing-up. Encourage your pre-schoolers to dress up as 

something associated with the equinox on the day itself. Ideas include: 

¥ ¥ Sun 

¥ ¥ Moon 

¥ ¥ Apple Trees 

¥ ¥ Green Man 

¥ ¥ Scarecrow 

¥ ¥ Autumn Elves or Fairies 

An alternative is to make headdresses, masks or banners and have a 

procession around your space. 

Sing songs about the changes in the seasons 

How about singing a version of “London Bridge” using the words “All the leaves 

are falling down” or something similar? You could create some physical actions to 

accompany the words too and invent some new verses such as “Raking leaves is 

so much fun” or “Pick the apples one by one”. 

Plant some spring bulbs 

Whilst the autumn equinox marks the end of summer, it also represents the 

circle of life – summer dies and winter sets in, but in spring, life will start 

again. Autumn is the perfect time to plant spring bulbs that will grow in 

the new year, heralding the start of the next growing season. 

Play a simple counting game based on 

‘equals’ 

Set up areas of the room that represent daylight and night 

time. Ask the children to dance to music and when it stops, 

they must run to either ‘day’ or ‘night’ but there must be the 

same number of children on each side. If you have an odd number, 

ask one child to stop the music each turn. 

Build a ‘bug hotel’ 

Autumn is when many animals and insects begin their 

hibernation processes, storing food or finding a winter 

home. With natural habitats in decline, you could help 

our insect friends by creating your own bug hotel. Use 

sticks, twigs, straw and hollow bamboo canes so that 

hibernating bees and other insects can find 

shelter in winter months. 

Plant some spring bulbs 

Create a piece of wild art 

Sing songs about the changes 

in the seasons 

Build a ‘bug hotel’ 


Write for us for a chance to win £50 

We’re always on the lookout for new authors to contribute insightful 

articles for our monthly magazine. 

If you’ve got a topic you’d like to write 

about, why not send an article to us and be 

in with a chance of winning? Each month, 

we’ll be giving away £50 to our “Guest 

Author of the Month”. 

Here are the details: 

•• 

Choose a topic that is relevant to early 

years childcare 

•• 

Submit an article of between 600-900 

words to marketing@parenta.com 

•• 

If we choose to feature your article in our 

magazine, you’ll be eligible to win £50 

•• 

The winner will be picked based on 

having the highest number of views for 

their article during that month 

This competition is open to both new and 

existing authors, for any articles submitted to 

feature in our Parenta magazine for 2018. The 

lucky winner will be notified via email and we’ll 

also include an announcement in the following 

month’s edition of the magazine. 

Got any questions or want to run a topic by us? 

For more details email marketing@parenta.com 

JULY’S WINNER 

Joanna Grace 

Inclusion specialist and founder of The Sensory 

Projects, Joanna Grace, was July’s winner of our 

guest author competition. Here she is at Cornwall’s 

Eden Project with her voucher and a copy of the 

Parenta magazine. Congratulations Joanna! 

Advertise your 

business here in 

our next issue 

Email marketing@parenta.com for details 

Get our magazine earlier! 

Sign up to our mailing list to get a digital version of our monthly magazine sent to your 

inbox before the print copies are posted. 

34 Parenta.com 

Sign up here

A sensory look at the fussy eater 

Children who experience their sensory world differently are at increased risk of eating in a restricted 

way. Due to the fact that eating is so very important for survival, these children are unlikely to 

experience the sensory challenges associated with eating in a ‘no pressure’ environment. Parents 

need them to eat, we need them to eat, every one of us is interested in them eating a rich and varied 

diet. The pressure is there… but what can we do to support these children? 

Celebrate each milestone 

The advice given in my 

previous blog is a good 

route to follow as you begin 

to support these children. 

Remember that you are 

making tiny adjustments 

now which will have a big 

impact further down the 

line. Do not expect magic 

wands and do not consider 

something which makes 

a minute change to be a 

failure. Instead, inform 

everyone within earshot 

(and further, if you have a 

megaphone or a helpful 

town crier!) as to what 

these tiny incremental 

steps towards that end 

goal look like so that the 

child can experience a 

community celebrating 

their progress rather than 

panicking over their lack 

of achievement. 

Consider this a long-term 

project - six months slowly 

introducing new tastes is far 

more likely to end 

up with 

a child eating an increased 

range of foods than six 

months arguing with a child 

that they must eat their dinner. 

Support the parents of that 

child to feel vindicated in 

this approach and they are 

less likely to face judgement 

from family and friends who 

mistakenly believe the child 

should simply not be allowed 

to leave the table until dinner 

is finished. 

Next, think about the problem 

the child is facing from a 

sensory point of view. They are 

likely to be experiencing some 

degree in sensory processing 

difficulties (read more about 

this in a previous blog). Such 

difficulties can mean that 

sensations are heightened 

or dampened in ways that 

make them difficult to tolerate. 

Imagine if someone asked 

you to eat something that was 

as loud as a fire alarm when 

you crunched it. Or expected 

you to swallow something 

with the consistency of a slimy 

slug’s trail. Imagine someone 

telling you that something that 

tasted of pure sulphur was 

actually fine. Or 

asking 

you to chew a pincushion full 

of pins. What these children 

face is very tough! 

Now consider just one sensory 

modality - let’s go with touch 

as we were talking about 

that in the previous blog. You 

have a child who struggles, 

for one reason or another, to 

process tactile experiences. 

Touching things is difficult. 

Not only are you asking them 

to touch something, but you 

are asking them to do it WITH 

THEIR MOUTH, not at the end 

of a tentatively outstretched 

arm, not near to their body, 

literally inside their face which 

is one of the most intimate 

and personal spaces on 

our bodies. Now add in the 

other modalities: not only 

are you asking them to deal 

with a smell they struggle 

with, you are asking them to 

contend with taste and lots of 

disgusting squelchy repulsive 

sounds. And not only are you 

expecting them to do these 

things WITH THEIR MOUTH, 

you are expecting the child 

to do them ALL AT ONCE. To a 

child who struggles with the 

sensory world, this is torture 

and it is torture 

meted out on them by the 

people they love and trust. It 

is no wonder we witness such 

high levels of distress when 

we sit them down to eat! 

What can we do? 

Progress is unlikely to be 

made at mealtimes. Mealtimes 

need to become low stress. 

Whatever it is that the child 

eats, even if it is only crisps, 

can be set out and the meal 

enjoyed. We will add the other 

foods in at other times. 

Break down the sensory 

challenges children face into 

their separate parts and offer 

these in the ways described 

in my previous post. So, for 

example, you might take 

the smell of food as one of 

them. Consider what smells 

they currently tolerate, or 

even enjoy, and create a way 

to play with these (not too 

many at once - it is easy to 

overwhelm with smell). Now 

add in a smell closer to the 

taste of food. Celebrate the 

child’s willingness to increase 

their smell palate. Be clear to 

the adults around them that 

this is a step towards better 

eating (but, crucially, do not 

make it about eating for the 

child). Continue the game over 

a prolonged period of time 

until you are including a rich 

array of food smells. 

Another sensory modality 

challenged by eating is touch. 

Think of the different areas 

of your body and where you 

are more sensitive to touch: 

the hands are very sensitive, 

the mouth and tongue even 

more so. If the child can cope 

with touch experiences that 

are comparable to food (e.g. 

touching a thick fluid with their 

hands) then offer an array of 

touch experiences for them to 

explore in this way and, as the 

game becomes established, 

introduce foods. When you 

start out it is best to make sure 

you are not using actual foods 

for these games, as they may 

alert the child to your ulterior 

motive and trigger their 

established stress response. 

If the child cannot cope with 

touches on their fingers and 

hands, try another area 

of the body – perhaps the 

upper arm as this is not so 

sensitive, or the feet as these 

are less personal. Start from 

where ever they are, offer 

a repeating predictable 

experience and make it fun. 

Take the progressive steps 

slowly and always take little 

ones. Slow and steady wins 

the race. 

Repetition is key 

Isolate and share each 

sensory experience associated 

with eating whilst repeating 

and building these over time. 

Once the child is able to cope 

with them individually, you 

can begin to partner them 

together. All the while, you 

are moving towards the end 

goal of them being able to do 

them all at once WITH THEIR 

MOUTH. When you begin to 

do this breakdown, you gain a 

greater awareness of how big 

the challenge is that they face. 

The best thing 

you can do for 

these children is to 

break the sensory 

challenge of eating 

down into its tiniest 

parts and recognise 

and celebrate their 

achievements as 

they master each 

part of the journey 

You might think taste needs 

to be excluded from this 

adventure but you can find 

ways to share taste which 

mitigate many of the other 

challenges. So you might 

find you can vary a food they 

already accept, e.g. a child 

who eats crisps may be willing 

to try different flavours. Or 

you can offer taste in a very 

one-dimensional way, e.g. 

blending food so that it is fluid 

in the mouth and does not 

require chewing and does not 

make a noise. 

If you want to further boost 

your ability to support the 

child in this way, you can 

learn about how each 

sensory system develops. The 

experiences we are able to 

process in early development 

are often more accessible 

than those linked to later 

development. As you offer the 

child the touch experiences, 

the smell experiences, the 

taste experiences and the 

auditory experiences, 

you can present these in 

developmental order. Doing 

this will make it even easier 

for the child to come on this 

journey with you. 

Information about the 

development of the senses is 

what my Develop Your Sensory 

Lexiconary course is all about, 

it is also in my book Sensorybeing 

for Sensory Beings and 

available for free via long 

chats with me! If you are 

particularly stuck with a child 

on this issue, this information 

is well worth finding out, 

as some of it - particularly 

with regards to touch, taste 

and smell - can be counterintuitive. 

The best thing you can do for 

these children is to break the 

sensory challenge of eating 

down into its tiniest parts and 

recognise and celebrate their 

achievements as they master 

each part of the journey – and 

don’t forget to get others on 

board with your celebrations! 

It might also interest readers 

to know that I was once a 

fussy eater as a child, yet 

my dinner tonight contains 

all manner of colourful 

vegetables including slimy, 

slippery substances like 

avocado. For a little extra 

insight, here’s a couple of 

recent Facebook posts here – 

come and make friends! 

Joanna Grace 

Joanna Grace is an 

international Sensory 

Engagement and Inclusion 

Specialist, Trainer, Author, 

TEDx speaker and Founder 

of The Sensory Projects. 

Consistently rated as 

Outstanding by Ofsted, 

Joanna has taught in 

mainstream and special 

school settings, connecting 

with pupils of all ages and 

abilities. To inform her work, 

Joanna draws on her own 

experience from her private 

and professional life as well 

as taking in all the information 

she can from the research 

archives. Joanna’s private life 

includes family members with 

disabilities and neurodiverse 

conditions and time spent 

as a registered foster carer 

for children with profound 

disabilities. 

Joanna’s books Sensory 

Stories for children and 

teens and Sensory-being for 

Sensory Beings sell globally. 

She has a further five books 

due for publication within 

the next two years, including 

four children’s books. 

Joanna is a big fan of social 

media and is always happy 

to connect with people 

via Facebook, Twitter and 

Linkedin 

Website: 

thesensoryprojects.co.uk 

Find out more about Joanna’s 2019 sensory tour 

dates and mega early bird tickets here 


World Car Free Day – 

Will you be doing your bit? 

www.jobs.parenta.com 

World Car Free Day takes place on the 22nd September and seeks to promote alternative forms of 

active and sustainable travel, like cycling and walking. 

New figures from the 

Government’s National Travel 

Survey have shown that 

there’s an overall increase in 

the number of people using 

motor vehicles to travel to a 

destination less than two miles 

away. Campaigners say this 

is having a major effect on 

Britain’s air pollution levels. 

For young children, exposure 

to traffic fumes is associated 

with stunted lung development, 

according to Chris Griffiths, 

co-director of the Asthma UK 

Centre for Applied Research. 

The British Lung Foundation 

also warns that children who 

breathe high levels of air 

pollution over a long period of 

time are at risk of developing 

asthma, wheezing, coughs or 

even more serious infections, 

like pneumonia. 

Last year, the shocking results 

of Greenpeace’s investigation 

into air pollution hit the 

headlines; it found that over 

1,000 nurseries in England 

were located within 150m of 

roads which broke the legal 

limits for air pollution. 

760 of the 1,015 nurseries cited 

in Greenpeace’s report were in 

London. 

During the study, the 

environmental campaigning 

organisation looked at the EU 

legal limit for nitrogen oxide 

– the gas released from car 

exhausts or during the burning 

of substances like diesel and 

coal. 

It found that some of the most 

heavily affected areas of the 

country were Birmingham, 

Sandwell, Nottingham, 

Plymouth, Manchester, 

Leicester, Hampshire, Leeds, 

Wolverhampton and Salford. 

In a bid to help protect schools 

and nurseries in the most 

polluted parts of London, 

Mayor Sadiq Khan recently 

announced a new £1m fund to 

help reduce the effects of toxic 

air on children. As part of this, 

detailed air quality audits have 

been carried out in 50 schools 

in London boroughs, with each 

audited school receiving a 

£10,000 starter grant to help 

cut air pollution. 

A further £250,000 will be set 

aside to carry out air quality 

audits and fit indoor air filters 

in 20 of the worst-affected 

London nurseries. 

So what can your setting do to encourage parents, staff and 

families to support World Car Free Day? Here are some ideas: 

►► 

►► 

►► 

►► 

►► 

►► 

►► 

►► 

Send out information to parents in a newsletter detailing your 

participation in World Car Free Day and share the activities 

you’ll be running to raise awareness of air pollution 

Get staff and children to log how many miles they’ve walked 

or cycled in the week leading up to World Car Free Day, 

giving a certificate or prize to the ones who have totted up 

the longest distance 

For staff members who must commute lengthy distances to 

get to your setting, ask whether they’d consider getting public 

transport or participating in a car share as a way to cut down 

on air pollution 

Ask children to put together posters to display around your 

setting which promote active and sustainable methods of 

travel 

Talk to your children about the impact of air pollution and its 

effect on health and the natural environment 

Ask parents to turn their car engines off rather than leaving 

them idling when parked near your setting 

Think about ways you can continue to promote walking 

and cycling as alternative forms of transport, perhaps by 

extending World Car Free Day so that it’s a regular monthly 

occurrence 

Run a celebration day with a traffic light-themed bake sale, 

with proceeds going to a relevant charity such as Asthma UK 

Will your setting be supporting World 

Car Free Day in a bid to help cut air 

pollution levels? What activities have 

you got planned? Let us know by sending an 

email to marketing@parenta.com 

Childcare Apprentice Required: 

Kerry Manning Childminder's Maidstone Kent ME14 2HH 

Scribbles Pre School Tonbridge Kent TN11 8RL 

Farm Work Play Faversham Kent ME13 9EH 

Honey’s Childminding Manor Park London E12 6HW 

Hornsey Road Children’s Centre Hornsey London N7 7EN 

Cherryli Nursery New Cross London SE4 1QG 

Christine Jancso Childminder Ruislip Middlesex HA4 0AP 

Kids Will Be Kids Elstree Watford WD6 3JJ 

ICan Childminding Greenwich London SE3 9QU 

Marylebone Village Nursery Marylebone London W1U 3QY 

The Wendy House Day Nursery Royston Hertfordshire SG8 0HW 

Pips Nursery Saffron Walden Essex CB11 4XJ 

Little Acorns Nursery Brentwood Essex CM13 1SD 

The Lighthouse Children’s Day Nursery Leamington Spa Warwickshire CV32 5JF 

Boxmoor Preschool Crouchfield Hemel Hempstead HP1 1PA 

Pury Play Paulerspury Northamptonshire NN12 7NA 

Izzies Nursery Portsmouth Hampshire PO2 7HX 

Active Care Bracknell Berkshire RG12 1RL 

Edith Rose Day Nursery Ascot Berkshire SL5 7NW 

Village End Childcare Ascot Berkshire SL5 8DQ 

Little Roos Maidenhead Buckinghamshire SL6 0QH 

Patchwork Montessori Maidenhead Buckinghamshire SL6 3AR 

Little Roos Marlow Buckinghamshire SL7 1JW 

Little Lambs Christian Pre-School and Nursery East Grinstead Mid Sussex RH19 2HA 

Northover Fruit Tree Nursery Bromley London BR1 5JR 

The Woodland Nursery Sidcup Kent DA14 4QT 

Cbabiesafe Worthing West Sussex BN11 3RT 

38 Parenta.com 

Advertise your vacancy on our job board for FREE - get in touch for 

September 

more info 

2018 39 

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NURSERY 

WEBSITE DESIGN 

Think of it like this – a nursery website is like having your very own 

marketing team working on promoting your setting 24 hours a day, 

7 days a week, 365 days a year…need we say any more?! 

We are childcare specialists 

We know the requirements of Ofsted 

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We understand what will get parents to engage with you 

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We suggest what information would benefit your website 

We regularly check we are providing the best software 

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We can help, whatever your budget or technical knowledge 

parenta.com/websites

Magazine September 2018

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