Jane Rogers

By RCTN coordinators Eleanor Milligan, Viki Veale, Janet Morris and Lorna Williams The recent publication of the Department for Education's Excellence in Reception Teaching Content Framework (DfE, 2026) represents a significant development in the professional landscape of Reception education in England. The framework, which underpins a new national professional development programme for Reception teachers, seeks to articulate the knowledge, skills and practices associated with high-quality...

Daniel Vanello is lecturer in philosophy of education at UCL’s Institute of Education. He is currently working on a number of projects on children’s moral and socio-emotional development, including with reception class teachers. Drawing on his research on children’s socio-emotional development, Daniel Vanello argues that the professional development of early years teachers would benefit from a clearer framework of children’s developing rational agency. Children's socio-emotional development...

Paul Lindley OBE is an entrepreneur, author and Chair of the Raising the Nation Play Commission. He founded Ella’s Kitchen and is the author of Raising the Nation (2023). He is Chancellor of the University of Reading and works across policy and practice to build a more child-centred future. Drawing on his work as Chair of the Raising the Nation Play Commission, Paul Lindley OBE argues that play is not an “extra” in early years education but the lived experience through which children develop...