Happy Retirement
At the end of this week, two dear friends of CREC are retiring following many years of service to our sector by raising the profile and quality of early years practice in their field. CREC has had the great privilege of working closely with both of them, on and off, over the past 10-15 years and their contributions have been enormous.
Pete Sturgess, Foundation Phase lead at the Football Association
Has been a passionate advocate for play based, child led sporting experiences for young children and has always been ready to challenge the status quo in the interest of what those children need. Pete first crossed paths with CREC whilst exploring how to implement age appropriate experiences for young children playing football rather than simply distilling approaches used for older age groups. Pete’s passion for getting things right for all children is infectious, as is his belief that the right early years football experience will ultimately lead to massive benefits up the system. Through our connection with Pete, CREC has had the privilege of contributing to the development of The FA’s DNA (helping to embed key concepts of child competence, creativity and risk within the foundation phase element). Pete has also brought his experience and wisdom to bear on our MA programme, supporting students through a module on Physical Activity in the early years, focussing on aspects such as play, creativity, and the role of adult. Most recently CREC has supported the FA in evaluating its pilot early years programme, the next iteration of which we hope will be rolled out to clubs in the near future as this would indeed be a fitting legacy for Pete’s contributions to the national game and young children.
Pepita Hanna will be retiring as Associate Director of Arts Connect
A bridge organisation for the Arts Council, supporting children across the West Midlands to engage in arts and culture. Although her role covers children and young people of all ages, she is passionate about early years and has championed our age phase even when funders and policy makers have perhaps underappreciated it or overlooked it. It was through the Moonbeams programme (influenced by the creative approach to child-led development linked to the educational philosophy of Reggio Emilia) that CREC first met Pepita and it has been wonderful to take that journey with her through various iterations of the programme which has focussed on raising the profile of early years creativity, developing new sustainable practice by building the leadership skills of artists and educators, and addressing issues of quality and access. Most recently CREC helped support the Moonbeams Conference held by Arts Connect, and masterminded by Pepita, at the MAC in Birmingham. If you want to learn more about Pepita and her passion for early years and creativity she is forever immortalised on the CREC website in three episodes of the Moonbeams Early Years podcast series (where she is joined by CREC’s own Chris Pascal and Helen Lyndon among others!)
(Pepita (Left) with CREC Trustee Helen Moylett (right) at the recent Moonbeams Conference)
We will be sorry to see them leave their roles at the end of the week and wish them both all the very best for their retirements (although we have a very sneaky suspicion that neither will be putting their feet up completely!) – CREC thanks you for all you have done for the sector and we look forward to further collaborations once you’ve had yourselves a well-deserved rest!