Early Years Foundation Stage in the UK Context - Essay Example

? Early Years in the UK Context Early years in the U.K context The EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) term is defined in the British government’s Section 39 of the 2006 Childcare act. A set of Development and Learning Requirements must be followed by childcare providers for children who are below 5 years of age. This is the age for compulsory education for any child in the United Kingdom (Department for Education, 2012). Development, learning and welfare requirements are not contained in the Childcare Act but in other separate Orders. This legislation was implemented from September of 2008. The development and learning requirements only apply in England, but the welfare requirements are applicable to the entire United Kingdom schools (Department for Education, 2012). All the childcare providers, nurseries, child-minders, pre-school, and kindergartens are obliged to be registered through the Childcare Act so as to legally operate. To remain registered, they have to comply with the Learning and Development (in England), and Welfare requirements (for the entire U.K) except where exempted (Department for Education, 2013). Learning and development (L&D) are requirements with a legal force given by the 2012 Early Years Foundation Stage (Learning and Development Requirements) amendment order, under Section 39(1)(a) of the 2006 Childcare Act. The Welfare and Safeguarding requirements got their legal force from the 2012 Early Years Foundation Stage (Welfare Requirements) Regulations, under Section 39(1)(b) of the 2006 Childcare Act. The 2006 Childcare Act allows the Secretary of State to give exemptions from the development and learning framework under certain circumstances, under Section 46 (Department for Education, 2012). Early childhood education and care for young emerged in England during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The first U.K nursery school was established by Robert Owen in 1816 at New Lanark, Scotland for mill workers’ children. Children between the ages 1 to 6 years were taken care of while their older siblings and parents worked in the cotton mills (The Scottish Government, 2011). Robert advocated for unstructured and free play in young children’s education and did not advocate for any formal training. In the process, he strived to create the future citizen via a process of physical activities and informal teaching. Even though, his ideas were way ahead of time, this example established significant interest in the area of early childhood education. This followed the founding of infant schools across the United Kingdom (Kwon, 2002). The Education Act was passed in 1870, establishing compulsory elementary schooling for any child from 5 years of age. Elementary education was made compulsory for children between 5 and 13years of age in 1880 (The Scottish Government, 2011). In the absence of schools or institutions specialized for the younger children, the elementary ones were made to admit children below the age of five so as to protect them from the unhealthy and poor physical conditions in slums and the dangerous streets (TES Magazine, 2012). Five female inspectors from the Education Board investigated the admission of infants in U.K elementary schools and their instructing curriculum in 1905. They reported the inappropriateness and recommended that all the children below five years should have separate facilities with a different approach of teaching from the older children (The Scottish Government, 2011). They criticized rote memorization and the monotonous emphasis on repetition in the curriculum for elementary schools. As a result of this report, all children under the age of five were excluded from the elementary schools, officially (Kwon, 2002). By the mid 20th century, the family size had declined with the closure of day nurseries reducing the opportunities for children to interact and play with each other. Playgroups were, therefore, included as a new preschool provision. In 1972, Secretary of State for Education, Margaret Thatcher, presented an education White Paper under the title "Education: A Framework for Expansion" (Department for Education, 2012). It proposed nursery education to be provided for anyone who wanted it. The Education Reform Act of 1988 set out a curriculum for both England and Wales. This followed a rigorous restructuring of the English educational system. The justifications were offering a balanced and broad curriculum and raising the educational standards schools. Before the Education Reform Act of 1988, the system of education was decentralized and had little intervention from the government in curriculum implementation and planning (Department for Education, 2013). However, since the National Curriculum introduction, intervention by the government increased and the autonomy by teachers consequently decreased. Today, the British government bears the responsibility of helping each single child to achieve their potential fully, whatever their circumstances or background. It believes and trusts in professionals work, free from bureaucracy and central targets of recent years. The government supports disadvantaged children and helps them to fulfill their full potential (Kwon, 2002). The statutory early education framework is the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) which sets standard for all Early Years providers to ensure the learning and develop of children in a safe and healthy environment. It promotes learning and teaching to prepare children for school and gives them a wide broad range of skills and knowledge for the right foundation and future progress in life and school (Department for Education, 2013). There is a revised EYFS framework which was published in March 2012 and implemented from September 2012. It is part of the Government’s integral vision for young kids in the foundation years. The British government has vowed to continue reducing burdens and doing away with unnecessary paperwork and regulation which undermine the ability to promote children and protect their development (Department for Education, 2012). A new, scaled down version of the early years curriculum for children between 0-5 years has been introduced. It is focused more on making sure that children who start school are able and ready to learn. These changes were introduced by Sarah Teather being the minister for children. The new framework reduces the early learning goals number radically from 69 to 17 (Department for Education, 2012). The framework has its focus on three areas which are prime in children learning and ensuring children develop happily and healthily. These are basic foundations in which children master basic literacy skills needed for schooling. Parents also get clear information on their children performance through the new progress check entitled for two-year-olds during early education. This ensures that are picked up early (Department for Education, 2013).   This year, the British government has released ?3 million to about thirty local areas for trial payments through results in the children’s centers. These trials look at means of rewarding local centers, and authorities based on how well they support and reach vulnerable families. The new framework focuses on three prime areas, namely: emotional, personal, and social development; language and communication; and physical development (BBC, 2013). Children are assessed at the age of five, but instead of the previous complicated scale, they are judged against a total of 17 learning goals. There is a new check for two-year-olds who are in pre-school setting so as to pick up any particular educational or development needs early (Department for Education, 2012). There is a new purpose for all children centers with a focus on supporting families and school readiness. It is a requirement for all local authorities to occasionally publish data on the monies they spend on children centers so as to improve accountability (BBC, 2013). While the National Curriculum is followed in Wales and England, Scotland is in the process of implementing its own curriculum model i.e. Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). It is an educational reform with the aim of providing a more flexible and wider range of courses and subjects for young people and children aged between 3 and 18 years (The Open University, 2013). The Curriculum for Excellence focuses on the development of four key capacities, helping pupils to become; confident individuals, successful learners, effective contributors, and responsible citizens. Primary teachers have to cover a certain range of areas in the curriculum including numeracy, literacy, moral and religious education (Education Scotland, 2013). The Scottish local authorities have a duty of securing a pre-school education slot for all the 3 and 4 year-olds. Every Scottish 3 and 4 year-old is entitled to at least 475 preschool education hours per year. This depends on when the child turns three. The Curriculum for Excellence has solid foundations spanning pre-school and primary levels and is designed to meet most children needs between 3 years and the end of Primary 1. It thus promotes better progression and continuity of learning (Education Scotland, 2013). Curriculum for Excellence has four core themes, namely: experimental, active learning; holistic learning approach; smooth transitions; and learning through play (The Open University, 2013). The Scottish Curriculum for Excellence brings with it a ‘teachers of excellence’ call in delivering the current educational reforms (The Open University, 2013). All early childhood teachers are expected to be up to date with the best practices, with the Scottish Government committing to give teachers rights to a Professional Development and Review interview annually focusing on development areas and their strengths (The Scottish Government, 2011). This is the basis of a CPD annual plan which was agreed upon in collaboration with their senior school colleagues. It requires all Scottish teachers to undertake a minimum of 35 CPD hours annually, with basis on a mix of school, local authority, and personal needs (TES Magazine, 2012).   The differences in English and Scottish educational systems are relatively slight, but some are worth noting. In England, the maximum legal class size is 30 pupils per teacher for 5 to 7 year-olds (TES Magazine, 2012). In August 2011, Scotland put on a regulation which reduced the maximum statutory class size primaries down to 25 from 30 for P1 pupils who are usually aged five (The Open University, 2013). For P2 and P3, the maximum class size is still 30. The Scottish government is targeting to reduce class sizes in primaries to 18 and below for P1, P2, and P3 children. The maximum size is 33 for P4 to P7 classes. The average Scottish class size in primaries is currently 23 pupils (The Scottish Government, 2011). In the 70s, England was four years ahead compared to Scotland in ensuring that children had an entitlement to education. An act in 1970 entitled disabled pupils to be integrated in education by all means necessary (TES Magazine, 2012). This was not the case in Scotland. The mandatory nature of England and Wales National Curriculum is worrying to the majority of special education teachers. However, under the current system, exceptions are made for blind and deaf pupils (The Scottish Government, 2011). In Scotland, the current 5 to 14 year old curriculum is officially not mandatory. Its adoption is, however, close to universal in Schools under the education authority. There is pressure at local and central level to make sure those pupils doing the same 5 to 14 year curriculum. Earlier, there was concern on the more elaborated curriculum for 5 to 14 year olds with severe disabilities (The Scottish Government, 2011). In 1994, English and Welsh education systems adopted ‘the Code of Practice’ which is a set of the required standards albeit with an ‘advisory status only’ for those with SEN services. Scotland in the other hand has no Code, even though EPSEN performs similar functions. The major difference between the Code of Practice and EPSEN is in the nature of the Code of Practice which roots in the Welsh and English Education Act of 1993 (The Open University, 2013). To conclude, in the United Kingdom early childhood education is child centered in which contrasts with some approaches which are subject and teacher direction centered. Since its inception, early childhood education in England, Wales, and Scotland has been emphasizing on children's interests, integrated learning, firsthand experience, and free play. The national current preschool curriculum and framework emphasizes on integrated learning numeracy and literacy. It also specifies certain achievements expected of 3 to 5 year old children. Despite the positives and negatives of the framework’s appropriateness, more formal instructions numeracy and literacy teaching are being directly and indirectly applied in young children. Bibliography BBC, 2013, The National Curriculum and Key Stages in England, [Online] (Updated, 2013), Available from: Accessed 16th April. 2013]. BBC, 2013, Q&A: Changes to the teaching of key subjects, [Online] (Updated, 2013), Available from: [Accessed 17th April. 2013]. Department for Education, 2013, Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), [Online] (Updated, 12th April. 2013), Available from: [Accessed 17th April. 2013]. Department for Education, 2012, Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, [Online] (Updated, 21st Sep. 2012), Available from: [Accessed 17th April. 2013]. 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