News

23rd November 2022

Wish I had a Forest School 

Forest schools are amazing if you have a forest or even trees but don’t use not having these as an excuse, it’s not the only way for children to access outdoors at your school or setting.

Outdoor classrooms have been a statutory part of Early Years for 15+ years now, not playtimes but classrooms. Once a upon time free flow was called for, access to the outdoors at all times during the session. I personally think the modern child needs to be taught outdoors especially if they are developmentally delayed in any way because outdoors is the best place to move and movement is the best thing to accelerate development. 
 
Creating a space to play outdoors, be free and to learn is, for our modern children, a way to experience childhood that is often lost in tablets, TV and trashy toys! I have always (15 years) had an outdoor classroom. First, it was a piece of the play ground. Then a chicken wired fenced off area to now where I have the most wonderful space, roofed by the sky and with a vast field and bike track to roam on as well, I am extremely lucky. 

So why do I wish I had a Forest school?
The word ‘natural’ has come into play in a world where children get very little experience of outdoors and we’ve lost the beauty of our outdoor classroom. Opting for pine cones indoors with plastic Ivy around sacking material displays, which are beautiful, but will they help the modern child with the current childhood issues being presented in the classroom?  
 
Behaviour has been a symptom of Covid, with socialising and physical movement delay for our modern child. Touching a pine cone will give a sensory experience but running in a space outdoors and finding pine cones will give a much wider learning experience. The benefits of outdoors far outweigh the problems, which are often staff who don’t like outdoors or the weather. 
 
Staff need to be aware of why the children need to access outdoors – I have an outdoor classroom CPD training that can be accessed via one of our paid subscriptions on School of Spread The Happiness that you can use with your staff.  

The modern child needs you to open your doors. Take them outside, if your curriculum is balanced on the formal side, go running for ten minutes before an input. You will see a difference.  
Got a group who don’t seem to remember things? Take them outdoors and play a physical phonics or maths game.  
 
“The natural outdoor learning environment produces longer lasting impact on a child’s memory.’”
– Waite 2007 
 
Parachute games are a great way to spend ten minutes outside.

Adventures outdoors are stimulating and you can role play the story outside. This week our book was The Three Little Pigs. I told the story inside then I said the receptionist had seen a Wolf on the field and would we go and find it. I had cut up an old piece of fur fabric and I had pieces in my pocket which, as we ran around, I placed carefully. We only had ten minutes looking for the Wolf but the stimulation led to us creating a rhyme, language and communication of a high level, and during their P.E. Session Reception used the rhyme to get round the obstacle course.

If I have inspired you to GET OUTSIDE please forward this email/link to someone in your team or cluster so that they can be inspired too.  
Join our Fb group where I discuss weekly exclusively problems and solutions for your Early Years Needs.

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19th October 2022

Quick Tip for Half Term

We love the holidays and we love days! Pamper days, date days (and nights), hen dos, stag dos, even divorce dos!
We handle celebrations in different ways and when we treat our holidays like celebrations days we will plan and prepare them differently.

So, let us celebrate each day of half term with a name, here are some ideas for you:
 
Pamper day 
Family day 
Just me day 
Outing day 
Food day 
Party day 
Chill day 
Prep day (for those with too much to do) 
Walk the _____ day 
 
I love this idea that the short holiday is maximised and by calling each day a celebration we will do more with our time (or not) or whatever we want. 

But let me challenge you. I have had a close family bereavement and whilst being part of organising the funeral of the gorgeous man we collected stories of his life from family and friends. The family have been brought closer through the stories people have shared. It is in living a full life, a celebration daily that is where the stories come from. 

Jump on Instagram @basonshonette and DM me or on Facebook or Twitter and tell me the days you are celebrating this half term.
(If I am too late then plan this for February half term it will soon be there.)

12th October 2022

5 Tools Every Early Years Teacher needs for Dough Disco Progression

Dough Disco is progressive; I prefer the word developmental but ‘progressive’ activities need to be seen in the classroom. So here are five tools for Dough Disco that you can use to show how it is progressive in your classroom.

1. Start at the beginning and know the science. 
2. Plan out the progress of your Dough Disco sessions termly (download Spread the Happiness Dough Disco Term Tracker)  
3. Use Draw a Person to show the need for Dough Disco and the progress. 
4. Do Dough Disco daily using books, YouTube or classroom videos in our School of Spread The Happiness (Click here)
5. Get accredited as a Dough Disco teacher so you know the science, progression and reasons why it is the best exercise for fine motor control. This way you will always be able to answer ‘why, how, when…’ and no one will ever stop the Dough Disco fine muscle exercise on your watch.  

First start at the beginning and know the science.
Why do we need to exercise children’s fine motor skills?
For the coordination of hand and eye, finger and fine muscle strength (usually associated with writing in education). Remember fine motor skills help children perform important tasks such as feeding themselves, grasping objects and writing. Having fine motor skills also impacts on self esteem because with stronger fine motor skills the child can be independent.  
 
Second, Plan out the progress of your Dough Disco sessions termly (download Spread the happiness Dough Disco term tracker) simple to do start with nursery rhymes mixed with the ten book 1 moves (book 1 and soon book 2 moves are found in the subscription in our school.spreadthehappiness.co.uk) Then advance to some themed Dough Disco over on Spread the Happiness TV on YouTube.  
There are eight Dough Disco books to date with ten moves and I am currently in the process of writing a progressive book with new moves, games and much much more so Dough Disco can continue through school. Our YouTube channel has Dough Disco play lists for beginners, intermediates and advanced with a click on the subscribe button you will never miss a new video release.  
 
To show progress use Draw a Person. This third tool is essential to show the need for Dough Disco and the progress when the exercise is used. Check out our assessment video – click here.
 
The fourth tool is do Dough Disco daily using books or You Tube (Click here to see our YouTube channel Spread The Happiness TV) or classroom videos in school.spreadthehappiness.co.uk.  It is so important to do this exercise daily because it helps fine motor skills so much but also let the children Dough Disco in provision, make non cook play dough, change ingredients and use different things in the dough rather than usual cutters and rollers. There are some great ideas on our YouTube channel or you can think up your own! Let us know on social media some of the fun you have with these ideas.
  
Finally the fifth tool, support modern children and get accredited as a Dough Disco teacher so you know the science, progression and reasons why it is the best exercise for fine motor control. This way you will always be able to answer ‘why, how, when’ and no one will ever stop the Dough Disco fine muscle exercise on your watch!
You can sign up via the button below, or contact us via email (Click here) to find out what you need to do.

Check out our instagram @spread_the_happiness or Spread the happiness Facebook page for more Dough Disco, Squiggle and Early Years ideas and the reasons as to why we use them and the science behind it.

29th September 2022

5 Ways to Get Your Early Years Assessment Spot On.  

Baseline assessment in England shows the teacher, I believe nothing useful. Right? All our reception class last September 2021 achieved a no score. So where do we go from here?  

These are the five ways I assess in my two-year-olds, Nursery and Reception.  

1. Draw a person – scientific approach created by Goodenough and later adapted by Naglieri 

2. Baseline assessment using age specific ‘I can statements’ – highlight pink for start of the term 

3. Targets set from initial baseline ‘I cans’ plus half termly tracking through I cans 

4. Online learning journal. Contains only photos that evidence the I can statements 

5. Dependent on your SLT understanding of EY – paper back up but showing a journey of progress 

In the latest EYFS England document it called for less assessment and while this may seem confusing for me it means less staff on devices recording pointless pictures which they then document and often our online platform becomes an Early Years Facebook.  

The document says when we assess individual children: 

 ‘Practitioners should draw on their own knowledge of the child and their own expert and professional judgement’  

It goes onto to say: 

‘They should not be required to prove this through the collection of physical evidence.’ 

Whilst this sounds great, and ideally professional judgements should be respected and go unquestioned, we have a problem. Many of our senior leaders need evidence and ask for books in Early Years because they do not understand that evidence in paper form is not always possible, owing to the level of the children’s development. 

If you have a clear assessment pathway and you educate your SLT they will love what you provide and gain a deeper understanding themselves of EY requirements. 

Here are the five ways in a little more depth. 

1. Draw a person an approach developed by Goodenough and then adapted by J.A. Naglieri. Simply get each child a completely blank A4 sheet of paper and a pencil (I use black felt tips as I like a clear definition). Ask the child to draw a person, say ‘can you draw you?’ Tap the paper to signal them to start and just observe. If they draw more than one person say, ‘which one is you?’ Label who else they drew. If the drawing is ‘chaotic’ ask the child to show you which is them? Or what bit of you are you drawing? (Never comment or give missing parts). This DAP shows how much of the child’s brain controls the body. You will instantly see whether your children have arms, fingers or even hands if they do not then fine and gross motor muscles need developing and strengthening. Repeat every half term. 

2. Baselining using ‘I can’ statements for nursery and reception (I am creating some two-year-old assessment statements, but I feel physical and communication and language should be assessed first). Simply print a set per child and highlight what they can do. Continue to highlight throughout the year with different colours per half term (I highlight mine every 5 weeks)  

3. Create targets from baseline assessment and continue to highlight progress as it is achieved. As previously said, I do mine every 5 weeks, so I know exactly where my children are. I set new targets continuously and for reception if the majority are at expected, I will jump onto Early Learning Goals and then into July I will assess on a transition document ready to transfer data and ‘I cans’ into year 1.  

4. OnLine learning journey that evidences the achievements of the ‘I cans’ only these statements appear as comments from teams. I.E. I can count to five. I am beginning to count beyond ten.  

5. Folders containing all of the above, Draw a Person in date order, I cans, targets and then evidence from their lockers (Join as free member and watch the locker display training on www.school.spreadthehappiness.co.uk 

 Make sure the evidence in the folders shows a progressive journey that is easily seen.  

I talked about these five tips and more in our Early Year’s Facebook group

I hope you have found this useful to see more tips daily follow our Instagram @spread_the_happiness_ 

Happy smooth assessment journey 

Shonette  

21st September 2022

One Simple Thing That Made my First Week Back in Class Easy!

Routine! That is it in one word.  
 
The first week back is nerves, chaos and our staff often need re-motivating … a recipe for stress, right?  
Our first day back in our Early Years unit was so smooth it felt like something was not quite right. Then I realised it is my tight morning routine that relaxes and makes the children feel instantly safe.

What do we do for our morning routine?  

8.45am

 As the doors open: We welcome each child by name. ‘Good morning, Susie’ 
Each child is expected to reply or at least make eye contact, this means connection has been made between the adult and child. Greetings are a basic form of communication and trigger trust for future conversations. It is a personal approach to communication and especially important in the morning routine. 
What about Parents? In our setting parents are aware that conversations need an appointment or a call to the office. If it cannot wait, they can also wait till every child is in the door too. 
 
In the room:
All adults are in the room waiting to greet their group and have an activity for them whilst we wait for everyone to be in the room. The activities range from stories, book sharing, singing songs and name writing.  

9am

Everyone is in the room:
The children get out their individual dough pots ready for Dough Disco, music on, pick a great Dough Disco song like ‘Let’s Get Ready to Rumble’! You can also use Spread the Happiness TV’s official Dough Disco videos – Click here to see the video.
Dough Disco promotes fine muscle, concentration, warms up the hand muscles and makes the start of the day organised and educationally productive – remember at home lots of children come from chaos or stressful situations (even the yummiest parents get stressed on the school run), so Dough Disco disco promotes sense of calm as well as fine muscle exercise. 
 
It also means you start your day with FUN and energy.  

9.10

Days of the Week Song 
Soon as Dough Disco is finished, we jump up and sing the’ Days of the Week’ song. Any great days of the week song will do. I use my version from Spread the Happiness TV – Click here to see the video.
The movement and energy are consistent between the different activities.  
The children get to move again after sitting for Dough Disco. It is also maths, sequencing and if you use days of the week flash cards it is early reading and understanding that words have meaning. 

9.15

Physical Ten Time 
This is ten minutes of rigorous physical activity with adults.  
The current NHS physical movement requirement for under fives is 3 hours per day with one hour being rigorous and adult led. These ten minutes counts towards that hour.  
 
What can you do? Run around the playground on a running course. Play a parachute game, adults blow bubbles and children jump for them or go for ten-minute speed walk to a timer.  
Why do this? Physical ten time aids concentration, burns excess energy (lots of  children have sugary breakfast that cause glucose spikes), helps promote physical fitness and if you sing songs and rhymes it’s enhanced early phonics but what I know is when you go back to sit on carpet the children will concentrate better and you will have better behaviour for your input.  

Why not try one or all three of the tips for a smooth class morning routine? Just simply add them to your morning session.  
I hope they help make your class calm and productive (and fun!) 
When you implement let me know by tagging me on your socials (Click the icons in the top right or at the bottom of this page for our social media links), so I can give you a massive high five for doing what is right for your children.  

1st February 2022

Early Years – What is its Role in Modern Education 2022?

Increasing pressure for children to perform to standards, targets and higher expectations of schools to fix societies issues within their walls means pressure on school leaders to get the maximum out of every year group. The leaders look inward and look at what works, or the government release a new initiative that works but are we truly looking at what works from the top to bottom, Key Stage 2 to Nursery or are we looking at what works in nursery and following that through?  

With the constant pressure on school leaders to ‘perform’ the Foundation Stage becomes a part of that process. 

In a recent poll most schools said they looked at top to bottom rather than Nursery through. This here is the problem. Having been an Early Years teacher for 16 years sometimes venturing into Year 1 I see this top to bottom issue daily. When I visit schools as a consultant, I see lots of issues in Early Years stemming from lack of understanding of Early Years and how it fits into modern education. So, let’s solve that right now. 

Early Years is the foundation, it used to be called Foundation, in Wales it’s called Foundation Phase and interestingly in Wales Foundation Phase goes up to the end of Year 2. 

Foundation: 

1. The lowest load bearing part of a building, typically below ground level. 

2. An underlying basis or principle 

Early Years is the FOUNDATION of education. The entry point of any child to school. Now we have private nursery and some schools, like mine, having twos provision. It’s the most important start point for any child and in turn parent. Often parents learn from school how to parent or even develop their child as extended families decrease. The most important point is Early Years is the foundation the underlying basis for all education. 

In Robert Fulghum’s poem ‘All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten’, he reminds us that everything we need to learn about life, living and being human is right there in our Early Years classrooms.  

These are the things I learned: 

• Share everything. 
• Play fair.
• Don’t hit people.
• Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess.
• Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
• Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Wash your hands before you eat.
• Flush.
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
• Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
• Take a nap every afternoon.

In our modern world technology has advanced rapidly, check out my vlog about what’s missing from pandemic childhood if you haven’t already.  

Our children are indoor children, experiencing less of outdoor time than inmates in prison. Research actually shows this! Early Years is the foundation and it’s important that we look at what that actually is. The foundation to all learning. 

Early Years is where we must preserve childhood because it is in childhood that the brain learns to control the body. Neuroscience clearly shows that every human needs early childhood practices, so the brain learns to control the body, strengthens the muscles including the brains ability to retain facts, knowledge and skills. Movement is essential, outdoor time also essential. NHS recommended movement times for under 5 is 3 hours per day. Again, all this will occur in an education environment.  What we must also realise is movement is play, play is child development and that’s the underpinning reason why Early Years is important in our education system today. Unfortunately, it’s no longer the simple skills Robert Fulham shares it’s much more important. Our children in modern education enter school delayed by one simple factor modern life. Lives now are easier in some senses, adults don’t move as much as the previous generations and parents have access to many enabling pieces of equipment as they do enabling. 

Our Early Years settings are more important now than every before because childhood has changed. We are now neuroscientific practitioners responsible for accelerating development, language, movement and intelligence. Without brain connections to the body a child can often have literacy issues in key stage 2. Check out Sally Goddard Blythe research spanning the changes in childhood including the pandemic. Without the correct practice in our Early Years, and by that, I mean a balance between movement and teaching input. An environment that is centred mainly outdoors and correct developmental styles of teaching for reading, writing and maths like Dough Disco, the Squiggle Early Writing Programme and movement-based maths we are building our children’s education on sand.  

We, as an education system, must stand up and look at the bottom or more the start point and accept this is the foundation of learning and agree to protect childhood and thus raise standards because quality Early Years brings another level of learning. Talk to my Spread the Happiness Head Teachers who saw impact within a term of putting Early Years as the foundation to learning.  

20th January 2022

Happiness Injection Podcast

We now have new episodes on our weekly podcast! Have an injection of happiness each week.

Listen at your convenience and let us know via social media if these help improve your day 🙂

You can view our latest podcast via captivate fm using the button below:

31st October 2021

Award winners!

Shonette was nominated for two categories in  the Tees Valley Business Women 2021 Awards.

At a ballgown/black tie event at Hardwick Hall in Teesside, to her great delight she won both categories. 

Inspiring others and Charity of the Year. She received two engraved hexagonal glass plaques which now have pride of place in her home.

It was an amazing night.

31st March 2021

Squiggle 2.0 now published

Shonettes popular approach to early years writing and letter formation – Squiggle Whilst You Wiggle is now updated and expanded in her new book ‘Squiggle 2.0’.

Squiggle uses neurological and physiological movements to create marks. The ‘how to Squiggle’ is beautiful in its fun and simplicity.

Squiggle can be done whole class, in smaller groups or even as a writing intervention. 

6th February 2021

Shonette’s New Book

The Spread the Happiness Approach is launched this month

Both practical and inspiring, this book is designed to empower educators and school leaders to make clear and simple adjustments to their practice for a lasting impact on the happiness and well- being of staff and children and ultimately on academic standards. It includes practical tips and activities to help teachers generate a lasting atmosphere of positivity and happiness in the classroom plus clear strategies to help leaders to embed the Spread the Happiness approach throughout their school and across the curriculum.

This book includes detailed case studies, a five-week programme of taster challenges and a section on measuring outcomes and sharing success. The Spread the Happiness approach invites teachers to undertake a 27-day challenge, which encourages problem solving and challenges them to make their immediate workplace happier. It identifies the strengths of adults and children and sets realistic goals to achieve as an individual, as a team and even as a community.

This powerful resource will be of great interest to all teachers and school leaders, as well as trainee teachers and students on leadership or early educational courses.

You can buy a copy for £34.99  direct from the publisher on:

Buy the Spread the Happiness Approach Book Here