Citizenship education (CE) is a recent innovation within the National Curriculum in England, key aspects of which have a clear relevance to the "Every Child Matters" (ECM) agenda. Both CE and ECM strongly articulate a commitment to democratic principles and express a concern over children's perspectives being taken into account in order…

The contribution that physical education (PE) and school sport can make to a child's development has long been known. Aspects such as becoming physically fit and healthy, demonstrating safe practice, achieving personal and team goals and working with the wider community are just some of an extensive list of opportunities that engagement in…

The "Every Child Matters" agenda places emphasis on the need for parents/carers and families to work in partnership with schools. At the heart of this is the importance of a shared definition of family learning that values parents as equal partners. The extent to which schools are responsible for putting government policy into practice…

The aims of this article are to explore contemporary challenges to developing play in early childhood settings, and to identify areas of consensus and collision in policy and practice. Contemporary research highlights the effectiveness of mixed pedagogical approaches, including child- and adult-initiated play. Whilst early childhood specialists…

The rationale and focus for this paper is a discussion from five perspectives on the issues surrounding childhood freedoms and levels of physical activity. From our different perspectives we argue that beneath these very real and proper concerns that parents have for their children's safety are societal concerns and perceptions concerning the…

Potential benefits for learning that the outdoors may hold have been brought into increased focus in the UK by the recent introduction of a manifesto for learning outside the classroom (DfES, "Learning outside the classroom: manifesto"; Nottingham, Department for Education and Skills, 2006). This article draws on two recent studies of…

This article examines messages from participatory research about young children's perspectives of early childhood environments and outdoor spaces in particular. The studies chosen have been carried out in England with children under six years old using the Mosaic approach and are compared with findings from an Icelandic study using the same…

Children's opportunities for independent play in natural outdoor spaces, and the associated opportunities to take and negotiate risk, are being eroded despite potential links between such play and the development of positive learning dispositions. This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study that documented the risk-taking behaviours…

This paper considers pedagogy and outdoor play in the early years. The particular focus is on the specific features and benefits of outdoor play in the Foundation Stage (England) and Foundation Phase (Wales). The paper will draw on current international literature and evidence from outdoor learning constructed in an ongoing research project in two…

This article presents research findings of work undertaken by a Networked Learning Community in the north of England on implementing cooperative learning in primary and secondary schools. In twelve primary and two secondary schools, in a social and economically deprived area, cooperative learning is becoming embedded. How this has been supported…

Schools are seen as having a central role to play in the "Every Child Matters" (ECM) effort, which many are finding somewhat challenging, an additional pressure and something of a departure from their usual role. One way forward may be to help schools make links between ECM and other activities with which they are starting to engage but…

The "Every Child Matters" policy raises questions about what "mattering" means in school contexts and how schools will know the extent to which "Every Child Matters". The question of what matters means is a philosophical one and is addressed here with reference to the work on community and dialogue of two…

This paper tells the story of an encounter between two early years teachers and two Forest School workers, the growing tensions in their relationships and how these tensions were resolved. When analysed through a Foucauldian (poststructuralist) lens, the story can be read as a battle between dominant discourses--a battle exacerbated by the outdoor…

This article reports a small-scale study into the functions of the plenary session. It offers information about the ways that plenary sessions are being understood and implemented in one school, and offers an example of the usefulness of small-scale, school-based projects for enhancing reflectiveness and sharing perspectives among a staff group.…

Teachers who want to involve their pupils in classroom drama need to be aware of the necessary conditions for dramatic engagement. In this article we seek to identify four conditions for the preparation of successful drama, and support our argument with reference to Shakespearean drama. The conditions are identified as: agreement by the…