Category: Practice Bites

This comprehensive 45-minute staff meeting template guides early years practitioners through understanding and implementing joyful pedagogy in their setting. The resource explores how joy differs from simple enjoyment, examining it as a deeper, lasting state of wellbeing that benefits both children and educators. Teams work through practical activities including sharing personal experiences of joy, identifying recent joyful moments with children, and mapping barriers and bridges to joy in their provision. The template emphasises how joy is expressed differently across cultures and encourages practitioners to recognise diverse forms of joyful expression. With reference to research showing that engaging in joyful play reduces educator stress whilst enhancing wellbeing, this resource includes follow-up activities, supervision prompts, and suggestions for creating ongoing celebrations of joy. The template empowers settings to prioritise authentic, culturally responsive joyful experiences that foster children’s relationships, self-determination, and positive social-emotional development.

This comprehensive staff meeting template provides early years educators a structured approach to understanding and supporting schemas in children’s play and development. Over the course of one hour, the resource guides teams through exploring schemas – repeated patterns of behaviour that help children develop cognitive connections and understand the world in their unique way. The template includes practical exercises for identifying schemas in children’s play, discussing real observations or scenario-based examples, and auditing the learning environment. With reference materials including a detailed schema types table, discussion scenarios, and an environment audit tool, this resource helps practitioners build confidence in recognising and extending children’s natural learning patterns. The template empowers settings to tailor their practice to children’s intrinsic interests, support deeper engagement, and create more inclusive environments where all children’s ways of learning are valued.

This comprehensive staff meeting template provides early years settings with a structured approach to exploring and implementing slow pedagogy principles in their practice. Based on Alison Clark’s research and writing, the template guides teams through understanding what slow pedagogy means, identifying opportunities throughout the day for unhurried learning, and reflecting on specific aspects like mealtimes and storytelling. Complete with discussion prompts, practical activities, and follow-up suggestions, this one-hour meeting plan helps settings develop more attentive, child-centered approaches that value children’s natural rhythms and deeper learning experiences. The template is particularly useful for settings looking to move away from rushed routines and create more meaningful engagement with children.