Some parents, childminders and managers/owners of day nurseries will find the new industry awards scheme – Early Years Excellence Awards very useful.
I’ve been reading Teach Early Years magazine for a while now, originally seeing a copy as a nursery assistant in our staff room a few years ago – now I’m a subscriber so I can keep up to date on what practitioners are reading/taking advice and tips from when caring for my child.
When Teach Early Years recently announced their award scheme I thought “here we go, another scheme to make us buy toys/resources” but I was pleasantly surprised at the whole free product entry and how many winners where companies I’d never even heard of.
I contacted a couple of ‘award winners’ to find out how the process went, ‘did they really get judged by well respected figures in the sector’, ‘did they pay for their awards’ – from my findings, it was a legitimate process, some companies had spoken to the companies directly in order to get their products returned etc.
For me as one of the judges was Busy Bee’s director Lisa Snell, I really did start to take notice and I thought people on here may benefit in introducing these resources into their homes/nurseries as if you’re anything like me – I’m a pushy parent when it comes to Education!
stolen from their website
Early Years Excellence 2017 – the Winners
Communication, Language & Literacy Resource
5* Mantra Lingua – LinguaTalk Interactive Nursery Pack
4* I CAN – Early Talkers Boxset
3* Little Creative Days – Pojo and the Chest of Dreams Create and Show Kit
SEN Resource
5* EYP Direct – Sensory Mood Light Table
4* Singing hands – It’s Signing Time DVDs
3* Child’s Play – Off To The Beach
Maths Resource
5* EYP Direct – Rainbow Pebbles
4* Orchard Toys – Spotty Dogs
3* Ten Town Ltd – Ten Town
Role-play Resource
5* Eduzone – Fruit and Veg Colour Sorting Set
4* The Curious Fox Company – Child’s Writing Belt
3* Pretend to Bee – Mini-Beast Snail Tabard
Music Resource
5* The Voices Foundation / Alfred Publishing – Inside Music: Early Years
4* Out of the Ark Music – I Love Music
3* Sound Children – Bambajam Pelangi
Creative Resource
5* U-nu – U-nu Creative Construction Set
4* K’NEX – Kid K’NEX Range
3* T4Kids – The Classroom Hammering & Drilling Set
Understanding the World Resource
5* Primo Toys – Cubetto
4* Bloomsbury Education – 50 Fantastic Ideas for Investigations
3* Fourth Wall Publishing – ABC of the World
Physical development Resource
5* B inspired – Mini Moves Cards
4* Health Matters Education – ‘Busy Feet’ Explorers Toolkit
Outdoor Resource
5* Ur-Tubes – Amazing Den Kit
4* Early Years Resources – Timber Treasures
3* Yellow Door – Sensory Sounds Eggs
CPD Resource
5* Kent County Council – EFICL Pathways to Excellence Toolkit
4* Herts for Learning – Places to Play Every Day
3* British Council – English In Early Childhood: Language Learning and Development MOOC
Picture Books
5* They All Saw A Cat (Brendan Wenzel, Chronicle Books)
4* Also an Octopus (Maggie Tokuda-Hall / Benji Davies, Walker Books)
3* The Lumberjack’s Beard (Duncan Beedle, Templar Publishing)
Toy or Game
5* Orchard Toys – Match and Spell
4* Learning Resources – Jumbo Dinosaur Set 2
3* Bigjigs Toys – Green Toys Farm
Under-twos Resource
5* Pat-A-Cake (Hachette Children’s Group) – First Baby Days Series
4* Orchard Toys – Farmyard Heads and Tails
3* Val Sabin Publications – Action Babies (Birth to 12 months)