Michael Rosen launches new NCB publication

Thursday 12 March 2009

NCB's Early Childhood Unit was delighted to welcome Michael Rosen, author and Children's Laureate, to speak at the launch of the new PEAL book - 'Parents as Partners in the Early Years Foundation Stage'. The celebration took place at Thomas Coram Children's Centre in Camden on Monday 9th March.

At the launch, Michael welcomed the book and the work of PEAL (Parents, Early Years and Learning) training in helping to build parents' confidence as educators of their own children. Getting to know parents and encouraging them to contribute their own knowledge and skills to the work of the nursery and classroom brings real benefits to children, parents and teachers alike.  He particularly emphasized the critical importance of supporting parents to share quality picture story books with very young children.  
PEAL trainees, Chris Cheshire and Sue Steel, spoke with real passion about their work with parents.

Sue comments, "Working with parents successfully, means talking less about hard to reach parents and thinking more about how to make services less hard to access. It's important to find a range of ways to involve all parents. Building relationships and talking to them more regularly enables a practitioner to find out more about an individual child and tailor appropriate help and support to their educational and developmental needs. "

ENDS

Parents as Partners in the Early Years Foundation Stage is published by NCB.   (ISBN: 9781905818433, £13,80 NCB members/£16 non-members). To order a copy call 0845 458 9910, e-mail ncb@centralbooks.com or go to www.ncb.org.uk/books.

To read more about PEAL training go to  http://www.peal.org.uk/ or telephone 020 7843 6100.