All About Me - Hello and Welcome :)

My name is Sharon and since 2007 I have owned two early years settings, one in Manchester and one in Stockport, (UK). I felt it appropriate to set up this website after the closure of my nurseries in December 2022 after receiving an 'inadequate' grading.

As a result of this and other contributing personal factors that were going on in my life at the time, I made a conscious decision to step out of nursery ownership and management to protect my mental health and my peace. I feel that children are not being allowed the right to an education based on their social, physical, intellectual and communicative needs after several lockdowns. Childhoods are being forgotten about in place of children 'catching up' and are not being allowed to 'take risks' in order to become competent and resilient learners in their own right. A focus on academic achievement rather than social and emotional development is being ignored in favour of children sitting at desks and listening to a teacher or looking at a whiteboard.

I'd like to share my knowledge, skills and experience that I have gained over the years to help, support and inspire others to continue to provide an educational experience that is led by the child and gently guided by the adult. A 'child led' and 'play based' approach where care, connection and communication are at the heart of everything we do for our children. Education should be about finding out what children are good at as opposed to tests and assessments to find out where the children fail or struggle, much like the ofsted inspection process.

Please feel free to share your experiences with me so that we can learn from each other and reflect on our practice to become better educators, parents and carers to our youngest children, who need us the most. Creating a child with a love of learning for life will not be created by shoving a pen in the hand of a 2 or 3 year old who cannot yet regulate their emotions or who is not physically ready to do so.

Let's start with the child and where they are at developmentally as opposed to downloading a pre-set 'one-size-fits-all' curriculum into a child who is sat at a desk. Can learning not happen outdoors or lay on the floor? Do children really need to be sat, cross-legged to learn? Do children need to be looking at the teacher to listen? Where does that leave our most vulnerable children and our neuro-diverse children or children with special educational needs and disabilities? What about the likes and dislikes of our children? Do we really need for the children to 'catch up'?

There are just too many unanswered questions that require a deeper level of reflection for me. Continuous personal and professional development, not just for nurseries, childminders and nanny's but for those also involved in inspecting them. It's not just about academic learning - what about the promotion of effective physical and emotionally secure environments for our children so that they are ready to take appropriate risks and learn for life, not just school.

With Gratitude & Love,

Sharon X

#iloveearlyyears