Changing Lives, Changing Life

Ref. A150

This informative book takes the reader on a journey with the author as it explains the roots of the Alliance and explores how changes in the political agenda have shaped, influenced or indeed sometimes compromised what the Pre‑school Learning Alliance has stood for throughout its 50 year history. It will be of huge interest to those already working within the sector and is also of value to anyone new to early years and childcare or working towards early years qualifications.

Changing Lives, Changing Life defines the Alliance’s place in early years and childcare history as it tracks the progress and growth of the organisation, its response to internal influences and the needs of local communities and how these responses had to adapt and change when government policy began to focus on early years.

What is evident throughout the book is that key influential figures within the organisation were wholly immersed in its ideology. Names such as Crowe, Bruce, Kelmer Pringle, Bruner et al., will be familiar to practitioners, but many would not have aligned these individuals explicitly with the Alliance, or indeed have acknowledged the important role that the organisation has had in shaping and influencing early years policy and practice throughout its history.

Anyone with a passion for early years and a commitment to changing lives will be moved by this book and will surely be inspired to re‑visit their own values and beliefs — a timely reminder, as those of us tasked with supporting families and communities face new challenges ahead. After all, it is important to acknowledge where we have come from and the journey we have taken in order to know where we need to be.

Foreword, by Sue Owen, National Children’s Bureau

At the age of eighteen I walked into a pre‑school playgroup and my life changed forever. I knew nothing about playgroups and very little about small children but I had taken time off between school and university (it wasn’t called a gap year in the 1960s) and the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, was exhorting us all to support Britain by volunteering in our local communities. I was sent to the playgroup in the church hall at the end of my road in south London and I worked there for six months. Many of the children had never had a chance to play with creative materials, large toys or climbing frames and the effect of the playgroup on their development was inspirational. So I stuck with playgroups and carried on volunteering when I went to university in Manchester. When I left I got a job as the first Playgroup Organiser for the City Council and at that point I came face to face with the playgroup movement, the history of which is so eloquently described by Stephanie Mathivet in this book.

Over my years working alongside the Alliance I realised what a positive force it was and how determined its members were to fight for their children’s rights and their own place in the growing world of ‘early years services’. Because, as this book shows, PPA/PLA has been as transformative for women as for children: offering opportunities to learn new skills, to move safely and gradually from home to work, to get qualifications and to gain power and influence in organisations and even in government.

The Alliance’s story told in this book highlights for me two essential features; firstly it champions the ability of individuals within a mass movement who, through drive and endless commitment developed an effective and enduring approach to young children’s learning; and secondly it challenges those within the movement now to hang on to and articulate its core beliefs, recognising the theoretical perspectives that underpin them. By combining solid approaches to children’s care, learning and development with individuals’ commitment drive and enthusiasm the Alliance can look forward with confidence to its next 50 years. I wish it well.

Sample pages

ISBN/EAN: 9781873743935