Stories from a camp

This guest blog post was written by Elena Natale, one of our Undergraduate students studying education with modern and medieval languages.

30th May 2016 to 9th June 2016

 

STORIES FROM A CAMP

By Elena Natale
It is hard to describe my days in the Dunkirk Camp both because of their intensity and because feelings and experiences are hard to explain in words. However, I feel that telling about my adventure is a necessary step for it to be continued by other inspired people who care about humanity. One of the first messages I want to communicate is that what we hear on the news or read in papers about the refugee crisis and about refugees themselves is just a small part of the picture, often badly painted with lots of misconceptions. This is because the focus is on the politics of immigration and the effects of this on society, rather than on the individuals and their stories. I do not intend to get involved with the politics at all, but rather bring a human touch to the matter. With this in mind, I left my safe, comfortable student life in Cambridge and went to volunteer in the Dunkirk La Linière Camp, spending most of my time in the classroom and the children’s centre.

 

Figure 1: The Edlumino classroom on the left and the children’s centre on the right.

 
My time at the classroom run by Edlumino Education Aid, a collaboration of teachers and people interested in education, was very enriching; especially given my interest in becoming a teacher. The classroom is very well resourced and it is beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. This is extremely important given that the camp in itself is unattractive in terms of aesthetics and architecture. Children from about 7+ of different abilities and with different previous experiences of schooling go to learn when they want all throughout the week. Depending on the number of teachers and volunteers present the children are taught in small groups or one-to-one tuition and the content of learning and teaching is mainly English and maths. Many children go to school for just a short period of time, most of them manage to stay for an hour. This is facilitated by the ‘bracelet method’, in other words after an hour of learning children receive a paper bracelet as a form of reward and as an entry-pass to the play centre just opposite the classroom.

Figure 2: The classroom

It was an amazing experience to help out in the classroom because many of the children arrive and are eager to learn, it is just about finding the right way for them to do so. This therefore requires a lot of flexibility and the ability to use existing teaching skills in completely new ways. The greatest challenge is to find ways to motivate the children and engage them in learning. This is especially the case because many of them are tired as they have been awake during the night trying to get on trucks, or alternatively they are influenced by their environment and by the other children. However it is not an unachievable goal: I myself experimented teaching using different techniques such as flash cards, visual and sensory objects, alternating some learning games with more structured learning.

Figure 3: The children’s centre activity area.

Figure 4: The play area.

Teaching in the camp is a stimulating experience for anyone interested in education and it encourages all those involved to share different teaching and learning approaches. All of these approaches seem to work as children return to school and their improvements are easily noticeable. I would hazard a guess that this is because everyone teaching is interested in the children as individuals and as learners. Added to this there is a shared recognition of the wider role of education: in other words education not just about the teaching of skills and knowledge but also about the development of feelings, behaviours and attitudes towards oneself, the environment and others.

I had a wonderful time at the children’s centre, opposite the classroom, as I had the opportunity not only to become a child again but also to organise entertaining and educative activities for children of all ages. In particular the centre is the camp’s safe space for children: from the small babies to the more exuberant older ones. There they can play and be themselves and rediscover their innocence and their abilities to dream. In it the children have the opportunities to explore and learn using different toys, art materials, sports equipment, books. The presence of teachers and volunteers means that each one can focus and spend time with smaller groups of children and organise games and activities. Having said this it is almost impossible to continue one activity for long because there is so much going on around. Consequently it is always important to have one eye in the game and the other on what is going on everywhere else; this is both to avoid brutal fights or stone throwing and also to make sure that none of the children are left alone or unsupervised.

A typical day at the centre starts around 10.30/11am when the children who are too small to go to the classroom are brought by their parents or by their older siblings. In the morning usually a creative activity, like playing music or some art work, is organised and then the children have a small snack time followed by free play. The centre closes for a lunch break around 1.30pm and the children then come back from 3pm to 5pm. In the afternoon, depending on the weather, the children either do some sports, physical activities or simply play outdoors. During my time at the centre a group of volunteers had just planted lots of flowers and plants so the children took over the responsibility to water them, something that they greatly enjoyed. I also attempted to do some dance routines and simple yoga/fitness exercises with the children. At first it was hard but then I realised it is all about consistency and about adapting the activity so as to suit the interests and needs of the children. It was wonderful to see a group of 10/15 children, who after many attempts, managed to sit together in a circle, do some stretching, make coordinated noises and take part in group interactions. The smallest satisfactions of volunteering with children derive from the simplest things: for example when a child says please, thank you, sorry or comes to give you a hug. All of these small gestures make you feel like you have achieved something great and unforgettable.

I spent most of my time moving in between the classroom and the children’s centre and it was interesting to notice how they both operate differently with different objectives. However despite this they both successfully achieve the goal of providing children with a safe space just for them where they can come and let out their energies, learn, spend time with other children and with adults who care about them. All the teachers and volunteers that I met are inspiring people and it is fascinating to listen to their stories. In particular the long-term volunteers who have been in the camp since it was first opened explained how they have seen the changes from children learning and playing in very small improvised tents, to larger ones to the complete, inviting and well-furnished buildings in which they are now.

What I have learned through this experience is that teaching in the sorts of conditions present in the camp requires a different approach to education: it requires people who are enthusiastic, sensitive and who are able to connect to individuals by catering for their needs of love and affection. The children and their families should be the core centre around which everything is done. Only when the connections between human beings are encouraged and safeguarded can true and meaningful changes of the individuals’ psychological and emotional conditions be made. To conclude, volunteering in the camp is for me about trying to reach the hearts of people and allowing everyone to reclaim their identity.

 

When is an ebook not an ebook?

If you haven’t already seen this image on the LibrarySearch catalogue, be sure that it will be appearing on a list of search results near you soon!

But what does it actually mean?

Any material with the ‘Conditions of use’ label refers to books and journals that have been deposited at the University Library by publishers in a digital format, rather than in print.  Unfortunately, these titles can only be used on specific computers in certain libraries in Cambridge.

We have one of these ‘E-Legal Deposit’ computers in the Education Library on Lily Pad 2 but you can only read the material online – it’s not possible to print, download, copy and paste or photograph the material you access from here.

We realise that using e-legal deposit titles on this computer in the Education Library is not going to be possible or convenient for many of our students, especially those studying at a distance from Cambridge.

However, if you let us know which title you would like to read we can probably help you as we often have access to the material another way, either in print or as a less restrictive ebook/ejournal through the resources subscribed to by the University.

If we don’t, we will consider purchasing it either as a print book or as an ebook which can be accessed outside of Cambridge Libraries.

 

From crowded solitude to re-contextualizing the field

The following guest blog post was written by John Finney, Faculty of Education teacher-researcher, co-editor (with Felicity Laurence) of MasterClass in music education and author of Music education in England 1950-2010.

You can find John on Twitter and his blog, Music Education Now.

From crowded solitude to re-contextualizing the field

It was about 2010 over a drink in the Rock that I quizzed Phil Kirkman and Jennie Francis as I tried to make sense of the recent growth in use of social media through twitter and texting. It was both a mystery and a concern that such short bursts of just 140 characters in the case of twitter could constitute a meaningful manner of communication. I was mindful of sociologist Zygmunt Bauman’s writing on the subject.

I have greatly enjoyed Bauman’s writing and have you read his 44 Letters from the Liquid Modern World? Letter 2 is titled ‘Crowded Solitude’. He tells of a teenage girl who sent 3,000 text messages in one month, an average of 100 messages a day.

Bauman writes: ‘what follows is that she’s hardly ever been alone for more than ten minutes; that means she has never been with herself – with her thoughts, her dreams, her worries and hopes.’ (2010: 6)

Bauman concludes:

‘Running away from loneliness, you drop your chance of solitude on the way: of that sublime condition in which one can ‘gather thoughts’, ponder, reflect, create – and so in the last account, give meaning and substance to communication. But then, having never savoured the taste, you may never know what you have forfeited, dropped and lost.’ (Ibid: 9)

However, I was shortly to realise that twitter and the emerging blogosphere were becoming places of professional discourse. And in the relatively small field of music education where I reside, here was a meeting place and a global one at that.

Beyond music education there was a growing world of teacher twitterers and bloggers who were commanding the attention of government and whose voices were seen as both allies and minor arbiters in policy, its communication and dissemination. Michael Gove flirted with lead blogger ‘Old Andrew’, now an influential blog gatekeeper, while Tom Bennett emerged as government advisor, teachers’ champion and debunker of educational myths, and with over 20,000 followers.

I also noted that with practice it was possible to conduct a debate through twitter and that twitter was a source of information flow that could be valuable. Thus, I became a convert, understanding how all this is part of the time-space contraction that is global modernity.

After a little twittering I entered the blogosphere in 2012 and quickly fell into a pattern of writing a weekly blog rather like a regular newspaper column or Radio 4s Thought for the Day. Each blog takes five to seven minutes to read and above all else is intended to provoke thought. Topics vary from week to week and are often prompted by something recently encountered, some trend or silly idea gaining attention and credence that I feel would benefit from challenge or clarification. Then there are matters close to music teacher’s professional lives: assessment without levels (see blog post here), for example. Blogs on assessment and school audit cultures are big hits.

Sometimes I create a sequence. ‘Sitting by Lake Geneva’ was a four-part retrospective on Jean Piaget and recently I have written a five-part consideration of the purposes of music education.

Running through the over 200 blogs now written there are repetitions, recurrences, nagging issues that I keep returning to and through which my thinking becomes a little clearer. While the first fifty blogs have been published as an eBook there remains much scope for developing material into a more substantial account of ‘Music Education Now’, the blogs title.

Overall, my aim is to bring together teacher thought and thought circulating beyond the classroom. It is a great medium through which to contribute to the re-contextualization the field and to use another Bernstein notion, to open up those vitalising discursive gaps. (See Bernstein, 2000)

Of course, a blog does need promoting, and links through twitter help with this. I am left wondering just who is the weekly reader in Mongolia and why the recent interest from Thailand?

I am grateful to the ongoing tutelage from the Faculty Library Team on matters of blog presentation. I haven’t yet managed to import a Venn diagram and a good many other things that would improve matters.

The Library Team are at hand.

References:

Bauman, Z. (2010) 44 Letters from the Liquid Modern World. Cambridge: Polity.

Bernstein, B. (2000) Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity. Oxford: Roman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Michael Armstrong

The following is a guest blog post written by Mary Jane Drummond, a former lecturer at the Faculty of Education and renowned writer and researcher in the field of Early Childhood Education.

The death has been announced of Michael Armstrong, the author of two exceptional books about learning: Closely Observed Children (1989), and Children Writing Stories (2006). In the first, Michael Armstrong sets out, in his own words, ‘to describe the intellectual life of a class of eight and nine-year olds in a primary school in rural Leicestershire’; it is a book that has touched the working lives of countless teachers, and many others who shared Michael’s passionate interest in children’s learning.

 

In the second book, long-awaited by enthusiastic readers of the first, Michael brilliantly analyses a selection of children’s stories, some documented by Tolstoy in the peasant school he set up on his estate, some collected by the incomparable Vivian Gussin Paley, and many more from the primary school in Oxfordshire where he had been headteacher for 19 years.

 

Michael also wrote countless essays for the campaigning journal FORUM, many of them available online at www.wwwords.co.uk/FORUM. See, for example, a sparkling article about the importance of play in children’s thought and language: ‘Playful Words: the educational significance of children’s linguistic and literacy play’ in Volume 51, No.2, 2009, pp165-183. Readers who would like to be reminded of the cataclysmic events in English educational history in 1988 could turn back to Michael’s article in Volume 30, No.3, 1998 ‘Popular Education and the National Curriculum’. This is a fierce and cogent denunciation of the dysfunctional effects of the 1988 Education Reform Act, and, as it turns out, prophetically acute in its diagnosis of the long-term outcomes of the Act for children and teachers, for curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. When will we ever learn?

But Michael never gave up hope. His most recent and – tragically – final piece for FORUM is the text of his address to the Brian Simon Centenary Conference, held in March 2015 (Vol.57, No.3 2015 pp317-24, not yet on open access. See the FORUM website for more details). In this passionate speech, ‘Humanism in Education’, Michael robustly restates his abiding belief in Brian Simon’s educational vision, and his insistence ‘on the teacher meeting her students as human beings…with education as the meeting of minds within a common school in which all children are educable, and all have something to say.’ Michael concludes: ‘It is a vision that we have lost sight of. It finds no settled place in contemporary educational discourse. All the more reason to reclaim it.’ That work of reclamation must go on…

Reflections from a MPhil Student

While still studying for his MPhil at the Faculty of Education, Emerson Csorba reflected about his time in Cambridge, with this guest blog post which some of our new students may find interesting and insightful.

“Never write about a place until you’re away from it, for only then do you have perspective.”

– Ernest Hemingway

Photo by dr. shordzi  (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)

In early January 2014, I received an email I will never forget. After several weeks spent refreshing the Cambridge graduate application platform dozens of times per day, I noticed the application status had switched: what once read ‘application made’ was suddenly ‘board of directors confirming approval.’ Several days later, the official confirmation email arrived in my inbox. An unexpected scholarship in May sealed the deal: I would be going to Cambridge for a M.Phil in Politics, Development and Democratic Education.

When I first arrived in Cambridge, colleagues from across the city remarked that the year would pass quickly. At the time, having yet to meet classmates and having only just been introduced to the traditions and events on campus, there was much to learn – and many opportunities awaiting for getting lost while making my way from college to college! As I write this, only one month is left in the programme, and it has been an experience that has left a significant impact on my life, one that words cannot do justice. In this brief reflection, I will speak to the way in which the Cambridge experience – but more specifically, studying in the Faculty of Education – has provided immense benefit in my growth as a scholar and person. In particular, I will emphasize the roles that the Library, PDDE route and several key faculty members have played in making these last nine months some of the most transformative of my life.

Considering how the thesis deadline is fast approaching, and for the sake of time and simplicity, I will present these reflections in the form of a list:

1. The M.Phil in PDDE route and the students within it challenge each other to broaden their thinking

Students in Education – and specifically, the M.Phil in Politics, Development and Democratic Education route I’m a part of – have challenged me to think in ways that at first were uncomfortable, but that over time have been of immense value. From the first seminars of the year, my PDDE classmates were deeply engaged in the subject matter, both inside and outside of class. Coming from Canada, where the education system is more or less egalitarian, and where divisions between class are less pronounced than in Britain and the United States, it took time to feel at ease in a new culture where the debates on education differ so markedly. (In so doing, I have also learned a lot more about Canadian culture, which I’ve found has its positives and negatives!) Within PDDE alone, students come from Germany, the United States, Britain, Colombia, Peru, Australia and Canada. Whether I agree or not with viewpoints raised in seminar discussions, they have opened my mind to ways of thinking for which I’m grateful.

2. There is space to step back and think

One of the most common phrases I’ve heard throughout my time at Cambridge is “Why don’t you go have a think?” Activities such as introspection are valued, and there is no shortage of beautiful scenery for taking long walks – on one’s own or with friends – around the city. On top of this, there are few assessments. Students are truly provided with the space to think through important questions on their own, an opportunity that unfortunately exists less and less these days in higher education.

The seminar and supervision approach to learning is also one that I wish more students could experience in higher education. I’ve taken a lot away from the many philosophical discussions on topics such as autonomy, freedom, democracy, liberalism and the good life, which I view as being valuable both intrinsically as well as for the work I’ll do later on in life across education, politics and business. Indeed, philosophy and critical examination are taken seriously in the Faculty of Education. And we can never have enough of this in the world!

3. Social entrepreneurship is taken seriously: faculty and staff welcome this

The Faculty is remarkably open to social entrepreneurship. One unique aspect of my Cambridge experience is that I co-run a business based in Canada called Gen Y Inc., a company that helps organisations develop multigenerational engagement internally, attracting and retaining the next generation of leaders and managers. In no small part to Cambridge, we’re now entering Britain, establishing what I feel is a promising practice here. While in undergraduate studies in Canada, I was never sure whether professors were open to the idea of profit-making enterprises. At Cambridge, however, it has been much the opposite: the city is one of the most entrepreneurial and innovative in Europe, home to the “Cambridge Phenomenon.” (In the last 15 years, for instance, Cambridge University Entrepreneurs has generated more than 100M GBP worth of investment in companies. Not bad for a student society!)

Most recently, for instance, I was asked to speak at a Faculty of Education event entitled Education and Entrepreneurship. David Carter, Hilary Cremin, Nidhi Singal and Ian Frowe have all been champions in this regard, all providing support in very meaningful ways. The openness to ideas and support from the Faculty of Education has been a breath of fresh air.

4. Learning is valued in itself, and the Library team ensures this is the most pleasant experience possible

Finally, I’ve benefited significantly from the rich collection of books in the Faculty of Education, most specifically with ones on the capabilities approach by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. There is such a terrific culture of learning for the sake of learning with students here. Supporting this is a Library team where every interaction is engaging, and where staff members always manage to have a smile on their face.

As another (and more positive) example about the culture of learning, I remember distinctly bumping into Abraham (a fellow PDDE student) on December 5, as I walked home from the Donald MacIntyre building. I had just handed in the Michaelmas term essay, having of course successfully hole-punched it. Hilariously, Abraham was on his way to the Faculty – with just two hours to spare before the essay deadline – leisurely reading a book on higher education innovation well outside his area of focus for Essay One! At the time, he mentioned there were “several edits left” on the paper. I remain both perplexed and impressed by his calm as the 4 pm essay deadline approached.

Studying in the Faculty of Education has been a nourishing experience, intellectually, spiritually and socially. I have never been in a place where students care so deeply about learning, and where staff are equal facilitators in this journey. Part of this is the Cambridge experience, but the culture in the Faculty of Education deepens this. I will forever have warm memories of studying in the Faculty of Education Library, with Oakeshott, Sen, Nussbaum and others by my side. This last year has, in short, served as a gateway into the wider world, while also helping me make sense of my life growing up in Canada. And more importantly, the memories and friendships developed here, with both classmates and faculty, will last a lifetime.

Ofsted inspections: observation of teaching and learning – change since 1992.

We are delighted that Peter Browning, one of the current EdD students at the Faculty of Education, has written the following guest blog post. A few weeks ago Peter was searching for school inspection reports and more specifically a Department for Education publication from 1992 (“Framework for the Inspection of Schools”) to track the use of the term “leadership” to compare with the language used in 2015. The Faculty Library Team found the publication in the pamphlet collection and also identified other relevant material of interest. Whilst talking to Peter he commented on one specific difference (of many) between inspections in the early 1990s and today….

In my present role, as a school improvement partner within a local authority just north of London, I support, monitor and challenge schools in the drive for improvement. The remit is to be in partnership with schools and the intention is that the school’s ability to evaluate its work is enhanced through the challenge offered through dialogue with an experienced individual. The work of Ofsted, in many senses, forms a backdrop to this work but one fundamental difference is that the work is ongoing, and regular, whereas the inspectors involved with a specific inspection, almost exclusively, do not visit the school ever again. Additionally, I am concerned with working with a school to improve provision each day. Presently, a school can expect an inspection within a three year cycle but this does not appear to be an exact prediction. A small range of scenarios can mean an inspection earlier than this. Tensions arise in schools when their three years are up and head teachers can be on the alert for a phone call indicating a visit with half a day’s notice. Head teachers have learnt that if a phone call is not forthcoming by lunch-time on a Wednesday then they have the all clear, for that week, until the following Monday. Do head teachers really watch this? They do. Do class teachers really watch this? They do, if their head teacher does!

Whilst reviewing some early Ofsted inspections from the first in 1992 to search for the use of the term “leadership” in inspection reports, I noted an element that I had forgotten about when I checked the evidence base of each inspection. In particular, I focussed on the time spent by inspectors observing teaching and learning. A typical scenario in 1992-93 showed that a Primary school of 10 classes would be visited by a team of 6 inspectors who were allocated to the school. Just think about that for a moment: 104 lessons were observed. Think about that too; do your division sum – right, 10 lesson observations per teacher. Admittedly the inspection team had to report, in detail, on 10 subjects and would have been in the school for four full days, reporting to the head teacher and governors towards the end of the fourth day. This was very demanding for teachers, many of whom had never met an inspector in their entire career before 1992. Schools were given, on average, 10 months notice of an impending inspection so you had time to ready yourself!

Roll forward to 2000 and one school of which I was head teacher had 262 pupils on roll organised into 10 classes and was inspected early that year. There were 5 inspectors allocated to the school for the full 4 days of the inspection. I had forgotten the detail, but on finding the report I noted that 66 lessons were observed. I recall my deputy head teacher having 13 of them and she was a good teacher so she swelled the overall positivity of the evidence base. Fast forward, same school, inspection 2013 and the numbers on roll are slightly different – 227 and 8 classes – but in that inspection there were 14 lesson observations.

The system of Ofsted inspections, since 1992, has been subject to regular change. In the main, the changes have come about as a result of evaluations of the system by academics, educationalists, unions and teachers. The importance of accurate self-evaluation and the school’s ability to show that it can improve itself has resulted in a far more streamlined approach to the process of inspection. A scrutiny of the evidence base of most recent Ofsted inspections shows that in one area, namely observations of teaching and learning, an individual teacher can expect to have one observation of his/her teaching, two at the most (Ofsted 2015). I did identify where the first use of the term “leadership” in Ofsted inspection reports occurred but that is for later…

Peter Browning

EdD Year 1

Faculty of Education, Cambridge

As Education Subject librarians, it is an absolute pleasure to interact with our researchers and as you can see there are lots of hidden treasures in our pamphlet collection and Archive; just contact us, we are always happy to help you search…

The reports:

Department for Education (1992). Kenilworth First School, Borehamwood : Hertfordshire Education Authority 8/12 June1992, A report from the Office of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools Reference 343/92/P. London: Office for Standards in Education.

http://search.lib.cam.ac.uk/?itemid=|depfacaedb|291989

Department for Education (1992) Framework for the inspection of schools: Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools. Office for Standards in Education. London: Office for Standards in Education

http://search.lib.cam.ac.uk/?itemid=|depfacaedb|295011

Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED). (1993a). South Hill County Primary School, Hemel Hempstead : Hertfordshire Education Authority 13-17 September 1993. A report by HMI Reference 419/93/P. London: Office for Standards in Education.

http://search.lib.cam.ac.uk/?itemid=|depfacaedb|290310

Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED). (1993b) Highover Primary School, Hitchin; Hertfordshire Local Education Authority, 19-23 October 1992: A report from the Office of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools Reference 58/93/P

http://search.lib.cam.ac.uk/?itemid=|depfacaedb|291826

Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED). (1993c). Standards and Quality in Education 1992-1993: The annual report of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools. London: Her Majesty’s Stationary Office (HMSO).

http://search.lib.cam.ac.uk/?itemid=|depfacaedb|294937

Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED). (2015) Inspection of Woodside Primary School, Hertfordshire Local education Authority 6-7May 2015 Reference 117321. Inspection Ref: 462092. London: Office for Standards in Education

Will you be my borrower?

Chocolates, roses, and secret admirers are traditionally associated with Valentine’s Day but what about books? Hopefully you will have seen our friendly books dancing their way across the Library window this week – if you missed them, check our Facebook page for pictures. The Faculty Library Team love matchmaking students with their perfect book, in print or digital – with over 55,000 items in the collection our expert knowledge can save you time & effort. Here are some more suggestions for your book blind date – see below for a variety of titles to spark your interest or use in the classroom:

Teaching, learning, and loving: reclaiming passion in educational practice edited by Liston, D. & Garrison, J.

This essay collection is filled with interesting ideas from scholars on the connections between reason and emotion in teaching and learning and is relevant to teachers of all age groups as well as researchers, educators, and policy makers. You love what you do, we know that, but this book will help you figure out why.

Find this book at 371 LIS  

The elephant in the classroom: helping children learn and love maths by Jo Boaler

This offers suggestions on how to teach maths well, plus how to help children in the home, with a new approach that teaches children to reason and problem-solve. If you’re looking for new ways to engage learners in your primary or secondary maths classroom, this could be the book for you!

Find this book at 510/7 BOA

Educational resources are specifically for use within schools and as teaching aids. These texts are distinguished by a yellow classmark label on the spine as well as being displayed on the catalogue like this:

Forest of feelings: understanding and exploring emotions by Carol Holliday and Jo Browning Wroe

This is a resource to help explore and understand emotions with children. The book follows Ben’s journey through the Forest of Feelings, where he encounters the emotions of anger, sadness, fear, jealousy and happiness. This resource includes an introduction to understanding and exploring children’s emotions, and advice on how to best encourage each child’s emotional development and promote emotional well-being in children. It includes teacher’s notes, activities and circle time ideas centred on the emotions found within each chapter.

Find this book at 920/72 WRO (yellow label)

The feelings artbook by Ruby Radburn

This resource provides activities and worksheets to promote emotional literacy through the medium of drawing, helping anyone who spends time with children. The book is organised into three sections: self-esteem, emotions and empathy. These activities work to encourage a positive sense of self in children, to help them identify and define a wide range of feelings and to consider the feelings and preferences of others. All activities include aims, outlines and follow up ideas and can be download from the accompanying CD-ROM.

Find this book at 920/7 RAD (yellow label)

The Education Library holds an extensive collection of children’s literature and these selections are perfect for brightening up a grey February day!

Guess how much I love you by Sam McBratney

Always guaranteed to bring a tear to the eye of any adult reader and to prompt many laughs and cries of again from children, this is a classic children’s book which is a lovely bedtime read.

Find this book under MCBRATNEY in our children’s fiction section.

Love that dog by Sharon Creech

This is a heart warming story of Jack, his dog, his teacher and words. His teacher inspires him to be able to express himself and tell the story of his beloved dog.

Find this book under CREECH in our children’s fiction section.

Which title will you be taking home? Tell us which Education books you love most (library@educ.cam.ac.uk) or join us on Monday 16^th February for a slice of cake in exchange for your recommendations!

Photo by aubergene @ Flickr