PLAY COLLOQUIUM LOBBYING
No doubt you will remember that TACTYC (together with the Early Years BERA SIG and Leeds Metropolitan University) sponsored a two-day Play Colloquium in April of this year where we brought together academics undertaking current research about play in education to share their findings. We are delighted to announce that we have now gained funding from the Vicky Hurst Trust to take the outcomes from the Play Colloquium to the House of Commons to lobby politicians and policy makers. The date is the 12th November 2008. The programme for the session is still being put together but we're hoping that we can really make a difference and persuade those who attend to consider a) the value of play in children's learning in educational contexts; b) the need for further funded research to try to establish what aspects of play are most beneficial to learning, and c) the need for high quality training for practitioners in understanding and supporting children's learning through play. Later, we shall be asking for your support in lobbying your own MPs. We already have the support of Annette Brooks (the Liberal spokesperson for education) who is a great advocate for the early years. We're hoping for a good turnout - and good outcomes! Watch this space!

TACTYC DEVELOPMENT DAY
The TACTYC Executive held a Development Day in Leeds on the 14th July. Our discussions on the future of TACTYC, and its role as the only professional association to be concerned with early years training issues, ranged far and wide, as you can imagine! We talked in-depth on the following issues: membership, regional activities, the role and future of our annual conferences, the relationship between our international journal, the newsletter and the website, our lobbying role and potential candidates for the TACTYC Chair in 2009. We will report more on these issues in the next Newsletter. If you have any comments you would like to add, please contact Pat Broadhead at pat.broadhead@unn.ac.uk.

QUESTIONNAIRE TO OUR MEMBERS
One decision at our Development Day was to find out from our members more about what they would like from TACTYC - apart, of course, from the Journal, the Newsletter, the Conferences and the website! We are currently compiling a brief Questionnaire which we hope to send to you shortly seeking your views on TACTYC's effectiveness in meeting your needs and interests.

E-MAILS - YES: we really do need YOURS!
One of our discussions at the Development Day was how we could communicate more quickly and effectively with our members. E-mail is obviously the quickest, cheapest and most effective way to contact you but we still don't have everyone's e-mail. We would like, for example, to send our the questionnaire (see above) via e-mail. PLEASE, PLEASE send your e-mail address to Jackie Eyles (see Exec list) as soon as possible.

2008 TACTYC AWARD
We are still hoping for lots of entries for our 2008 TACTYC Award. Don't be shy! We're sure you must have some interesting and innovative work underway which you would like to submit for the award. We feel certain there's lots of creative learning experiences to be drawn upon. See our Awards page for how to apply. Alternatively, contact Claire Mould to discuss a potential application (see Exec list for e-mail information).

CONSULTATION RESPONSES
We have recently made a further consultation responses on your behalf: to the Fair Play: A consultation on the play strategy. Please see the response here. We hope you will feel free to use this and our other consultation responses with staff, students, parents and others who wish to think about the issues.

NOVEMBER CONFERENCE/AGM
Our November conference/AGM will be held (by popular request) in Birmingham on Saturday, 8th November 2008. The Conference focus is: Not Just choosing: Respecting and Supporting Children's Play. We know this is a priority for many of you with the advent of the Early Years Foundation Stage and several local authorities are very interested in sending delegates. A full list of keynotes and discussion groups, plus an application form, is available on our Conference webpage here. The Conference will only be as good as the people who attend - do send in your application soon.

BOOK REVIEWS
We continue to have new book reviews regularly on this web-page so why not see if there is something here for YOU? Any contributions from members would be gratefully received.

Updated 23rd July 2008