We Are Educators
Little Peanuts supports Early Years Alliance’s #WeAreEducators campaign
Little Peanuts Day Nursery and Forest School has pledged its support to the #WeAreEducators campaign, led by leading early years membership organisation the Early Years Alliance.
#WeAreEducators highlights the role of early years professionals as educators and aims to move away from the narrative of early years as ‘childcare’.
Despite a wealth of research showing just how critical the early years are to children’s long-term development, all too often, the sector is seen as ‘childcare’ and the workforce as people who ‘look after’ young children while their parents work. In June 2022, research commissioned by the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, found that only 17% of the general public recognise the unique importance of the 0-5 period of a child’s life relative to other age brackets.
In reality, early years settings, such as nurseries, pre-schools and childminding professionals, provide quality early education that is vital to children’s future learning. The aim of the Alliance’s #WeAreEducators campaign is to raise aware of the fact that those working in the early years are educators and play a pivotal and irreplaceable role, in laying educational foundations for years to come.
Little Peanuts is dedicated to provide their seventy children attending the setting with high-quality education that will lay this foundation.
A key focus for Little Peanuts is supporting children’s communication skills and language development and the nursery works as a Speech and Language Hub as part of York’s focus on supporting all children aged 0-5 to develop good communication skills. Good communication skills at age 5 are strongly linked to many positive outcomes later in life, including reading and writing skills, mental and physical health.
Sarah Hardwell, Little Peanuts Nursery Director said: “The importance of education in a child’s early years is something that has often been overlooked but there is now growing and overwhelming evidence that a child having a positive experience in their first crucial years of life sets them on a path for a successful and happy future. Sharing our years of experience as early years educators with our families and working as a community to support all our children to flourish is at the heart of what we do at Little Peanuts. We pride ourselves on equipping children with the key skills and learning that will set them up for the rest of their education”.
Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance said: “For far too long, hardworking, talented and knowledgeable early years professionals have been treated as ‘babysitters’ by policymakers, rather than valued as the educators that they are.
“Anyone who has ever work in our sector knows that play is learning and that the early years is education. it is our hope that through this campaign, parents, local communities and -crucially – policymakers will come to understand this too.”ll begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
