MICHAEL SIEFF FOUNDATION/NATIONAL CHILDREN'S BUREAU HOUSE OF LORDS SEMINAR
This event took place on the 9th February 2010 and TACTYC was represented by our President, Wendy Scott. It was attended by other major people in the field and from the different political parties. Wendy writes: The key priorities identified during presentations and discussion were:

1. early years should be reclaimed for children up to seven in line with recommendations from the Rose and Cambridge Reviews of the Primary Curriculum.
2. Ed Balls' promise that parents can choose when their children start primary school should be foregrounded and funded and, meanwhile, parents should be entitled to 25 hours per week nursery provision until then. The government should invest enough money into the Early Years Single Funding Formula so that quality can be maintained, provision made sustainable and administration become straightforward.
3. the literacy early learning goals should be realigned to avoid counterproductive pressures on children, parents and staff and must emphasise oracy, the love of books and the purposes of literacy for children who have little experience of this at home. There is recent research evidence from NZ showing that children who start formal literacy learning at seven achieve just as well by eleven as those who start at five - Read the media release here.
4. we should continue to promote specialist qualifications in early years pedagogy for staff in the maintained as well as PVI sector, in multi-professional teams where relevant, ensuring that all have access to continuing professional development that provides opportunities for reflection and discussion, influenced by principle and research evidence. As part of this, pay and conditions of staff in the non-maintained sector should be improved. We should also secure the future of maintained nursery schools and other excellent settings so they can fulfil a role similar to teaching hospitals.
5. effectiveness and value for money of OFSTED should be improved by establishing consistent and informed professional judgement and converting it into an agency that provides constructive support for improvement.
6. investment in the early years, including work with parents, should be prioritized as the most effective way to counter the unacceptable gap between disadvantaged families and the rest.

Comments on any of these issues are welcomed by the TACTYC Executive. Please contact Trisha Maynard (Chair) at t.maynard@swansea.ac.uk

JOURNAL AND WEBSITE FIGURES
At a recent Journal Editors' Meeting it was reported that our Early Years Journal continues to be one of the most successful e.y. journals produced by Routledge - a brief report will be posted soon. It was also commented that website hits rise year-on-year with currently over 25,500 hits on the website during January 2010 of which there were 10,500 user sessions and 3,400 unique users. It's gratifying to know that members and others are using the Journal and website and clearly gaining professionally from them both. As ever, we are keen to hear from you our members and users about your experiences of the website so please send your comments to Janet (j.moyles@ntlworld.com). We are also most grateful to Routledge - and in particular, Ben Honey - for continued support with the website and Journal.

EARLY YEARS: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
It is with great pleasure that I can report on the continued success of the Early Years Journal. Through the combined access from our Informaworld platform and EBSCO, the number of downloads received to the Journal reached over 46,000 in 2009. Along with a promising level of core subscription renewals so far in 2010, we feel the Journal is in a strong position in the current market and is maintaining its popularity in the field.

Usage of academic journals is increasingly becoming an important factor for the measurement of success, which is why we are so pleased to see the number of full text downloads via Informaworld increasing by 17% 2008-2009, a trend that we expect to be repeated in the download figures for 2009 to 2010.

The international appeal of the Journal is apparent from the geographical spread across 16 countries worldwide of the core subscriptions in 2009: in addition to this the Journal reaches many more countries via EBSCO and our sales packages. Our marketing of the Journal will aim to increase its international appeal in countries that do not currently have any institutions taking a subscription; as well as retaining subscriptions from institutions that already subscribe to the Journal.

For further information on Early Years, or Routledge, please contact Katie Peace, Publisher for the Journal, at katie.peace@tandf.co.uk

HOUSE OF COMMONS TRAINING OF TEACHERS REPORT AND TACTYC'S INVOLVEMENT
TACTYC figures prominently in the most recent House of Commons Training of Teachers Report, to which you will remember that we submitted both written evidence and were represented through oral evidence given by Pat Broadhead. The Report reiterates the need for qualified teachers in early years settings and leadership by graduates. It questions the EYPS qualification in comparison to QTS and suggests the need for examining comparability especially between pay and conditions. It also recommends that the TDA should prepare all trainee teachers for the birth-to-three age range as well as 3+, that training should be included in relation to EYFS and ITE students should spend time in early years settings. Click here to read the Report online (see particularly Ch.6, pp.57-60). This Report includes individual reports on both the oral and written evidence. TACTYC is listed first in both publications.

HAVE YOU SEEN...?
The new 'play' website on the National Children's Bureau site: the Children's Play Information Service? It's quite comprehensive and includes: details of current research on play, factsheets on various play topics, student reading lists on play, Children’s Play update – monthly e-newsletter for the play sector, play abstracts – monthly listing of new books and journal articles on play and play conferences and events. You can find it at: www.ncb.org.uk/cpis (there’s also a link on our links page).

The DCSF, QCDA and NS have, between them, produced a new document intended to support practitioners in enhancing their understanding of children's play and playful teaching and learning provision. It is available online and the full reference is given here: Department for Children, Families and Schools (DCFS)/Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA) (2009)
Learning, Playing and Interacting: Good practice in the Early Years Foundation Stage. London: DCFS/QCDA.

A Bit Rich, a report recently published by the New Economics Foundation, discusses the social impact of six different jobs - three low paid (one a nursery workers) and three highly paid. The report found that it was the lower paid jobs which involved more valuable work. Read the Report here.

YOUNG BOYS AND ACHIEVEMENT
The debate about young boys and their (usually lack of) achievement compared with girls is often in the media. There is concern expressed in a number of quarters about the reasons for the differences. Accord to YouGov, almost one quarter of boys have difficulty learning to talk. The YouGov online survey of 1,015 parents found that twice as many boys as girls have problems learning to talk and that some three-year-olds were unable to say a single word. Read the YouGov survey here. Suffice it to say, as the OpenEYE campaign Newsletter suggests, 'boys are not the same as girls - they don't look the same, learn the same, progress the same or want to do the same things and, according to new research, their brains are actually wired differently from girls'. How concerned should we be about young boys are they really 'falling behind' or is the problem both in the way we measure learning outcomes for young children and the inappropriate learning experiences forced upon young boys? Do you have a view? If so, we'd really like to hear from you. You can e-mail Janet Moyles at j.moyles@ntlworld.com to make your views known.

PLAY RESEARCH
We are currently seeking support to extend and develop the work we have already begun on researching children's play in the early years, particularly children aged four-years. Are you a Reception Class teacher with views on how play has - or has not - developed further since the start of the EYFS in September 2008? If so, it would be good to hear your views and maybe to utilise these in putting together a submission for funding. We have already received some very useful comments from conference delegates but we need all the 'evidence' we can get of whether reception age children are receiving their entitlement to a child-initiated and play-based curriculum. Please contact Janet (j.moyles@ntlworld.com) with your comments/thoughts.

REFLECTING ON EARLY YEARS ISSUES
We would like to invite you to submit some new papers for our 'Reflections' websitea> for 2010. You may be working on writing for a qualification or as part of a continuing professional development course. You may be a student or a qualified practitioner. It doesn't matter who you are, just that you have something of interest to share with others. Please think about submitting just 1500 words soon, so that we can all share your issues and reflections. Papers - and responses - to Janet please: j.moyles@ntlworld.com

REFLECTIONS ARTICLE
The latest Reflections article is a potentially contentious one from Jane Murray at Northampton University. The latest Reflections article is posted here. Please have a look! Do you wish to respond? If so, contact Janet with your comments. There is also a response by Joanne Williamson to an article on Summer-Born Children Deserve Equal Opportunities as well as a response to Dorothy Selleck's article about Key Group Time. Read both of these articles here.

MEMBER PROFILES
A new member of the Exec, Margaret Simms, has posted her profile on the website - you can find it here. How about send your profile to the website editor? j.moyles@ntlworld.com It would be great to know more about our members and their interests. If in doubt contact Janet Moyles.

CONFERENCE AND AGM 2010
Our 2010 Day Conference and AGM will be held on Saturday, 13th November 2010. The venue is the Novotel, Broad Street, Birmingham and the focus is: Grounds for play: exploring risk in the outdoor early years environment. We have some excellent speakers and 'playshop' leaders booked already so please ensure you put this date in your diaries too. The programme is coming together and you can find further details on the Future Conferences page.

MEMBERSHIP FEES
Members agreed at the AGM 2009 to an increase from £30 to £35 for full members: £20 for unwaged/student members is unchanged. Please ensure that this is reflected in your membership fee when you send it to Jackie Eyles. Or, if you have any queries about your membership, contact Jackie at jackie.eyles1@btopenworld.com. The revised membership form can be found here.

A PLEA TO OUR INTERNATIONAL WEB USERS
We are really keen at TACTYC to learn from the experiences of people in other countries. If you have a Reflections issue or just some information about early childhood education in your country, we'd be delighted to hear from you. Please contact any one of the Exec members whose e-mail addresses you can find here or e-mail Janet Moyles at j.moyles@ntlworld.com

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Updated 10th March 2010