Early Years Conference: Write(ing) from the Start!

Brief Overview

The EYFS identifies early Literacy - and writing - as a Specific Area of Learning and Development, which, while building on the Prime Areas and the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning, nevertheless forms a critical part of a responsible approach to learning and outcomes for children. The role of writing as expression, communication, understanding and representation is a pre-requisite for long term success. Combining the technical knowledge and skills required with a contextualised understanding of the purpose and process if writing has always required a thorough familiarity with the ‘what’ and the ’how’ of effective approaches. New research continually refines and reshapes this knowledge and it is vital that all those who work in the EYFS are fully aware of how to optimise the effectiveness of their pedagogy to enable this.

This conference provides a unique opportunity to hear from world renowned experts in the field and opportunities to reflect on and consider how research and theory impacts on day to day practice. It will ensure that attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of the research that underpins effective approaches to supporting writing and how to facilitate this within their own EYFS Provision.

The conference will involve Keynote addresses from both Prof Iram Siraj and Dr Julian Grenier in addition to a choice of Workshops which will explore practical approaches to supporting writing in the EYFS.

Keynote:

Preparing children for excellence in literacy learning: Strengthening meaningful conversations and teaching for emergent reading and writing.

The keynote from Professor Iram Siraj will cover the central role of oral language and how it underpins early literacy. She will clarify how emergent literacy – what children learn before they have been taught through direct instruction how to read and write, and the role of reading and books develops firm foundations for early and writing.

Workshop (by Professor Iram):

Why intentional and relational pedagogy best supports children’s learning.

To be effective educators – that is those who make a real difference to children’s development and support their learning – we need to pay attention to both relational and intentional pedagogy. Pedagogy is basically how we ‘teach’ and the environments we create to help young children to learn. In the early years this is often through modelling, demonstrating, questioning, creating purposeful, experiential and play environments and through high quality interactions; what’s often called process quality. Professor Iram will present evidence from her research over the last 30 years and use video clips to demonstrate excellent practice.

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