CHILD OF

OUR TIME
EARLY
LEARNING

Dr Tessa Livingstone
Author of

Child of Our Time: Early Learning

Child of Our Time
BBC Executive Producer

Child of Our Time (1999-2008)

Email: livingstone.tessa@gmail.com

Wednesday 7th May 8pm

Divide of the Sexes

Producer/Director
Ruth Whippman

Wednesday 14th May 8pm

The Age of Stress

Producer/Director
Amanda Richardson
Louise Bourner

Series Producer: Kate Shiers

Wednesday 21st May 8pm

24 Hours
Producer/Director
Victoria Bell

Executive Producer: Tessa Livingstone

Education is not the

filling of a pail, but the
lighting of a fire.
William Butler Yeats

Child of Our Time: Early Learning

The Early Years - A Window of Opportunity

Test
Scores (Q)
100
High SES High Q at 22 months
High SES Low Q at 22 months

50
Low SES High Q at 22 months
Low SES Low Q at 22 months

0
22

40

60

120
Age in months
From Leon Feinstein 2003

The EPPE Project: Bridging the Achievement Gap

Positive Factors in the Home Learning Environment
Playing with relatives and friends at home and outside
Learning to communicate and be considerate to others
Experiencing books, letters, numbers, rhymes and drawing
Learning to be resilient and persistent and to concentrate
Receiving good physical and emotional support
Positive Factors in The Preschool Environment
Good quality teaching for social and intellectual development
Qualified staff who communicate well and treat children as individuals
Does not have to be full time

Agencies involved with James 0 8 years old

GP and A&E doctors

Midwives
Health Visitors
Benefit Agency
Legal Aid
Care workers
Social Services
Parenting classes 2001 and 2004
Nursery school teachers
Primary school teachers
Child of Our Time: Early Learning

BBC Sites
www.bbc.co.uk/parenting
Best free website for the lots of great stuff on kids including advice on many
subjects, some illustrated with film clips from several sources including Child
of Our Time. The site has information about practically everything from toilet
training to health, literacy, behaviour, play and childcare. If you want more
about the TV series, search for Child of Our Time.
www.open2.net/childofourtime
Try the Open University website for fun interactive tests linked with Child of
Our Time, and for questionnaires, ideas for games and courses on child
development.
www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies
Website for the BBCs digital channel for kids under six, with programme
information, games and competitions, print and colour, make and do, music
and songs, watching and listening.

Child of Our Time: Early Learning

UK Government sites
www.standards.dfes.gov.uk
Primarily aimed at practitioners, this site is just one of several that provide
information on child development, effective practice, examples of play activities
to promote play activities to promote play and learning, guidance on planning
and resourcing and meeting diverse needs, including the document Birth to
Three Matters: A framework to support children in their earliest years. Sure
Start. Nottingham, UK: Department of Education and Skills;
http://www.ioe.ac.uk/cdl/eppe
EPPE is a research project which finds out what is good and bad about preschool education and has followed the educational fortunes of children from
three to eleven. Once you get to the site look for findings and eppe
findings. These give you a summary of research so far, including the
document by Sylva, K., Melhuish, E., Sammons, P., Siraj-Blatchford, I.,
Taggart, B. and Elliot, K. (2003) The effective provision of pre-school
education (EPPE) project: Findings from the pre-school period. Department
of Education and Skills.

Child of Our Time: Early Learning

Learning sites
www.acceleratedlearning.com
Paid site and online store with activity cards, guide book and scores of games
for pre-reading, writing and numeracy.
www.literacytrust.co.uk
Free site about reading, writing and talking, including a wide range of research
reports on subjects like the effects of television on language development.
www.familiesonline.co.uk
The website for Families magazines provides reviews by real mums, a choice
of features, listing of events, forums plus pages of local information from local
editors.
www.allkindsofminds.org
All Kinds of Minds is a non profit site that helps develop an alliance between
parents, educators, and children offering learning challenges and activities that
may help students minimize or overcome their differences in learning
www.familiesonline.co.ukhttp://www.childcarelink.gov.uk
Details of your local information service and factsheets on your childcare
options are available from this website

Child of Our Time: Early Learning

CHILD
OF OUR TIME:
EARLY
LEARNING