Meet the team

Early Years Educator magazine encourages reflection and discussion; and provoking thinking and debate amongst the early years community. 

Editor

Elly Roberts

Elly became Editor of EYE in February 2023, after working for an education charity editing their quarterly journal. This was shortlisted for the Memcom Excellence Awards 2022 and received highly commended. 

She has a background in journalism having worked in local news for various publications including the Swindon Advertiser where her work was shortlisted for the NCTJ Awards of Excellence 2019 Community News Project Award, receiving highly commended. She has also worked on business-to-business publications.

Elly is always happy to hear from EYE readers and anyone else interested in contributing.

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Sales team

Martin Watchorn - Sales Manager

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George Hogg - Associate Publisher

George Hogg joined MA Education in 2017, working across Early Years Educator and Children & Young People Now, delivering campaigns for clients who wish to reach out to senior members of local authorities with an over-arching responsibility for education. Martin Watchorn spent a decade at the Daily Mail group before joining us to deliver traditional and bespoke marketing campaigns for suppliers in the early years sector. With over 15 years experience between them in media they are well versed in delivering tailor made solutions, to match your needs, from print and web advertising to bespoke media solutions,  ensuring your campaign has impact, engagement and the desired outcome.

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Editorial board

The role of the EYE editorial board is to support the editor; collectively ensuring the content is relevant, of the highest quality, diverse and representative of the sector. EYE's members of the editorial board are there to challenge the editor, and hold her accountable for delivering high standard, relevant, representative content to EYE’s readers.

The editorial board’s active involvement with EYE will support shared understandings, experiences, insights and reflections, to ensure they and the editor are supporting the early years sector together in the best possible way.

Dr Glenda Walsh

Glenda Walsh is Head of Early Years Education and Assistant Director of the Centre for Research in Educational Underachievement at Stranmillis University College, a College of Queen’s University, Belfast. Her teaching and research interests address quality issues in Early Childhood and Primary Education, particularly in the field of pedagogy and curriculum. Her PhD thesis (2000) focused on a comparative evaluation of play versus formal experiences in Denmark and Northern Ireland respectively. Subsequently she has been involved in many major research projects such as the longitudinal evaluation of the Early Years Enriched Curriculum Project in Northern Ireland (1999-2010) that has guided the course of the Foundation Stage of the revised Primary Curriculum and she is presently leading a large-scale study in the Republic of Ireland, reviewing the Early Childhood Care and Education Scheme in practice (2022-2023). Her journal articles, book and book chapters reflect her interest in Early Years Education, focusing in particular on resolving the dilemmas associated with play as learning and teaching in practice to enable a high quality learning experience for all young learners.​

 

 

Dr Sue Allingham

Sue’s career started as a teacher, finally becoming a Senior Early Years Lead in a Primary School and Lead Teacher for her Local Authority.  Moving into research Sue gained an MA then a Doctorate, both in Early Childhood Education, from Sheffield University.   This led to becoming a Local Authority Early Years Adviser enabling her to develop her practice working with provision across the EYFS.   As an Independent Consultant, Author and Trainer, Sue is known for her practical style of working through coaching, mentoring, modelling, training and working alongside.

Sue writes the monthly News Analysis feature for EYE. Sue has written two books that support practice across the Early Years and into Key Stage One – Transitions in the Early Years and Emotional Literacy in the Early Years.  Both published by Practical Pre-School Books.

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David Wright

​​Following a 25 year career in IT, David retrained in early years care and education, joining his wife, Anna, in running Paint Pots Nurseries, an award-winning group of 10 settings. During the last 20 years in early years as a teacher, manager and owner, David’s influence has extended nationally and internationally. He is currently the national representative for England to the World Forum on Early Care and Education. Among many roles, he is an author, trainer, consultant, broadcaster, advisor, commentator, presenter, advocate and conference speaker. David is an active advocate for men in early years. He is better known on social media as @Mr_Paintpots. In 2022, David was the recipient of a lifetime achievement award from Nursery World. He also received a city of Southampton award from the mayor in recognition of services to early years.    

Find David:

              • Twitter: @Mr_Paintpots

 

 

Sue Cowley 

Sue Cowley is a presenter, teacher trainer and the author of 30 books on education and parenting. A qualified early years teacher, she has taught in early years settings, primary and secondary schools in the UK and overseas, and has also worked as a supply teacher. Sue’s international bestseller Getting the Buggers to Behave has been translated into ten languages and is a set text at universities. Her first book How to Survive your First Year in Teaching is a firm favourite with new teachers.

Sue has written articles and columns for a wide range of publications, including the TES, Teach Primary, Teach Early Years, Nursery World, Early Years Educator and Teach Secondary. She has featured in numerous education videos and was a regular presenter on Teachers TV. Sue combines her writing work with working internationally as a trainer and presenter in schools, early years settings and other organisations. She has provided keynotes and training for a range of organisations, including Teach First, various UK universities, the NUT, Swim England, The Anna Freud Centre and The Football Association.

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Dr Nathan Archer 

Nathan Archer is Director of the International Montessori Institute at Leeds Beckett University. Initially trained as a Montessori teacher, Nathan has worked in the public, pri­vate and voluntary sectors of early childhood education in practice, policy and research over twenty five years. Following a PhD at the University of Sheffield in 2020, exploring the agency and activism of early years educators, Nathan has worked as a researcher for University of Leeds and Nuffield Foundation on early childhood projects. He is Associate Editor of Journal of Early Childhood Research.

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Ruth Swailes 

Ruth has almost 30 years’ experience  working in education as a Teacher, Headteacher, Inspector, Consultant, Improvement Advisor and Moderator in several Local Authorities. Ruth currently works as a School Improvement Advisor in Leicester City, as an Early Years Advisor on the Wirral and as a private consultant nationally and internationally. She has taught throughout the primary age range in the UK, but her passion is working with children aged two- seven.

Ruth is the lead author of the Oxford International Early Years curriculum for 2-6 year olds and leads on the training for schools and settings using the curriculum in more than 40 different countries. She is co-author of the bestselling book, “Early Childhood Theories Today” and was named Nursery World Trainer of the Year in 2021 and an International Influencer in Education in 2022 by ISC research.

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Aaron Bradbury

Aaron Bradbury is an Early Childhood academic, paying close attention to all aspects of Early Years and Child Centred Practice, Workforce development, Child Development and Early Help. His current role is Principal Lecturer for Early Years and Childhood at Nottingham Trent University. Aaron is the Chair of the LGBTQ Early Years working group and manages his own website and community called Early Years Reviews.

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David Meechan

David is a senior lecturer in education at the University of Northampton. David Lectures in Early Childhood and draws on his experiences of primary and early years teaching, working and management experience in the private sector as well as international experiences in Asia, Africa and Europe. David has two children currently in their early years and his wife also works within the sector. His previous and current experiences all contribute to David’s ongoing teaching, research and advocacy in the sector.

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Jan Dubiel

Jan Dubiel is the Director of Early Years at AISL Harrow International Schools and is a nationally and internationally recognised specialist in Early Childhood Education. He was recently identified by the Times Educational Supplement as one of the ten most influential people in British education and was previously Head of National and International development at Early Excellence. He has worked as a YN, YR and Y1 teacher, Senior leader, Consultant and adviser and national lead on the management of the (Early Years) Foundation Stage Profile with QCA. Jan has written widely on different aspects of Early Years policy, pedagogy and practice. His first book “Effective Assessment in the EYFS” was published by SAGE in 2014.

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Dr Julian Grenier 

Julian Grenier is Curriculum Lead for Early Education at Ofsted and he is one of His Majesty’s Inspectors of Schools. He has worked in the early years for over 20 years and has a Doctorate in Education from the UCL Institute of Education (University of London).

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Liz Pemberton

Liz Pemberton (she/her) is the Director of The Black Nursery Manager Ltd - a training & consultancy company which focuses on anti-racist practice within Early Years. With 16 years in the education sector, Liz’s roles have included Secondary School Teacher (QTS), public speaker and up until recently, Nursery Manager, allowing her to teach, manage, support and educate Early Years students, practitioners and professionals in a variety of forums.

Her mission is to promote inclusive practice in the Early Years (under 5’s) education sector, with a particular focus on how race, culture and ethnicity should be considered in this practice. During her career, Liz has developed a fantastic network of likeminded practitioners and professionals, broadening her focus from Nursery Management to sharing her expertise through media. 

Liz was awarded the 2021 Community Unsung She-ro award at the Multicultural Business & Community Champion Awards (MBCC) and is delivering CPD webinars, working closely with Local Authorities to consult on developing anti-racist strategy and collaborating with Early Years organisations to promote this best practice, as she knows that this is important and urgent work that we all need to do.

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Adam Marycz

Adam is a qualified Early Years teacher who has worked in Early Years for many years with children from birth to 5. He currently manages a privately owned Pre-School and Out of School Club at a school in Cheshire. Adam is also a writer and has written for a number of prominent Early Years organisations including Early Years Educator. Adam passionately believes in supporting children to become anti-racist, unprejudiced and confident young people to enable them to build a brighter future for all. 

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Professor John Siraj-Blatchford

John Siraj-Blatchford is an independent educational researcher and consultant, and an honorary Professor at the University of Plymouth. He is also an executive member of OMEP UK, and co-founded the SchemaPlay CIC. John was previously employed at the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education and served as an Associate Director of the ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme. He was commissioned by UNESCO to co-author an ECCE review of the UNESCO Decade for Education for Sustainable development, and chaired the ECCE for Sustainable Development workshop at the 2015 UNESCO 'End of Decade' ESD Conference in Nagoya, Japan. 

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