I’ve been working my way through our set of policies, updating and revising. One I was looking at this week was about Equal Opportunities arising from the introduction of the 2010 Equality Act.

It set me thinking about how far we have come in terms of sexual equality. I hope that, for the 3 year olds I am looking after just now, it will be normal to have equal opportunities and that there won’t be jobs that women cant do or be expected to do. But, therein lies a problem. Equality shouldn’t just mean that women can aspire to the same roles as men, it should also mean that men aspire to the same roles as women.

The children I currently look after could be our future doctors, economists, lawyers and politicians. But will they also aspire to be early years workers? In my profession some 98% of the workforce are female. The role model currently being provided to our next generation is that women are the main nurturers and carers of young children. We might claim to promote equality but we are not demonstrating it.

The role of the early years professional, I think, is one of the most important there is. We have the task of supporting and shaping the next generation. Perhaps if more men thought of it that way they wouldn’t leave it all to the women 😉

I’ve had a lovely weekend meeting new people and learning some new skills. I attended workshops on loose parts and how many opportunities for learning they provide as well as how they fit so easily into our curriculum, the physics of fire (fascinating to watch but not one I’ll be doing at home!) and, probably my favourite, making my very own wand.

Was at a really interesting seminar in Glasgow this afternoon on the State of Children’s Play. I hope to write more about this later (or bore you all with it 😉 ) but it served only to reinforce my conviction that the play based ethos of a PLAYgroup is significantly beneficial to children. Children need self directed play experiences to allow their brains to develop. In a competitive society, however, where we rush to get children ready for school, we risk forcing education onto children before their brains have developed capacities such as reasoning and self-control. Without these basic skills teaching becomes much more difficult. The analogy of trying to build a house on sand comes to mind.

I’ve added this document to our Useful Reading section.