The company provides support, guidance and training to the Early Childhood Community with particular focus on the Outdoors.The company founded in July 2017 and during the financial year 2020- 2021 the company’s activities have benefitted the community in the following ways:Note that COVID 19 continued to significantly curtail our face to face networking activity throughout the whole financial year, despite this we have- continued to share and publicise ECO principles widely across existing contacts both locally, nationally and internationally. ECO social media presence has shown a slight increase with a more significant increase in our web based contacts. - communicated directly to social media contacts through tools such as Facebook this has enabled the company to continue to support followers, in particular those working directly with children in nurseries throughout the pandemic.- delivered an online conference comprising three recorded keynotes from international speakers to replace the planned physical conference.- worked collaboratively with the Froebel Institute to bring to fruition a free online con-ference ‘Where are the babies?’ attended by over 350 delegates- continued to work with ‘Muddy Faces Ltd’ and ‘Early Childhood TV’ in mutually supportive ways, including discussions around future plans to support early career practitioners develop skills for teaching outdoors.- continued to edit and curate blogs, advertised on Facebook and accessible through the website to visitors and subscribers. We saw a significant increase in contributions from a wider range of collaborators. - continued to meet as directors with members of the TEAM ECO support group, with the outcome of an outdoor face to face gathering held in July 2021, we were delighted to be able to host this day at one of our Pioneer settings, however, sadly due to COVID 19 concerns this was poorly attended.- ECO have made a significant contribution to the bid for ‘The Voices of the Future’ re-search project led by Manchester Metropolitan University and part of the NERC, ARC, ESRC funded national treescapes program. - ECO were a project partner for a second research bid to SSRC by Manchester Metropolitan University.- ECO has agreed to take part in an international online “Campference’ hosted by Tania Maloney in Victoria, Australia.- Director, Jan White contributed to the internally viewed online ‘Play First Summit’ hosted by Tom Hobson from Seattle USAOverall we believe that we have continued to have an impact for our existing contacts and have been able to increase numbers of contacts over the year. The profile of ECO has been raised, nationally and internationally and we now believe that related organisations are aware that we are a presence in the field and they recognise and appreciate our expertise and role as connector of people and ideas.

Directors Jan White and Menna Godfrey have kept in touch with a number of champions to support them during the challenges of Covid, particularly those who continued to work face to face in nurseries and schools.Team ECO met virtually to consider ways to continue to develop our reach, however as a team we had limited capacity due to personal and work related challenges.The directors continue to share the vision of the company through ad hoc conversations with stakeholders to ensure that future plans meet their needs. A significant concern of a number of stakeholders is the lack of understanding among many of their Level 3 qualified staff members about how to best provide for learning in the outdoor environment. ECO directors and TEAM ECO members are considering ways to support stakeholders with overcoming this concern. In March 21 working with Canterbury Christ Church University, University of Wales Trinity St. David, University of Wolverhampton, Early Childhood Ireland and The Froebel Trust, ECO co-hosted a research seminar, “Where are the Babies?’ This conference was extremely well attended and generated a lot of conversations and research opportunities. Due to the nature of ECO we may not be fully aware of the direction that these take.ECO has been delighted to have become involved with the research work at Manchester Metropolitan University and their affiliated Early Childhood Research Group. We expect our contributions to these projects to increase in the coming years.Directors Jan and Menna were invited along with a some members of TEAM ECO to take part in the development of a new guidance document for Early Years Practitioners based in England. This enabled them to ensure that the document included plenty of references to the importance of outdoor play opportunities and so drive forward ECO’s vision.

No remuneration was received

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration