In this paper we outline the academic field known as Childhood and Youth Studies (CYS), a multidisciplinary and international field that places children and young peoples’ lived experiences at the centre of debate, research and practice. CYS has emerged over the past 30-40 years as adistinct field of scholarship influenced by ideas from the fields of sociology, anthropology, geography and history. Our paper discusses the relevance of these key ideas to the work of teachers and school leaders, and in particular within the context of the new curriculum for Wales 2022 which, in a similar way to CYS, places the child at the heart of a holistic approach to education; this lends itself to a timely recognition of the potential synergies between education and CYS as allied and complimentary disciplines.