Thank you for inviting me – what a privilege.” Max Hyde-NUT President “What a fabulous event! Absolutely inspirational from the venue to the panel to the participants.   Thank you for inviting me – what a privilege.” Max Hyde-NUT President “Thanks for the great event today - I found it really interesting and the kids loved the crèche! It was clear a lot of effort went into this, and I just wanted to say that it was very effective - well pitched for the mixed audience and really helpful in practical ways too. I'm going to tell my Finnish kindergarten teacher friend just how many mentions Finland got - she won't be surprised though!” Parent

A number of suggestions were made about what to do next; Teachers and early years practitioners, parents, governors and campaigners were among the audience at the Standing up for Children Seminar on 2nd July. The speakers informed and inspired everyone to continue to campaign for child lead learning up to the age of 7 years. Sue Palmer explained how another system was possible talking about Finland. Wendy Ellyatt looked at what young children need to learn and develop and how the government here is failing them and Max talked about the importance of staff who are trained teachers and why testing and the narrowing of the primary curriculum has to be stopped. Contributions to the discussion were made by teachers across the sectors, the head of the childrens centre, a county councillor from the education committee, parents, practictioners from PVI pre-schools, governors and county advisors A number of suggestions were made about what to do next; The possibility of creating a lobbying group that will look for opportunities to pet pressure locally and nationally on bodies that enforce government changes. Developing the model of Cambridge being a Stand up for Children City with the County Council. Supporting parents who might want to withdraw their children from the baseline testing and teachers involved in any boycott action. Extending the Primary Charter Seminars across the County to involve more people and build a city wide campaign. The Primary Charter pamphlet and The Save the Childhood movements Manifesto for the Early Years were positively received as useful campaigning tools For more information about the event contact-paulachampion@tiscali.co.uk Video of event to be released soon!