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. 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Leadership

The Early Years: Foundations For Life, Health And Learning

31 Mar 2011

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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. 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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. 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  }
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Special Needs

Catching up on maths in early years

16 Apr 2018

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      string(5982) "All registered childcare settings in England – nurseries, childminders, nursery schools; pre-schools and childcare on domestic premises – are expected to deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage framework with a clear focus on supporting children’s numeracy and enjoyment of maths from a very early age. The word in enjoyment is key to the approach early years takes in supporting our youngest children to have fun whilst growing their understanding and confidence in numbers.The EYFS states “mathematics involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems and to describe shapes, spaces and measures”1The EYFS  is not as prescriptive a curriculum as the national curriculum. Its focus is on setting out the developmental stages a child should achieve over the first five years of their life and how an early years practitioner can best support that development. There is a strong focus on practitioners knowing each child in their care – through observation, assessment and partnership with their parents/carer – and using this knowledge to tailor 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 with other physical, social and emotional areas of development. This demands an integrated and personalised approach to planning a child’s development, building on what they like to do and ensuring that every activity is an opportunity to explore  numbers as well as many other things. Anyone who knows a two year old will understand how critical it is to support them to learn and develop in their own style. If Lucy is a constructor and likes building ‘stuff’ and knocking it down; then the early years practitioner will ensure through this activity Lucy also gets to explore numbers; ideally colours, size and shape too – 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 number recognition, something that can surprise many parents as well as some new to the profession. It’s also about shape, pattern, space, measurements and solving real-life problems. All practitioners know that babies are competent learners from birth. At the heart of the EYFS is the assumption that pre-school early education should enable children to explore a wide range of concepts to support them to gain the foundations they need to be ready to learn when they start school.One of the key challenges facing the early years sector is that many of the practitioners who enter the profession can do so with a lack of confidence in their own numeracy. Indeed the sector has recently been in a long and heated debate with government on the relative importance of practitioner literacy and numeracy in delivering high quality learning to children. Until April, the Department for Education had stated that no practitioner could count in the child/adult ratio in a group setting unless they were qualified to Level 3 and held Maths and English GCSE grade C or above. The focus behind this requirement was a wish to ensure high quality practitioners, confident in their literacy and numeracy, were teaching our youngest children. This was something the early years sector as a whole had supported when Professor Cathy Nutbrown2 recommended this as part of her wider proposals on workforce reform. The challenge however was in how then Ministers interpreted this requirement as being narrowly measured by only a GCSE grade C. This contradicted what the sector had asked for – GCSEs and/or equivalent functional skills qualifications. As a result, the decision has negatively impacted on quality, with less and less young people choosing to undertake a career in childcare because they did not have the required GCSE grades and a number of well qualified Level 2 practitioners unable to progress to Level 3 because – as working adults – they would have to go back to study for their GCSEs.  In summary, the attainment gap that so many people in early years are working to address, was coming full circle back to prevent many settings from being able to employ the staff they need to deliver high quality care!After much debate, the DfE in March finally announced it would change the requirement to allow individuals with a function skills grade 2 qualification to undertake the recognised Early Years Educator Level 3 qualification, thereby allowing far more people the opportunity to study and progress3. PACEY had repeatedly called for this change so is delighted action has now been taken. We believe it strikes the right balance between ensuring individuals can enter the profession and be supported to progress, with the need to ensure practitioners are confident in their own numeracy and literacy, something many have traditionally found hard at school. Until the day our education system achieves its goal of young people leaving school with at least a GCSE grade C in Maths and English, this is the right balance for early years to take.Working with FEA, PACEY collaborated with a number of organisations to identify early years best practice around closing the attainment gap in mathematics. The research4 showed there were some strong common tenets across all settings that were succeeding in their work with disadvantaged children. It started with"
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Early Years

Mathematics in the early years

20 Jun 2017