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This paper explores the enactment of government policy during the COVID pandemic in primary schools in England. Based on interviews with school leaders and teachers across the period 2020-21 (n = 66), drawn from two major studies of primary schools' priorities during the crisis, we argue that school leaders' responses can be understood as a distinct form of policy enactment particular to an unprecedented crisis. Policy arrived in schools differently, and was enacted differently. Our findings suggest that enacting policy during the COVID crisis was a process dominated by the need to act at speed, informed by the prioritisation of children's basic needs and based on a knowledge of the local circumstances. Thus dimensions of context which affect policy enactment were altered during the crisis, with the material circumstances of the school and the values of the headteacher becoming highly significant. The approach we term crisis policy enactment is response to policy which is focused first on coping but is also agentic, demonstrating a commitment to children's welfare and a belief in the power of schools to make a difference.

While much is known about the benefits of shared reading activity for children, and the role of the home in cultivating shared reading practices far less is known about the factors that can influence parents' shared reading practices with their children. Given that many young people leave school with poor relationships with reading, this study explores the links between parents' own relationships with reading and the shared reading they practice with their own children in the home. Drawing on deep-level interview data, this paper presents data from six parents of pre-school children, who reported that they have had a poor personal relationship with reading. These parents all developed positive shared reading relationships with their children, however the importance of this study lies in understanding the interplay between these reading relationships. The data strongly suggested that the construct of 'reading' was very different from the ways in which reading had previously been defined for these participants. Reading, within a shared reading context, was seen as a very flexible construct which included activities such as talking and telling stories. In some cases, parents' own relationships with reading seemed to improve. Implications for intervention with other families are discussed.

Children's early experiences of educational transition can be a critical step in their life-long learning journey, yet we know very little about their perceptions of this experience. This paper draws on the findings of a participatory study, which identified rules and rewards as being significant factors for children transitioning from an early childhood education setting to the first year of primary school in a European school in a major city in Belgium. This case study accessed the voices of six children, their parents and the teaching staff. The findings indicated that the children perceived both sanctions and rewards to be important in the enforcement of classroom rules. However, the children expressed concerns about their ability to adapt their behaviour to meet the cultural expectations of the setting and were troubled about the impact this could have on their social belonging. Furthermore, learning dispositions were found to be inhibited by both ambiguous criteria for success and the desire to earn rewards. This paper recommends that educators give careful consideration to the ways in which rules and rewards impact upon children's experiences of transition.

This paper outlines the findings of an empirical research study exploring how Early Years Educators (EYEs) support under-threes with their early reading development in England. The data were collected through a mixed methodological approach of an initial survey, five semi-structured interviews and four reflective Zines to explore the experiences of EYEs working with under-threes. The findings highlight that there are significant implications for babies and toddlers, linked to a distinct lack of agency and access to pictures, books and other early reading resources, instigated by the conventional daily routines provided in these early years settings. This paper argues for some fundamental 'reconsidering' of the value of early reading for under-threes, given that access, or indeed the lack of access is a key finding of this study.

Shared reading with young children has a positive impact on a range of areas including language development and literacy skills, yet some parents face challenges in engaging in this activity. While much is known about the benefits of shared reading, the barriers to it are poorly understood. The research presented here draws on in-depth interviews with 20 parents of pre-school children to understand home-reading practices in a socio-economically and culturally mixed sample, exploring the motivations and barriers that exist to engaging in shared reading. Results indicate that parents are motivated to engage in shared reading when there is clear evidence of their child's enjoyment. However, parental perceptions of 'negative' child-feedback could be a barrier to shared reading. This has particular implications for the age at which parents perceive reading to be a valued and worthwhile activity for their child, suggesting that some parents may choose not to read with their babies because they are not receiving the feedback they require in order to sustain the activity. Moreover, this study also revealed that, for many parents, their enjoyment of shared reading activity was closely related to evidence of child enjoyment, thus creating a further barrier to reading when child enjoyment was perceived to be absent. This has strong implications for interventions that seek to encourage and support home-reading practices between parents and young children.

This article sheds light on how chronic health conditions impact upon concepts of inclusion in children's early childhood education and care in England; it draws upon findings from a small-scale research project which highlights the need to consider health, in particular, the impact of chronic health conditions on early childhood education and care. The study was conducted in two stages: Stage 1 involved a postal questionnaire to 60 early childhood settings and Stage 2 included interviews with 6 practitioners in 4 settings, interviews with parents and observations of a child (called DJ) in his setting over the course of a year. The findings from this study indicate that in an attempt to be inclusive, practitioners may be unintentionally exclusive in their practice. The data suggest that this may be as a consequence of practitioners having different understandings and definitions of what is meant by the term inclusion, leading to confusion about the aims of inclusion. The findings indicate that there is a need to identify what effective pedagogy is for children with chronic health conditions, as well as a need to redefine inclusion in relation to their needs.

The fact that many sub-populations do not take part in research, especially participants from lower socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds, is a serious problem in education research. To increase the participation of such groups we must discover what social, economic and practical factors prevent participation, and how to overcome these barriers. In the current paper, we review the literature on this topic, before describing a case study that demonstrates four potential solutions to four barriers to participation in a shared reading intervention for families from lower SES backgrounds. We discuss the implications of our findings for family-based interventions more generally, and the difficulty of balancing strategies to encourage participation with adhering to the methodological integrity of a research study.

Families are pivotal in terms of facilitating children's language development, including their ability to read. However, to date, there is little research designed to understand how shared reading operates within the realm of everyday family practices. Drawing on data from a study which set out to explore shared reading practices in the home, this article considers reading within the context of the family and everyday family life. In-depth interviews were carried out with 29 parents of pre-school children to investigate shared reading practices within a socially and culturally mixed sample. This study revealed that the relationship between shared reading practices and family practices is recursive. In particular, building on the seminal work of Finch reading was seen to be a specific feature of family practice and routine, and acts as a form of family display. Furthermore, this article demonstrates how shared reading contributes toward the ways in which structure and agency may operate in a family setting. Constructing reading as a family practice and a form of display makes an important contribution to understandings of home literacy practices and behaviors. This article concludes that endeavors to engage families with shared reading therefore require a comprehensive understanding of family life and family practices and the role of shared reading within.

This paper explores the changing roles of families in children's developing literacy in the UK in the last century. It discusses how, during this time, understandings of reading and writing have evolved into the more nuanced notion of "literacy." Further, in acknowledging changes in written communication practices, and shifting attitudes to reading and writing, the paper sketches out how families have always played some part in the literacy of younger generations; though reading was frequently integral to the lives of many families throughout the past century, we consider in particular the more recent enhancement of children's literacy through targeted family programmes. The paper considers policy implications for promoting young children's literacy through work with families.

Drawing on interview data with school staff and parents from seven primary schools across England, this paper explores how schools and homes worked together during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the impact this had on their relationships with one another. Given that research before the pandemic has indicated that much of the communication taking place between home and school tends to be 'one way' – from the school to home (Meier and Lemmer 2015; Leenders et al. 2019), this paper demonstrates how enforced school closure meant that schools had to find new, or modified ways of communicating and interacting with children and their families. Forty-nine interviews were conducted with participants including headteachers, classroom teachers, teaching assistants, school office workers and parents. Participants were asked to talk about their own experiences of the pandemic including how they communicated with one another. Findings revealed that the pandemic facilitated a great deal more collaboration and 'partnership' between teachers and parents. Participants reported that they had developed a better understanding of one another and that this had positive implications for the children's education. Given the lessons learned from this study, this has important implications for all schools about promoting effective communication practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a historical reflection on gender and literacy, with a view to informing the present teaching of literacy in early childhood. The relationship between gender, literacy and opportunity in the labour market is examined, given that despite girls' achievement in literacy, in comparison with boys', women continue to earn substantially less than men. In order to understand this relationship, this paper reflects on literacy as a socio-historical construct as well as examining the ways in which the past is constitutive in forming enduring notions of gender that penetrate all elements of society, including the literacy classroom. This critical analysis of what is learned "about" and "through" the medium of literacy in the early childhood classroom has major implications for the teaching of literacy today. It is argued that in order to address this issue, early childhood educators need to value and nurture children's digital literacies as well as create learning environments that allow all children genuine opportunities to question, challenge and explore dominant discourses that are embedded in text.

Building on literature concerning participatory research, this article explores the use of "buddy partnership" as a technique to access the voices of young children. In this study, 5- to 6-year-old boys were paired with 11- to 12-year-old boys, and each dyad was asked to contribute towards the creation of an information DVD that would help teachers and parents understand the factors that influenced children's engagement with reading. This article reflects on how this research technique addressed some of the methodological concerns of researchers conducting participatory research with young children. In particular, it addresses issues related to the "role of the researcher" and the impact of presence of an adult researcher when researching young children's views. This study revealed that the use of a buddy partnership with older children was a highly effective method in eliciting the voices of these young children. This article argues that the success of this research technique can be attributed to the cultivation of a strong and unique relationship that was built between the children throughout the duration of the project. It is concluded that the older children played a crucial role in the research, as their empathetic and playful approach meant that they communicated with the younger children in a context that was defined by the existence of "shared understanding", which would not have been possible within an child-adult research relationship.

This paper explores the enactment of government policy during the Covid pandemic in primary schools in England. Based on interviews with school leaders and teachers across the period 2020–21 (n = 66), drawn from two major studies of primary schools' priorities during the crisis, we argue that school leaders' responses can be understood as a distinct form of policy enactment particular to an unprecedented crisis. Policy arrived in schools differently, and was enacted differently. Our findings suggest that enacting policy during the Covid crisis was a process dominated by the need to act at speed, informed by the prioritisation of children's basic needs and based on a knowledge of the local circumstances. Thus dimensions of context which affect policy enactment were altered during the crisis, with the material circumstances of the school and the values of the headteacher becoming highly significant. The approach we term crisis policy enactment is response to policy which is focused first on coping but is also agentic, demonstrating a commitment to children's welfare and a belief in the power of schools to make a difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the findings of study into children's self-perceptions of reading, with a particular emphasis on the perceived use of reading scheme material. Using a collective case study approach, two cohorts of children (six in Nursery and six in Reception) were followed over the course of one academic year. This study employed a range of age-appropriate research activities to collect data directly from the children themselves. Findings revealed that the reading scheme in many ways shaped the children's perceptions of themselves as readers as well as defined constructions of "reading". What is more, the dominant use of a reading scheme was also seen to discourage some children from attempting to read any book, including those existing outside of the scheme. This study argues that early years educators should use staged reading systems with caution and actively encourage children to value a wide range of reading skills and texts. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)

Given that many young children now enter their early years in education as competent and frequent users of digital technology, this paper examines how this experience influences children's perceptions of reading. Drawing from research conducted with 12 young children (aged 3-6) this paper reports on the ways in which these children were interacting with screen texts and using them to develop strategies to make sense of a whole variety of symbolic representations, including print. It is argued that the medium of computer technology in particular was seen to encourage young children to develop both understandings about texts and the skills needed to read them. This included specific aspects of print awareness as well as a general confidence in handling print. However, this confidence appeared to diminish as the children encountered "schooled" approaches to print literacy. It is therefore concluded that schools need to find ways in which to capitalise on the use of multimedia in order to promote confidence and skills in young readers today.

Based on Moje et al.'s (2004) conceptions of "third space theory", this article describes how five nursery-aged children created a "third space" between home and school, in order to find continuity between home and school constructions of reading. This article describes how the children used various aspects of their home experiences, such as popular culture, television texts, computer technology and play to integrate the reading experiences of the home with that of the primary school curriculum. Yet this article also warns that many of these children's own sophisticated and valuable constructions could be at risk of disruption by the demands of the primary school curriculum, even from the time of entry into the Nursery year. It is therefore argued that educators within the Foundation Stage must find ways to accommodate and utilize children's own constructions of reading in order to build confidence and initiate success in a modern generation of young readers. (Contains 1 table and 6 figures.)

Children's early experiences of educational transition can be a critical step in their life-long learning journey, yet we know very little about their perceptions of this experience. This paper draws on the findings of a participatory study, which identified rules and rewards as being significant factors for children transitioning from an early childhood education setting to the first year of primary school in a European school in a major city in Belgium. This case study accessed the voices of six children, their parents and the teaching staff. The findings indicated that the children perceived both sanctions and rewards to be important in the enforcement of classroom rules. However, the children expressed concerns about their ability to adapt their behaviour to meet the cultural expectations of the setting and were troubled about the impact this could have on their social belonging. Furthermore, learning dispositions were found to be inhibited by both ambiguous criteria for success and the desire to earn rewards. This paper recommends that educators give careful consideration to the ways in which rules and rewards impact upon children's experiences of transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the findings of an empirical research study exploring how Early Years Educators (EYEs) support under-threes with their early reading development in England. The data were collected through a mixed methodological approach of an initial survey, five semi-structured interviews and four reflective Zines to explore the experiences of EYEs working with under-threes. The findings highlight that there are significant implications for babies and toddlers, linked to a distinct lack of agency and access to pictures, books and other early reading resources, instigated by the conventional daily routines provided in these early years settings. This paper argues for some fundamental 'reconsidering' of the value of early reading for under-threes, given that access, or indeed the lack of access is a key finding of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]