All families come in different shapes and sizes, but they are all special when they love and respect each other. These rhyming stories are a celebration of the diversity of families and encourage inclusion and acceptance in a child's relationships. By promoting diversity and understanding in family life and elsewhere, these stories support a positive approach to life at a young age, which fosters strong mental health and well-being. Each page is dedicated to a different family, with stories exploring adoption, fostering, disability, race, gender, and illness. Filled with humour and delightfully illustrated, children will love reading these stories with friends, family and in school again and again.
The STAR Program is designed to teach children and those involved in their care psychological techniques to improve self-control and prosocial competence. The program employs cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) principles and uses a child-centered approach to teach attention skills, emotional control, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills to children aged 8-12 who have cognitive, behavioral, social or emotional difficulties. This manual includes designated group sessions to be delivered by healthcare practitioners alongside individual coaching sessions to be provided by a family member or individual carer between each group meeting. Extra materials include PowerPoint presentations, and a Thinking Tools resource, which are available to download from the JKP website.
For those starting a business in early years childcare, having a passion for the job is important. But sustaining a business successfully takes more than natural enthusiasm. Many childcare businesses struggle due to lack of formal training or confidence in the business world. This accessible and practical guide shows exactly how to develop your organisation, leading to success within the competitive market and ultimately a higher quality childcare service. Jacqui Burke reveals what parents really want from professional early years childcare, and the core marketing, finance and management skills needed to realize these ideals. Studying what businesses have done right and wrong to date, the book includes example activities and market-savvy checklists that clearly show how to analyse your organisation, master day-to-day management, attract new customers, and take your business to the next level. With invaluable advice on how to better the experiences of your children, parents and staff alike, this guide will help you make your organisation stand out from the crowd.
Counsellors working with young people often find it can feel like messy, complex work. What helps when counsellors themselves are stuck? This book recalls those moments when supervision sessions have been crucial to puzzling out the complexities of counselling young people. The assorted supervision stories in this book explore the important issues that counsellors working with young people face, and look at how supervision can help them overcome these issues. Thoughtful and engaging, each story is a snapshot from a counsellor's career. They address questions such as 'What gets talked about?', 'What issues recur with young people and how are they addressed in supervision?' and 'What helps counsellors to move on when they're stuck?' As a veteran counsellor and supervisor with 40 years' experience, Nick Luxmoore vividly recounts moments of highs and lows, of uncertainties and of breakthroughs, and of the unique dilemmas experienced by counsellors and supervisors working with young people.
School playtimes account for 20% of a child's school life, but how can schools ensure that this time is as beneficial as possible for primary school pupils? Emphasising the importance of play in child development, this book identifies the key challenges facing schools during break times and sets out a complete strategy for effectively managing playtimes that are fun-filled and offer children greater long-term benefits. With before and after case studies showing how school playtimes have been transformed through the author's OPAL Primary Programme, this book demonstrates how to improve common issues such as behaviour, staffing, space and facilities in a sustainable way that capitalises on investments in equipment and training. Promoting wellbeing and healthy child development, this book provides inspiring reading for primary school staff and play workers, and creative ideas and ready-to-use solutions that will help schools to meet Ofsted criteria for excellent play.
In this practical resource, Tania Swift provides early years professionals and teachers with advice and tips on incorporating physical activities into all key areas of children's learning. Advancing a movement skills based approach to help teachers deliver learning flexibly, the book identifies how getting children active contributes to their wellbeing and development and improves personal and social skills as well as their cognitive learning. The book is divided into chapters that explore personal, social and emotional development; mathematics and numeracy; literacy, language and communication; knowledge and understanding of the world; expressive arts, design and creative development; and spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Drawing on the author's wealth of training experience, each chapter sets out a range of knowledge development, tips, tools and activities that teachers and practitioners can use to support and enhance children's learning and development and examples of good practice from other practitioners and teachers. Full of creative ideas that early years workers and teachers can easily implement, this book will equip readers with the knowledge and confidence to plan for effective learning through movement and active play.
Positive emotional health in a child's earliest years can be a critical factor in their future development. Offering practical suggestions for games, activities and exercises designed to promote emotional wellbeing in young children, this essential guide showcases a wide range of approaches such as mindfulness and meditation, Forest School and Reggio Emilia to provide a hands-on reference for teachers and parents. Drawing on over 25 years' experience as an early years professional, the author explores topics including playfulness, stillness, sensory play, creativity and staff wellbeing. Each topic references current best practices and international examples, and also includes a comprehensive list of further resources and activities. Providing an informative introduction to both theory and practice, this book demonstrates easy-to-implement ideas for any professional or parent engaging with young children.
In this accessible and informative step-by-step guide, early years consultant Debbie Garvey provides leaders and managers with best practice tips and advice for developing their performance management skills in early years settings. Drawing on current research and the author's wealth of experience in the field, each chapter sets out effective performance management techniques that leaders can apply to their workplaces, on topics such as staff development, recruitment, appraisals, conflict management, feedback and evaluation, mentoring and coaching and health and wellbeing. Grounded in an understanding of neuroscience and brain development, this practical book provides advice on how to ensure a safe and motivational environment for both children and staff to develop, whatever their needs. Designed to support new and existing managers, the book includes reflective exercises, key theories and case studies to enable leaders to develop a style suited to their team and setting, ensuring children are given the best possible support during their first and most crucial development stage.
In a world where religion refuses to expire, two responses predominate. The first, to retrench within the certainties of one's native or adopted faith, questioning nothing; the second, to sneer and snarl from the secular side-lines. Here, Stephen Cherry offers a third alternative for religious believer, agnostic, and atheist alike – to engage with the study of theology. Confessing himself to be a reluctant theologian, Cherry puts forward three positive reasons why more people should take theology seriously – because it's fascinating, fun and important. He suggests that genuine theology is the antidote to fundamentalism, contrasts the theological approaches of Jesus of Nazareth and Richard Dawkins, introduces some of the biggest puzzles unravelled by theology, and reviews the history of the subject in fewer than 20 tweets. Drawing people at all stages of life into a more serious engagement with the riches, delights and fun of theology, it is a book for any who find themselves to be a little God-curious.
Do you find it hard to make friends? Do you struggle to know what to say to start a conversation? In this book, Paul Jordan, who is on the autism spectrum, explains how to make sense of everyday social situations you might encounter at school, university or in other group settings. He reveals how, with the use of just 65 simple words, it is possible to create 'scripts for thinking' that break conversations down into small chunks and help you to think of what to say, whether you are speaking to a fellow student, starting a conversation with a new friend, calling out bullies or answering a teacher's question. These small words will be a big help for all teenagers and young people with ASD.