Lovely week to end a year and start a new one with most of the family spending a lot of time outdoors having fun exploring in mid Wales.

Amen to this! 👏

Climate change isn’t just charts and projections. It’s hundreds of UK plants flowering early in winter, right now, right outside. Once you notice it, you can’t unsee it. A visible signal of climate breakdown. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘January’ (Shell Guide, Flowers of the Countryside, 1955) Artists: Edith and Rowland Hilder

Thank you. The world can be a grim place so I try to be positive and celebrate the good in people. If you can’t say something nice, why say anything?

Morning Mary

This is a very good point. I love that our preschool children can just play in the local fields and woods. #EduSky

Ladybird Artists Advent Calendar, window 22 Durham Cathedral Artist: SRBadmin

Early years and Primary Education 📚 Tuesday 13 January 2026 | 10 – 11.30 am | FREE It will include recommendations for social inclusion and curriculum access, speech, language and communication and social development. Make sure to sign up here: https://loom.ly/E-kbmw4

An interesting job for someone with creative ideas.

Develop a new skill or an understanding of a wide range of early crafts?

This is a medley of my funny short poems for young children. End of term fun? Michael Rosen Short Poems | Kids Poems and Stories with Michael Rosen www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2z_...

Good news! 🎉 While we’ve yet to see detail on finance & numbers, this is a major win for common sense & for the thousands who’ll now be able to access vocational training, work placements & higher education - congrats to all who campaigned for it #Erasmus @europeanmovement.co.uk @bestforbritain.org

This is appalling behaviour. I don't accept the children are better served by having multiple extremely well-paid executives rather than a few hours more of TAs

Advent #17 Sledging on a drumlin

Just finished the Advent table decoration. Everything takes me longer these days but the pleasure is still there.

An enjoyable hour spent with the Christmas Orchestra in the Minster Church. They provided an array of festive music, lighting effects and fun.

Here's the 2nd short ❤️#2 - giving some backstory to our charity single this year: a Xmas version of #KeepingtheDreamAlive which we created to support the brilliant Clark Family's fundraising for Tiny Toes (East Kent Hospitals Charity). Music vid premieres @9.00pm UK on YouTube youtu.be/ZlVkpt4L99s

Lovely Christmas lunch with friends at Englefield Tea Rooms yesterday. Lovely company, food, entertainment and staff. Recommend.

We’ve just eaten our last few small tomatoes. Had loads this year….

BBC News - www.bbc.co.uk/news/resourc... The moment the earliest known human-made fire was uncovered - BBC News

New publication! Children’s outdoor play at early learning and child care centres: Examining the impact of environmental play features on children’s play behaviour | By R. Ramsden, I. Pike, S. Thorne, M. Brussoni journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Excited to share tomorrow night on YouTube the premiere of our #KeepingtheDreamAlive video fundraising for the Tiny Toes campaign of East Kent Hospitals Charity Please support the track by buying & sharing here: orcd.co/keepthedream And join us for the premiere - we'll share the link tomorrow!

This is a real quote from somebody at one of our food banks... ‘Since my husband died two weeks ago, I’ve been living on Weetabix. My account was frozen, and Universal Credit hasn’t started.’ Losing a loved one is hard enough. People shouldn't have to worry about food on top of that. 💔

Only 3 weeks to go! Sign up for your free 2026 catalogue before 31 Dec. 🌱 Inspire outdoor play in January! muddyfaces.co.uk/about-us/mud... #OutdoorPlay #ForestSchool #OutdoorLearning #MuddyFaces #FreeCatalogue

Click here to sign up for our 2026 catalogue – this year’s focus is Nature Connection. Delivered to you mid-Jan. muddyfaces.co.uk/about-us/mud... #FreeCatalogue #OutdoorLearning #ForestSchool

Important information for pensioners in the UK: ‘Winter Fuel Payment texts are fake messages urging you to "apply" via a link for the payment. Winter Fuel Payments are automatic, so never click the link, report the text by forwarding to 7726, and delete it immediately to protect your details’

Robin entertaining us in a garden centre yesterday.

Sending love. X

Useful thread on the ADHD and ASD controversy.

A tiny bit of shameless self-promotion because the gifting season is creeping up on us. If you’re after something delicious, handcrafted, and ethical, my chocolate boxes, bars, and treats make really lovely gifts. Treat yourself, treat someone else, or both, I won’t judge! Reshares appreciated! 🍫✨

Atmospheric performance of a version of the York Nativity Play in the 12th century, Grade 1 listed church of Aldermarston. So beautiful and special.

The strange & mingled sensory world of faints in the wood. I’ve been here before, & want only the earth. My turn on the Guardian Country Diary today.

Salcey Forest was sparkling with frost yesterday! 🌲❄️ Discover why outdoor play matters for children even in winter in our latest podcast. 🎧 Listen: https://sptfy.in/pbj3 #OutdoorLearning #EarlyYears #NaturePlay #ForestSchool #AcornEarlyYears

Excellent resources

All this froth and indignation about Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer "lying" ought to remind us of how the press unfailingly called out Boris Johnson's apparent inability to ever tell the truth. Strangely, I can't bring up those memories or recall the headlines. Can you?

That’s my challenge too.

I think there are some valuable lessons to be learned from early years about a focus on enabling environments. The jump in ratios when children move on makes it more difficult to be flexible around adaptations. It's always worth considering how to ensure active, multi sensory learning though. 1/2

This is an excellent blog on SEND, #EduSky

‘Children with SEND just have to survive school.’ How have we got here, #EduSky? And what are we (urgently) going to do about it? All of these children featured should be able to have their needs met, and thrive in mainstream state education.

www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/... This movie about Parkinson’s which is being filmed right now will be one of the highlights of 2026

Rearranging the furniture while the house is on fire: Starmer’s Britain 2025 Is Starmer’s Education Curriculum set to follow his government’s record of controversy and failure? By Dr Pam Jarvis @drpam.bsky.social

Schoolreadinglist.co.uk is an independent website that recommends children's and YA books to schools, parents, teachers and home educators in the UK. ✅ We write all our own reviews. ✅ Books are selected by experienced teachers and librarians. ✅ Our resources are free.

Not content with selling out Ukraine to Russia and thereby putting the security of America’s allies at risk, the Trump regime is trashing the reputation of US science and risking the health of its children by rewriting the CDC website to suggest a link between vaccines and autism

Word of the day is ‘quockerwodger’ (19th century): a puppet politician whose strings are pulled entirely by someone else.

As of 10 November, the Site Management Cluster estimates that around 1 million people in #Gaza are residing in 862 displacement sites. Approximately 79,000 of them are sheltering in UNRWA facilities and surrounding areas. UNRWA continues to provide basic services to people in need. #UNRWAworks

I don’t like to say ‘I told them so,’ but I will, because it might help stop it all happening all over again. #CovidInquiry

A whole nation betrayed for a second time by its feckless ‘oven ready Brexit’ government. And still, no individuals have ever taken sufficient responsibility for any of this. #CovidInquiry #FBPE @bylinetimes.bsky.social @yorkshirebylines.co.uk @bylinesnetwork.co.uk

Two interesting photos from our visit to Mid Wales last week.

This I believe is called Turkey Bracket Fungi. The colours are so subtle and beautiful.