The Birmingham Pedajolly on the Pedagogy Fun Train

For those who don’t know what a pedajolly is (so-called by Ben), it’s a trip away where you blend chat, play and fun with a lively conversation about all things pedagogy. We had plenty of time for that as we travelled on the commuter train across the country stopping at places with evocative names like Long Buckby and Chittenden. Jean wrote them down commenting on how the children would enjoy getting their tongues around such wonderful names. I began to see a big mapping project begin to take shape.

The conference was all about what pedagogy looks like in practice. At LEYF we describe it as how we lead the children to learn. To do that we need to fully understand how children develop and how they learn. That means being able to teach. The feeling at the conference was that not enough leaders in the sector know and understand this and therefore don’t guide and support staff appropriately. The consequence is that a lot of what happens for our smallest children is not based on informed pedagogy but directed by often ill-considered policy directives, a fixation on exam results and poor-quality training. One of the biggest negative impacts is on children’s right to play. In fact, I would go as far as suggesting that the science of play is being sacrificed because of our insecure knowledge of pedagogy.