The Foundation Stage/Key stage One network has the underlining ethos of identifying key areas of research focus in each of our participating schools, actively engaging in action research to try and discover answers to the questions we set out to explore and finally using our network as a way to sustain and share this process and its implications with other schools. This action research is all set within the common shared understanding that first hand experiences should be the driving force of good early years pedagogy and if we can draw out implications and learning experiences that will strengthen the quality of provision within our schools, then such findings should be shared with others so best practice continues to grows and consolidate across the borough.
"First hand experience is perhaps the most important foundation stone in discovering who you really are, and what you might become. Without huge dollops of it, encouraged and nurtured, but rarely directed, we can never become more than the sum of other peoples lives, experienced at second hand…the antidote is to take a few risks, and let the mud squidge through your toes from time to time." - Tim Smit