Category Archives: Uncategorized

I want us to start thinking differently about creativity in the baby room. Instead of asking the question ‘What can we do that’s creative?’, let’s ask the question ‘How can we do what we’re doing in a more creative way?’. Shifting the mindset from ‘What?’ to ‘How?’ is a hugely liberating thing to do. WhenContinue reading “Creativity in the Baby Room”

I bought myself a slightly strange Christmas present – This. It’s the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (3rd Edition), otherwise known as ITERS-3. It’s a tool typically used in the US to monitor process quality in early childhood education environments serving 0-3 year olds. The idea of the ITERS is that you can spend 3 hoursContinue reading “Let’s see it from the baby room educator’s perspective”

There are many models of reflection out there. It can feel overwhelming when you do a course on reflective practice in the early years or read a book about it because often a number of different models are put forward and explained. Adopting one, simple model of reflection and actually doing it, is more importantContinue reading “Reflective Practice in the Baby Room: Description, Analysis & Evaluation”

Caring for babies involves a lot of giving. We give warmth. We give love and affection. We give emotional support. We give attachment. We give stimulation. We give so much. It’s easy to focus completely on the giving nature of baby room work – especially when the pay and conditions of the work leave aContinue reading “Reciprocity: Nel Noddings’ vision of care in the baby room”

You’ll know from previous blogposts, that I’m particularly interested at the moment in how babies show self-determination and agency – how they make choices for themselves and how they make things happen in the world around them. I wonder how this focus on self-determination and agency might change the way we see personal hygiene andContinue reading “Babies’ self-determination and agency: looking at how we do personal hygiene and care in the baby room”

I recently published an article in Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood called ‘The everyday advocacy work of the baby room leader’. If you don’t have access to the article or the time to read it, here’s a quick summary of the main points. In a nutshell, the article argues that baby room leaders play aContinue reading “Everyday advocacy: How baby room leaders are shaping early years education”

Motivation is individual to you. What motivates you won’t necessarily motivate someone else. As a leader in the baby room, a big part of the role is motivating your team and this means understanding what makes others tick and how to work with this day to day. In previous blogposts, we’ve looked together at differentContinue reading “Embracing creative motivation in the baby room”

In the previous blogpost, we looked at different motivation types that we might see around us. There are lots of ways to pay attention to what might be motivating your colleagues in the baby room – whether that’s through conversations during recruitment and induction, or just noticing particular behaviours in team meetings or day toContinue reading “Motivating Your Team (part 2): Responding to what motivates others”

Motivating other people is a huge part of leadership. It’s no different for baby room leaders. To support you to motivate others, it can helpful to understand basic types of motivation that might exist among your team and how you can respond to these in practical ways. In this blogpost, we’ll focus on types ofContinue reading “Motivating Your Team (part 1): Motivation types in the baby room”