Early Years Spring Summit 2019
Monday 29th April marks day one of Kathy Brodie's 'Early Years Spring Summit'. Each spring, Kathy rounds up a range of early years specialists, and records discussions with them. I participated for the first time last year, and am delighted to say I'm back this year, talking about the amazing settings PLL Mary and I saw in Japan last November. This year's Spring Summit theme is risk-taking, and speakers include:
Dr. Mariana Brussoni: researches the importance of outdoor risky play for children's healthy development and how the built outdoor environment affects children's play. Mariana has also collaborated with Professor Jane Herrington on the '7Cs approach' to creating high quality outdoor play spaces for young children. I use this approach in my design projects, and wrote about it for Nursery World. Find out more about Mariana at The Brussoni Lab.
Niki Buchan: is a leading nature pedagogue and has developed a reputation as a strong advocate for children’s right to a high-quality childhood, including having regular access to nature and having their voices heard. Nikki speaks all over the world and will have unique insights into risk-taking in different cultures.
Dr. Tim Gill: writes and advocates widely on adventurous play, challenge, and the benefits for children. His influential blog, Rethinking Childhood is unmissable and Tim's work has shaped how Play Learning Life thinks about play and learning beyond schools and settings, reaching out into communities.
...and that's just for starters. There are well over a dozen different speakers and personally I plan to hear them all.
The best thing of all is: these discussions are free - and you can watch at your own convenience. You'll need to register, so click this link to go directly to Kathy's sign up page: