We received a petition asking:
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to commission an urgent independent review of the compulsory Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) policy framework, and to reduce the status of its learning and development requirements to ‘professional guidelines’.”
Details of Petition:
“We recognise the government’s good intentions in its early-years policy-making, but are concerned about the EYFS legislation, which comes into force in England next September. Our concerns focus on the learning and development requirements, as follows: 1. They may harm children’s development 2. They will restrict parents’ freedom of choice in childcare and education 3. Their assessment profile requirements may place an unnecessary bureaucratic burden on those who care for young children 4. Recent evidence suggests that government interventions in education generally may not be driving standards up and may be putting too much pressure on children.”
· Read the petition
· Petitions homepage
Read the Government’s response
The Early Years Foundation Stage is designed to support all playschools, nurseries, kindergartens, and childminders, to ensure that every child in their care is able to benefit from the advantages that good quality and consistent care provides. It offers a play-based framework to support early learning and care for all children from birth to five.
Following a long period of consultation, followed by preparation and training for early years providers by all Local Authorities, the EYFS was formally introduced on 1 September. It was welcomed by those working most closely with children, including teachers, and was supported by 88% of respondents to a survey of teachers conducted by the Times Educational Supplement in July 2008.
The EYFS has also been strongly supported by organisations representing nurseries and childminders, for example:
Purnima Tanuku, Chief Executive of National Day Nurseries Association, said:
“Our day nursery member base has welcomed the principle of the EYFS, and is currently busy preparing for the implementation due to take place in September. Day nurseries have been positive about the flexible framework that brings together the existing frameworks of Birth to Three matters and the Foundation Stage and this has been evident throughout the consultation and training stages. Day nurseries are committed to high-quality early years care and education, and the framework of the EYFS will build on the fantastic work they already do across the country.”
Play and fun are integral to the EYFS, because that is how children grow and develop best. It does not impose formal learning on the very young. It makes sure that the people working with them are qualified to support each child’s development through play.
Research evidence from the UK and internationally shows that children do better in later development, educational and otherwise, if they have a rounded early experience, with good social and communication skills as well as good pre-literacy skills.
Specifically, we know that children who do well in reading and writing at age 5 go on to do well in primary school. That is why the learning and development requirements are included as they stand. To reduce the status of these would be to risk depriving large numbers of children of the start in life that they deserve.
The EYFS does not prescribe the approach that schools and providers have to use in their everyday practice, other than an emphasis on the importance of play. It simply sets out statements of what children can be supported to achieve, and the developmental milestones that most – though not all – should reach by around the age of 5.
The only statutory requirement to write anything down is that practitioners must complete an EYFS Profile for each child in the year in which they turn five – reception class at primary school for most children. This is intended to help inform future policy, and to support teachers in understanding children’s needs when they enter Key Stage 1 of primary school.
For the very small minority of providers and parents who have conflicts of principle with some element of the EYFS we have made provision for exemptions or modifications. Guidance can be found at the following address www.qca.org.uk/eyfs-exemptions .
More broadly, there is strong evidence to show that the Government’s approach in the early years is having a positive impact. Evidence from the Effective Provision of Pre-school Education study shows that children who have had a good quality experience in the early years with integrated care and learning, and well qualified staff, go on to achieve better at school than their peers, and that this effect continues until the children are at least 10 years old. In addition, this year’s Foundation Stage Profile results showed an increase of 4 percentage points in the proportion of children reaching a good level of development, showing that recent work to support both parents and childcare professionals is having a positive impact.
delicious
digg
facebook
