Helen Battelley is an internationally recognised Early Years Physical Development consultant, trainer, and author. As chair of the National Early Years Active Start Partnership (NEYASP), she leads efforts to promote physical activity (PA) in early childhood, influencing policy and practice across the UK. Helen’s work includes consultancy, lecturing, and training worldwide, focusing on embedding movement in early years education. In 2024, she served as a movement consultant for Sky TV’s “Animal Movers and Mini Me” and co-created the Physical Activity Adventure Pack (PAAP). Helen has also developed resources for Change4Life and the National Literacy Trust, contributing significantly to the global promotion of early childhood physical development.
Early Childhood - Early Years - Movement in Education - Teaching and Learning
Helen Battelley, an internationally respected Early Years Physical Development consultant, trainer, author and brings energy and a motivational approach to raising the profile of PA in the early years. As the chair of the National Early Years Active Start Partnership (NEYASP), she leads a diverse group of stakeholders from across the UK to address the systemic challenges in the early years sector to ensure that every child benefits from the positive outcomes of play and PA. NEYASP are taking positive action to inform and support policy makers and inspection bodies to ensure the sector is taking an evidence-informed approach and valuing the place of physical development in a child’s life, right from the moment they enter the world!
In 2024 Helen was the movement consultant for ‘Animal Movers and Mini Me’ a series for young children on SKY TV.
The series will be released on Sky later in 2024. This year also saw the release of the Physical Activity Adventure Pack (PAAP), a scheme of work developed specifically for early years children, drawing on developmentally appropriate practice, movement play and aligned with the DfE’s Early Years Foundation Stage Profile. The scheme was cocreated by Helen and Brianne Pearson.
Helen works as a lecturer and trainer, for 4 universities delivering Initial Teacher Training (ITT) modules in Primary PE and Early Childhood PE Pedagogy as well as Early Childhood Physical Development. She is also an approved provider for the UK’s Association for Physical Education (AfPE) and a member of the Chartered Association of Teachers.
Helen’s consultancy takes her all over the world, from Malaysia to Dubai, from China to Romania. The movement philosophy Helen promotes is to embed movement within the curriculum and framework to enable a movement philosophy. The embodiment of her training is to raise confidence in the areas of movement play and physical activity. The training Helen delivers ranges from supporting educators in developing activities to support the Early Years Physical Development, to working with coaches and PE leads to create PE schemes of work and methodology suited to young children.
In 2023 Helen completed a county wide programme in Hertfordshire to increase physical activity opportunities available to young children and their families. Her work with families and communities has been exemplary in exploring perceptions around movement and physical activity and subsequently the development of various initiatives and schemes to increase movement potential utilised across the world.
Helen was the lead physical development advisor on Change4life’s 10 Minute Shake Up Cards (UK) and is frequently found presenting at education conferences across the globe. In 2021 Helen developed a Physical Phonics programme for The National Literacy Trust. Helen is respected globally for her contribution to raising the profile of early years physical activity.
2018 saw the release of Helen’s first publication Music and Movement: The Early Years, to find out more please visit:
http://www.musicandmovement.org.uk/music-and-movement-the-early-years-publication/
Helen’s second publication 50 fantastic ideas for songs and rhymes, with Bloomsbury publishers was released in Spring 2020.
