Blog

We work in a female dominated environment but we don’t talk nearly enough about the impact of menstruation on our well-being… Back when I lived up North, I was working in a neighbourhood nursery and one horribly dark cold winter morning I walked into my pre-school and started to set up. I always tried to…

Although people are more familiar with and aware of allergies these days, it might still sur-prise you to learn that allergies and intolerances can cause a whole host of symptoms rang-ing from skin rashes, itchiness, bloating, irritable bowel, mental health problems, unex-plained weight gain or loss, hormone imbalances, or the more serious conditions such as…

The time of middle childhood (8 – 12 years) marks an exciting but sometimes scary milestone for children. The eminent neuroscientist, Dr Daniel Siegel refers to the neurobiological period of adolescence as a “reconstruction zone”. This is because the first ‘wave’ of brain development occurs during early childhood, with the final ‘wave’ taking place during…

What is wellbeing to me? Over the years, I have oftened worried about mental health and the perception people have about it. Thankfully that stigma is reducing due to an increase of education and awareness, alot of thanks to Kate’s knowledge and input over this last year…♡ Having a close family member that has suffered…

‘I didn’t move up the rocket today…’ Search for behaviour charts on google and you’ll be faced with a myriad of choices – rockets, rainbows, traffic lights, happy and sad faces…all sorts. It saddens me when I see charts like this in an Early Years setting or classroom. It makes me question who the chart…

Lately I’ve been reading the poetry of Rainier Marie Rilke and it is nothing short of extraordinary. One of his poems includes these lines: “I want to unfold. I don’t want to stay folded anywhere, because where I am folded, there I am a lie. I want my grasp of things to be true before…

At the University of Sheffield, we are currently working on an international research collaboration with the Australian Catholic University. The aim of this research is to theorise how learning-rich leadership enhances service quality in Early Childhood Education. As part of this research we interviewed 20 graduate leaders across the Early Years sector and with a…

Although this blog highlights the benefits of Northern Ireland’s Infant Mental Health framework (PHA, 2016), I urge readers to take it on the side of caution. Northern Ireland has been without a functioning Government since January 2017 and many of our policies have sat in transit since this time. We are still keeping a float.…

I was asked to contribute to Early Years wellbeing week. A great honour! The topic: A parental perspective of Postnatal Depression. My immediate reaction; I know someone who would be better suited to writing the post. My experience wasn’t that severe. People have experiences much deeper than my own. Would I be able to help…