Dear Prime Minister,
Welcome and I wish good fortune as you build the right team around you to deliver your election promises. While I realise there are big issues that will be occupying your mind such as Brexit, I wish to be a bit parochial and draw your attention to the world of early years.
2022 has finally arrived and it is also day five of my COVID isolation. I know I am nearly better because the world doesn’t feel like a permanent menopausal hot flush and I can now sleep with two pillows instead to five.
Unless, you are joining Sleeping Beauty and dozing off for 100 years waiting for the Chancellor to wake you up with news of a generous recovery fund, you will know that this is just a fairy story or wishful thinking.
This week we spoke to a wide community of professionals concerned with evidence, impact, data, and evaluation at the Children and Young People Now conference in London.
I love apprentices… especially the LEYF apprentices. They are the next generation of early years teachers and, in my experience, they are amongst some of the best new talent we have across the whole sector.
Many of you will have heard me say that the early years is a highly political space. We find ourselves addressing poverty, social services, education and housing and now I find myself within the social justice space, in particular, prisons.
So, the Secretary of State, Gavin Williamson has signalled his vision that more and more schools should become not only academies but form multi-academy trusts.
Writing a book in the middle of the pandemic was not on the to do list but that was exactly what my colleague, Nick Corlett and I found ourselves doing.