It does not take a close read to spot a theme threaded through this month’s Education HQ.

Our intended focus on early years education evolved into an unintentional spotlight on the diverse social and emotional learning initiatives in Scotland’s nurseries. The popularity of these types of programmes is no real surprise: since the incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into Scots law last year, there has been renewed focus on children’s rights and children’s voices at all stages of education.

What is interesting, however, is the rate at which early years practitioners have flocked to programmes and lessons that teach children as young as three how to have empathy for the people around them, how to regulate their emotions, and how to begin to understand and advocate for their rights.

Some of you might be asking - as I have read in more than one comment section - how realistically can toddlers conceptualise and engage with their rights? Well, as it turns out, very realistically.

During a nursery visit for one of my pieces in this month’s supplement, Irene Muldoon, team leader at Molendinar Family Learning Centre, told me a story that a mum had shared with her one morning. While the mum and her son were........

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