Closing the Literacy Gap with Early Years Music

Auditory skills are crucial to the development of literacy in young children. Sue Newman shows how a new training programme is showing parents and teachers how to bring music to every day activities for vulnerable young people.

The latest neuroscience research is revealing the power of early years music making to strengthen children’s auditory processing system which in turn strengthens foundations for literacy. Could training for practitioners and parents of children in early years contribute to closing the school-ready literacy gap? Let’s consider the evidence.

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      string(6080) "ResourceTHE EARLY YEARS: FOUNDATIONS FOR LIFE, HEALTH AND LEARNINGOriginal DocumentThe Early Years: Foundations For Life, Health And Learning. This independent report on the Early Years Foundation Stage by Dame Clare Tickell recommends that the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is radically slimmed down to make it easier to understand, less burdensome and more focused on making sure children start school ready to learn.KeywordsEarly Years Foundation Stage, recommendations, framework, children, providersSummaryThis independent report on the Early Years Foundation Stage by Dame Clare Tickell recommends that the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is radically slimmed down to make it easier to understand, less burdensome and more focused on making sure children start school ready to learn.Setting out her recommendations, Dame Clare says that while parents and early years professionals agree that the EYFS has had a positive impact on children’s outcomes and helped to raise standards, in its current form there is far too much time spent filling in forms and not enough interacting with children. She says the EYFS needs to be simplified and made even more accessible for parents and practitioners.The current EYFS has 6 areas of learning and 69 learning goals. These goals are used to monitor children’s progress while they are in pre-school. At the age of 5 they are assessed against these goals, on a 117 point scale, as part of the EYFS profile.Main Findings:· There should continue to be a framework that applies to all providers working with children in the early years.· The Government should consider whether the exemptions process should be extended to organisations acting on behalf of groups of independent schools where they are willing and able to ensure the delivery of high quality provision in the schools that they represent.· The EYFS calls for practitioners to work in partnership with parents and carers. a greater emphasis should be given in the EYFS to the role of parents and carers as partners in their children’s learning. To improve the accessibility of the framework for parents and practitioners, it is recommended that for any revised EYFS and guidance, the Government seek a plain English crystal mark.· A high-quality and interactive online version of the revised EYFS should be developed.· The introduction of a requirement for practitioners to provide to parents and carers, a short summary of their child’s communication and language, personal, social and emotional, and physical development between the age of 24-36 months.· Evidence shows that personal, social and emotional development, communication and language and physical development are essential foundations for children’s life, learning and success. It is therefore recommended that these are identified as prime areas of learning in the EYFS.· Literacy, mathematics, an understanding of the world, and expressive arts and design are identified as the specific areas of learning in which prime skills should be applied.· Early learning goals should be reduced in number from 69 to 17. For each goal, a simple three-part scale should be established which sets out what working towards, what achieving, and what exceeding each goal looks like.· The current formal assessment of children’s level of development at age 5 – the EYFS Profile – should be radically simplified, and reduced in size from 117 pieces of information to 20 pieces of information that capture a child’s level of development in a much less burdensome way.· Keeping children safe is a non-negotiable element of any early years framework. The EYFS is comprehensive in its requirements on safety and welfare, but these could be made clearer and more succinct. The relevant section should be redrafted to improve clarity and remove repetition.· More could be done to raise awareness of child protection within early years settings, and so this should be made clear in child protection training.· To reduce the burden that paperwork introduces, practitioners should not have to undertake written risk assessments when they take children out, but instead be able to demonstrate, if asked, the ways that they are managing outings to minimise risk.· The importance of a strong, well-qualified early years workforce was a consistent theme throughout the review. There should continue to be a level 3 and a graduate ambition, and more should be done to make the early years an attractive career option for more people, with a clear route of career progression. To help with this, a new professional qualification should be introduced that robustly combines practical experience with the development of expert knowledge.· Ofsted and local authorities should work together to produce clear, consistent advice on the things that early years settings have to do, and not create unnecessary burdens by asking for things that are not specified in the EYFS.ActionRecommendations:· Significantly reducing the number of early learning goals children are assessed against at age five from 69 to 17.· Parents to get a summary of their child’s development, alongside the health visitor check at age two, to help identify any early problems or special educational needs.· A new focus on three prime areas which are the foundations for children’s ability to learn and develop healthily: personal, social and emotional development; communication and language; and physical development.· Beneath these should be four areas of learning where these skills are applied: literacy, mathematics, expressive arts"
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Leadership

The Early Years: Foundations For Life, Health And Learning

31 Mar 2011

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      string(6110) "According to practitioners, using technology can support the early literacy development of pre-school children, including those children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).More than half (55.1 per cent) of the early years practitioners who took part in the National Literacy Trust’s third annual early years literacy survey said that sharing stories on touchscreens can particularly help children with SEND to develop their early language, literacy and communication.1 However, the research shows that although access to technology has increased in nurseries, children’s centres and playgroups from 41.4 per cent in 2014 to 58.2 per cent in 2015, fewer early years practitioners say they use technology to look at or read stories with children (40.8 per cent in 2015 compared to 49.1 per cent in 2014). 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Almost all parents (97 per cent) who took part in our survey told us that their children had access to a device at home, with more than a third (38 per cent) of mums and dads using it to look at or read stories with their children during a typical week. It is worth noting that children from disadvantaged backgrounds use touchscreens to read more often each week than their peers, although they read printed stories less frequently.Although technology alone does not make a difference to children’s learning, and is no substitute for adult interaction, touchscreens can play an important role in supporting early communication, language and literacy by offering new opportunities. Alongside books, the interactive nature and sensory stimulation of technology can help young children to learn in new ways. This needs careful planning by early years practitioners to achieve specific learning goals. Our research found that using technology can be particularly beneficial for developing the early literacy skills of certain groups of children, including boys and those with SEND.  So, how can we ensure that technology is used well, by confident practitioners and busy parents, to support those children who need it the most?How to use itTechnology is best used with the support of adults, who can introduce new words to expand a child’s vocabulary, or explain what is going on when using tablets or smartphones. We have developed a range of different tools for early years practitioners to help link technological play with early communication, language and literacy development. On the National Literacy Trust Network, practitioners can find guidance on observing children when using touchscreens, which can be used alongside digital planning templates and activity sheets, all of which link to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum. We have produced video case studies with Harrington Day Nursery Teaching School in Derby, which show how the school uses technology to support children’s literacy and engage parents. We have also created an online app guide, literacyapps.org, to help parents choose the age-appropriate apps that can help their children learn language and communication skills. There is also a video for mums and dads with tips on using technology with their pre-schoolers.These resources were created as part of our Helping Early Language and Literacy Outcomes (HELLO) project. Funded by the Department for Education, it aimed to improve quality and choice in early years provision in disadvantaged areas by focusing on communication, language and literacy provision in three areas of nursery work; practitioners’ skills, the setting, and parental engagement. HELLO worked with 70 nurseries in partnership with Middlesbrough Council, Reading Borough Council and five nursery teaching schools. The lessons they learned during the programme, which started in September 2015 and concluded in June 2016, are shared on the National Literacy Trust’s website. The early years are crucial for every child’s language and literacy development. Across the UK, up to 40 per cent of children start school without the language skills they need to learn and progress.  The Read On. Get On. coalition, which includes the National Literacy Trust, published a report called Ready to Read, which found that the vocabulary of children from the poorest families is, on average, 15 months behind their peers when they start school.2 Technology has the potential to help to narrow this gap. Emerging studies have shown that technology can increase pre-schoolers’ knowledge of the alphabet and aid their first attempts at writing. However, it is important to use touchscreens as another tool for teaching, with close supervision from teachers and parents to help children"
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Adaptive Technology

Using technology to support early literacy development

28 Oct 2016

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      string(5790) "The current EYFS supports a play-based pedagogic approach and advocates the centrality of the Characteristics of Effective Learning (CoEL) which are fundamental to the development of every child as a lifelong learner. It acknowledges that it is an early years practitioner’s responsibility to support the development of these skills during the crucial formative years from birth to five. Research has shown that it is these skills that make a difference to children’s long-term outcomes and to their ability to become happy, resourceful and resilient adults. The Characteristics of Effective Learning and the Prime and Specific Areas of Learning and Development are all interconnected. The Characteristics focus on how children learn rather than what they learn. This distinction is important as it highlights the process of learning for young children. To these aspects of development we would add Emotional Wellbeing as providing a bedrock for a child’s healthy progress. The CoEL include:Playing and Exploring (engagement) Active Learning (motivation) Creativity and Critical Thinking (thinking) However, increasingly as children move towards Year 1, other more formal and outcome-based pedagogic approaches are becoming evident, as pressures mount to ensure children are school ready and to secure more congruence between Year 1 and Reception Year practice. The recent Ofsted Report, ‘Bold Beginnings’ (Ofsted, 2017), exemplifies this drift towards formalisation and further undermines the EYFS statutory guidance for teaching and learning in Reception classes. This shift in practice away from that recommended in the EYFS can include the introduction of a systematic programme for phonics teaching and the delivery of the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies in the Reception year. However, recent evidence on the value of play-based, more relational approaches for children from 3-6 years in securing long-term outcomes in all areas of learning may be challenging this current direction of travel. Emerging developmental evidence reveals that an ‘earlier is better’, more formal, didactic approach may be misguided and will not make a difference in the long term. In contrast to the focus on early, didactic instruction, current research into early emotional and cognitive development suggests that long-term well-being and success at school may be more dependent on children developing executive functioning and self-regulation abilities, and exercising autonomy in their learning. The evidence sharply indicates that play and participatory approaches should be seen as key vehicles for learning throughout the early years. We wish to particularly draw attention to a key element of the CoEL, Creativity and Critical Thinking, and highlight its centrality in the debate about what constitutes an effective curriculum and pedagogy for children throughout the Foundation Stage. Key concepts in this debate are 1. Creativity and 2. Deep Level Learning. 1. CreativityThere is often confusion about what creativity is and, in pedagogic terms, we believe this concept should be seen not just through an arts or cultural focus but to be viewed as a much wider learning disposition. We are promoting a more democratic, inclusive definition of creativity which focuses on: “Imaginative activity fashioned so as to produce something (process or outcome) which is both original and of value” (Pascal and Bertram, 2017). We feel that this definition could be applied to the whole range of learning areas and affordances for learning and also embraces a wide range of cognitive, emotional and social/relational processes.2. Deep Level LearningThe EYFS aims to support and extend the learning capacity of young children in a holistic way and so that the children would be transformed as learners. This requires an understanding of learning as a process which is deep, long-term and multi-faceted rather than superficial, fast and short-term. We take as a starting point the work of Csikszentmihayli, who stated that, ‘…to have a good life, it is not enough to remove what is wrong from it.  We also need a positive goal, otherwise why keep going? Creativity is one answer to that question:  It provides one of the most exciting models for living…if the next generation is to face the future with zest and self-confidence, we must educate them to be original as well as competent.’ (Csikszentmihayli, 1997, p.11)We see this creativity as linked to the ‘state of flow’ (Csikszentmihayli, 1997) or Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) (Vygotsky, 1978). These ideas help practitioners to identify when the child’s mind is at the optimal state for development and learning. This approach sees creativity as vital for deep level learning and securing high levels of involvement in learning experiences (Laevers, 2007). The focus on creativity and critical thinking as central elements in early years learning leads us towards certain pedagogic approaches that foreground these, including: Play-based PedagogiesChild Initiated PedagogiesRelational PedagogiesParticipatory PedagogiesThe increasing debate about the importance of skills such as motivation, perseverance and self-control in long-term attainment have led to growing attention from policy makers on how such skills can be developed in children and young people. Furthermore, the evidence is suggesting that investing in the development of these outcomes would yield high returns in future educational and employment"
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Early Years

Bold Beginnings …Down The Wrong Path

17 Apr 2018

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      string(5864) "56Vol 8.2School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPrimaryFileEarlyyearsmathsChildren in England are stillstarting their primary educationwith considerable differencesin their maths skills and thosedifferences continue right throughtheir education. Liz Bayramexplores how achieving a strongmaths foundation in a child’s earlyyears can make all the difference.Catching up onmaths in earlyyearsAll registered childcare settings in England– nurseries, childminders, nursery schools;pre-schools and childcare on domesticpremises – are expected to deliver the EarlyYears Foundation Stage framework with a clear focuson supporting children’s numeracy and enjoyment ofmaths from a very early age. The word in enjoymentis key to the approach early years takes in supportingour youngest children to have fun whilst growing theirunderstanding and confidence in numbers.The EYFS states “mathematics involves providingchildren with opportunities to develop and improve theirskills in counting, understanding and using numbers,calculating simple addition and substraction problems andto describe shapes, spaces and measures”1The EYFS is not as prescriptive a curriculum asthe national curriculum. Its focus is on setting out57Vol 8.2School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPrimaryFileEarlyyearsmathsthe developmental stages a child should achieve over the first five years of their lifeand how an early years practitioner can best support that development. There is astrong focus on practitioners knowing each child in their care – through observation,assessment and partnership with their parents/carer – and using this knowledge totailor the learning opportunities to that child, building on the activities they like to do,planning next steps and regularly observing progress so it can be built upon.Numeracy and literacy are core components of the EYFS but valued equally withother physical, social and emotional areas of development. This demands an integratedand personalised approach to planning a child’s development, building on what theylike to do and ensuring that every activity is an opportunity to explore numbers as wellas many other things. Anyone who knows a two year old will understand how critical itis to support them to learn and develop in their own style. If Lucy is a constructor andlikes building ‘stuff’ and knocking it down; then the early years practitioner will ensurethrough this activity Lucy also gets to explore numbers; ideally colours, size and shapetoo – all while she is still having fun building her tower and knocking it down again.Numeracy in the early years is so much more than just counting and numberrecognition, something that can surprise many parents as well as some new to theprofession. It’s also about shape, pattern, space, measurements and solving real-lifeproblems. All practitioners know that babies are competent learners from birth. At theheart of the EYFS is the assumption that pre-school early education should enablechildren to explore a wide range of concepts to support them to gain the foundationsthey need to be ready to learn when they start school.One of the key challenges facing the early years sector is that many of thepractitioners who enter the profession can do so with a lack of confidence in theirown numeracy. Indeed the sector has recently been in a long and heated debatewith government on the relative importance of practitioner literacy and numeracy indelivering high quality learning to children. Until April, the Department for Educationhad stated that no practitioner could count in the child/adult ratio in a group settingunless they were qualified to Level 3 and held Maths and English GCSE grade Cor above. The focus behind this requirement was a wish to ensure high qualitypractitioners, confident in their literacy and numeracy, were teaching our youngestchildren. This was something the early years sector as a whole had supported whenProfessor Cathy Nutbrown2 recommended this as part of her wider proposals onworkforce reform. The challenge however was in how then Ministers interpreted thisrequirement as being narrowly measured by only a GCSE grade C. This contradictedwhat the sector had asked for – GCSEs and/or equivalent functional skills qualifications.58Vol 8.2School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPrimaryFileEarlyyearsmaths As a result, the decision has negatively impacted on quality, with less and less youngpeople choosing to undertake a career in childcare because they did not have therequired GCSE grades and a number of well qualified Level 2 practitioners unable toprogress to Level 3 because – as working adults – they would have to go back to studyfor their GCSEs. In summary, the attainment gap that so many people in early years areworking to address, was coming full circle back to prevent many settings from beingable to employ the staff they need to deliver high quality care!After much debate, the DfE in March finally announced it would change therequirement to allow individuals with a function skills grade 2 qualification toundertake the recognised Early Years Educator Level 3 qualification, thereby allowingfar more people the opportunity to study and progress3. PACEY had repeatedly calledfor this change so is delighted action has now been taken. We believe it strikes the rightbalance between ensuring individuals can enter the profession and be supported toprogress, with the need to ensure practitioners are confident in their own numeracyand literacy, something many have traditionally found hard at school. Until the day oureducation"
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Inclusion

Catching up on maths in early years

16 Apr 2018

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