As Gillian said in her earlier post, I’m sure the Princess of Wales’s visit to Reggio Emilia has brought more visibility to their work not only in our country but across the world. Many more settings will maybe be thinking about adopting ideas they see. So, a word of caution, not to ignore it as a passing trend, but to give it deep and meaningful thought, consideration of context and care, and to avoid superficial implementation that misses core principles.

For me it was Peter Moss’s work ‘Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care’, published in 1999 that first sparked my interest in Reggio. However, like many others, it was a visit to the 100 Languages exhibition, brought to the UK by Sightlines Initiative, that gave me my first direct encounter. It was followed initially by a Sightlines conference in Cumbria listening to Carla Rinaldi, then many Sightlines study visits, conferences and workshops ensued. But, whilst I have remained inspired and renewed by each direct encounter, it is in the dialogue with others, in the exchange of ideas around key characteristics and the development of principles that my own thinking has been deepened. My thanks to all of those people. Now is a crucial time to revisit and articulate again the profound core principles and characteristics which so many share and are inspired by in their own re-envisioning of early childhood services.

Dr. Chris Merrick