Implementation of the Early Years Foundation Stage - Report Example

A Critical Reflection on the Implementation of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) State Date of submission: Children deserve a best beginning in life together with appropriate support for their potential. Whatever a child experiences during his or her early ages will forever have an impact on the future life. Thus, a happy, secure and safe childhood for every child is extremely vital since it provides the base for under which they can exercise and explore their talents and capabilities as they grow into mature people. Therefore, Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) can be referred to as a framework which provides assurance for children’s safe, secure and a happy childhood for the sake of their talents and capabilities as the grow. The chief aim of this framework is to assist children achieve the basic aspects in every child’s life; safety, healthy living, achieving and enjoying through their talents, contributing positively to the society, promoting equality in opportunities, creation of partnership frameworks, improving consistency, quality and laying secure and stable future learning foundation. The Early Years Foundation Stage can be divided into several learning sections. These sections include Emotional, personal and social development; Language, communication and literacy; Numeracy and Reasoning; Problem solving; Understanding of the World’s knowledge; creative development and physical development. Thus, the curriculum that supports EYFS is widely affected by perspectives in development that acknowledge various effects of culture in a given nation. Moreover, it tends to put emphasis on holistic development of children by attempting to explicitly embrace care, education and welfare. Precisely, this framework articulates early goals in learning, how they can be assessed an achieved. A number of governments for different nations have documented the principles of EYFS. For instance, England published its document about EYFS on 13th March, 2007. However, the document has been in use from September 2008. This document work as a regulatory framework for all children since birth to the age of 5 years when they start attending school and it ensures recognized standards that should be fulfilled by very education providers. In addition, these principles incorporate at least three government agendas which are extremely influential. The agendas include “Birth to Three Matters (2002)”, “National Standards for Under 8s Daycare and Child-minding (2003)” and “Curriculum Guidance for Foundation Stage (2000)”. Early Years Foundation Stage revolves around a number of themes which are accompanied by specific principles. These themes are four in number: 1. Positive Relationships:- The strength of children is determined by secure and loving relationships 2. Learning and development:- Children learn in various ways regardless due to the interconnectedness of the EYFS curriculum 3. Unique children:- All the children have the capacity and potential of becoming confident learners 4. Enabling Environments:- An environment which supports children increases their possibility and ability to develop. Early Years Foundation Stage entails one significant feature which makes it to be a framework that can be integrated and terminate the distinction that exists between care and education. Furthermore, this framework does not support the case of some activities that go around the lives of children such as day care. Instead, it basically deals with pastoral care and schools which are concentrating on education of children. Researchers suggest that holistic approach is the only way to satisfy the needs of children; it is the only preferable approach which place children’s learning and development in the broader context of their wellbeing and welfare. Since the Early Years Foundation Strategy applies to children between birth and the age of five, learning institutions ought to continue with building on the experiences children had in the previous years and settings. Children may not re-locate from one school to another but the transition, according to the curricular framework, should be applied in different settings. According to Riggall & Sharp (2008), Early Years Foundation has one key feature which is the principle of the framework being developmental. Apart from offering a set learning targets and objectives, EYFS is intended to give a continuum of development which acknowledges the idea that children are ever unique and they might not develop in a similar manner or rather at the same rate. As much as children might be at different levels or points along developmental lines, the Early Years Foundation Strategy only reflects what can be deemed as average expectations. Furthermore, this framework provides a number of different stages that indicate the level of development; everything that a child achieves in a given time frame. Thus, EYFS can be designed to be children-centered development framework that may be used to attain all the needs of children in a care setting. However, when to implementation of this framework, not all education providers have an easy time due to variation in quality. Te Whariki’s early year’s curriculum was first used in the year 1990 in New Zealand. This was a year when this nation underwent major transformation economically, politically and socially after years of advocacy for changes in political priorities. So far, this is the first among the bicultural curriculum that has ever embraced the perspectives of the Maori indigenous people. Moreover, it has reflected the voices of negotiation for the government, families and professionals alongside their interest and priorities. Furthermore, Te Whariki curriculum offers a flexible and a non-prescriptive structure which emphasizes both the context and the processes of learning and give teachers a chance to be flexible and weave their own curriculum patterns by considering the perspectives of children, their communities and their families. This can only be best implemented through the learning stories that documents dispositions of children alongside their associated actions and behaviors. Learning through stories captures the learning progress of children and thus enable the teachers to reflect on every child’s training and give reliable feedback. Additionally, learning through sharing of stories with children and family assists in building the relationships between teachers, children and the families of children. Te Whariki curriculum is deemed to have reflected the worldview of children as being tomorrow’s citizens as it ensures their belonging to a local or global culture. Any citizen who is deeply connected with his or her roots or culture has a sense of identity, connectedness and belonging. Therefore, this curriculum really encourages children to maintain their culture and identity that makes them become loyal citizens as they will depict aspects of self-reliance, ability to work and live outside the communities. Such children are referred to as local or global children, children who can find their way across and over obstacles in several environments as they feel grounded in their sense of belonging as long as they are members of a given community. These are the same children who will have the ability to take part in global matters and the roots to sustain their sense of individuality. Therefore, the key aspirations and aims of children’s curriculum are to develop a competent, confident and an all-round learner, who can effectively communicate. In addition, it molds a learner with a healthy mind and body, one who is secure in the sense of belonging and knowledge that makes them contribute valuably to the society. As if that is not enough, its four principles which are empowerment, relationships, community and family and holistic development are linked to the children’s well-being, sense of belonging, their contribution to the society and their communication which reflects the human beings’ nature of inter-dependence. The Te Whariki curriculum framework in New Zealand defines itself as the sum of activities, experiences and events which are either direct or indirect and occur in an environment which is specifically meant to foster a child’s development and learning. This mostly applies in cases of early childhood care and education even though sometimes it might be vital for to recognize that some kind of learning will go on whether an learning environment is designed or not. Early Years Foundation Stage is as a result of the United Kingdom’s response of the government to the dynamic needs of its citizens that come with globalization trends. Through the 2006’s Childcare Act, the Early Years Foundation Strategy has been granted a legal framework that allows it to develop, operate and support the already established EYFS through implementation. EYFS use and advanced technology in aiding education and facilitating learning as a result of holistic integrated perspective in development of children. Similarly, Te Whariki curriculum is a New Zealand’s way of offering integrated and holistic education foundation to young children alongside mechanisms that involve the entire community in shaping the children’s characters. Moreover, it uses New Zealand’s indigenous cultural knowledge and practices as the sole integrated section of the curriculum. Thus, Te Whariki curriculum and EYFS are similar in every aspect as they have adequate financial and policy support from the communities and from the government; with one major objective which is to create an all-round and well-developed people in the society. The early years of a child are critical. As much as parents and professional second that EYFS has a significant impact on a child’ development since it assists in raising their standards, a lot of time is spent in filling forms and thus lack sufficient interaction among teachers and children. Therefore, EYFS ought to be made accessible to both practitioners and parents in a relatively simplified form. Just immediately after a stable and loving home environment, a quality education for young children is a crucial factor in their development. EYFS has clearly assisted to improve the outcomes in children’s development and thus making it popular with both professional and parents who fully support the framework that enables them to understand development of children. However, this is far from being perfect since the current Early Years Foundation Stage seems to be cumbersome, unnecessarily bureaucratic and repetitive. Moreover, the framework seems not to do much when it comes to engaging parents in development of their children or rather making sure that children start school with basic skills required for early learning. Read More