Opinion: Editor's view - Big changes in education are nearly going overlooked
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Gordon Brown probably didn't anticipate that the press overdrive on the untimely death of Michael Jackson would coincide with the release of the Government's Building Britain's Future document and the draft legislative programme that includes a schools White Paper.
And so the extent of the U-turn on the centralised, target-driven approach that has marked Labour's years in power may not be pored over quite as much as it would otherwise be in the absence of a pop star's tragic end.
As Nursery World went to press, the schools White Paper was still to appear, but plans to scrap National Strategies had been confirmed. Central oversight of literacy and numeracy hours is to cease from 2011, with schools gaining more freedom to use the teaching methods they prefer, with local support.
The implications for early years were not clear, though they may be more so by the time you read this. In theory, the removal of prescriptive, central control of literacy and numeracy approaches should lessen the top-down pressure on early years classes and settings.
However, we need to know what will happen in terms of compulsory phonics, enforced at huge expense in the face of much opposition from early years experts, and to the associated early learning goals in the Early Years Foundation Stage that nearly everyone agrees are inappropriate for five-year-olds.
And will the outcomes duty placed on local authorities, with targets for each area for the EYFS Profile results, be removed? It is this that is hampering best practice most of all. There is an opportunity here for a decentralised approach to meet local needs - let's hope it will be seized.
