Twenty products made this year's Nursery Equipment Awards shortlist. The finalists had all received a top rating of five stars from testing in Nursery Equipment during 2004 and were put through further tests in early years settings to allocate gold, silver and bronze awards.
Marks were awarded for play value, learning potential and durability.
Awards were made in three categories: the Under-Threes, the Foundation Stage, and Information and Communications Technology.
Under-Threes:
Gold award John Crane for Tolo Musical Shape Sorter. Testers praised the product for being attractive to children, encouraging shape and colour recognition and being suitable for a wide range of ages.
Silver award E-niko for Big Bobby Car, John Crane for Pintoy Happy Xylophone, NES Arnold for Frog in a Box
Bronze award Fisher Price for Laugh and Learn Puppy, Fisher Price for Laugh and Learn Home, Fisher Price for Sounds Around Playground, John Crane for Tolo First Friends Scooter
Foundation Stage:
Gold award TTS Early Steps for Active Worlds Play Mat. Testers commended the play mat for being durable and beautifully illustrated and offering excellent play value.
Silver award Asco for Panoramix, BEAM for Starting Out, Clever Clogs Games for Clever Clogs
Bronze award Asco for Modular Panels, BEAM for Animated Stories, Learning Resources for Mix and Match Doughnuts, Thinkplay for Morphun, TTS Early Steps for Hand Painting Mittens
ICT:
Gold award Sherston and Softease for Tizzy's First Tools. Testers said the software provided complete coverage of the ICT curriculum for Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 and worked well on interactive whiteboards.
Silver award The Production Play Company for Plumo
Bronze award Sherston for Elf Tales
Childcare Student of the Year
The search for the Childcare Student of the Year 2005 began back in February. The award was established by publishers Heinemann Educational in 1999 and has run in partnership with Nursery World for the last two years.
The award aims to recognise students who have shown outstanding achievement on their childcare or early years education course and who demonstrate the potential to be a brilliant early years professional.
Tutors nominated their best students and the top four were chosen to attend a day of interviews at Heinemann's offices in June. The four finalists each made presentations to a judging panel comprising author and tutor Penny Tassoni, CACHE examiner Wendy Lidgate, Nursery World editor Liz Roberts and Mary James from Heinemann.
The standard of entries was extremely high, but the judges eventually awarded first prize to Begona Rodriguez Rey from Croydon Continuing Education and Training Service. She was nominated by her tutor, Ellen Andrews.
Penny Tassoni said, 'All of the candidates were excellent and it was hard to make a decision. The judges were looking for a good practitioner with a high standard of work. But we were also looking for something special that set them apart. What swung it for Begona in the end was the fact that she was extremely child-centred and had a very strong focus on the core needs of children.
'Each of the finalists was given a case study of a common childcare scenario and were asked to talk through what they would do in such a situation. Begona's answers revealed a good understanding of the needs of children. Begona's tutor, Ellen Andrews, nominated her because she was achieving well, had done well in her placement and was very supportive of other members in her group.'
Begona has won 300 and a year's subscription to Nursery World. She also receives 300 of Heinemann book vouchers for her college.
The three runners-up are:
* Fay Bennett of Springfield Education and Training in Swanscombe, Kent
* Natalie Eaton of Coleg Gwent Pontypool Campus
* Matthew Northall of Newman College of Higher Education, Birmingham They each receive a cheque for 100 and 75 of Heinemann book vouchers for their college.
Student Essay Competition
The Nursery World Student Essay Competition, sponsored by Reflections on Learning, is now in its fourth year. This year's competition challenged childcare and early years education students to write an 800-word essay on the theme of 'Working with Parents'.
First prize of 1,000 was awarded to Lesley Parratt, who is studying for the Open University Certificate in Early Years Practice. Lesley wrote about the importance of parental inclusion and the benefits of the Reggio Emilia approach in viewing parents as equal partners.
Second prize and 500 went to Naomi Webb, a Diploma in Childcare and Education student at City College in Norwich. Naomi's essay gave a personal account of how her nursery engages successfully with parents.
Kath Finn, who is studying for a Certificate in Early Years at Lancaster University, took third prize and 250 with her essay examining the complex nature of building an effective practitioner-parent team.
The winning essays were published in Nursery World on 28 July.
Outdoor Challenge
In January, Nursery World teamed up with Learning Through Landscapes to launch the third annual Nursery World Outdoor Challenge. The award offered settings a chance to win 4,000 of equipment and expert advice to transform their outdoor provision.
More than 350 settings entered the competition, submitting detailed plans for the development of their outdoor environment and explaining how they would involve children, parents and the local community in the project.
The overall winner was Kathy Holmes, a registered childminder and manager of Acorn Childcare in Spalding, Lincolnshire. Kathy has worked hard to create a stimulating and challenging outdoor play area and her garden now boasts a decking area, pergola and herb garden.
But there was one area left to be developed and Kathy has used her prize - a 1,000 Hand Made Places play sculpture - to complete her garden transformation. She also received 1,000 of play equipment from NES Arnold, a year's membership of Early Years Outdoors, and a year's subscription to Nursery World.
Ten Outdoor Challenge runners-up each received an NES Springy play bag worth 150 and a year's membership of Early Years Outdoors:
* Bowling Park Primary, Bradford
* Cargenbridge Nursery, Dumfries
* Heald Place Primary School, Rusholme, Manchester
* Learningtree Childcare Centre, Preston
* Little Fishes, Sheffield
* Manorfield Primary School, Stoney Stanton, Leicestershire
* Outdoor School, Southmead, Bristol
* St Werbugh's Park Nursery School, Bristol
* Wilcombe Primary School, Tiverton, Devon
* Woodhouse Primary School, Davyhulme, Manchester
Website of the Year
The internet has become a vital tool for communication and learning.
Websites are often the first port of call for people wanting information about a company or organisation, and there is a growing need to make information available at the touch of a button.
This brand new award, sponsored by Becta, aims to recognise the best websites in the childcare and early years sector. They were judged for the quality of their content, design, user-friendliness and innovation.
The winners are:
1st place Kids Inc Nurseries (www.kidsincnurseries.co.uk)
2nd place Rainbow Nursery (www.rainbow-nursery.co.uk)
3rd place Hopes and Dreams Montessori Nursery School (www.hopesanddreams.co.uk)
The prize winners each received a framed certificate and the right to use and display the Nursery World Website of the Year Award Winner logo on their website.
Nursery World editor and competition judge, Liz Roberts, said, 'The winning entry from Kids Inc was a website packed with useful information, but oozing warmth and personality.'
