Our experiences in the first five years of life shape our psyche, help form the foundations of our character, determine our beliefs and can impact on the relationships we form and decisions we make much later in life. The family plays a huge role but the importance of primary years education is vital, especially for the child whose home life may be less than perfect. This remarkable new publication, The Right From The Start Handbook: Promoting Children’s Well-Being in the Primary Years, acknowledges young children’s well-being as paramount. It draws on the experience of teachers, educationalists, therapists and pupils offering imaginative tried and tested ideas, strategies and activities with real soul’ which might be missing from the school curriculum. Nurturing, well-being, non-violence, finding time for reflection and contemplation ñ each chapter is filled with all sorts of innovative approaches that encourage children to flourish. One chapter looks at the alternative 3 Rs’ñ Rhythm, Repetition and Reverence ñ an inspiring example of the kind of cross pollination of ideas which abound in this handbook. As Professor Ted Wragg of the University of Exeter says in his foreword: Only when people feel confident and positive about themselves can they begin to fulfil their potential… there are dozens of viable ideas and prac-tices described in this book. It should make a valuable contribution to giving children what they all deserve as a fundamental human right: a flying start, so that they can be in with a chance of becoming the person that their potential promises them.’The Right From The Start Handbook: Promoting Children’s Well-Being in the Primary Years’ Edited by Andrew Burrell and Jeni Riley Price £18.95 ISBN 1 85539 119 8 Published by and available from Network Educational Press Ltd, PO Box 635, Stafford, ST16 1BF. Tel: 01785 225515 Email: enquiries@networkpress.co.uk Website: www.networkpress.co.uk