Search Help

Nursery World's search allows simple single or multiple searches against our huge archive of articles. However, a few, simple, techniques allow you to get even more out of its search function.

You can create even more sophisticated searches using operators, which are special words used in the search/keyword field such as "AND" to ensure the search works in a specific way.

OR
This operator allows a search to return results that contain any of the search terms you provide. However it is the default and therefore you do not need to provide it.
Example: A search for foundation OR stage is the same as foundation stage since the search defaults to the OR operator

AND
This operator ensures that all words can be found in each of the search results
Example: You wish to search for articles that contain the words foundation and stage - but not necessarily in that order or next to each - just somewhere in the article.
Solution: Enter this into the keywords field: foundation AND stage

+
The "+" operator ensures the term after the "+" symbol exists somewhere in each search result.
Example: You wish to search for articles that contain the words speech but may or may not contain the word language.
Solution: Enter this into the keywords field: +speech language

-
The "-" operator ensures the term after the "-" symbol DOES NOT exists somewhere in each search result.
Example: You wish to search for articles that contain the words children's but must not contain centre.
Solution: Enter this into the keywords field: children's -centre

NOT
The "NOT" operator excludes words that you do NOT want to be found anywhere in the search results.
Example: You wish to search for articles that contain the words marketing but DO NOT contain research.
Solution: Enter this into the keywords field: marketing NOT research

Phrases
If you wish to search against multiple words as an exact phrase, you can do this using double quote marks "..."
Example: You wish to search for articles that contain the exact phrase early years foundation stage.
Solution: Enter this into the keywords field: "early years foundation stage"

Combining operators - Advanced Searches

You can combine the operators above to create complex, grouped searches using parentheses.
Example: You wish to search for articles that contain the phrase child health and MUST mention eating
Solution: Enter this into the keywords field: "child health" AND eating
Example: You wish to search for articles that contain the phrase early years AND either curriculum or professional
Solution: Enter this into the keywords field: "early years" AND (curriculum OR professional)