An important date for your diaries!
The OpenEYE Conference
Saturday 12th June
The Resource Centre
Holloway Road
London N7
'The Child - The True Foundation'
In 2010 OpenEYE is bringing
together a wonderful group of people who will share their expertise with us, along with their love and concern for early childhood
See the conference website here We hope that you will be able to join us. |
|
New OpenEYE Network
OpenEYE would like to make it easier for people to discuss the issues and contribute to the wider debate about early learning.
We are currently exploring the possibility of setting up an online network to help make this possible and hope to tell you more in our next newsletter.
|
|
Tuesday 2nd March 2010
The Resource Centre
356 Holloway Road
London N7 6PA
Delegate Fee £70 (includes Tea, Coffee and Lunch)
'What is critical for a child's healthy emotional development'
|
|
'If formal instruction is introduced too early, too intensely and too abstractly, the children may indeed learn the instructed knowledge and skills, but they may do so at the expense of the disposition to use them'
Professor Lilian Katz
|
OpenEYE launched its Campaign film 'Too Much Too Soon' in July 2008.
It is now being used as course material
on a number of early years trainings and courses.
You can see the film on Youtube
|
|
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 | |
|
|
The OpenEYE newsletter is divided into two sections. The first section highlights issues that are directly related to OpenEYE's core concerns. The second is composed of interesting and/or inspirational items that have been sent to OpenEYE by our many supporters, and which may also touch on wider educational issues, perspectives and research.
|
|
CAMPAIGN MATTERS
REVIEW OF JANUARY 2010 |
January was a quiet month, no doubt due to
everyone struggling with difficult weather conditions. The most interesting
item to come to our attention was Dr Sebastian Suggate's research on early
reading, which supports our own view that there is no advantage to starting
children early.
Dr Suggate will be presenting his findings at our conference in
June. We have some wonderful speakers addressing the conference, including
Professor Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Professor Lilian Katz and Dr Aric Sigman. You can
see the full details on the conference website at
www.thechildthetruefoundation.com.
There has also been continuing debate about
why boys are seemingly 'falling behind'. OpenEYE thinks it has a lot to do with
the inappropriate ways that we are approaching the development of boys, and
that their well-being and self-esteem can be profoundly impacted by early
negative judgements and developmentally inappropriate expectations and demands.
|
|
Children forced to read from the age of five are no better than those left without books until their seventh birthday, according to research.
Graeme Paton, in the Daily Telegraph, prominently
reported Sebastian Suggate's research on reading age.
Dr
Suggate tracked the progress of 400 children over three years. It
included those from progressive Steiner schools who started reading at seven
and others from state schools who read from the age of five. He found no difference in their reading skills by the time they finished compulsory primary education aged 11. Dr Sebastian Suggate, who led the research, said the view that children should read from five was now "contestable".
"Because later starters at reading are still learning through play, language and interactions with adults, their long-term learning is not disadvantaged," he said. "Instead, these activities prepare the soil well for later development of reading.
"If there aren't advantages to learning to read from the age of five, could there be disadvantages to starting teaching children to read earlier? In other words, we could be putting them off."
OpenEYE member Sue Palmer, said: "The evidence is clear. Children start later in Scandinavian countries and still outperform British children later on, yet we seem obsessed with doing everything at an increasingly early age. The way things are going, we will start to have phonics lessons in maternity units if we're not careful."
OpenEYE has consistently challenged the Government's focus on early literacy and, in particular, its impact on boys. Only last month, the Government was quoted as saying that boys aged just three should be encouraged to write more in an attempt to stop them lagging behind girls (see next item)
Read Graeme Paton's article
|
|
Letting boys be boys
The debate about the gender difference continues. OpenEYE is really concerned about boys. Boys are not the same as girls - they don't look the same, learn the same, progress the same or want to do the same things
and, according to new research,
their brains are actually wired differently from girls. Policy-makers, with their obsession for measurement and outcomes, consistently compare the results of both and assume that boys are falling behind. Is this really so? Or is it that we are forcing inappropriate learning on to boysat a time when their natural developmental propensities are not ready for it? Last month we were told that all nurseries and childminders were to be sent Government guidance advising them on how to encourage three and four-year-old boys to write. Children's minister Dawn Primarolo was quoted as saying that ' the gender gap in development between girls and boys was a "worrying" problem'.The DCSF said, ' Because boys don't seem to be as interested as girls in drawing and mark-making, it is important that practitioners ensure this doesn't then result in limited access to resources such as paper, crayons, paint etc and insufficient opportunities or encouragement for boys to write.'
Early years expert Wendy Scott said
her 'heart sank' at these comments: 'I do sigh at yet more guidance designed to distort what all young children (not just boys) choose to do in order to meet arbitrary targets.The best way we can sustain and develop their interest in literacy is to pick up on the times when it is relevant to them, remembering that in most countries, no one expects the levels of achievement we have set for five-year-olds until children are about seven.'Read the Nursery World article |
|
More about boys
Nicola Woolcock, in The Times, continued the comparison between boys and girls.
Girls are outperforming boys under the Early Years
Foundation Stage curriculum, with figures out today showing the marked impact
of gender, race and wealth on young children's development. A breakdown of the results from almost 572,000
children in England, published by the Government, showed that girls
outperformed boys in 11 of the 13 areas under which they were assessed.
The figures showed a gender divide in those children
working consistently beyond the expected level. Girls excelled at social and
emotional development, with more than one in eight reaching this level. Similar
numbers did well at using language for communication, and linking sounds and
letters, and their physical and creative development was more advanced than
male classmates.
More boys than girls achieved the highest targets
in using problem-solving, reasoning and numeracy to make calculations, and in
their knowledge and understanding of the world.
However, only half of the children were deemed to
be making good progress (61 per cent of girls and 43 per cent of boys). This
raises questions about whether the bar has been set too high for expectations
of young children.
Dawn Primarolo reiterated her comments in the previous piece saying: "We are not complacent and I know that
more work needs to be done to make sure that all children, regardless of
background, gender, ethnicity or where they live, receive a strong grounding in
the basics... In particular, we will soon publish new guidance
for child carers and teachers on helping children under 5 develop their writing
skills and this will look specifically at how we can better support boys."
OpenEYE thinks that we should be spending a lot more time looking at what is being measured and whether it is developmentally appropriate for the child. Are the tasks that we are asking the children to perform supporting their natural developmental processes, or are they, instead, predominantly fulfilling adult and target-led agendas?
It is seductive to presume that early learning will
benefit those children who are called 'disadvantaged'. We urge policy makers
to look at the much-cited reality that young children learn best when they have the opportunity to experience activities that are developmentally and emotionally satisfying, not from those thrust on them by the outcome-focused adults in their environments.
Read Nicola's article
Read the article in The Guardian
|
|
OTHER ARTICLES OF INTEREST |
|
'Bureaucracy' is driving talented teachers out of schools
Nicola Woolcock's article in The Times explored Conservative claims that talented teachers are leaving the profession due to ever-increasing bureaucracy. More than 400,000 teachers are working in other professions, at independent schools, are unemployed or have taken early retirement.
About 25,000 people who qualified as teachers in the past ten years never entered the classroom, according to figures released by the Conservatives. Michael Gove, the Shadow Schools Secretary, said: "This is a tragic waste of talent that is costing taxpayers millions of pounds every year. They are talking of raising standards by improving the status of teachers and increasing their pay. No one with a third-class degree would be allowed to train as a teacher and they would end the practice of trainee teachers resitting numeracy and literacy tests until they passed. Intelligent Life Magazine had a very interesting article by ex cricketer Ed Smith in its Winter edition looking at whether we are taking the need to be 'professional' too far. He started off by looking at the response that a young nurse gave to John Humphrys A young nurse, interviewed by John Humphrys recently on BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme, was asked what she considered the two most important qualities in her job. "Being caring and being compassionate," she replied.
"Not being professional?" Humphrys countered, emphasising that her answer was very unusual.
"No, not being professional," she confirmed. moving on later to say
...Over-professionalism is everywhere. Teachers in England are trained to plan lessons in segments of three minutes, a theory which leaves little room for spontaneity in the classroom. They are also often exhausted before term even starts because of the endemic pressure to plan every lesson weeks in advance. It is all too tempting for teachers to sacrifice freshness - which is impossible to measure or record on paper - in favour of form-filling.
But can education ever be mapped out in such prescriptive terms? Anthony Seldon, Master of Wellington College, thinks not: "The erosion of trust in education is sucking the life out of classrooms, teachers and students. You can tick all the boxes under the sun and still be a lousy teacher. You cannot encapsulate the human experience of learning in some mechanistic pedantry." What makes a great teacher? And in particular a great early years teacher? OpenEYE believes that we have to be very careful that the pursuit of professionalism doesn't override the need for caring, empathic, emotionally mature teachers who are passionate about giving children's natural learning and developmental needs the necessary time. Read Nicola's article
Read The Economist's Intelligent Life article
|
|
Ofsted 'becoming unwieldy'
MPs have expressed concerns about the growth of Ofsted, saying it has grown enormously and risks becoming unwieldy. A cross-party committee of MPs has warned that schools felt "coerced and constrained" by the government's "relentless pace of reform". In its report, the committee said that, despite attempts to simplify the school accountability system, the government had "continued to subject schools to a bewildering array of new initiatives". It urged ministers to give schools and local authorities a "period of stability.
"The government should place more faith in the professionalism of teachers and should support them with a simplified accountability and improvement system which challenges and encourages good practice rather than stigmatising and undermining those who are struggling," the report said. The Association of School and College Leaders welcomed the committee's report. General Secretary, Dr John Dunford said: "The government obsession with accountability and meeting targets has led to a national sense that there is a crisis in the schools system."Read the full BBC report |
Exempt Steiner School 'Outstanding'
One of the first Steiner Waldorf schools in the country to be granted exemptions from some of the EYFS learning and development goals has been graded 'outstanding' in its inspection. The school had been granted exemptions from the communication, language and literacy and ICT early learning goals (News, 2 September 2009). Teacher Ken Power said, 'We're relieved, happy and delighted about the report.' He said the school had been very open with the inspectors that the teaching in the kindergarten had not changed in any way to fit in with the EYFS. For example, the school does not teach numeracy and is not assessing children against the EYFS profile. Mr Power confirmed that Wynstones is planning on re-applying for exemptions to all the other learning and development requirements in the EYFS and has the full backing of parents at the school. Read the Nursery World articleEYFS Steiner guideA guide to the EYFS in Steiner Waldorf Early Childhood settings has just been published. Early Years representative Janni Nicol said, 'The guide is to help inspectors and local authority advisers understand the Steiner Waldorf approach. It's about how the EYFS can be integrated in Steiner Waldorf practice.' The guidance was initiated by former children's minister Beverley Hughes, and the DCSF and National Strategies were involved in its development. The guide makes clear in which areas it recommends that Steiner kindergartens apply for exemptions to the EYFS, such as ICT and the early introduction of formal literacy and numeracy. Free copies (plus postage) are available from www.steinerwaldorf.org.uk or it can be download at http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk. |
The importance of music and movement
In her Nursery World article Sally Goddard Blythe talks about the fact that the foundation for learning is the physical readiness nurtured by carers in the years before a child starts school.
With so much emphasis on getting children ready for reading, writing and numeracy in the early years, it is important to remember that the ability to understand and use written language is built upon earlier physical foundations developed in the pre-school years. Movement, touch and music are like the environmental software that enables the developing nervous system of the child to unfold its potential.
OpenEYE thinks that this is an area of research that deserves a lot more attention.
Read the full article
|
|
|
Challenging Product Placement
Dr Aric Sigman shared his concerns about the 'commercialisation of childhood' in his Guardian article:
'Product placement and adverts are
adult concepts that have no place in the brains of children, whose critical
skills are not fully developed. At an emotional, subconscious level they cannot
distinguish between the two. Neither can we. As the information highway becomes
wider, there have never been so many commercial influences "speaking"
freely to our children out of our earshot. The plethora of adverts or even mere
images of consumer goods has created the most demanding, acquisitive,
materialistic and entitled generation we have ever seen.
Product placement and the
increasing commercialisation of childhood are having direct effects on the
personality development and behavioural outcomes of our children. Yet again,
our society and our government must choose between the welfare of our television
stations and the welfare of our children. In this matter, unlike our children,
we're not spoiled for choice.' Read the full article
|
|
|
JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST!
We really care about childhood and Early Years Education and we value your support. Please join our email list and let us know about your own practice and concerns.
By clicking on the bottom side-link you can also easily forward this email to others. |
|
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.
|
|
|
