Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between speechreading ability, phonological skills, and word reading ability in typically developing children. Method: Sixty-six typically developing children (6-7 years old) completed tasks measuring word reading, speechreading (words, sentences, and short stories),…

The place of Church school headteachers as spiritual leaders of the school community is rarely highlighted. This article investigates how 13 Church primary school headteachers (Catholic Church of England, and Methodist) interpret this role. It draws on the Faith in the Nexus research which investigated how church primary schools nurtured pupils'…

In this paper, I use a debate between Albert Einstein and Henri Bergson about the nature of time as a heuristic tool to understand the nature of teacher subjectivity. This debate outlines notions of time as measurable and time as duration or flow. These two interpretations of reality, one from a physicist and one from a philosopher, are used to…

In light of current developments, there is an increasing effort to integrate computing-oriented activities into the education of children as young as two years old. Although the computing strand is not officially addressed in the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework (DfES, 2024), a small number of early years teachers in England…

Childhood wellbeing is essential for positive outcomes in adulthood, as is academic attainment. Schools play a pivotal role in laying the foundations for children to live well. However, research investigating the relationship between wellbeing and attainment has relied on conceptualisations of wellbeing that are too broad (i.e. overall and…

This article discusses the work of Susan Isaacs (1885-1948), the IOE's (Institute of Education), first director of the Department of Child Development. In addition to introducing child psychoanalysis to the UK, Isaacs was instrumental in mapping out the basis for a conceptual understanding of the role of aspects of imagination (which she termed…

This paper considers varied governmental initiatives in England and their implications for early years education, including: an Office for Standards in Education (2017. "Bold Beginnings: The Reception Curriculum in a Sample of Good and Outstanding Primary Schools." Manchester: Ofsted) report entitled 'Bold beginnings' proposing…

School readiness is a dominant discourse in current policy agendas in UK and international contexts, fulfilling a range of goals such as providing children with the 'best start in life' by breaking the cycle of poverty, and preparing children for formal learning in compulsory education. Focussing on the school readiness agenda in England, this…

The Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) is a statutory, summative teacher assessment against nationally prescribed criteria. It is completed for all children in state education in England in summer of the reception year, when September-born children are nearly 6 and summer-born children are turning 5. This research uses quantitative…

Questions of children's agency have experienced a resurgence in education theory over the past years. Yet, there have been few attempts to examine children's agency in the context of a primary classroom from the viewpoint of the curriculum. This gap is being addressed by a longitudinal project exploring the impact of the National Curriculum for…

How do early years practitioners construct what it means to be professional? How do they perceive the relationship between Froebelian theory and practice, if at all? What value do they attach to early years qualifications? This paper explores these questions drawing on data from thirty-three interviews with early years practitioners working in six…

The paper focuses on the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), which sets standards for children's care, development and education in England from birth to five years old. Analysing the EYFS, as comprised of knowledge and discourses that inform, and are informed by broader cultural understandings of childhood and development, we argue that the way…

This paper engages with the question of how ethnographers in the field of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) can respond to the ontological turn in the social studies of childhood. Against the background of ECEC's deeply sedimented orientation towards the uniqueness of the individual child, the paper wishes to complicate the rationale of…

In this study, we examine how mobility and on-going changes in sociocultural contexts impact family language policy (FLP) in the UK. Using a questionnaire and involving 470 transnational families across the UK, our study provides a descriptive analysis of different family language practices in England and establishes how attitudes influence the…

In this research, it is aimed to compare the preschool education curricula of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), England, Finland, Southern Cyprus and India. In this study, pre-school education curricula in TRNC, England, Finland, Southern Cyprus and India were examined and the age groups covered by the curricula, their general…