To the point: Let's get on with it
Nancy Stewart, principal consultant with Early Learning Consultancy
Friday, April 13, 2012
The revised EYFS has now been pored over and has met with both approval and alarm. Of course, people have their own basic outlook towards any sort of change - some of us look forward to the stimulation of something new, while others resist change and typically look for the negatives in a new situation. Seeing these tendencies in action with the revised EYFS has led me to reflect on professionalism in the early years, and our responsibility to live the qualities we aspire to protect and promote in children.
The EYFS describes the characteristics of effective learning and teaching - playing, being willing to have a go and take a risk, persevering with challenge, enjoying achieving their own goals, being creative, solving problems and thinking for themselves. A practitioner who embodies those approaches will not be much daunted by a brief legal framework, which after all describes practice in fairly loose and general terms.
A playful, motivated, creative and thinking professional will have the confidence to interpret the requirements of the statutory document in the light of what they know, believe and have skills to put into practice. They will be ready to learn if a new framework triggers new or deeper thinking. Where the framework may fall short of describing the best possible approach, that presents no limit to those who work toward their own standards of practice.
We cannot separate early years practice from politics, given the dependence on public money - and I don't believe we would want to.
I recently met with a state policy lead for early years in the US, where there is no unified early years framework and very little public funding.
She told me that just three per cent of their three-year-olds attend early education settings, in contrast to over 93 per cent in England. Here, politicians accept that the early years matter, and are willing to put money behind it. But politicians are accountable, and we must be ready to show that what we do makes a difference. That means meeting the challenge of balancing necessary benchmarks of progress with support for the individuality of each child's developmental journey.
The EYFS asks us to make many professional judgements. It also asks us to place at the centre the 'imaginative, spontaneous play', 'physical development', 'importance of the Key Person approach' and 'regular access to the outdoors' that the new Early Childhood Action group accuses it of lacking. I suggest we stop wasting time on unnecessary negativity and all re-read the framework carefully, with the 'can-do' attitude of confident professionals.
Nancy Stewart is an Associate of Early Education.
