The management and training needs of reception teachers working with the Foundation Stage Curriculum

In England, since 2000, teachers of children aged three to five (the Foundation Stage) have been bound by the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage produced by central government. Initially, we were interested to learn of the responses of early years teachers to that document. We found that teachers welcomed the Curriculum Guidance, not least because it recognized that there exists a valuable and separate stage in children’s education. However, in relation to ensuring that quality learning experiences were provided, teachers identified two issues of concern to them—professional training of early childhood teachers, and the leadership and management of the Foundation Stage. Concerns also remained that not all stakeholders were yet aware of the needs of young children and of the staff training resources necessary to meet these needs. Upon our return to the respondents three years later, we found that, despite the incorporation of the Curriculum Guidance, some practitioners continued to feel that both colleagues and managers sometimes had limited understanding of the unique nature of the early childhood curriculum. Concerns about resources and an appropriate learning environment also continued to be evident.     

Language consultants

This article considers practitioners' beliefs and practice in relation to play in the literacy curriculum in two early years settings and the impact on the experiences of the children in these settings. Both settings were working with the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage (QCA/DfEE, 2000). One week was spent in each setting and narrative observations were undertaken on 5 target children in each setting. Key adults were interviewed about their beliefs about literacy and the impact of the Foundation Stage guidance on their practice. Interviews were analysed and related to literacy practices and provision for literacy play. Observations were analysed to illustrate the different experiences of children in the two settings. The findings have been related to current policy issues in the early years.     

Developments in UK early years policy and practice: can they improve outcomes for disadvantaged children?

Despite strenuous attempts made by the New Labour government in the UK to progress towards its goal of eradicating child poverty by 2020, educational outcomes for disadvantaged children remain depressed compared to those of more advantaged children. The fact that children from poorer socio‐economic backgrounds are at much greater risk of language delay, which is a key predictor of poorer educational outcomes, indicates that there is a fundamental need to enhance the language abilities of these children in their early years in order to improve educational progress. This paper discusses the extent to which two new major UK policy initiatives may impact on this situation, namely the introduction of the Early Years Foundation Stage, a new curricular framework for children aged from birth to five, and the development of the Early Years Professional role, seen as key to the implementation of this framework. The discussion concludes that due to insufficiently rigorous conceptual underpinnings, especially in the area of language and communication, these innovations seem unlikely to deliver the type of language‐enriched preschool environments necessary to enhance the linguistic capabilities of the poorest children in UK society.     

Building on the Early Years Foundation Stage: developing good practice for transition into Key Stage 1

The Independent Review of the Primary Curriculum and the independent Cambridge Primary Review both highlight the need to re‐think children's educational experiences in English classrooms between the ages of five and seven. Recent government initiatives have led to experiences in these early primary years being adult‐directed and often in whole‐class groups, with little place for the play and self‐initiated learning familiar in the Early Years Foundation Stage, which regulates education from birth to five years. This discontinuity in pedagogy has led to concerns at national and local levels. This article describes the efforts of teachers in one English local authority to develop practice in their classrooms which was less formal and teacher‐led and which responded more to the needs and interests of individual children. It describes the reasons for teacher participation in the project, the barriers that they faced and the outcomes for both teachers and children.     

Teaching in the Foundation Stage—how current systems support teachers’ knowledge and understanding of children’s speech and language

This paper discusses the knowledge, skills and understandings of Foundation Stage teachers in relation to children’s speech and language development. Results from a questionnaire to 294 teachers reveal limited initial and post qualification training. Teachers’ knowledge of specific aspects of children’s language revealed that key areas for training were centred on the identification of children who may have speech and language difficulties and speech sound development. The discussion centres on how changes to the curriculum in initial teacher training, in the consolidation of the revised Special Educational Needs Code of Practice and in the assessment requirements within the Foundation Stage may impact on teachers’ knowledge of speech and language development and on their ability to identify children who have speech and language difficulties.     

Early years,low status? Early years teachers' perceptions of their occupational status

Using survey and interview data from the Teacher Status Project, this paper explores early years teachers' sense of status and compares it with primary and secondary teachers' perceived status. If, as Hoyle has suggested, working with children is an intractable barrier to enhanced status in the eyes of the public, early years teachers are faced with the greatest challenge. At the same time, their closer links with parents and community affords them more opportunity to enhance the esteem in which they are held through the way that they do their work. The data seem to support this view, but it is argued that whilst curriculum guidance, and the recognition of the Foundation Stage have enhanced these teachers' sense of status in the public eye, the effects of the ten‐year strategy could undermine this progress unless an emphasis is placed on the teaching, pedagogical element of their specialist expertise.     

Transforming the early years in England

The goal of this paper is to explore the design and implementation of early years educational policy in England in the period 1997–2004. First to be described are the innovations in policy (i.e. the promise), followed by the ‘evidence base’ for new policy (i.e. the research), the delivery of new services (i.e. the achievement), and finally the tensions and gaps which remain (i.e. the shortfall). The paper will focus on evidence concerning expansion of services and on the benefit of early years education on children’s development. It is argued that early years education in England has been transformed through the following: integration of education and care at local and national level, the introduction of the Foundation Stage Curriculum 3–6 years and its birth–3 years supplement, and the firm focus on families as well as children in the delivery of services. There are, however, gaps and tensions to be resolved before the overall vision can be achieved.     

‘We believe in every child as an individual’: Nursery school head teachers’ understandings of ‘quality’ in early years education

This article addresses the issue of ‘quality’ in early years education, with the aim of highlighting the voices of nursery school head teachers. Government early years achievement statistics display a reductive and de-contextualised focus on young children’s developmental outcomes, with measures of the percentage of 5-year-olds achieving a ‘good level of development’ at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage. Early years practitioner understandings of ‘quality’ are more sophisticated and multi-dimensional, and yet are marginalised in debates around what constitutes ‘quality’ early years provision and around what are desired outcomes for young children and how these can be achieved. Using qualitative data from interviews with nursery school head teachers and classroom teachers from across England, the article analyses these participants’ understandings of ‘quality’ early years provision. The study finds a consensus amongst these teachers that quality provision emanates from the professional skills of staff providing education for the whole child and their wellbeing: they conceive of ‘quality’ as relating to a depth of understanding of each child as an individual, enabling the child to progress in their learning.     

‘Slimmed down’ assessment or increased accountability? Teachers,elections and UK government assessment policy

Since coming to power in 2010, the UK Coalition government in power has implemented a range of reforms in relation to assessment at all stages of education in England. This paper focuses on two assessment reforms relating to children aged five and six years old, and considers their evolution from manifesto commitments to practice in classrooms. These reforms are the introduction of the Phonics Screening Check at age six, and the revised Early Years Foundation Stage Profile at age five. The main focus is on the coherence of these policies, both over time and as part of an overall government strategy on assessment in early years and primary education. It is argued that, despite claims of reducing bureaucracy, these assessment policies are driven by an agenda of increasing accountability in the first years of primary school.     

Ready,steady, learn: school readiness and children’s voices in English early childhood settings

Internationally, school readiness is increasingly the rationale for early childhood education and care (ECEC). This is the case in England, yet the statutory English Early Years Foundation Stage framework for children 0–5 years also requires practitioners to listen to children’s voices: discourse indicates dissonance between school readiness and listening to children’s voices so this paper discusses an intrinsic case study that investigated beliefs and practices of 25 practitioners in the English midlands regarding school readiness and listening to children’s voices. In survey responses and semi-structured interviews, practitioners indicated they listen to – and act on – children’s voices but are confused about school readiness; their beliefs and practices align more strongly with social pedagogy than pre-primary schoolification. Findings carry messages for policy-makers regarding the need for coherent policy concerning the purpose of ECEC, with practitioner training and a framework aligned fully with that policy. A larger study is indicated.     

Principles under pressure: student teachers' perspectives on final teaching practice in early childhood classrooms

Global concerns about what constitutes an appropriate curriculum and pedagogy for young children inevitably raises questions for teacher educators and the content of teacher education programmes. These concerns have been particularly visible in England following recent policy initiatives and the resultant ‘academic shovedown’ and ‘high stakes’ performativity culture in schools. Against this background, this article reports on a qualitative study of student teachers' experiences of their final teaching practice, identifying pressure from a range of sources to deliver a more formalised curriculum than they were prepared for in their university-based courses. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner among others, we consider the socio-political and -cultural sources of pressure linked through human agency, and the implications of these for teacher educators. The study argues that student teachers of young children may be faced with cognitive and emotional dissonance between the content of university-based training on the one hand, which promotes a developmentally appropriate, play-based approach in keeping with the Early Years Foundation Stage (the statutory curricular framework in England), and the reality of pedagogical practice in early years settings on the other.     

A case-study of the predictive validity and reliability of Key Stage 2 test results,and teacher assessments,as baseline data for target-setting and value-added at Key Stage 3

This case-study investigates the predictive validity and reliability of Key Stage 2 test results, and teacher assessments, for target-setting and value-added assumptions at Key Stage 3. (In England Key Stage 2 tests are taken in the core subjects of English, Mathematics and Science at the age of 11. Key Stage 3 tests are taken in the same subjects at the age of 14. Teacher assessments are also completed for these subjects at both key stages.) The study employed the type of linear regression analysis recommended in several government reports, to correlate Key Stage 2 test results, and teacher assessments, in core subjects, with Key Stage 3 test results, and teacher assessments, in both core and non-core subjects. Following government recommendations that the use of any other form of testing - such as the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT) - was now no longer necessary to provide baseline data for value-added calculations, or to set targets, correlations were also investigated between results on the CAT, and test results and teacher assessments at Key Stage 3, for both core and non-core subjects, to see whether this recommendation was well founded. The results of the case-study suggest that Key Stage 2 data, both in the form of test results and teacher assessments, have little or no predictive validity, or reliability, for test results or teacher assessments at Key Stage 3. Indeed, the predictive validity for non-core subjects at Key Stage 3 was so low as to be negligible. However, the CAT average score correlated more highly with both teacher assessments and test results at Key Stage 3 in core subjects, although this relationship was not reflected in non-core subjects. These findings suggest that the predictive validity and reliability of Key Stage 2 data is seriously open to question as baseline data for either value-added, or target-setting procedures, at Key Stage 3. It should be pointed out, however, that these findings are provisional, since they are based on data from two intake years, but preliminary analysis of data from a further three intake years appears to indicate that the concerns identified are well founded.     

Implementing curriculum reform in Wales: the case of the Foundation Phase

Abstract

The Foundation Phase is a Welsh Government flagship policy of early years education (for 3–7 year-old children) in Wales. Marking a radical departure from the more formal, competency-based approach associated with the previous Key Stage 1 National Curriculum, it advocates a developmental, experiential, play-based approach to teaching and learning. The learning country: A paving document (NAfW, 2001) notes that, following devolution, Wales intended to take its own policy direction in order to ‘get the best for Wales’. Building on a three-year mixed methods independent evaluation of the Foundation Phase we discuss in detail the aims and objectives of the Foundation Phase, including the context to its introduction, the theory, assumptions and evidence underlying its rationale, and its content and key inputs. We then contrast this with how the Foundation Phase was received by practitioners and parents, how it has been implemented in classrooms and non-maintained settings, and what discernible impact it has had on young children’s educational outcomes. The paper concludes with a critical analysis of the policy process and identifies a number of contextual issues during the inception of the Foundation Phase that has, it could be argued, constrained its development and subsequent impact. We argue that these constraints are associated with an educational policy landscape that was still in its infancy. In order for future education policy to ‘get the best for Wales’ a number of important lessons must be learnt.     

Poverty,family resources and children's early educational attainment: The mediating role of parenting

This study uses longitudinal data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study to show the extent to which episodic and more persistent poverty in early childhood and the lack of other family resources disadvantage children at the start of their school careers in terms of whether they have achieved the target indicator of ‘good level of achievement’ on the Foundation Stage Profile. Positive parenting is shown to be an important contributor to school achievement that matters for children, regardless of poverty experience or family disadvantage. It is also shown to be an important mediator in redressing the effects of poverty and disadvantage.     

Reviews

This article aims to set out considerations resulting from international collaboration between educational thinkers in Norway and Wales concerning the proposed Foundation Phase in Wales and the Norwegian Framework Plan for Day Care Institutions, which cater for the same age of child. The essential feature of the Welsh proposal is the aim to place ‘well-being’ at the heart of educational work with children between the ages of three and seven. There needs to be an explicit consideration of the view of the child within policy and practice in order for the Foundation Phase to be successfully implemented. Welsh policy-makers and practitioners need to openly adopt a sociocultural view of the child in order to place well-being at the centre of the Foundation Phase at the level of the classroom, particularly at Key Stage 1. Well-being is considered in the light of Norwegian approaches. Practice in Norway and the findings from the recent EPPE project in Britain are used as a source of guidance for Welsh practitioners.     

Interactive health-hygiene education for early years: the creation and evaluation of learning resources to improve understanding of handwashing practice

ABSTRACT

This study reports the findings of a mixed method research study (qualitative and quantitative) on the effectiveness of specifically developed learning resources and workshops on handwashing for children in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) in the UK. The A Germ’s Journey educational resources were developed to aid both young children’s understanding and engagement with microbiology and hand hygiene, currently there are limited learning resources that teach young children about the cause and effect of germs. The methods used to evaluate the resources in this study include: questionnaires (completed by parents and teachers), observations of the children during the workshops using the resources and follow-up interviews with teachers. The data was collected in six individual case studies (three in inner city locations and three in rural locations) consisting of EYFS classes in primary schools and nurseries. Results found that the developed learning resources were successful in aiding children in EYFS’s knowledge of germs and related health issues (80–100% (p?<?0.05) of parents and teachers strongly agreeing/agreeing), with teachers reporting that they had seen an increased understanding in their pupils since participating in the workshops.     

Early childhood assessment: observation,teacher ‘knowledge’ and the production of attainment data in early years settings

Since 2003 children in England have been formally assessed at the age of 5 after their first year in school, and their numerical scores reported to parents and analysed at school and national levels. The use of statutory assessment for this age group is unique in the UK, where other regions use less formal methods of assessment. It is also unusual internationally. This paper examines the peculiarity of this assessment system, the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile, using data from two ethnographic case studies of classrooms of four- and five-year-old children in London. The study revealed tensions between the construction of teachers' knowledge, their ambivalence in relation to the numerical data they report, and the use of the data for school accountability purposes. Alternative methods of assessing this age group in other parts of the UK are used to consider the implications of the production of numerical assessment data in early childhood education.     

Child-initiated learning,the outdoor environment and the ‘underachieving’ child

The Foundation Phase for Wales advocates an experiential, play-based approach to learning for children aged three to seven years that includes child-initiated activity within the outdoor environment. In previous research, Foundation Phase practitioners maintained that children perceived to be ‘underachieving’ within the classroom came into their own when engaged in child-initiated learning outdoors. This study, which involved eight Foundation Phase teachers, aimed to explore these perceived differences as well as teachers’ perceptions of ‘underachievement’. It is concluded that the more natural outdoor spaces in which child-initiated activity took place appeared to amplify the effects of child-initiated learning and diminish the perception of underachievement; that engagement in this project enabled some teachers to see ‘underachievement’ as being distributed across people, place and activity; and that through constructing the outdoor ‘space’ as a ‘place’ embedded with positive meanings, children may have had the opportunity to reconstruct themselves as strong, competent children rather than as ‘underachieving’ pupils.     

'Well,I've Not Done Any Work Today. I Don't Know Why I Came to School'. Perceptions of Play in the Reception Class

The place of play in the education of young children has been the focus of much interest in the past. But the findings from this research project demonstrate that there remains a significant amount of confusion about the role that play has in young children's education. In particular we found that there is a clear distinction between the rhetoric and reality of play in the reception class. Further, there was evidence of real anguish for some early years workers who were failing to offer the play activities that they knew should be provided. These findings are particularly interesting at present, since the debate on the role of play has once again emerged as fundamental in the attempt to define a curriculum appropriate to the needs of the 3-6 year olds who, from the year 2000, will be required to work within the highly contentious Foundation Stage of the National Curriculum.     

Mixed messages: the role and value of drawing in early education

Current English curriculum documents, namely the Practice Guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 of the National Curriculum, contain mixed messages about the role and value of drawing in early education. The documents state that children should be encouraged to explore their ideas, feelings and experiences through a range of means, including drawing, but drawing as a form of communication is predominantly seen as a pre‐writing skill. In the National Curriculum drawing exists as an element of the programme of study for art and design. However, it is argued here that presenting drawing as ‘art’ in the early years conveys a limited view of its place in children’s learning. Young children have many motivations for drawing for different purposes and in different contexts. These different purposes and contexts need recognition in both policy and practice.