Early Years

Dr Jacky Tyrie has been working with Dr Cathryn Knight (Bristol University) and Ioanna Bakopoulou (Bristol University) on an online survey with early years practitioners and managers around the long-term impacts and lessons learnt from COVID-19. The survey went live in January 2023.

Professor Janet Goodall is currently working with Save the Children on a project entitled ‘Starting Strong’. This project takes into account the views of children, parents and school staff around transition into primary school. This process is an important milestone in the lives of children but is not well researched.

Dr Gisselle Tur Porres (Lecturer in Early Childhood) is leading a MASI Basecamp project with Dr Helen Lewis (CO-I), Dr Emily Marchant (CO-I) and Dr Julie Peconi (Health Data Science, Swansea University) and working with an interdisciplinary team from the DECS and the Institute of Life Sciences. The project, ‘SUN-CHAT: SUN safety Conversations about Healthy Attitudes to Tanning: exploring perceptions of school children and their parents/carers’, explores perceptions of school children and their parents/carers about Healthy Attitudes to Tanning.

Professor Janet Goodall is working with Manchester Metropolitan University, Lancaster University, the University of Strathclyde, and Queen’s University Belfast in a project funded by the ESRC which examines how very young children (0-3) learn language.

Dr Gisselle Tur Porres, Dr Michelle Brinn (Co-I), and Dr Pete King (Co-I) have worked with The Welsh Government on ensuring extensive professional learning is available across the non-maintained sector to support the implementation of Curriculum for Wales. This project was a collaborative effort between Bangor University, Cardiff Metropolitan University, University of South Wales, Swansea University, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Wrexham Glyndŵr University, ComIT (Communication Intervention Team) within the Sensory and Communication Support Service (SenCom) of Torfaen County Borough Council, the Welsh Government and the Welsh Government’s Advisory Group.

In December 2022 Dr Jacky Tyrie was awarded (with colleagues around Wales) an ESCR bid for £650,000 to undertake the project “Embedding children's participation rights in pedagogical practice in lower primary classrooms in Wales”. As part of this research the Children’s Participation in Schools website is now live and offers information about the research and the topic more broadly.

The team at their first project meeting (l-r) Dr Alison Murphy, University of Wales Trinity Saint David; Dr Sarah Chicken, UWE, Bristol (Principal Investigator); Dr Jennifer Clement, Cardiff Metropolitan University; Professor Jane Williams, Swansea University; Dr Jane Waters-Davies, University of Wales Trinity Saint David; Dr Jacky Tyrie, Swansea University.

Dr Gisselle Tur Porres, Dr Helen Lewis and Dr Emily Marchant have had an article accepted for publication:

Tur Porres, G.; Lanyon, K.; Abbott, R.; Lewis, H.; Marchant, E. and Peconi, J. (2024). Exploring perceptions of and attitudes towards tanning with school children, parents/carers and educators in Wales: A mixed methods study protocol for the SunChat study. PLOS ONE.

Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa66449

Summary

Skin cancer comprises half of all cancers in England and Wales. Most skin cancers can be prevented with safer sun exposure. As overexposure as a child can greatly increase future skin cancer risk, early and accessible sun safe education and promotion of sun safe behaviours is critical. Scientists agree there is no such thing as a safe tan, yet the public, including children, often have positive perceptions of tanned skin. To protect against future skin cancer, it is important to understand and address these misconceptions. The Curriculum for Wales with its area for Health and Well-being, and autonomy for schools in designing curriculum content, presents an ideal way to facilitate this exploration. To date, there has been no work in Wales exploring childrens, parents/carers, and educators perceptions of tanning and how healthier attitudes can be encouraged. This study will engage with children, parents/carers, and primary school educators to scope current tanning perceptions and the perceived effects tanning has on health, to feed into a future toolkit and curriculum development for health in schools in Wales and beyond.

We are happy to share the following posters, designed by primary school children in years 1 3 as part of the workshops which explored how children perceived tanning and their existing sun-safety habits. As part of the workshops activities children were asked to create a poster to encourage healthy behaviour and promote sun safety. The activity informed the final design of the poster, allowing researchers to highlight information that children found important. The idea of sharing these posters to schools to pass on which sun safety messages they deem important came from the children themselves and we are happy to ensure the voice of children is being heard.

Ames, P., Tur Porres, G., Gonzlez Dez, J. (2022). Estudiar las infancias en Amrica Latina: ideas y debates para un campo emergente. [Studying childhoods in Latin America: ideas and debates for an emerging field]. Confluenze. Rivista Di Studi Iberoamericani, 13(2), 126. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2036-0967/14249.

Chicken, S., and J. Tyrie. Can you hear me? (in press) Problematising the enactment of UNCRC Article 12 in Welsh Early Years Classrooms, exploring the challenges of 'children's voice'. IJCR. (under review).

Goodall, J., (2022). A framework for family engagement : Going beyond the Epstein Framework,Wales Journal of Education24(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.16922/wje.24.2.5.

Goodall, J., Greasley, S. (2022). Developing inclusive school communities through parental engagement in their childrens learning. In K. Black-Hawkins A. Grinham-Smith (Eds.), Expanding possibilities for Inclusive Learning (Vol. 3). Routledge.

Ires Correa, W. Tur Porres, G. (2022). Cuerpo, infancia y escuela: un encuentro necesario [Body, childhood and school: a necessary dialogue]. En J. Gonzlez Dez V. Gmez Ceruelo, Familias, gneros y diversidades: reflexiones para la educacin [Families, genders and diversities: reflections for education] (pp. 235-254). EU: Editorial UNAE, Casa Editorial del GAD Cuenca Coordinacin.

King P. S,. Newstead (2022). Childcare Workers Understanding of the Play Cycle Theory: Can a Focus on Process not Product Contribute to Quality Childcare Experiences?, Child Care in Practice, 28:2, 164-177, DOI: 10.1080/13575279.2019.1680532.

Lewis, H.; MacDonald, N. Tur Porres, G. (2022). Early childhood education and care in Wales: A curriculum for the non-maintained sector with children at the centre of practice. Early Education Journal, 98, 8-10.

Murphy, A., Tyrie, J., Waters-Davies, J., Chicken, S., Clement, J. (2022). Foundation Phase teachers' understandings and enactment of participation in school settings in Wales. Inclusive Pedagogies for Early Childhood Education: Respecting and Responding to Differences in Learning, 111.

Tur Porres, G. Ires Correa, W. (2023). Developing emancipatory online learning environments in quality teacher education. In J. Madalińska-Michalak (ed.). Quality in Teaching and Teacher Education. International Perspectives from a Changing World (pp.147-165). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004536609_008.

Tyrie., J. Knight., C. and M., Borras (2021). Delphi Study on the impact of COVID-19 on children under age 5. Welsh Government. 82/2021 https://www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/statistics-and-research/2021-12/delphi-study-to-understand-options-available-that-will-help-to-identify-address-or-mitigate-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-children-under-age-5.pdf