Ruth is an authority on Early Years education and child development. But more than this, she’s an authority who can communicate her knowledge with humour, humanity and humility. She is able to bring together ideals and practical knowledge of systems to help teachers to understand how a healthy, challenging and stimulating early years environment can work. Her experience, as a teacher, leader and inspector means she understands, better than most, how practice can be embedded in effective ways while maintaining integrity and keeping the child at the centre of everything we do.