Who Owns the Copyright for Work Created by AI?
As more people turn to AI programmes and all the various free platforms to write summaries, design letters, shape reports, tidy up a set of minutes etc, we have to…
LEYF News and CEO Blog
Read the latest news and updates from our CEO and the wider LEYF team.
Childcare Expansion: Promise or Mirage?
Yesterday, amid much fanfare, the government announced the start of the expansion of funded childcare hours. It may sound like a win for parents but the reality is far less…
Failure of the Free Entitlement? No way.
The National Audit Office report Delivering the free entitlement to education for three- and four-year-olds has sent the press into pessimism overdrive, telling us the…
Growth in a downturn: a big ask, but the right question.
Where has the month gone? I am scared by the speed by which our lives pass; it seems we have so little time to make any real, lasting difference. As…
Ofsted is like Marmite, you either love it or hate it
Ofsted gets a mixed reaction from the sector. It can bring you out in a rash or a hot sweat, but it can also be a very helpful…
Using ‘Little Women’s Christmas’ to begin a post modern feminist debate on motherhood
On 6 January, Irish women – especially those in Cork – celebrate Little Women’s Christmas (Nollaig na mBan). It is the last day of Christmas and the…
RiRi, Bedouin Tents and the I Ching: Welcome to 2012
Happy New Year and welcome back to my blog. (Thank you in advance!) As I recover from cooking, eating, talking, reading and watching TV (little different there then, except this…
When Santa got stuck up the chimney… what did he actually say?
Half way up and unable to move, Santa shouted out that from now on he was prepared to eat his five a day, give up chocolate teacakes and large glasses…
Do we really need men in childcare?
There appears a general agreement that men in childcare are a good thing: the government has set a target to increase the number of men working in childcare; at LEYF…
Why quality is criticial to ensure the ‘twoness of twos’
This week the chancellor announced that the government will extend the free entitlement of 15 hours of nursery education to every disadvantaged two-year-old over the next four years.
Celebrating Social Enterprise and scaling up
There has been so much for me to write about this week, it has been hard to choose! But as all blog guides say stick to one or two points,…
The Duchess, the Detective and the Rollercoaster …
I love a sense of connection and see the role of nurseries as being critical in helping to connect communities across the generations. This week the history of connection came…
The next round of applause is on me…
I have not written a blog for a week because some of you said you could not keep up with my output. Others have since asked ‘where is the blog?’…
Collecting Ministers like ‘Top Trumps’
This week has been rather a fest of networking, the most noteworthy of which was one evening and one day attending the Conservative Party Conference. A Conference virgin, I was…