'Can't' rather than 'can do'?

Like many others we are concerned about the recently released national EYFS profile data which shows that 52 per cent of children reached a ‘good level of development’ in June 2013. However, in the face of a predictable chorus of those who hold up their hands in horror and/or blame children, parents or practitioners, there are two important facts that need to be considered.

1.  The Early Learning Goal posts have been moved

The Early Learning Goals as statutory items are not based in professional research or validated samples of what children can do, or indeed what it is most important to their future learning for them to be able to do.  Instead the ELGs have grown out of a political process, with a history of being passed down and evolving from earlier versions. This time some key  ELGs have been made more stringent in terms of academic attainment.  Children are now ‘expected’ to understand and use numbers at a level previously described as beyond the EYFS and into Key Stage One. This move was made against the counsels of early years educators and early years mathematics experts.  Under the previous Reading and Writing goals children could meet the ‘expected’ standard without actually being able to read or write sentences, but now they are expected to perform at that higher level.   Again this move was made by the DfE against the advice of those who know about literacy development.