Events Archive

A one-hour online session to introduce the principles of 'Learning to Learn in Nature'. It is for all early years and primary educators who want to engage in creating investigative learning opportunities and develop thier reflective. creative pedagogy.

Learning to Learn in Nature is about young children learning in wild places, and educators learning with them. It is about being in connection with nature and bringing that connection back to the classroom. But it is also about something more, something that is seen very clearly when children are given the freedom to explore the wild outdoors on their own terms, with daring and imagination.

It is about learning as a process of continuous enquiry: an expression of insatiable fascination with the world, in which children learn together and individually, and educators and children work together to discover and make meaning. School life is part of human life, connected to its cycles, desires, dreams, wonderings. Educators best meet the interests of children when fundamental human values inform and shape their pedagogical practice.

During September 2020 - February 2021  we will be offerring a five-session online course  - this July session will introduce the contents, and also give some ways into pleasurable holiday-time preparation.

Here is the second of our seminars on Metaphor, by Viviana Fiorentino. It is not necessary for you to have participated in the first one, but the material does follow (it is not a repeat.)

In the festive intuition of metaphors, we pack our mental goods down into tight, neat bundles, we load them as carefully as we can into the ‘metafora truck’ of languages; it drives from me to you, and then we unpack. A fundamental part of the process of metaphors is communicating and empathy: a circular process that builds the bond between each other, between us, adults, and children, between child and child, adult and adult, human being and human being. This territory is rich of possibilities, trust, open, a new ground we explore re-inventing together names of everything around.

a metaphor truck

We will explore the metaphors through the perspective of poetry and art as a way of imaging and exploring the world. Thanks to the “metaphor attitude”, we will investigate what is possible and what is impossible, how many possibilities we have as citizens to rethink the world around us for a better society.

The seminar will encourage you to put yourself in the state of creating metaphors leading to unusual, unexpected procedures that children spontaneously use. We will talk about how and what children do and of the use of metaphors as fundamental bridge between (what we believe is) the world of adulthood and the world of childhood.

This seminar is designed to inform the current Sightlines Initiative early childhood pedagogy action-research project into Visual Metaphor.

It will also be pertinent to all who are interested in the ways in which adults tune in to young children’s thinking and learning.

It is free to Sightlines Initiative subscribers. If you are not currently subscribed to our network it is easy to so do, and will enable you to register. SUBSCRIBE

Viviana Fiorentino was born and grew up in southern Italy. After achieving her Doctorate, travelled across Europe, from Switzerland to Germany, England and finally Belfast where she now lives, writing novels and poetry, teaching Italian literature, and leading creative writing workshops for cultural minorities.
In 2018, she was awarded two Italian poetry prizes. Her poems have appeared in literature blogs and international magazines. A selection of her poems is published in ‘Writing Home: the New Irish poets’. In 2019, she published a poetry collection in Italy and her first novel.
She has been involved in many different festivals, poetry readings and projects, such as the 2019. ‘Sky, you are too big’, which revolved around the themes of travelling, migration and displacement.
She is in the editorial staff of Carteggi Letterari (Italian periodical Lit magazine) with the column ‘Neither here, nor there’ and she periodically writes for the magazine TerreLibere about migration and politics.

Focus Group: Doing Education amidst covid 19

Since the inception of Sightlines Initiative in in 1997 we have been working, through professional projects, research andexchanges, to advocate creative and reflective early childhood pedagogy. 

In the context of the Covid 19 pandemic, how can we ‘do school’; build educational environments where children's learning flourishes?

There are clearly many challenges: 

• the conservative UK building size norms have resulted in small classrooms and centres with large group sizes, right across the age span. However spaciousness is called for to support social distancing.
• Can we have co-constructive learning  and do social distancing?
• In non-statutory (early childhood) education and daycare, how can staffing and budgetary stability be achieved?
• What children are overtly missing most is sociability and sociable enquiry:
• Our framework for developing pedagogy is founded upon building learning environments of ENCOUNTER, ENQUIRY, EXCHANGE, EXPRESSION ... can the circle be squared?

We are hosting three online discussion groups – on 21st, 26^th and 28^th May (all 2 - 3.30 pm) for UK Heads, Managers, Class Teachers, governors who are faced with these questions, are dedicated to developing co-constructive education, and who want to exchange situations and ideas. 

The maximum size will be 16 in order to maximise exchange. 

Update - these sessions have filled up quickly and we may offer more. If you are interested in this, please add your name to the Waiting List on the Thursday 28th date.

Focus Group: Doing Education amidst covid 19

Since the inception of Sightlines Initiative in in 1997 we have been working, through professional projects, research andexchanges, to advocate creative and reflective early childhood pedagogy. 

In the context of the Covid 19 pandemic, how can we ‘do school’; build educational environments where children's learning flourishes?

There are clearly many challenges: 

• the conservative UK building size norms have resulted in small classrooms and centres with large group sizes, right across the age span. However spaciousness is called for to support social distancing.
• Can we have co-constructive learning  and do social distancing?
• In non-statutory (early childhood) education and daycare, how can staffing and budgetary stability be achieved?
• What children are overtly missing most is sociability and sociable enquiry:
• Our framework for developing pedagogy is founded upon building learning environments of ENCOUNTER, ENQUIRY, EXCHANGE, EXPRESSION ... can the circle be squared?

We are hosting three online discussion groups – on 21st, 26^th and 28^th May (all 2 - 3.30 pm) for UK Heads, Managers, Class Teachers, governors who are faced with these questions, are dedicated to developing co-constructive education, and who want to exchange situations and ideas. 

The maximum size will be 16 in order to maximise exchange. 

Update - these sessions have filled up quickly and we may offer more. If you are interested in this, please add your name to the Waiting List on the Thursday 28th date.

Focus Group: Doing Education amidst covid 19

Since the inception of Sightlines Initiative in in 1997 we have been working, through professional projects, research andexchanges, to advocate creative and reflective early childhood pedagogy. 

In the context of the Covid 19 pandemic, how can we ‘do school’; build educational environments where children's learning flourishes?

There are clearly many challenges: 

• the conservative UK building size norms have resulted in small classrooms and centres with large group sizes, right across the age span. However spaciousness is called for to support social distancing.
• Can we have co-constructive learning  and do social distancing?
• In non-statutory (early childhood) education and daycare, how can staffing and budgetary stability be achieved?
• What children are overtly missing most is sociability and sociable enquiry:
• Our framework for developing pedagogy is founded upon building learning environments of ENCOUNTER, ENQUIRY, EXCHANGE, EXPRESSION ... can the circle be squared?

We are hosting three online discussion groups – on 21st, 26^th and 28^th May (all 2 - 3.30 pm) for UK Heads, Managers, Class Teachers, governors who are faced with these questions, are dedicated to developing co-constructive education, and who want to exchange situations and ideas. 

The maximum size will be 16 in order to maximise exchange. 

Update - these sessions have filled up quickly and we may offer more. If you are interested in this, please add your name to the Waiting List on the Thursday 28th date.

Metaphor is a festive intuition, a sudden explosion, a form of thought that enlights the way our mind works when it crosses and broadens its field of knowledge. During the seminar we will use what is known, daily perceptions around us, to reach, touch, feel what we still don’t know. We will communicate new discoveries lying in the new territory of metaphors where words are spells which bring us closer as human beings.

We will explore how the process of creating metaphors leads to unusual, unexpected and original procedures and perspectives. We will try out how this is an attitude of investigation and participation in reality, which pushes us to open up and expand canonical boundaries.

The seminar will also encourage to ride paradoxes, as children usually do to research the world around and interact with adults, jumping from an uncoscious to a conscious process in everyday life. We will see how games, transformation hypotheses, paradoxes, find their opportunity to develop through conjunction / relationship with another subject and new relationships / visions, in a word, through metaphors.

This seminar is designed to inform the current Sightlines Initiative early childhood pedagogy action-research project into Visual Metaphor. It is free to Sightlines Initiative subscribers.

It will also be pertinent to all who are interested in the ways in which adults tune in to young children’s thinking and learning.

Viviana Fiorentino was born and grew up in southern Italy. After achieving her Doctorate, travelled across Europe, from Switzerland to Germany, England and finally Belfast where she now lives, writing novels and poetry, teaching Italian literature, and leading creative writing workshops for cultural minorities.
In 2018, she was awarded two Italian poetry prizes. Her poems have appeared in literature blogs and international magazines. A selection of her poems is published in ‘Writing Home: the New Irish poets’. In 2019, she published a poetry collection in Italy and her first novel.
She has been involved in many different festivals, poetry readings and projects, such as the 2019. ‘Sky, you are too big’, which revolved around the themes of travelling, migration and displacement.
She is in the editorial staff of Carteggi Letterari (Italian periodical Lit magazine) with the column ‘Neither here, nor there’ and she periodically writes for the magazine TerreLibere about migration and politics.

During the school year 2019 -20 we have arranged three dates in which you can visit Madeley Nursery School in Spring 2019 and encounter theirs, and Sightlines Initiative Network's, principles in practice. 

Participation is limited to 8 on each occasion.

documentation displayed"We are a Reggio inspired school with a beautiful learning environment and exciting child led curriculum. As a research school, we are involved in many national and international projects linked to early learning. Our aim is to create 'a community of learning where there are endless opportunities to discover together through curiosity, creativity and play."

Madeley Nursery School in Telford are keen participants in Sightlines' Network since 2000. This day  is designed for those wanting to explore the possible ways of practicing the principles of an environment of enquiry, and engage in dialogue with a committed staff group who are making keen endeavours to explore and develop their own practice. 

The day will begin promptly at 9a.m. at the Nursery, with an introduction followed by time to observe in the morning. After lunch there will be opportunities for discussion, and at the close of the school day, general discussion with staff. We will explore how the principles of Sightlines Initiative can be developed in your daily practice; the influences and insprations from Reggio, and the inevitable challenges. 

Click the button 'Choose Dates & Location' for further details and to book (there are Not multiple locations, in this case!)

Sunday 15th - Friday 20th March 2020
Loris Malaguzzi International Centre, Reggio Emilia, Italy.

A one-week study visit to learn about and be inspired by the world renowned educational approach of the preschools and infant toddler centres of Reggio Emilia.

This course will explore the key principles underpinning the Reggio approach to early childhood education including:

- History and background
- Creativity and expressive languages of children
- The pedagogy of listening
- The environment as 'the third teacher'
- Parents as partners
- Democratic citizenship
- Children as the subjects of rights
- Children and educators as researchers
- Observation, interpretation, documentation
- Making learning visible
- Professional dialogue

Read more on how you will receive our help and support before, during and after the study week.