Renewed call for early years curriculum to be extended up to seven

A petition calling for the EYFS to be extended up to the age of seven has been re-launched in response to the pandemic.

Originally started in 2016, it has received 43,000 signatures, and has gathered nearly 1,000 more since it was re-launched on Monday (13 April).

The petition calls for a rethink in education in school with a developmentally appropriate early years curriculum for all children extended up to Key Stage 1 (KS1), saying that the current EYFS already offers this.

Government plans to reform the EYFS should be brought to a halt, it says, and the Department for Education should reflect and act on the sector’s consultation response and the early years sector's coalition Getting it right in the Early Years Foundation Stage literature review.

It also calls for an end to the Reception Baseline, phonics screening check, and SATs.

The petition states, ‘Now is the time to stop pushing the flawed and inappropriate KS1 curriculum into our Reception classes and instead time to push up a curriculum that is tried, tested and proven. 

‘This will be the curriculum our children need - beginning with a nationwide transitional period when we reopen our doors to all children. A chance to say goodbye [to] the teacher they left so suddenly in March 2020 before moving on to a new class/setting with a focus in relationships, play and mental health and well being. 

‘We can have a 0-7 curriculum with relationships, environments, play, learning and child development at its core. The early years of life do not end at age 4 or 5. They end at 7 or 8, and that is the age when learning should become more formal and abstract. This is when most children are developmentally ready for such approaches. This is why most of the world's children start formal schooling at 6 or 7 years old. Not before.’

Keeping Early Years Unique (KEYU) co-founder Elaine Bennett, who started the petition, said that its signatories had continued to grow steadily over the years, but that in light of the current pandemic the campaign was more important than ever.

Ms Bennett told Nursery World, ‘When our children eventually return to settings and schools, they are going to need a very different curriculum in this new world. One with well-being at the core. Play has a key role in this!’

‘As a NNEB qualified nursery nurse, I was taught that the early years refers to birth to seven. Children need play. They need an education that is centred around their development.

‘We all need to be brave and demand a developmentally appropriate curriculum for every child up to the age of seven. Children will be  going into Year 1 with possibly only a few months spent in Reception - they are going to need a Year 1 experience rooted in early years principles and pedagogy. The same could also be said for Year 2.’

‘If there’s ever been a time to stand up, be brave and be the change our children so desperately need, it’s now.’

The petition also calls for:

• Recognition that children will not be behind and do not need catching up. They have lived through the biggest crisis in our living memory and need a different educational experience. 
• Build a curriculum based on child development, international evidence, the work of early years pioneers and their contemporaries, from birth to seven.
• Put mental health, play, child development, well-being and relationships at the heart of the curriculum. 
• Work transparently across political parties, across nations and across the sector with practitioners, academics, organisations and communities to build a transformational curriculum for all children 0-7.

The petition is available here