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HOW THE STANDARDISTOS ARE DAMAGING EDUCATION
By Marion Brady
'It is hard to resist the notion that what is important is whatever we and our peers happen to know. But if we buy that simplistic idea, the clones we create will be poorly prepared to cope with changing reality'
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"One of my worries about the growing focus on academics and school readiness in programs for young children is it keeps many teachers from seeing children's innate, lively minds at work."
Deb Curtis |
Big brothers
The
new education bill will give Ed Balls and John Denham 153 sweeping new
powers. Warwick Mansell reports on the rise and rise of centralisation. |
OpenEYE launched its Campaign film 'Too Much Too Soon' in July 2008. You can see the film on Youtube
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Send in your stories!
OpenEYE works because it is in touch not only with early years experts, but with people at the grass roots who really know what is going on. If you have stories that you think we should know about please email us | |
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The OpenEYE newsletter is now divided into two sections. The first highlights issues that are directly related to OpenEYE's core concerns. The next second part is composed of interesting and/or inspirational items that have been sent to OpenEYE and which may also touch on wider educational issues, perspectives and research.
A REMINDER OF OUR CORE CONCERNS:
OpenEYE does not have major concerns about the EYFS as a guidance manual, nor about its statutory welfare requirements. What it does have major concerns about, however, is the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework for learning & development, which it considers to be overly prescriptive and potentially harmful to the natural development of children, with its unpredictable impact on self-esteem. We also consider this framework to be a breach of the human right of parents to have their children educated in accordance with their own philosophies, respect for which should be enshrined in law in a democratic society. We feel strongly that all of our stated concerns, when taken together, constitute an unjustifiable legal intrusion into the non-compulsory pre-school sector, especially as the EYFS is comprised of a number of unjustifiable learning goals, which many eminent authorities believe to be developmentally inappropriate for young children.
OpenEYE also believes that it is detrimental for children to enter formal schooling too early and that the early years is being exposed to the downward dangers of 'schoolification' with targets and outcomes taking precedence over children's wellbeing. We are therefore campaigning to increase awareness in this area.
An Open Letter, published in the TES and signed by a wide range of childcare experts and other interested parties, officially launched the campaign in late 2007. A petition on the Downing St website went on to gather almost 8,000 signatories, with a hardcopy version bringing the total to over 10,000 names.
In September 2008, it became unlawful for providers of childcare to refuse to implement the EYFS. Open EYE calls on the government to downgrade the legal status of the EYFS's educational framework to guidelines, so allowing other educational philosophies of at least equal validity to be offered by early years providers.
OpenEYE is an entirely voluntary, non-party-political campaign which does not represent any particular educational philosophy. Our founding members and supporters come from a range of opinion across the political and educational spectrum, but we are united in our concerns about the EYFS framework for learning & development and the compulsory nature of this framework for non-compulsory school age children. |
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CAMPAIGN MATTERS
JUNE 2009 |
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Beverley Hughes's response - feedback from the experts
You can read Beverly Hughes' response in defence of the recommendations of The Rose Review here. This prompted the following letter in response from Independent Consultant Lesley Staggs, who was previously both Principal Manager for Early Years Education at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) and the first National Director of The Foundation Stage. |
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Social Policy is ruining Childhood
Researchers from the University of the West of England, Bristol, have criticised the introduction of policies that have undermined Early Years Practice. Richard Eke, deputy head of UWE's School of Education, said: "We worry about the 'curricularisation' of childhood..The danger is that these experiences - which occur naturally by talking and interacting with children - get squeezed out because they don't fit into a preconceived target."
A new book, Whose Childhood Is It?, co-edited by Dr Eke, said many reforms over the last two decades had laudable aims but fell short because of their "fierce regulatory structure".
Children in Britain are reported as some of the most unhappy in the developed world. Dr Eke said: "Much of this can be attributed to the way we are raising children. There is much rhetoric around the way we raise children but this is in stark contrast to the oppressive sets of demands we place on our children in their early childhood."
Read Graeme Paton's article in The Daily Telegraph
Catherine Gaunt's article in Nursery World
An interesting piece by Robert Britt in Live Science
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Parents should educate children as they wish
The decision of Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, to accept the recommendations of Graham Badman's Review of Elective Home Education in England is causing a great deal of distress and concern for home educators. They are particuarly incensed about the suggestion that their homes could be a 'cover for abuse'. Not only does the review recommend compulsory registration and inspection of educational standards, but it also recommends the power to access homes and children without any suspicion that an offence has actually been committed. There is also the power to send children back to school if there are concerns about the child's welfare. There are an estimated 50,000 homeschooling parents, many of whom have taken the choice to protect their children from state-run environments that they consider damaging to their wellbeing. Surely every parent should have the same right? Read the article in The Telegraph View Read Carolyn Willow's personal response in The Guardian |
'They're trying to make us all into academics' From Janet Murray's article in The Guardian
"In 22 years as a childminder, Pat Adams has cared for around 50 children in and around her home town of Warrington. Despite average annual earnings of less than £6,000, Adams remains passionate about childminding, and yet she is thinking of giving up. Why?
Pat believes the EYFS should provide "guidance" for childminders, but should not be statutory. Earlier this year, with the support of the parents of the four children she cares for, she became the first childminder in England to apply for exemption from the 69 learning goals on the basis that the EYFS was in conflict with her beliefs about early education. Last month, she heard her application had been refused."
Janet Murray explores the implications of the changes that may be behind the drastic decline in childminder numbers.
Read the full article
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The dangers of being misled by statistics
We have been asked to take notice of the fact that there has been a change in the way that childminder statistics are being reported. In
the official statistics release document, the notes said:
"Registered
places are the maximum number of children that may attend the provision at any
one time. Registered places are not the number of places occupied, nor the
number of children who may benefit from receiving places through providers
offering sessions at different times of the day."
followed by:
"The
way we record place numbers has changed since the introduction of the Early
Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) in September 2008. The overall maximum number of
places is calculated by combining the maximum number of places recorded
individually for both the Early Years Register (EYR) and the compulsory part of
the Childcare Register (CCR) for each provider. There is a strong possibility
that this figure may be higher than the true overall maximum number of places
due to the duplication of places on both registers for some providers...As
a result of these changes, comparisons of place numbers over time need to be
treated with caution."
Ofsted are said to be looking into why the number
of childcare places had risen so dramatically between December, 2008 and March,
2009 when the number of childminders had fallen yet again.
Just a reminder that figures can be very misleading.
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OTHER ARTICLES OF INTEREST |
How Children Became Customers
Warwick Mansell, in The Guardian this month, presents the results from a 230 page report that has taken six years to produce and which is billed as the largest investigation into education and training for 14- to 19-year-olds in England and Wales for 50 years.
The Nuffield 14-19 review suggests that England's approach to education has become dominated by the need to develop skills for the economy. This is evidenced not only by the exam results-based performance indicators by which children and schools are judged, but also by the language that is used to describe education policy and its implementation. The report says that growing central control of education has helped to produce a drive to talk about schooling from a "performance management" perspective, which is borrowed from business.
"The consumer or client replaces the learner. The curriculum is delivered. Aims are spelt out in terms of targets. Audits (based on performance indicators) measure success defined in terms of hitting the targets...As the language of performance and management has advanced, so we have proportionately lost a language of education which recognises the intrinsic value of pursuing certain sorts of question ... of seeking understanding [and] of exploring through literature and the arts what it means to be human...The Orwellian language of 'performance management and control' has come to dominate educational deliberation and planning, namely the language of measurable 'inputs', 'outputs', of 'performance indicators' and 'audits', of 'customers' and 'deliverers', of 'efficiency gains' and 'bottom lines'.
Ruth Lea, a former head of policy at the Institute of Directors and an adviser to the Arbuthnot Banking Group, says: "The public sector has been administered on a very basic, and misleading, interpretation of how the private sector operates. If you are a salesman, you have sales targets, but if you are in, for example, human resources or legal services, you have a job description and you do it, without targets. Education is not just a matter of turning sausages out of a sausage machine and hitting targets - and that's where it's gone wrong."
This is a critical element of OpenEYE's own concerns, with the focus on targets and outcomes now impacting both teachers and children in the Early Years.
Read Warwick's full article here
The full Nuffield report is available at £19.99 from www.routledge.com/books/education-for-all-isbn9780415547222
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Babies can read and write, but should they?
Deb Curtis's article in Childcare Exchange explores the power that adults yield over children's lives: "Adults have all the power in children's lives. We are their
window and access to safety, comfort, and engaging experiences.
Children are smart enough to know this from the time they are babies.
They have laser-like attention to what we care about and they want to
imitate, please, and be a part of what we say and do. If you look at
cultures around the world, children learn to do what adults value and
believe children can accomplish because this is what they focus on and
take time to teach children to do. But with this power comes
responsibility.
Young children can learn about literacy if that is what
we care about and focus on with eager attention in a playful, loving
relationship. But we should ask ourselves: What are we and they missing
when we spend so much of our time focused on literacy skills? What
about the scientific
discoveries and magic in a puddle of water, the complex, creative work
of pretend play, the deep, spiritual connections from time together in
the natural world or the adventure and sense of accomplishment in
toddling up a hill? Babies can read and write, but should they?"
Read the whole article here
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Does Television Delay Language Development?
An American study in the latest edition of the Archives
of Paediatrics & Adolescent Medicine shows that for every hour the television was on parents said between
500 and 1,000 fewer words to their children. This equates to 770 words dropped
over the course of a typical day.
This is a complicated area, however, as there are also studies that show that monitored levels of age-appropriate
programmes can foster language skills and indeed improve
attention.
The National Literary Trust advocates the following guidelines:
Limit TV time to one hour for 3-5 year olds
Where possible, watch together
Switch off when finished
Encourage imaginative play based on what was watched
Videos/dvds may be better due to repetition of words
Avoid TV in the bedroom
BBC News Report 2nd June
Read Ross Watsons' piece in Children and Young People Now
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Reading is to be shared
Sally Goddard-Blythe's Opinion Piece in Nursery World - 18th June
The poll commissioned to mark National Family Week showing that just
under half of all children are missing out on a traditional bedtime
story is a travesty of our times.
Reading to a child involves
more than simply telling a story. Long before children learn to read
they learn to love the music of language, the tonal, rhythmic and
dynamic aspects of speech, which are exaggerated when read out loud.
Listening to stories, often repeated many times, helps develop memory,
including a memory for the phonological components of the written word.
As children listen to stories, they learn to match sounds to pictures
and word shapes. Being read to also increases a child's vocabulary and
reading comprehension
Desire to read begins with a love of
stories - the familiarity of characters, the shape of the story line,
and the pictures that the story creates in the mind's eye. Story time
is also important because it involves shared one-to-one time between
parent and child. Sharing the same experiences has been shown to
increase the level of a powerful hormone involved in securing
attachment and strengthening close social bonds.
In my practice
and in schools around the country I regularly come across parents who
have never read to their child. Although we live in difficult times, it
is important to remember that some of the most essential ingredients
for a happy childhood are free - fresh air, space, friends, family,
reliability and time spent together. A parent who spends just ten
minutes a day reading to their child will not only help them at school
in the years to come but boost their chances for a long, happy and
active life. Surely, this is what we all want for our children.
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Children's Radio Service launched
The new children's radio service abracaDABra! has been launched on the nation's biggest internet radio network, Play Radio UK.
Commencing Saturday July 11th, to greet the summer holidays, the service will air daily music, songs, stories and entertainment for younger children and their families.
Susan Stranks, who pioneered digital [DAB] children's radio in 2002, says "abracaDABra! proved digital listening has a special place in children's lives and now internet radio has its role to play as the most flexible delivery service".
The station will also host 'Sound Start' - a national survey toevaluate radio's role in children's leisure and learning, with special focus on their listening and speaking skills. The research will be led by prominent educators following exposure in the Bercow Report and the Primary Curriculum Review of the serious increase in language delay in UK children that is frequently blamed on excessive early exposure to screen and keyboard technology.
PURE EVOKE Flow internet radios will be distributed to homes and children's centres where the benefits of regular listening to stories, songs, music and movement will be monitored to help inform the government's three year Speech, Language & Communication needs [SLCN] Action Plan running up to the National Year of Speech Language & Communication in 2011-12.
You can find out more about EVOKE Flow or PURE on www.pure.com or www.thelounge.com
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| We were sent this to share by a dedicated nusery owner:
Sitting at my desk last night
  Sitting at my desk last night amongst all the paperwork, grants and government tick charts meetings targets end of term events I'm thinking this about the little two year old who every day needs to be special and heard not rushed through government targets who listens to every word and takes on board all that is around him This OFSTED constant tick charts, targets paperwork etc is lunacy because underneath all of these - the people at their desks making it so complicated have LOST SIGHT OF THE CHILD.
Below all their paperwork and targets is a little child who needs to be heard
listened to and not rushed through their targets into mini adult hood
A two or three year old's education is not mandatory so why are we making
them jump through adult-made hoops into an adult's world instead of celebrating the child
at his or her own pace....
I for one want to put a stop to it.
We need to slow down and listen to the child
Put aside our paper work targets and Ofsted goals.
It's all getting out of control
And why do my staff need to work towards university degrees?
They are brilliant and kind women and men
Who work for a small price because they want to make these little tots' lives special
And they do a very good job
All I want for them
Is to love their children, take time to listen to them
And have some common sense
And above all make my nurseries a child's world and at the end of the day
Have time to go home and enjoy their children and home lives........is this so much to ask
of Ofsted?
Underneath all my paperwork lies a little child, whose world should be so special
and whose' carer should be free of paperwork and targets to go out into the world
and hunt for snails and discover colours and shapes on butterfly wings |
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"It's easy to dismiss children's explorations because they move quickly, make messes, and put themselves in seemingly risky situations.
I have developed the practice of waiting before jumping into a situation to determine what the thinking might be underneath a child's behavior. I have come to see that with most everything children do they have something in mind; a purpose or question they are pursuing.
When I take even their smallest actions seriously, I am astonished at children's deep engagement with the simple wonders around them; I notice they are studying and speculating, engrossed in the moment."
Professor Lilian Katz
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With warm wishes from
The OpenEYE Team
We hope that we have fairly and accurately reported the items in this newsletter. Please contact us if you notice any errors.
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