Ruth's Blog

Curiosity and Commentary from Earlyarts Director, Ruth Churchill Dower

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Ruth Churchill Dower

Ruth Churchill Dower

Ruth is a keen champion for playing creatively with young children, and tries to do this in partnership with as many other champions as possible! She believes that all children gain huge benefits from creative and cultural opportunities within their learning, playing and being. How we go about building the capacity of the arts, cultural and educational sectors in order to enable children to have these opportunities, find their 'fit' in the bigger picture and still manage to cope with the challenges of a rapidly changing society, is the big question. One thing's for sure though, our kids are great people to be with!

Life on the Leadership Road

by Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth is a keen champion for playing creatively with young children, and tries to
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Tuesday, 08 May 2012 Category Ruth's Blog 0 Comments
Well it's been a whirligig of events recently, starting with dancing at the Nursery World Show back in February and ending in speaking at two Nursery Tags: leadership, estelle morris, nursery world, EYFS, OfSTED
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The Jigsaw of Life and Culture

by Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth is a keen champion for playing creatively with young children, and tries to
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Thursday, 22 March 2012 Category Ruth's Blog 0 Comments
Recently I have rediscovered the (rather addictive) fun of doing a jigsaw with my 10 year old son. Rather like me, he puts on his rose coloured glasse Tags: creativity, cultural education, henley review
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People with Passion

by Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth is a keen champion for playing creatively with young children, and tries to
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Friday, 24 February 2012 Category Ruth's Blog 0 Comments
 I’ve been struck in recent weeks by people’s incredible willingness to engage and offer support for something they believe in. Colleagues sendin Tags: earlyarts, nursery world show
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Communicating with our Culture Babies

by Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth is a keen champion for playing creatively with young children, and tries to
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Friday, 02 December 2011 Category Ruth's Blog 0 Comments
There's something very beautiful in watching a parent take their baby seriously, understanding that their expressions are full of genuine communicatio Tags: culturebaby, childrens charter, national literacy trust, oogly boogly, EYFS, Foundation Years
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Thinking about Families at the Theatre Educators Forum

by Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth is a keen champion for playing creatively with young children, and tries to
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Friday, 25 November 2011 Category Ruth's Blog 0 Comments
For me, a walk through Nottingham city centre is like stepping back in time as I experience some of the funny (and cringe worthy) memories of my c Tags: Theatre in Education, Nottingham Playhouse, theatre for families
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Babies Brain Architecture

by Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth is a keen champion for playing creatively with young children, and tries to
User is currently online
Tuesday, 18 October 2011 Category Ruth's Blog 0 Comments
One of my favourite pieces of research is Young Brains commissioned by DFES in 2007, and has helped me form ideas around how we can facilitate more me Tags: harvard, babies, brain development
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Its all about Culture, baby

by Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth is a keen champion for playing creatively with young children, and tries to
User is currently online
Tuesday, 18 October 2011 Category Ruth's Blog 0 Comments
Very exciting to see Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester Museum and Manchester Art Gallery bringing a focus to the key issue of how we support babies an Tags: manchester art gallery, manchester museum, culturebaby, whitworth art gallery
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Celebrating creative early years practice in Ireland

by Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth is a keen champion for playing creatively with young children, and tries to
User is currently online
Tuesday, 18 October 2011 Category Ruth's Blog 0 Comments
On Saturday, the wonderful Barbara O'Meara (Head of Early Childhood training and creative early years action research programme at Cork Coll Tags: starcatchers, earlyarts, early years, childrens creativity
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Pitching for social investment

by Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth is a keen champion for playing creatively with young children, and tries to
User is currently online
Friday, 14 October 2011 Category Ruth's Blog 0 Comments
Tuesday saw me meeting with some incredible social entrepreneurs from 7.30am at the Clearly So conference. Far from yawning, we had an action-packed d Tags: social enterprise, social investment
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What is the core focus of the revised EYFS? Here's a clue...

by Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth is a keen champion for playing creatively with young children, and tries to
User is currently online
Friday, 14 October 2011 Category Ruth's Blog 0 Comments
We thought the focus would be on children, learning and development. We were somewhat taken aback when we wordled the revised EYFS document... Tags: children, earlyarts, development, learning, EYFS
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Earlyarts' response to the revised EYFS consultation

by Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth is a keen champion for playing creatively with young children, and tries to
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Friday, 07 October 2011 Category Ruth's Blog 0 Comments
In submitting our response to the revised Early Years Foundation Stage which you can see here, there were a number of key concerns that we decided to Tags: school readiness, EYFS, early years foundation stage, creativity
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The Primary Curriculum is Dead. Long Live the New Primary Curriculum!

by Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth is a keen champion for playing creatively with young children, and tries to
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Thursday, 25 March 2010 Category Ruth's Blog 0 Comments
I was amazed to discover recently that I could remember some of the words and most of the tunes to the songs in my very first school play in 1975 atBr Tags: primary curriculum review
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Playtime or Plato?

by Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth is a keen champion for playing creatively with young children, and tries to
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Wednesday, 08 April 2009 Category Ruth's Blog 0 Comments
Fantastic intiative to help children think more broadly about philosphical issues reported on today. I just pity the poor educationalists who are Tags: childrens philosophy
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Primary Review Part Two

by Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth is a keen champion for playing creatively with young children, and tries to
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Monday, 30 March 2009 Category Ruth's Blog 0 Comments
Well, I could be falling foul of a little twitter account which basically helps me and a few chosen friends keep up to speed with the latest deve Tags: primary curriculum review
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Good Childhood Debate

by Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth is a keen champion for playing creatively with young children, and tries to
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Tuesday, 24 February 2009 Category Ruth's Blog 0 Comments
I was in France recently having a fab time with the kids over half term, and one night we decided to take them out to a beautiful little pizza place w Tags: good childhood
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Review of the Review of the Review

by Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth is a keen champion for playing creatively with young children, and tries to
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Monday, 23 February 2009 Category Ruth's Blog 0 Comments
Don't get me wrong, there's lot of good things coming out of the debate around the primary reviews, not least the increased focus on play, curiosity a Tags: primary curriculum review
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Jack the Dinosaur 2

by Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth is a keen champion for playing creatively with young children, and tries to
User is currently online
Friday, 16 January 2009 Category Ruth's Blog 0 Comments
Just found a lovely video in fact of the said drawing of dinosaur which shows a little more understanding of how characters and stories are built thro Tags: early years, creativity, childrens drawing
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Jack the Dinosaur

by Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth Churchill Dower
Ruth is a keen champion for playing creatively with young children, and tries to
User is currently online
Friday, 16 January 2009 Category Ruth's Blog 0 Comments
It might look like I have inserted this back to front, but no! This was a picture I found recently of a dinosaur drawn by my daughter Chia when she wa Tags: early years, creativity, childrens drawing
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