The DVD from the 2010 OpenEYE conference can be purchased for £19 inc. p&p. It contains three fascinating and inspirational talks from the following speakers:
Prof Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Ph.D Dr Sebastian Suggate, Ph.D Prof Lilian G. Katz, Ph.D
Please send cheques made out to 'OpenEYE' to:
OpenEYE DVD
16 High Bannerdown
Batheaston, Bath
BA1 7JZ |
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The Unique Child Network
Are you interested in the broader issues that OpeEYE has raised? Would you like to keep in touch with cutting-edge thinking and research?
Join the Unique Child Network today!
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What About the Children Conference
What About the Children's National Conference is being held on the 2nd March, 2011 at the Resource Centre in Islington, North London.
You can access the conference site here
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IPA World Conference
4th - 7th July
How do we create a future where playing is valued and where every country and neighbourhood upholds every child's right to time, freedom and a safe enough environment for playing in their own way?
The 18th conference of the International Play Association offers four days to share evidence, experience and examples of good practice with colleagues from around the world.
Conference Website
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'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
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"What we emphasise in education
is generally what we get. When
we emphasise achievement above
all else, then we are likely to
produce achievement above all else. High achievement is desirable.
But at what cost? When education
becomes focused on production -
namely, evidence of demonstrable
achievement - then we have
lost what it means to be educated.
Teaching and learning are not just
about achievement or
quality-assured products. They are
about care, compassion,
love, hope. Joy, passion, grace,
relationship, and more ...
They are about people and how
we nurture and are nurtured
on our learning journeys"
Colin Gibb
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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
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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 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.
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FEBRUARY 2011 UPDATE
CAMPAIGN MATTERS
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The most important item to report is the news that the government has now decided not to go ahead with league tables for five year olds (see the item below). We think that any policy which sets expectations or targets for all young children at a specific date or age is developmentally inappropriate and cuts across the important principle of the unique child. We will continue to strongly oppose any such proposals. The younger the children are, the less appropriate it is to compare them with others. We would rather see practitioners focusing on each child's unique strengths, interests and learning dispositions and celebrating these with their parents.
The other item that is causing a great deal of concern is
whether the teaching of synthetic phonics should be made compulsory. Even within OpenEYE we have differing views on the value of phonics and it is a debate that has been going on for decades.The DfE has just closed a consultation regarding the introduction of phonics screening tests at the end of year 1. The testing will apply to all children (whether in independent or maintained schools) and the screening check will start at an age when children in alternative settings such as Steiner Waldorf would normally not have had any introduction to formal literacy. Whether or not you agree with the use of phonics the statutory imposition of such tests is surely compromising any pretence of the government supporting pedagogical diversity or parental choice. Information about the consultation process can be found at the following links: Press release
Phonics screening consultation The 2005 House of Commons Call for Evidence produced the following comments that we feel are highly relevant: "What worries me about what we have just heard is that it implies that children come into school with no reading at all and suddenly they are taught by people who are called teachers. In fact as soon as a baby looks at a symbol on a cot and points at it, they are actually learning to read." "In Finland, if I were to say Reading Recovery they would say 'Recovering from what?' There is a sort of strange notion about reading and you know that for me early intervention is the key. We have many adults who can technically read, but very few who ever read for pleasure. That disposition to read and that joy of reading is actually an essential tenet if we are going to have reading." "What is the point of creating children who are proficient decoders through phonic awareness if they do not read for pleasure as part of lifelong learning?" "It is important to emphasise that it is not the children who are failing in literacy, but our methods which are failing the children." Read the whole report
Janet Moyles, Professor Emeritus at Anglia Ruskin University and ex Chair of TACTYC has just launched a petition against the tests that is rapidly gaining support which you can see here |
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Concern about early years interventions
At the beginning of January this letter was published in the TES and signed by some extremely highly regarded experts in the field.
Early years plans sound an early warning
We are writing to express our concern about some of the early years interventions announced in the recent education white paper. The education secretary has stated that he will reduce the amount of central control, instead trusting professionals to make principled decisions. The Department for Education's business plan also recognises the importance of high-quality early years education. These are entirely sensible aspirations.
However, they do not sit well with a number of proposals in the paper. The proposed phonics teaching in the nursery and reception years, and phonics test in Year 1, are not supported by research evidence. Phonics is an essential element of learning to read, but the timing of the introduction of a systematic programme is crucial. The white paper starts with a comparison of educational standards which shows that the UK appears to be falling in relation to other OECD countries. Yet - in contrast to the successful models elsewhere, where formal schooling and the teaching of reading do not begin until children are six or seven - the plans would impose increased and earlier emphasis on basic phonic skills.
There is evidence that children who are given plenty of time to develop their communication skills and to enjoy books before they are expected to crack the irregular phonic code for English do just as well at the age of 11 as others whose enjoyment of literacy is undermined by premature pressures to decode text. This is all the more true for children who do not get rich experiences of language and literacy at home. The introduction of a test in Year 1 in which they would decode non-words is particularly unwelcome. At this age, children learn by making sense of the world around them, and it is hard to think of anything more confusing than words that are nonsense.
As for the teacher training proposals, the most recent annual report from Ofsted finds that more outstanding initial teacher education is delivered by higher education-led partnerships than by school-centred initial teacher training partnerships and employment-based routes. It is difficult to reconcile this evidence with ministers' determination to focus on work-based training.
Wendy Scott, president, Association for the Professional Development of Early Years Educators (TACTYC); Pat Beckley, Bishop Grosseteste University College, Lincoln; Professor Pat Broadhead, Leeds Metropolitan University; Maulfry Worthington, doctoral researcher, Vrije University, Amsterdam; and 12 other signatories on behalf of TACTYC.
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No league tables for 5 year olds!
We were delighted to hear that the government has now backed away from this proposal and it will not be going ahead. It is a massive relief for all of us who are concerned about the downward pressures on young children. We imagine that part of the reason for the decision was the fact that a whole host of major figures within both education and psychology signed the anti-league table petition recently launched by the journalist Frances Laing and there was also increasing support for the related Early Day Motion tabled in the House of Commons by MP Caroline Lucas. Nursery World reported the following statement: "a spokesperson for the DfE said last week, 'We will not publish Early Years Foundation Stage Profile data at school level. The draft transparency section of the DfE business plan suggested that achievements of children at the end of the EYFS might be published at school level, in addition to data already published on children's attainment at the end of the primary school phase. This is not the case and will be made clear in the final published version of the business plan." The revised version of the department's business plan is due by April.
The proposal also very much went against some of the things that we have heard from the ministerial team. Here are some extracts from Tim Loughton and Sarah Teather's contribution in the recent DEMOS report on creativity in the early years:
"There is mounting concern that the very regulations we have put in place to promote creativity, like the Early Years Foundation Stage, could actually be proving counterproductive"
and they question
"whether well-intentioned guidance and legislation is stifling free thinking and innovation.....we are beginning to ask whether... our services are so strictly delineated, that we are in danger of suppressing future creative talent...
Has a build up of bureaucracy left early years professionals with less independence and scope to provide imaginative, creative settings for young children?...
We cannot achieve that greater creativity in the early years simply by legislating and regulating...giving early years professionals... the chance to determine the look and feel of their... educational priorities, free from centrist intervention, making the final move away from the centrist idea that government can act as a grand old puppet master....".
Read the Nursery World itemRead the Demos publication |
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School Readiness
Both OPENEYE editor Wendy Ellyatt and Nursery World reporter Mary Evans wrote pieces querying the use of the term 'readiness' that was suddenly popping up in various ministerial documents and speeches.
Children's Minister Sarah Teather used the phrase 'ready to learn when they get to school' no less than four times in her July interview about the EYFS Review with Nursery World and the term 'school readiness' was recently used by Labour MPs Graham Allen and Frank Field in their reports on ending the cycle of child deprivation in the UK. Wendy queried both terms and suggested that it was schools that should be ready for children rather than children ready for schools: "Readiness to learn' is a bizarrely strange term as the quality and rate of spontaneous learning in a child's first few years of life is more rapid and impressive than at any other time in the human lifespan... it is not the child that needs to be ready for school, but the school that should be ready for the child. Instead of trying to fit the child into some externally created norm, with all the dangers of imposing developmentally inappropriate expectations, there is a call, instead, for schools to focus on strengthening children's confidence in their own developing intellectual powers and positive dispositions towards learning"
and Mary quoted Megan Pacey voicing her own concerns: "There is top-down pressure for this focus on readiness for school...It is not coming from the early years sector, where there is an awkward feeling about the whole phrase. It is particularly coming from the Secretary of State and one or two supporters. With phonics, there is a small vocal and very influential group.
'I think what the Government means about being ready for school is reading, writing and arithmetic, the 3Rs. We have gone full circle. There is frustration in the early years, as we would argue that the learning through play approach, building on skills in a fun-filled, more informal learning environment, not being strapped into desks, should go on from reception into year one and year two."
Read Wendy's Opinion Piece in Early Years Educator
Read Mary's Nursery World article |
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Invest in early years and parenting skills
In his report on poverty and life chances MP Frank Field called for more focus on the crucial years of zero to five, what he calls "the foundation years": Foundation Years, he writes, should become "a third part of our tripartite education system; the Foundation Years leading to school years leading to further, higher and continuing education." The final theme of Mr Field's report is the introduction of new measures of poverty and life chances. He wants children monitored intensively during their Foundation Years to ensure they are progressing according to "a range of factors in young children which we know to be predictive of children's future outcomes."The prime objective should be " to produce high levels of 'school readiness' for all children regardless of family income." While welcoming possible focus and investment in the early years, we need to repeat the argument that it is young children from deprived backgrounds for whom social and emotional development is far more important than is quasi-formal, cognitive learning. We would therefore urge considerable caution that such measures do not come tied to inappropriate developmental pressures and outcomes, and that we see this period of life as a period of extraordinary learning that is not all about being made 'ready' for later schooling. Read the Children and Young People Now article |
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Lack of Play Policy is devastating the sector
Janaki Mahadevan, in Children & Young People Now, reported how the lack of funding for play provision could cause severe cuts in services after March 2011. 'Director of Play England Adrian Voce said: "If local authorities are cutting back on children's play, which they are doing, there is all the more need for there to be some kind of dedicated policy from central government that can provide the levers and support for local people to respond to the cuts."The end of a multi-million pound play programme does not need to signify the end of the government play policy" he added. "The vision of children having better access to public spaces, more independent mobility and safer neighbourhoods doesn't need huge capital investment. Play is not a statutory duty and without there being a national champion it is going to be very hard to see how play will not drop off the agenda."In announcing the government's Childhood and Families Taskforce in June, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said it would examine how local communities could be helped to deliver play provision. But a Cabinet Office spokesman said there was no date set for a further announcement on the issue." Read the full articleThe same issue about the vanishing culture of play has been prevalent in the United States. This, however, was part of a January New York Times article entitled ' Effort to Restore Children's Play Gains Momentum' and talks about an event run by two of OpenEYE's international supporters:
"For several years, studies and statistics have been mounting that suggest the culture of play in the United States is vanishing. Children spend far too much time in front of a screen, educators and parents lament - 7 hours, 38 minutes a day on average, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation last year. And only one in five children live within walking distance (a half-mile) of a park or playground, according to a 2010 report by the federal Centers for Disease Control, making them even less inclined to frolic outdoors... "Too little playtime may seem to rank far down on the list of society's worries, but the scientists, psychologists, educators, and others who are part of the play movement say that most of the social and intellectual skills one needs to succeed in life and work are first developed through childhood play. Children learn to control their impulses through games like Simon Says, play advocates believe, and they learn to solve problems, negotiate, think creatively, and work as a team when they dig together in a sandbox or build a fort with sofa cushions.' "To try to reach more parents, a coalition called Play for Tomorrow this fall staged what amounted to a giant play date in Central Park. The event, known as the Ultimate Block Party, featured games like I Spy, mounds of Play-Doh, sidewalk chalk, building blocks, puzzles, and more. The National Science Foundation was closely involved, advising organizers - and emphasizing to parents - the science and the educational value behind each of the carefully chosen activities. Organizers were hoping to attract 10,000 people to the event. They got more than 50,000. "'We were overwhelmed,' said Roberta Golinkoff, a developmental psychologist at the University of Delaware and a founder of the event along with Dr. Hirsh-Pasek. They are now working with other cities - Toronto, Atlanta, Baltimore, and Houston, among them - to stage similar events, along with making the Central Park gathering an annual one." We are keen to support the idea of bringing a similar event to the UK and Wendy is currently in active discussions with the organisers. Please email wendy@uniquechildproject.com if you are interested in being involved.
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Children will have a say in the EYFS Review
Catherine Gaunt reported on how the findings of the report by the Centre for Education and Inclusion Research at Sheffield Hallam University will contribute to Dame Clare Tickell's review of the EYFS.
A particular focus was given to learning through play, outdoor provision and physical activity, how experiences in nursery meet the needs of the individual child, and to what extent children's views contributed to practitioners' planning and delivery of the EYFS. Children's 'learning journeys' were used as a topic of conversation and researchers observed children's play grouped around the six areas of learning.
Researchers used activities based on the EYFS themes A Unique Child, Positive Relationships, Enabling Environments and Learning and Development. They visited 15 settings comprising children's centres, private and voluntary nurseries, childminders, reception classes, an out-of-school club and a Steiner kindergarten. |
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Preschoolers are better readers at 15
This comes from a February BBC News report
"Children who have been in pre-school education are likely to be much better readers when they are aged 15, reveals a study of international test results. The OECD has published an analysis of tests taken by pupils in developed countries - looking at the long-term impact of pre-school education. This showed that 15-year-olds who had attended pre-school were on average a year ahead of those who had not. This advantage was particularly strong for pupils in the UK.
It found that in almost all countries taking part in the tests, pupils who had attended pre-school, such as nursery or children's centres from the age of three, outperformed those who had not. This gap remained after different social backgrounds had been taken into account. But since pre-school education is more likely among better-off families, this can create an early social divide between pupils. The research also suggests that disadvantaged and immigrant families can gain above-average benefits from early education."
We are all agreed that good quality early years education is enormously important for children's learning and development. What is vitally important to recognise, however, is that an over-early introduction to reading can have a negative correlation for the development of the disposition to read and later success.
See the BBC News item
Read the OECD report
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Have your say about the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood
Reg Bailey, the Chief Executive of the Mothers Union, has been asked to chair a new review into the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood. Individuals and organisations are being asked to submit their views in a call for evidence and all views submitted will help him to then develop his recommendations which will be published in May 2011.
More information can be found on the DfE Consultations website http://www.education.gov.uk/consultations/ as well as online and downloadable questionnaires.
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OTHER ARTICLES OF INTEREST | |
Sure Start Centres closing
Some 250 Sure Start children's centres in England could close within a year while many more face budget cuts, two charities have claimed. A survey of 3,500 centre managers for Daycare Trust and 4Children found more than half of the 900 who responded were expecting to run reduced services. And about 7 per cent, or 58, said they expected to be shut within a year. A total of 917 managers took part in the survey and, according to the charities' projections based on the results, 3,100 centres across the country will have a decreased budget, while staff at 1,000 centres have been issued "at risk of redundancy notices". Frank Field, the government's adviser on poverty and life chances, urged councils to find innovative ways of supporting children's centres. "It is inconceivable that we can make the foundation years effective if children's centres all over the place are being slaughtered" he said. "Local authorities must seek to employ innovative methods to ensure families, especially the poorest families, do not lose the vital support they need."Anand Shukla, acting chief executive of Daycare Trust, said communities will be devastated if children's centres close. "Behind every children's centre facing closure is a community of families devastated at losing one of their most valued local services...The tragedy of these cuts is that the full extent of Sure Start's impact on children's development will only be achieved in the long term - and the impending closure of so many centres means this investment will not be fully realised."
Read the BBC News item
Read the Children & Young People Now article
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The First State Montessori Primary School
An Essex school is the first in the country to become a fully accredited Montessori state school. Stebbing Primary School in Dunmow uses Montessori teaching methods alongside the national curriculum, from nursery through to year six. The rural village school takes 117 children and was graded outstanding by Ofsted in June 2009. Read Catherine Gaunt's Nursery World article |
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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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