Deborah Udakis Consultancy Ltd

🚨 Benedict’s Law – Are you ready for September 2026?

From September 2026, Benedict’s Law introduces important new requirements designed to strengthen allergy safety and protect children from potentially life-threatening allergic reactions.

For early years leaders and practitioners, it is important to understand where the law formally applies – and where it currently does not.

While maintained nursery schools and school-based nursery classes are within scope, standalone PVI settings are not currently covered by this specific legislation. However, the principles behind Benedict’s Law provide an important opportunity for every early years setting to review its own allergy and anaphylaxis arrangements.

Do your staff know every child’s allergies?
Could they recognise anaphylaxis?
Would they know exactly what to do in an emergency?
Are medication, care plans and procedures robust and regularly reviewed?

Allergies don’t take a day off. Neither should our vigilance.

Please share this with your early years colleagues and teams. 💚

Something exciting is happening in Early Years…

I’m delighted to open the doors to Founding Cohort 001 of my new Continuous Provision Curriculum Workshop.

This is not about adding more activities, buying more resources or creating picture-perfect provision. It is about looking more deeply at what we provide, why we provide it, and how skilful adults turn everyday play into rich, purposeful learning.

In this small, interactive cohort, we will explore how to create a continuous provision curriculum that is ambitious, intentional, inclusive and responsive — one that genuinely puts children at the heart of every decision.

Just 20 places. Two hours together. Plenty to think about. Even more to take back into practice.

📅 10 September | 7pm–9pm | Live via Zoom

And, as part of Founding Cohort 001, delegates will have access to two exclusive launch offers — including my new Continuous Provision Curriculum Guide at a very special cohort price.

Come and be part of the beginning.

Happy Sunday … a little something for you 😎

Could you confidently answer these questions about your curriculum? 🌿

If an inspector sat down with you tomorrow and asked:

❓ How do you identify what children need to learn next? And how does learning build from children’s existing knowledge, experiences and interests?

❓ How do you translate your curriculum ambition and intent into high-quality teaching, interactions and continuous provision?

❓ How do you know what children already know and can do – and how does this shape what you teach next?

❓How does the environment reflect children’s identities, families and lived experiences? How do you remove barriers without unnecessarily reducing challenge?

❓ How do you know children are making progress, remembering, applying and building on their learning?

❓ What happens when a child is not progressing as expected? How do you adapt your curriculum and teaching?

Could you answer with confidence, clarity and examples from your everyday practice?

I know that many Early Years leaders and practitioners find these conversations challenging. Not because they aren’t providing good experiences for children, but because explaining why they do what they do can be much harder.

What do we actually mean by curriculum intent?

What is our curriculum ethos?

What does pedagogy look like in practice?

What do we mean by responsive teaching?

How does continuous provision become part of an ambitious curriculum rather than simply a collection of activities and resources?

And how do we know that what we are doing is actually making a difference to children’s learning?

📖 This is exactly why I wrote my Continuous Provision Curriculum: A Practical Guide.

The CPC Guide explores these questions – and many more – helping leaders and practitioners develop a much deeper understanding of curriculum, pedagogy, teaching, assessment, inclusion and high-quality continuous provision.

It isn’t about learning the right words for inspection.

It’s about genuinely understanding your curriculum so that you can talk about your practice with confidence because you know what you do, why you do it and the difference it makes for children.

🌿 Children at the heart. Curriculum with purpose. Teaching that responds. Provision that makes a difference.

If these questions made you stop and think, the CPC Guide could be a very worthwhile addition to your professional toolkit.

Message me to discuss your buying options.

🌿 THE CPC GUIDE IS OUT THERE… AND THE FEEDBACK IS COMING IN! 🩷

There is something incredibly special — and slightly nerve-racking! — about creating something you believe in, sending it out into the world and waiting to hear what people think.

And the response to my Continuous Provision Curriculum: A Practical Guide has been wonderful.

One of the messages I received described the guide as:

✨ “A beautiful reflection of inspiring environments, meaningful interactions and limitless potential.”

And perhaps the words that meant the most to me:

🩷 “Children genuinely at the heart of everything we do.”

That is exactly what I wanted this guide to be.

Not simply a book about resources or how an Early Years environment looks.

But a practical, thoughtful guide to understanding why we provide continuous provision, how we make it meaningful, and how we lead it well.

📖 INSIDE THE GUIDE…

🌿 What is Continuous Provision?
Exploring what high-quality continuous provision really means — always available, child-led, purposeful, responsive, inclusive, challenging, carefully planned and rich in possibilities.

🌿 Pedagogy
Looking beyond the environment to the adults within it — observing, listening, responding, modelling, encouraging, extending and reflecting.

🌿 Creating a High-Quality Continuous Provision Curriculum
Bringing together ambitious curriculum thinking, inspiring environments, responsive teaching, rich language, inclusion, meaningful assessment, strong relationships and high expectations.

🌿 Leadership and the Curriculum
Because great continuous provision doesn’t happen by chance. We explore vision, coaching, professional dialogue, quality assurance, reflection, professional development and the leadership decisions that make excellent practice sustainable.

🌿 Responsive Teaching
Perhaps one of the most important threads running throughout the guide: observe → respond → adapt → review.
Knowing children deeply enough to recognise when to step in, when to extend thinking — and when to stand back and allow something extraordinary to unfold.

And throughout the guide, we keep returning to one central principle:

🩷 EVERYTHING BEGINS WITH THE CHILD.

Children are not fitted to a curriculum.

The curriculum is thoughtfully designed around their needs, interests and potential.

If you are an Early Years practitioner, teacher, room leader, manager, Early Years lead or someone responsible for developing the quality of curriculum and provision, this guide has been written for you.

It is designed to be read, revisited, discussed, reflected upon and used in practice — individually or as part of professional development.

And seeing copies beginning to arrive in settings and hearing from people who are already reading it?

That feels rather special. 🩷

Continuous Provision Curriculum: A Practical Guide
Because continuous provision isn’t simply about what we provide. It’s about what becomes possible for children.

📩 Message me directly for purchasing information.

Deborah Udakis Consultancy - Early Years Specialist Inspiring Confidence, Delivering Results

Are you aware of the new KCSIE document? What are your thoughts???

Safeguarding Never Stands Still…

The Government has published further guidance to accompany the revised EYFS, introducing new safeguarding requirements and strengthening several existing expectations for early years providers.

I’ve created this visual summary to help leaders quickly identify the key changes, understand what they mean in practice and review their own safeguarding arrangements ahead of 1 September 2026.

Professional safeguarding is about far more than compliance—it’s about creating the safest possible environment for every child, every day.

I hope you find this helpful.

Don’t forget, I am running a free to attend session on Safer Sleep via Zoom. To secure your place, please message / email me and provide me with your contact details. I will then send you a copy of my Safer Sleep Guide and joining instructions. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟