VIEWS From the pen of… SUE COWLEY Self-regulation in the Early Years


In our regular series highlighting authors in education, we hear this month from SUE COWLEY, early years specialist, teacher, presenter and author of ‘Learning Behaviours: A Practical Guide to Self- Regulation in the Early Years’. She has worked in all phases of education and has helped to run her local early years setting for the last decade.


Self-regulation is currently a ‘hot topic’ with government, schools and early years settings, because there is strong evidence of its predictive power for long term educational success. But what is ‘self-regulation’, how does it develop and why is it so important? My latest book sets out to explore these questions and how best to support young children’s behaviour as they develop and learn.


While the DfE and Ofsted link


the skill of self-regulation to compliance and following instructions, it covers a wide range of aspects of development. Self- regulation is about children learning impulse control – a set of key ‘executive functions’ in the brain.


They learn to direct their attention, empathise, set goals, manage risk,


and many other skills. They set children to succeed in school; children who struggle to regulate are likely to also struggle with the demands of education.


Babies are not born able to self-regulate; self-regulation develops


with adult support. At first, babies are entirely driven by their impulses – crying when they are hungry ensures they get fed. But gradually, as they grow, children learn how to manage and regulate their internal system of controls in order to ‘fit into’ the societies in which they live.


The key to the self-regulation is in the word “self” – they must learn


to regulate for themselves; we can support, model and scaffold, create an environment where they can best learn this crucial skill, but it has to come from them.


As I explain in the book, there is an ever-present danger that we over


support, and in turn deskill our children and prevent them from learning to be independent. It is that adult impulse to interfere and to over-help that we must learn to control. This in turn will support the children to take risks, to fail, and consequently to learn how to cope with challenges and to become resilient and resourceful.


What exactly is the adult’s role in all this? A key part for us is to act


as expert communicators – figuring out what the children’s behaviours tell us about their needs. We must create routines that offer a structure, within which the children can co-regulate. And we must create an enabling environment where the children can play, face challenges, become increasingly self-sufficient, and develop their personal, social and emotional skills.


My book is aimed at all teachers and practitioners working in early


years settings, infant/primary schools, educators wanting to learn more about self-regulation and also parents of young children.


‘Learning Behaviours: A Guide to Self-Regulation' by Sue Cowley, published by John Catt Educational Ltd, is available on www.amazon.co.uk priced £15


February 2021


BRITISH EDUCATIONAL SUPPLIERS ASSOCIATION (BESA) Welcome to Groundhog Day


In her regular column for Education Today this month, JULIA GARVEY, Deputy Director General at school suppliers’ association BESA, highlights some useful resources for use during this second national lockdown.


11 months into this pandemic and we feel like


we are back where we started – schools closed to all but a few, remote learning, national lockdown. But this time around there are some key differences. We are a little older, a little wiser, and a lot more tech savvy.


Over the intervening months since the first national lockdown we have


all got used to video calling from home; to juggling home-schooling and work; to managing a huge workload whilst meeting the ever-growing demands being put upon us. The use of Teams, Zoom and Google Classroom has accelerated at warp speed and our learning curve has been steep.


But the journey is not over, and as far as we have come there is still


further to go, and there are still many schools out there working hard to bring their online learning provision up to the standard they would like.


BESA are here to help. We have put together a range of support


measures to help teachers deliver remote learning. During the first national lockdown BESA members provided over £30m of free support and resources to schools. We don’t expect our members will be able to offer the same level of free support this time around, so we are directing schools to three initiatives that will help teachers identify the products and services for remote learning that are recommended by your peers.


LendED.org.uk is our online tool offering teachers the opportunity to


search, select and trial education technology resources for free, to determine their suitability before committing to purchase. There is also a section highlighting resources specifically designed to support home learning. LendED has the full support of the Department for Education and was included in their list of recommended remote learning tools.


If you are looking for teacher training and CPD, we have granted free


access to video recordings of the recent LearnED Online CPD event, which took place in November. LearnED brings together teachers from around the regions to share best practice and deliver peer to peer learning. The November edition focused on the challenges of delivering remote learning and featured case studies and panel discussions which highlight those schools and teachers who have managed the process well, and offers support for any educator looking for guidance.


Finally we published a report on Learning after Lockdown that featured


school case studies on the products and services that proved useful during the first lockdown, and signposted additional measures that schools might want to consider as they started the new academic year. The lessons learned the first time around serve as a good signpost for any school looking for a starting point, and covers key areas such as blended learning, mental health, safeguarding and wellbeing.


All three initiatives are available for free, because we recognise that


cost shouldn’t be a barrier and teachers have more important things to focus on than worrying about budgets right now.


So as we head towards the anniversary of the start of the first


lockdown, let us reflect on just how far we have come during the past year. And hope that our groundhog days are limited in number.


In the meantime, keep safe and sane.


Julia Garvey Operations Director Besa.org.uk LendED.org.uk learned.org.uk/ besa.org.uk/news/learning-after-lockdown/


www.education-today.co.uk 13


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