David Fitzgerald, Deputy Director, Early Education and Childcare Division at the Department for Education and his colleague,.

CREC's own Professor Chris Pascal was one of the keynotes in the 'Inspection and Regulation in Early Years' Conference on 18th January 2012

Margaret Clark has worked as a primary school teacher, clinical psychologist and lecturer and has undertaken funded research in literacy and early education in Scotland and England. She was personally commissioned by The Secretary of State to undertake a critical evaluation of the relevance of research to the education of children under five and was awarded her OBE for services to early years education.

The Government has launched the Early Education and Childcare Consultation, which reflects commitments made in July's policy reform statement 'Supporting Families in the Foundation Years'.

Practitioner Research is, as the name suggests, research carried out by practitioners, but importantly it is ‘for the purpose o f advancing their own practice’ (McLeod 1999).

Data is now available to all Early Years Professionals on the Foundations Years website, a project led by 4Children and the Early Years Strategic Partnership.

Dr Susan Young from the University of Exeter leads the bespoke Early Years Music Module at CREC. This module is part of the Post Graduate Study Pathway at CREC that allows Early Years Practitioners to gain Post Graduate accreditation whilst working.

The University of Wolverhampton is planning to invest £1.2M in MPhil/PhD bursaries over the next three years. These bursaries will be invested strategically in areas of research. The University’s aim is to match the very best students with the very best projects in areas of research strength.

The Department for Education and the Department of Health have published a package setting out the Government’s vision for the foundation years. The foundation years are critically important for children and their families, and these publications describe the Government’s vision for the system of services that supports them.

All of us at CREC would like to congratulate the NPQICL students.

Last week, Nursery World magazine has published an article about Quality Assurance, where the CREC programmes EEL and BEEL got a great review.

The 2nd BECERA Conference is only a month away and the team is working hard to put together a programme that delegates will enjoy. Following last years success, BECERA prides itself in giving a space to all practitioners to discuss current early years issues and research.