Nikky discusses how she researched for the role of Laa-Laa, including writing out Laa-Laa’s personality traits, and how she came to choose that type of personality. She shares insights into working with Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport (the producers of the show) as well as the physical demands of being in a huge puppet all day.

She tells us about the funny experiences, the exhausting ones and her peculiarly emotional response to seeing someone new take over the role of Laa-Laa.

In this interview, we discuss how Nuzhat used lockdown to support families through the PEEP programme, including reaching parents who wouldn't normally come to the live sessions! We discuss the importance of home culture, home language and how songs are an excellent way to share this.

Watch as two young scientists demonstrate engaging STEM experiments that require minimal preparation yet deliver maximum fascination for early years learners.

In this Masterclass, Kathryn Lord teaches strategies for decluttering, enabling play and risk-taking, diversifying resources, and organising environments to boost health, inclusion and learning.

In this 6-part course Alistair Bryce Clegg looks at outdoor play in the early years, including what makes a successful outdoor space, cognitive, emotional and physical benefits of outdoor play, different types of outdoor play and risky play.

In this course with Julie Mountain, you will understand fully what free and found resources are, identify potential sources of free and found objects, explore how to manage and risk assess the items, and learn how to start a portfolio of free and found play springboards

Pat Rumbaugh - widely known as ‘The Play Lady’ - founded ‘Let’s Play America’ with Daniel Nakamura in January 2015 and is a two-time TEDx speaker.

In this session, Pat discusses the Play Day events in Takoma Park, Maryland and explains the benefits of such play activities for children. She explains how to scale down or adapt these types of events for early childhood education settings and how to get funding.

In this interview we discuss the mission of Jabadao, as well as the meaning of the word, and how Developmental Movement Play was developed.

Penny explains how this is a movement concept that meets children where they are at, rather than their age, and how understanding the environment that you provide for children will affect their movement. For example, the 5 ways that children move; being professional curious about the ways that children move in the setting; the difference a firm surface for babies to lie on can make; magnificent surfaces for children to move on; how an indoor movement play area is core to the Jabadao approach; the significant differences that understand and implementing the approach can make to practitioners, educators and teacher’s practice with all ages of children.

This is video is an hour long and goes into detail about the developmental movement play concepts.

In this interview, Penny explains how ‘school readiness’ is a process and not a destination and without the firm foundations that the higher order skills (including sitting still and fine motor control) will be so much more difficult for children. She has lots of great ways that Early Years settings and schools can tweak their environment to support physical development.

Self-efficacy with Bandura; the importance of self-efficacy and the difference between self- efficacy and self-esteem or self-confidence; children's independence, agency and self-advocacy; how the current pandemic may affect children’s self-efficacy; promoting self-efficacy both in the Early Years setting and at home.

Penny Tassoni MBE is an education consultant, author, keynote speaker and trainer who specialises in the whole spectrum of learning and play. She written over 40 books, and has also been the President of the Professional Association of Early Years and Childcare (PACEY) since 2013.She regularly visits and supports nurseries and pre-schools both in the UK and places such as China, Dubai and Hong Kong, which allows her to maintain regular contact with babies and young children.

Pete Moorhouse is the author of ‘Learning Through Woodwork: Introducing creative woodwork into the early years’ and is passionate about encouraging creative thinking in Early Years education.

Transform children's emotional wellbeing with evidence-based nurturing strategies. Led by expert Tamsin Grimmer, this 60-minute course teaches the six principles of nurture, attachment theory, and play-based approaches for early years professionals seeking to support children's mental health and development.RetryClaude can make mistakes. Please double-check responses.

Polly is a freelance concert presenter, workshop leader, trainer, cellist and teacher, based in Sheffield and working across the UK, with a particular specialism in music for children under eight years old.

This 60-minute course equips early years professionals with practical, no-prep strategies to support speech, language, and communication development.

Led by speech therapist Bryony Rust, it covers communication, language, and speech through three concise modules. Learn to recognise various forms of communication, support vocabulary development, and encourage clear articulation using playful techniques. Designed for busy practitioners, all strategies integrate easily into daily routines.

In this first interview of two with Preeti Patel, we focus on the key aspects of the learning environment in an Early Years setting or home.

Preeti Patel from Montessori Global Education discusses how children learn through play in a Montessori setting. She explains the Montessori philosophy that children's play is purposeful and their work is their play. The environment respects children, provides life skills, and supports focus and independence. Routines flow naturally to meet children's needs.

Louise Mercieca of The Health Kick has created this health-related quiz for Premium Members, especially suitable for older children and those who enjoy interesting facts about the body!

In this Premium Bonus video, nutritional therapist, Louise Mercieca, explains in a child-friendly way how food affects our body and the biology behind it. As she says 'the more we understand about how our body works, the more connected to it we feel - enabling healthier choices'.