It would be nice to know what’s happening following the review … and when we are likely to know.
I’ve been browsing through the review documentation. Although I have referred to some of these items before, I include a few more snippets (I understand them a bit better).
The Areas of Learning are divided into Prime Areas and Specific Areas
Prime Areas – Personal, Social and Emotional Development; Communication and Language; Physical Development
Specific Areas - Literacy; Mathematics; Understanding the world; Expressive arts and design.
The idea is that these will link into the primary curriculum a bit better.
There are real concerns about communication and language – so many difficulties come from this …. not just poor literacy, but behaviour problems which in turn have an impact on so many areas of education. So, I think we can expect a lot of focus on this … and quite right too. I never quite grasped just how important this area was until I worked on some publications with some speech and language therapists (Active Listening for Active Learning, Helping Children Hang on to your Every Word, and Stories for Talking). Even though I come from a teaching background while working on these books I kept thinking “I wish I’d known that … I wish I’d tried that … what a difference it would make if every educator in the country was following this”.
And finally … there is likely to be reduced paperwork. Really??? We live in an age where we are required to record everything … it has become part of our psyche. So, we’ll see … sometime.
Colin at QEd Publications
Tags: child development, childminder, EYFS
