The late American astronomer and astrophysicist, Carl Sagan, described our planet as the ‘pale blue dot’, described as such after seeing an image of earth taken in 1990 from the Voyager 1 space probe, from a distance of about 6 billion kilometres. His book, “Pale Blue Dot”, explores claims that earth and its inhabitants are
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Language has the power to create a genuine sense of inclusion[1] along with a growth mindset for children. How can we ensure we are using it to full effect? How does play provide a platform from which to develop mindset and inclusion? Here, I explore the possibility that we can inadvertently cap learning or create
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Pirate themed play days are always popular and make a frequent appearance on the early year’s calendar. It’s no surprise, with all the looting, funny voices, dressing up and role play opportunities. Add a Kitcamp pirate ship and the imagination really does know no limits! Creating fun, with purpose. The challenge with role play spaces is to
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“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” Fred Rogers. Picture the scene, the Headteacher walks in and sees busy-ness and ‘fun’ taking place in the classroom, children engaged, talking with each other, laughing or
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Calling all engineers! 2018 is marked as the Year of Engineering by the government[1]. This is to address a shortage of young people aspiring to be engineers. The shortage is predicted to be 20,000 short of the jobs available in the sector leading to a significant impact on productivity and growth in the UK alone. Big investment from partners such as
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Children learn by imitating. A baby’s first smile mirrors another’s grin; the first babbles mimic a parent’s speech. It’s therefore hardly surprising that the earliest role play children act outcomes from familiar domestic scenes. Examples include chatting away into a toy phone or cooking up a storm with plastic food and making mud pies. They
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