Birth to Three Matters

Lesley Abbott is Professor of Early Childhood Education at the Institute of Education at Manchester Metropolitan University. She directed the Birth to Three Matters Project for the DfES. She also directed the earlier research project Educare for the Under Threes, which resulted in the training and resource materials Shaping the Future ? Working with the Under Threes. She has a background in primary and early childhood education and has worked in teacher education and multidisciplinary training for many years developing one of the first Early Childhood Studies degrees. She has served on a number of government committees and contributed to conferences nationally and internationally. She has worked in Australia, Singapore and Ireland and has published widely in the early years field. Publications include Working with the Under Threes ? Training and Professional Development and Working with the Under Threes ? Responding to Children?s Needs and Early Education Transformed with Helen Moylett and, co-edited with Gillian Pugh, Training to Work in the Early Years, Developing the Climbing Frame. She is currently directing the Birth to Three Training Matters Project funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award alongside Lesley Staggs.

Ian Barron is Principal Lecturer in Early Childhood Education at the Manchester Metropolitan University. He is a member of the national Early Childhood Studies Degrees Network. He has had a variety of experiences in the early childhood field, including work in primary schools in inner London and Leeds and headship of a nursery school in Lancashire and of an infant school in Calderdale. Ian has also provided in-service and advisory services for a number of LEAs and has contributed to the development of early years curriculum guidelines and was a member of the project team that developed the Birth to Three Matters Framework. He has also worked in a further education college, as an OFSTED Registered Inspector (Primary) and in a college of higher education. His research interests and journal publications are in the areas of early literacy, training of early childhood workers and constructions of childhood.

Tina Bruce is Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey Roehampton. Her contribution over the years includes international work in the USA, New Zealand and Europe, and the influence of her specialist training working with children with SEN and disability and their families is promoting inclusion. Tina has brought a Froebelian perspective on government committees, including developing the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage, the Foundation Profile and the Birth to Three Matters Framework. She is author of numerous best selling books, including Childcare and Education, Learning Through Play: Babies, Toddlers and the Foundation Years and Developing Learning in Early Childhood. She is editor of Early Childhood Practice: The Journal for Multi-Professional Partnerships. She, with Jean Ensing, CBE, recently received the Lifetime Achievement Award at Early Years, 2002.

Tricia David is Emeritus Professor of Education at Canterbury Christ Church University College, having officially retired in 2002. She was a Professor of Education at Canterbury Christ Church University College for seven years and prior to that worked at Warwick University for ten years, having been a headteacher of both nursery and primary schools earlier in her career. Tricia?s research and writing is mainly concerned with the earliest years (birth to age 6). Her publications include thirteen books (single authored or edited by her) and around one hundred journal articles and chapters in books. Tricia is known internationally for her work with l?Organisation Mondiale pour l?Education Prescolaire (OMEP) and for the OECD, for whom she recently acted as rapporteur of their study of Early Childhood Education and Care in the Netherlands, re