The programme of reforms with which the Government has transformed the educational landscape of the country is entering the final phase with the launch of a project focusing on the under-threes.
Lifelong learning, from the cradle to the grave, has become the mantra of ministers who want to create a highly skilled and competitive workforce of self-reliant citizens able to access education and training so they can fulfil their potential.
It is never too soon to start, as learning can begin at birth. The Government's Green Paper, Schools - Building on Success, published last March cites research showing that children are eager and highly capable learners between birth and three.
To make the most of this phase of childhood, Professor Lesley Abbott of the Institute of Education, Manchester Metropolitan University has been seconded to the Department for Education and Skills to develop a 'framework of effective practice for support-ing children from nought to three'.
This project, which started in September and runs until August next year, has been welcomed by early years professionals, practitioners and parents. But concerns have been expressed that New Labour, which is so keen on setting goals, will be tempted to set 'targets for toddlers'.
Both the DfES and Professor Abbot want to allay these fears. A DfES spokeswoman says of the framework, 'It is important to stress that we are not talking about a curriculum for nought to threes.'
And Professor Abbott adds, 'We wouldn't want it to be seen as a curriculum for the under-threes.' She and her team are running an exhaustive consultation exercise discovering what early years people do not want to see in the framework as well as what they want it to include. (See Nursery World, 8 November, page 6).
In the first two months they conducted more than 100 interviews, met focus groups incorporating policy makers, healthcare workers, Sure Start representatives, childminders, playgroup leaders and partnership members, talked with parents' groups and started processing hundreds of questionnaires which have been completed by early years campaigners from across the country and as far afield as Australia.
Massive response
'We have had a massive response which is great,' says Professor Abbott. We are now collating all that data and beginning to think what this framework should look like. We hope to be trialling it at the beginning of the summer term. We are also doing a literature search. Alongside the frame-work, the DfES has also asked us to review the literature most relevant to the framework. So we are currently looking at the research, for example brain studies and cognitive psychology.
'The framework will give people something to guide their practice. One of the things that is clearly coming out of the consultation is that people really do not want to see headings that smack of national curriculum subjects or find the same kind of headings for the areas of experience that are in the Foundation Stage.'
The framework will support practitioners working with children from nought to three. It will also recognise the importance of the relationship between the very young child and its parents as first educators and will support parents through Sure Start and Home Start initiatives.
Joan Norris, director of High Scope UK, which provides early years training, publications and consultancy, says it is important for practitioners to understand the developmental and learning processes of very young children so they can offer activities and routines which suit the developmental needs of individual children.
'The brain is extremely pliable and plastic at this stage and children need the opportunity to work things out, to make their own observations and form their own understanding of the world,' says Joan Norris.
Early years consultant and author Jennie Lindon stresses, 'We do not want to see targets for toddlers. Without guidance there is a risk that people working in nurseries and other settings may treat very young children as if they were the same as four-and five-year-olds, only littler. They are not. These very young children are at a stage of their development which needs to be valued. We need to provide appropriate activities which support their learning.'
She complains that adults tend to chop up early childhood into care and education, viewing time spent on care as unproductive while trying to maximise the time spent on education, whereas all time spent with the very young creates learning opportunities.
Professor Abbott says that while respondents have said no to the inclusion in the framework of anything too formal or prescriptive, 'People want to see something that recognises the holistic nature of young children's learning and development.'
She acknowledges that there are already frameworks in place for this age group in some parts of the country and through Sure Start programmes there are some innovative projects working with very young children and their families.
Pat Wharton, early childhood curriculum officer with Stirling Council and author of Guidelines for an early years curriculum - children under three, launched earlier this month, deliberately used the 'C' word.
'The word "curriculum" has been hijacked by education,' she says. 'It actually means everything we have, but people think of it in terms of a school curriculum. I think we have to use serious language when we are talking about this most important age. We know the years nought to five see the fastest growth in the human condition.
'We were not required to do this by the Scottish Executive. We recognised that when you think about the way the learning process starts, and we know there have been studies that found children in the womb are learning, then we need to be supporting children from birth.'
The guidelines set five aims for children aged nought to three to develop:
* physically, emotionally, spiritually
* warm interpersonal relationships
* a sense of belonging
* effective means of communication
* strategies for learning.
The Government's flagship Sure Start programme aims to promote social inclusion through giving very young children a positive start in life. In England it is targeted at the most deprived areas while all local authorities in Scotland qualify for funding under Sure Start and allocate it according to local needs.
In Stirling, for instance, the money has been used to create extra early years provision, while in Edinburgh more than 1,600 families have participated in schemes based on locality as well as need, such as a project on post-natal depression, courses on parenting skills for very young parents, and assistance for families with very young autistic children.
In Walsall, West Midlands, innovative approaches to family support have been developed through Sure Start. For example, there is a Bag a Book Club where a book and toy are loaned out at the weekly shoppers' creche. Another scheme has made a video using a character called Flip the bear to help carers and parents work with children tackling emotional issues such as separation and loneliness.
Project PEEP
One of the most highly regarded projects working with very young children is the Oxford-based Peers Early Education Partnership (PEEP). It aims to improve the life chances of children in disadvantaged areas by raising educational attainment through supporting parents and carers in their role as first educators.
PEEP national director Rosie Roberts argues that the under-threes framework should be aimed at parents and practitioners alike and that they should be able to access the type of support offered by Sure Start projects.
'Parents and carers of the under-threes have one of the most important roles in our society, by any definition. They are practically without support. Nearly four-fifths of children up to their third birthday are not connected with any sort of service delivery in the mainstream except via health visitors who do an enormous job but can only do it in a limited way.
'Sure Start is terrific but it only helps a small percentage of children in the UK. Obviously, I understand it had to start somewhere but if parents could have that appropriate level of support - no matter what their background was, their economic status, or where they lived - it would change the landscape of education.' NW
