And it certainly was! Along with the other 8,000 visitors Mahrukh Choughtai toured the stands to find out what wowed the crowds at this year's London Exhibition.
Over 8,000 early years practitioners, teachers and students made their way round the latest Early Years and Primary Teaching Exhibition, held at London's Business Design Centre on 4 to 6 October and sponsored by Nursery World. The 160-plus stands offered everything from climbing frames to computer programmes.
Regular exhibitors included Galt, which exhibited its roleplay snack bar, and Puppets by Post, whose stand was overflowing with puppets of witches, dragons, tigers...
New to the exhibition was justbtoys, a toy design and manufacturing company. It was showcasing its Water Wonder Flowers toy, a flower box with flowers that 'grow' when watered. The justbtoys representative said, 'The toy is in final prototype stage, but we have had an astonishing response.'
Another newcomer to the exhibition was Mind Stretchers, which is committed to learning in the outdoors. It was exhibiting its colourful plastic satchels, which hang on a bamboo frame and are ideal for transporting resources to outdoor areas.
Children had a great time jumping up and down on the mushrooms at Wicksteed Leisure's stand and investigating the Kaleidoscope Mirror by Reflections on Reggio. And they were delighted with the ICT products that they could test out The Big Bus Company, Sherston Software and Grid Club stands.
Excellent feedback
People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals gave away 2,000 teaching packs. The representative said, 'People have been jostling to get to the stall. The feedback has been great; it's nice to hear how useful the pack is.'
The Living Rainforest stand was inundated with people wanting its information packs giving details of its conservation ideas. The representative said, 'The exhibition has provided an excellent platform and has been great for awareness building. We will definitely be coming back next year.'
Fundraising Matters generated huge interest in its novelty monster mats, coasters, T-shirts and jigsaws, personalised with pictures of friends, family and children's drawings.
Lego ran free workshops to demonstrate a selection of its equipment and doctors Mark Biddiss and Jasmine Prodissitto stopped visitors in their tracks as they created quite a stir with their wild and wacky experiments in the Maths and Science Zone. Dr Prodissitto said, 'Our experiments use simple everyday objects and are interesting to look at, but you learn so much at the same time.'
Help with creativity
As usual, the Art in Action Zone was a tempting spot for practitioners wanting to learn about fresh ideas. The newest products on show were Berol's glass markers. The Berol representative said, 'So much emphasis has been put on numeracy and literacy and children have been missing out of the creative, and that is where we step in. Not everyone is an art specialist so any help is appreciated.'
Opportunities to broaden your horizons were also on offer as recruitment companies and nursery chains hoped to increase awareness of what they had to offer. The Visiting International Faculty Program offers a multi-cultural teaching experience by bringing educators from abroad to the US, while Nannies Abroad explained how it offers 24-hour support to its children's representatives.
Seminars on offer included head of Early Years Quality Division Dorian Bradley giving an update on Ofsted inspections of early years settings, while child psychologist Jennie Lindon discussed good practice in playwork for children aged four to 11.
Other seminars included 'Starting a Day Nursery' by Rosemary Murphy, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association and 'Mathematics in the Foundation Stage' by Jean Millar from BEAM Education.
