Planning an Appropriate Curriculum in the Early Years

A guide for early years practitioners and leaders, students and parents

Rosemary Rodger

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317443872
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Now its fourth edition, Planning an Appropriate Curriculum in the Early Years offers a comprehensive guide for early years practitioners and students on how to plan and implement a suitable curriculum for the children in an Early Years setting. It examines the key roles and responsibilities of practitioners working in Early Years settings and those with responsibility for leading and managing provision for EYFS in primary schools.

Completely revised and updated in line with the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, latest research evidence and OFSTED requirements, this book covers the following aspects of the Early Years including:

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• what we mean by planning an appropriate curriculum in the early years;

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• transition from nursery to school and into Year 1;

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• defining quality learning and play in the early years

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• assessment procedures and examples;

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• integration of two-year-olds into school;

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• the role played by parents and carers in children's learning and development;

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• the ways in which vulnerable children are provided for;

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• examples of planning material developed by practitioners.

With case studies of good practice and questions for reflective practice and group work, this timely fourth edition will be welcomed by students and practitioners looking to provide high quality and effective learning experiences for the under-fives.

CHAPTER
1
	Introduction

I am prompted to introduce this edition with a quotation and comments from Margaret Donaldson: ‘People turn to wondering whether schooling really does begin as well as it seems to do or whether the brightness of the early years carries within itself the shadow of the darkness that is to come’ (1978: 14). Her views led me into a career working with trainee early years teachers and those wishing to increase their knowledge and understanding of young children through further professional development. As far as what is appropriate for young children, Margaret Donaldson spoke from considerable experience and understanding of child development at a time when it was felt imperative to get it right in the very early years. The ‘darkness that is to come’ refers to the ways in which children are unprepared by pre-school and subsequently make less progress as they go through primary school. The key role played by adults in working with the very youngest children to ensure that all children are prepared for statutory school at 5 years of age has subsequently been found to be crucial in laying the foundations for early learning, particularly with regard to language development and early literacy. It has taken many years for a priority to be given to what happens with the under-3s in the early years. It now has an increasingly high profile. At this point in time there is certainly much consternation in early years settings as to how to accommodate 2-year-olds and the 30 hours a week provision for the pre-school children of working parents in the near future. The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) recently stated that the plans to extend the free childcare could backfire and leave fewer children attending nurseries. This is due primarily to the lack of funding provided to cover the cost of nursery provision. Another continuing concern relates to the plans to improve the level of staff qualifications in the early years sector. Cathy Nutbrown’s review (DfE, 2012c) highlighted the lack of qualifications in several early years sectors but many of her recommendations were rejected. There are plans to introduce non-qualified teacher status (QTS) early years teachers to relax ratios, and not require childminders to hold formal qualifications. The strength of early years in England has been in the quality of our staffing compared with other countries. The government now claims that the reforms to staffing will bring us into line with countries such as France and Denmark.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) (DfE, 2014a) sets the standard that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It aims to promote teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’, so states the statutory framework. The EYFS seeks to provide:

Quality and consistency in all early years settings, so that every child makes good progress and no child is left behind;

A secure foundation through learning and development opportunities which are planned around the needs and interests of each individual child and are assessed and reviewed regularly;

Partnership working between practitioners and with parents and/or carers;

Equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice, ensuring that every child is included and supported.

(DfE, 2014a: 5)

This edition includes details of the statutory EYFS framework (DfE, 2014a), what a curriculum for the early years must include and how adults aim to teach, plan and play with children up to the age of 5 before the children transfer to Year 1 to follow the National Curriculum. A chapter on meeting the needs of 2-year-olds covers how outstanding practitioners are able to effectively integrate the youngest children in pre-schools and schools. The statutory requirements for the prime and specific areas of learning and the safeguarding and welfare requirements are also are included. The assessment chapter outlines the recently introduced baseline assessment for children starting reception class in 2016. There are chapters too on defining quality in the early years with a particular focus on the features of strong leadership, planning and assessing learning, and involving parents and carers. The addition of a new chapter, ‘Vulnerable children’, is included to throw light on how various organisations are helping families tackle living in poverty and the ways in which many of these initiatives are contributing to making a marked impact on disadvantaged children’s well-being and education. Children from poorer families achieve less well than their peers. In 2012, just over a third of children were not working securely in communication, language and literacy and in deprived areas this rose to more than four in ten children. Links to specific websites for planning examples are provided as well as the inclusion of some examples in this edition. There is a vast amount of guidance from the Department of Education and Science (DfES, 2012) and local authorities available on various websites as well as the most recent statutory guidance from the Department for Education (DfE, 2014a). This new edition includes greater emphasis on how children learn in the early years and highlights the opportunities provided for children to play and how practitioners engage with children as they play. The curriculum chapters describe research, teaching and good practice in communication, language development and literacy and the increased use and contribution of technology in the early years. There is some debate in the early years sector as to the use of, and meaning of, the word ‘curriculum’ and what is meant by this in the early years. This is discussed further in Chapter 3, which tackles this sometimes contentious but recognised and well-used word worldwide in relation to early years. Those working in the early years are referred to as practitioners. All adults working in the early years also teach. Use of the word ‘teach’ does not only refer to qualified teachers.

Indications that civil servants are beginning to take greater interest in the early years is evident in a series of Ofsted reports that evaluate how settings achieve and maintain high-quality early years provision (Ofsted, 2013a, 2015b, 2015c) and a second yearly report from HMCI with an exclusive focus on early years (Ofsted, 2015a). Hopefully, this may help to highlight the imperative need to have appropriately qualified practitioners working in all early years sectors. The pattern of priority given to the early years in recent years varies from the ambitious launch of the Sure Start project across the country, to changes in government and reduction in the numbers of Sure Start centres and Children’s Centres. The reasons for the reduction are outlined in the recent cross-party government report Foundation Years: Sure Start Children’s Centres (House of Commons Education Committee, 2013) and from my own delving into of the minutes, which state very clearly that there is a lack of clarity about their purpose and what centres should offer. It is further claimed that accountability is needed both at centre level and at local authority level. The findings of this report are outlined in more detail in Chapter 2.

The priority of this publication is to provide trainee early years practitioners with current developments in the early years and the implications of this for their practice in whatever route they take to work with children under 5. Recent research and government reports stating the statutory guidelines for early years are included. The key role of the practitioner as a teacher is given a high priority, with the aim of equipping readers with a framework to guide their own practice and a theoretical underpinning as to effective teaching and learning in the early years and how this takes place in settings now required to implement the statutory early years curriculum from birth to 5 years old. Teaching and play along with the links between the two is given a high priority. Being mindful of the guidance from Ofsted (2014a) that there is no requirement to see planning when inspected, there is less priority given to planning examples than in previous editions. The pressures put on practitioners previously to plan in detail is a view supported too by the critical views of practitioners in a DfE evaluation in 2011, citing the demands of increased paperwork. My more recent experience of what happens in early years settings regarding planning identifies child-friendly topics that require resourcing by the pre-school and reception class. Assessment becomes the means by which next steps for learning are identified. Discussions with the children to establish a starting point as to their understanding of a suggested topic and some leading exploration of first steps and prepared activities are commonplace. This may be less common in a pre-school where assessment of a child’s learning journey may form the starting point and content of their learning and development. A higher priority to the impact of learning in the outdoors is a major feature in many settings.

The early years sector is, without doubt, a political football wavering as it does between priorities of opposing political parties. However, it is reassuring to note that since the introduction of the Early Years Foundation Stage the proportion of good or better providers has risen from 64 per cent in 2008 to 74 per cent in 2012 with a year-on-year improvement in children’s attainment as evidenced by the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile scores: a rise from 49 per cent reaching a good level of development in 2008 to 64 per cent in 2012 across all types of early years settings. The allocation of funding for childcare for 2-year-olds from less advantaged backgrounds as a result of the findings from Sure Start evaluations (DfE, 2008, 2010) over several years is a positive development, but nevertheless poses additional challenges for practitioners. Partly, this is because of a lack of funding, but also because of the implications for accommodating the particular needs of 2-year-olds, as recommended by Ofsted. Examples of exemplary practice along with findings of good practice publications by Ofsted are included. More recently, the allocation of 30 hours of free childcare for the children of working parents announced in the 2015 budget from 2016 will add to the demands placed on existing early years provision. Research by the charity 4Children identified an 11 per cent increase in families using centres in 2012. Nevertheless, it is likely that around sixty Children’s Centres could close over the next twelve months due to acute financial pressure. My own authority reflects this well having started with forty-three Sure Start Centres and recently reduced that number to fifteen with the twenty-eight closures of buildings for Sure Start being transferred to other community groups. The rationale for this being the failure to reach disadvantaged parents with children who were not accessing the provision provided by the Sure Start Centres, along with the mixed evaluations of the impact of Sure Start on supporting children from disadvantaged families. One of the reasons given for the closure of so many Sure Start Centres was because, by the end of the Foundation Stage, children in this authority were achieving in the bottom 10 per cent based on the EYFS profile results. However, as in all local authorities, the reduction in their budgets is likely to be the main reason for so many closures. There is a difference between the charity findings and statements from DfE spokespersons who claimed that funding for Sure Start centres increased from £2.2 billion to £2.5 billion in 2014/15. This edition provides information about the many schemes evolving to compensate for cuts to funding leading to the closure of Children’s Centres. The key role played by parents and how practitioners can work to support parenting is vital, particularly for those with children up to 24 months old. The responsibility for this is increasingly via the charitable sector and Lottery-funded projects across the most deprived areas of the country. The extent to which schools will provide for 2-year-olds remains to be seen, but is certainly becoming more of a feature across the country due, in part to its promotion by Ofsted (2015b).

As a very practical academic driven by a professional life spent observing children and practitioners together in many different settings, the key to successful provision is the ability to achieve a balance between meeting children’s social, emotional, physical and intellectual needs, liaising and working together with parents and providing a happy and productive environment for young children. This book aims to identify high-quality provision and to provide support to practitioners and students planning a career in the early years. Priority is given to the contexts in which newly qualified practitioners find themselves and the aims to keep you up to date with government changes. The key to becoming a successful early years practitioner has many strands. I hope this publication will help to contribute towards your journey

CHAPTER
2
	Quality in the early years

Introduction

Defining quality in the early years is an elusive concept that early years educators have wrestled with for many years (Abbott and Rodger, 1994). Cathy Nutbrown defines very firmly the importance of excellent pedagogical leadership, which is vital in improving the quality of provision, and suggests that all early years practitioners can aspire to be pedagogical leaders (DfE, 2012c). Different government policies have sought to define what counts for quality in the early years over the past fifteen years. This chapter aims to examine more recent definitions of quality with a particular emphasis on the crucial role playe...