NEW - 12.30pm - 1pm: Neil Leitch - CEO Early Years Alliance

We are delighted to welcome the CEO of the Early Years Alliance, Neil Leitch, to launch this year’s family festival. The Early Years Alliance’s vision is of a society where every child enjoys the opportunity to learn through play.

We believe that families should be at the centre of policymaking and empowered to become fully involved in their child’s learning and development. During this opening speech, Neil will reflect on the importance of families and their vital role as their child’s first educators, shaping their children’s learning within the home learning environment.

1pm - 1.45pm: Music and movement = language and literacy

Boogie Mites teacher Tasha Bretten will take you on a magical musical journey to explore the wonderful world of music and movement.

She will keep one- to five-year-olds engaged in music activities that include lots of clapping, stamping, marching, dancing, shaking, tapping and drumming. She will also share information for parents about the brain boosting benefits of these activities with focus on links to language and literacy skills.

Be prepared to take part with your child - you will need a shaker, wooden spoons/cardboard tubes to tap together and a box or tub each to bang!

Tasha Bretten is a primary school teacher who has worked for Boogie Mites as a tutor and trainer for many years. As a KS1 Teacher Tasha recognised that the gap in school readiness skills could best be addressed through active music making in early years, she joined Boogie Mites making it her mission to equip parents and educators with the music confidence, knowledge and resources to harness the benefits of active music making every day.

We encourage you to bring your little ones along to this session!

2pm - 2.30pm: An overview of BBC Tiny Happy People

BBC Tiny Happy People is a free resource to help families support their little ones’ language development in the home learning environment. BBC Tiny Happy People has a simple message at its heart - ‘talk to your baby from pregnancy, we will show you how and why it’s so important.’

On the website parents and carers will find:

• Activity ideas that support children’s development, language & communication skills; there are hundreds of fun, simple activities, all organised by age. Watch the films and have a go at the activities using the techniques with your little one.

• Tips and advice from speech and language experts, health care professionals and early years practitioners covering a wide range of parenting topics.

• Child development content that explains why supporting language learning is important. It is all about children’s amazing brain development and how they understand the world around them.

This 30 minute introductory session will explain everything you need to know about BBC Tiny Happy People to feel confident about where to find the information you need to support your little one. The session will highlight key language techniques that can help you develop your little one’s language skills as they grow and we’ll show you easy-to-share content and resources on the website to use and share with your friends and family.

The BBC Tiny Happy People website is accessible and relevant for all families.

6pm - 7pm: Family Connect: How babies communicate before words

In this session we discover how language is so much more than the words that we say. Babies use their faces, their bodies, their babbles and their cries to communicate their wants, needs and desires, and to interact with others around them. Bekkie will focus on how adults can recognise and respond to the many ways that babies communicate before words, and support early language skills in the home learning environment.

Bekkie Elsom is an Early Years Development Officer for the Early Years Alliance, with part of her role being our Family Learning offer, so you may have seen her face on previous sessions that you have attended. She has over 10 years of experience in early years, working in both nurseries and children's centres in her past roles. Bekkie has a huge passion for supporting children's speech, language and communication as well as empowering families to do so within the home.

10am - 11am: Shropshire Wildlife Trust - Nurture with Nature

Ellie Leach is Senior Education Officer and Safeguarding Lead at Shropshire Wildlife Trust. A qualified Forest School practitioner with over 10 years experience helping children and their families connect with nature and a working mum of a very active and inquisitive 8yr old! Ellie will share real, workable ideas that you can use straight away to encourage you to try small changes to connect you and your family with nature, wherever you are.

In this session we will explore how adding just minutes of nature connection into your week can have a positive impact on heath and wellbeing, and how busy families can do this in a way that works for them. From practical tips to the science behind why this really works, Ellie uses evidence-based practice to support you wherever you are on your nature journey. Suitable for all the family, let our interactive webinar inspire you to get the very best out of what nature has to offer.

NEW - 11.30am - 12.30pm: Storytelling with Jamel C Campbell: Olu's Teacher

Listen to early years educator, author and storyteller Jamel Carly Campbell read his book 'Olu's Teacher'. Join Olu on his first day at nursery where he will meet his teacher - but what will they be like? What if his teacher has big sharp teeth like a dinosaur, wonders Olu, or breathes fire like a dragon?! His worries fly away when his teacher greets him with a big smile, before reading stories, playing the guitar and making Olu feel right at home. Drawing on first-hand observations from Jamel, this is a reassuring story about a child's first experience of nursery or pre-school.

Jamel C Campbell is an early years educator, EY consultant, radio/tv host, storyteller and best selling author. He has been in the early years and education industry for over 20 years. Early years is his speciality although he has taught and supported children 0 to 19 years. Jamel is one of the UK’s Men in the Early Years champions/ambassadors. Jamel is passionate about the early years, he stresses the importance of having men in the early years and the importance of having a balanced diverse inclusive workforce, curriculum and pedagogy. He has partnered with MITEY (Men in the Early Years) which is associated with the Fatherhood Institute.

We encourage you to bring your little ones along to this session!

1pm - 1.45pm: BBC Tiny Happy People - Get talking with Sound Play!

Join BBC Tiny Happy People speech & language specialist, Janet Cooper, for lots of activity fun and tips & advice to help develop your little one’s speech and language skills.  Get ready to have fun exploring mouth muscles and sound play to help your child’s language development.

Using everyday household items, we’ll show you how you can create fun, easy to play games as part of your daily routine, highlighting the speech and language benefits.

We will have further details regarding the items you’ll need to join in the activities nearer the time of the event. The session will be followed by a Q&A with Janet. If you would like to ask a speech and language-based question, please send them in advance using this form and we will try and answer as many as we can in the session.

Janet is a HCPC registered Speech and Language Therapist with over 35 years experience of children’s developmental speech, language and communication difficulties, and has been one of the contributors and advisors for the BBC Tiny Happy People since it began. Her passion is to spread the word about the importance of early communication.

We encourage you to bring your little ones along to this session!

2.30pm - 3.30pm: Professor Sam Wass - Diverse developmental pathways

In this session we will look at early neurodivergence and atypical developmental pathways, and think about what you can do to support your child across diverse trajectories of early development.

Professor Sam Wass studied at Oxford, London, and Cambridge, and currently runs the Institute for the Science of Early Years at the University of East London, where he runs projects funded by the European Research Council, the EU, the Economic and Social Research Council UK, the Medical Research Council UK and others. He works with typical and atypically developing children, including ADHD, Autism, anxiety and others, and he collaborates on a number of international projects studying other aspects of early development. He has published over 100 academic articles and 1 book.

NEW - 10am - 11am: Family Connect - The importance of play

Children learn by exploring the world around them through their play. Play offers opportunities for children to try new skills as well as develop existing ones. During this session Julie will consider why play is so important and how you can support your child’s play in the home and how this will then help their learning and development.

Julie Pearson is an Early Year’s Development Manager for the Early Years Alliance. Julie has worked in early years education for over 25 years and has a wide range of experience supporting early years providers as well as developing and delivering training. Julie is passionate about working with families, and one of her favourite aspects of her role is working with colleagues across the Alliance in developing and delivering family learning, both virtually and in projects across the country, celebrating families as their child’s first educators.

11.30am - 12.15pm: Time for a snack!

Food is more than fuel - it's an opportunity for learning! Alison will show you how preparing and sharing a tasty nutritious snack together with your little one is a great way to help them develop new skills and knowledge. With your support, as they prepare and try new foods, they are learning how to keep themselves healthy, discovering new words, developing their physical skills, exploring new sensations and building those independence skills - all this at the same time as having fun! So why not bring your little ones along and join us for this session as we make Rainbow couscous salad. The recipe card can be found in the event description. Please make sure your couscous is cooked before the session.

Alison Heseltine is an Early Years Development Manager for the Early Years Alliance and has worked with children and early years settings for more than 20 years. A big part of her role within the Early Years Alliance is supporting children and families to make discoveries and learn about the world as they play together at home. Alison enjoys sessions when everyone gets involved in exploring and learning about food in a positive way and getting to try something tasty and new.

We encourage you to bring your little ones along to this session!

1pm - 2pm: Poems and stories with Michael Rosen

Would you like to go on a bear hunt with us? It is bound to be a 'beautiful day' as Michael Rosen joins our Family Festival, we're not scared!

Michael Rosen is one of Britain's best loved writers and performance poets for children and adults and is well known as the author of family favourite children's story 'We're going on a bear hunt.'

Join our session where Michael will be sharing some of his favourite poems and stories and having fun with words and sounds to support children's early language. Michael will also be answering questions about how poetry, stories and rhymes can support your child's language development.