PROFESSIONAL LINKS
This chapter addresses the following:
Bold Beginnings: The Reception Curriculum in a Sample of Good and Outstanding Primary Schools (Ofsted, 2017).
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
By the end of this chapter you will understand:
the importance of play-based learning in the early years;
indicators of quality provision in the early years;
the relationship between quality provision and children’s well-being.
INTRODUCTION
Research on high-quality early years provision emphasises the important role that learning through play makes to children’s learning and development. This is reflected in the Early Years Foundation Stage framework and the associated characteristics of effective learning. Learning through play provides a natural way for young children to learn. It supports their physical, social, emotional and intellectual development and it supports the development of positive well-being. However, perspectives on learning in the early years are not shared between individuals, within and across groups with different vested interests. The Bold Beginnings (Ofsted, 2017) report that is addressed in this chapter has been controversial in England because it marks a departure from the principles of effective learning in the EYFS framework through its emphasis on the direct teaching of literacy and mathematics in the Reception year. Academics, early years organisations and practitioners have responded to the recommendations with emotion, anger and evidence-based critiques to emphasise the critical importance of play-based learning in the early years and the detrimental effects of introducing formal teaching too early. However, it is questionable whether one framework spanning birth to five years can meet the needs of all children and it is a matter of debate about whether the role of the Reception year is to prepare children for the challenges of the national curriculum or whether it should be treated as a distinct phase of children’s education. This chapter will address the elements of effective pedagogy in the early years and it will consider the implications of transitions for children’s mental health and well-being.
PROMOTING LEARNING IN THE EARLY YEARS
Effective pedagogy in the early years involves understanding of how children learn and develop (Stewart and Pugh, 2007) so that subsequent learning builds on what children already know and can do. In the early years, particular emphasis should be given to supporting children’s physical, social, emotional, language and communication development (Heckman, 2006; Goswami, 2015; Tickell, 2011). These aspects of development make positive contributions to the learning of specific areas of learning such as reading, writing and mathematics (Goddard-Blythe, 2017).
In addition, play and playfulness in learning help to promote the dispositions and skills to underpin that learning, such as self-regulation (Broadhead et al, 2010; Moyles, 2015; Rogers, 2011; Whitebread and Bingham, 2014). Research suggests that developing children’s self-regulation skills and executive functions supports subsequent learning and development beyond the early years (Whitebread and Bingham, 2014; Diamond et al, 2007; Diamond, 2013) and more recent evidence indicates that the development of executive functions is strongly indicative of school success (Kangas et al, 2015). Diamond’s research (2013) suggests that a range of executive functions are needed to support children’s learning and development. The research suggests that these aspects of development are more important than intelligence or children’s abilities in reading or mathematics (Blair and Diamond, 2008). Three core executive functions are suggested which appear to be associated with long-term attainment and which are vital for children’s development. These are:
cognitive flexibility: the ability to switch perspectives;
inhibitory control: the ability to stay focused on a specific task despite distraction;
working memory: the ability to hold information in mind and mentally work with it, the ability to link concepts and ideas and process multiple instructions in sequence.
Snowling et al (2011) found a relationship between language and communication and later attainment. They presented considerable evidence to show that language skills are among the best predictors of educational success. This provides a clear rationale for play-based learning. Through immersing children in a rich language environment, children develop key skills that are essential for subsequent development in reading and writing. Through play they develop and use vocabulary and start to use language for communication. These skills underpin literacy development. In addition, Grissmer et al (2010) found that motor skills in early childhood were significant predictors of achievement in literacy and mathematics following the early years phase of education. Well-planned play-based learning provides children with valuable opportunities to develop their gross and fine motor skills and this supports subsequent development in writing. Through play children develop their social skills. They learn the skills of social interaction, social communication, turn-taking, sharing, problem-solving and conflict resolution. Through pretend play and role-play, they also develop their imagination skills which are critical for creativity and literacy development. Social skills have been found to be important predictors of positive mental health and well-being (Goodman et al, 2015).
CRITICAL QUESTIONS
What are the tensions associated with learning through play in the Reception year?
How can the most able children be challenged through play in the early years?
What is the role of play-based learning in supporting children’s learning and development?
What are the advantages of adult interactions in children’s play and are there any associated limitations?
MANAGING TRANSITIONS TO PRE-SCHOOL AND NURSERY
While some children are ready to make the transition from home to pre-school, for others this can be a difficult time that causes significant stress and anxiety. While most children adapt quickly to this transition, for others the process of adaption takes longer, and these children will require greater support. The role of the key worker is critical in facilitating a smooth transition. The key worker should establish positive, warm and trusting relationships with the children in their care so that children can quickly start to adapt to the setting. It is crucial to ensure that there is regular communication between parents and practitioners so that any concerns about the child can be quickly addressed. Providing children with an enabling learning environment that is challenging, stimulating and interesting will help children to adapt to the setting quickly. Developing clear, consistent routines in the setting will provide children with a sense of security. Supporting children to develop friendships is critical to ensuring that they experience a sense of belonging in the setting and developing a culture of inclusion, in which children are valued, respected and happy will support them in adapting to the setting. Visits to the setting prior to them transitioning will provide them with opportunities to meet the practitioners, to become familiar with the environment and to meet new friends. This is an effective strategy for facilitating a smooth transition.
MANAGING TRANSITIONS TO RECEPTION
In 2017 Ofsted published a report titled Bold Beginnings: The Reception Curriculum in a Sample of Good and Outstanding Primary Schools. The report made several claims about high-quality practice in the Reception year. These are outlined below.
In effective settings:
reading was at the heart of the curriculum;
systematic synthetic phonics played a critical role in teaching children the alphabetic code;
good phonics teaching supported children’s early writing;
practical equipment to support children’s grasp of numbers was used and more formal, written recording was introduced, but only when children’s understanding was secure and automatic;
checks of children’s phonics knowledge, standardised tests for reading and analysis of children’s work provided the essential information that Year 1 teachers needed at the point of transition;
effective settings made sure that they gave reading, writing and mathematics enough direct teaching time every day.
Key recommendations in this report included the following:
the teaching of reading, including systematic synthetic phonics, must be the core purpose of the Reception Year;
greater importance must be given to the teaching of numbers in building children’s fluency in counting, recognising small numbers of items, comparing numbers and solving problems;
children should be taught correct pencil grip and how to sit correctly at a table;
enough time must be allocated each day to the direct teaching of reading, writing and mathematics, including frequent opportunities for children to practise and consolidate their skills.
(Ofsted, 2017)
CRITICAL QUESTIONS
The key points in the Bold Beginnings report emphasise the importance of the direct teaching of skills in literacy and mathematics, and this marks a move away from the play-based pedagogy advocated in the Early Years Foundation Stage framework. The report makes it clear that the focus on the direct teaching of reading, writing and mathematics in the Reception year will give children the best chance of being ready for the national curriculum. While some children may be ready for a more structured pedagogy in the Reception year, those who are working below the expectations of the Early Learning Goals may not be developmentally ready for narrower focus on literacy and mathematics; practitioners may need to focus on developing their social and emotional skills and therefore a play-based approach may be more appropriate. The Bold Beginnings report marks a move that signals the ‘schoolification’ of the early years. This is a dangerous move because it can result in a curriculum that is not developmentally appropriate for children and this could have a significant detrimental effect on their mental health.
According to the Bold Beginnings report:
A child’s early education lasts a lifetime. Done well, it can mean the difference between gaining seven Bs at GCSE compared with seven Cs.
(Ofsted, 2017)
The EPPE study identified effective pedagogic approaches and highlighted that more ‘sustained shared thinking’ (Sylva et al, 2004, p 1) was observed in settings where children made the most progress. Sustained shared thinking occurs when two or more individuals work together to solve a problem, clarify a concept, evaluate an activity or extend a narrative. Skilled practitioners can develop children’s thinking in relation to a problem, concept or task using open-ended questioning to move children through their zone of proximal development. The study found that in effective settings adults modelled skills and often combined modelling with sustained periods of shared thinking: open-ended questioning and modelling were also associated with better cognitive achievement (Sylva et al, 2004).
CASE STUDY
Hedgehog Primary School was recently inspected and graded inadequate across all areas of the inspection framework. The inspectors highlighted in their report that children in the Reception class were working below the expected level of attainment specified in the Early Learning Goals. The school was situated in an area of social deprivation and children entered the Reception class with very low skills in communication and language. Many children, upon entry, were unable to regulate their feelings and found it difficult to adhere to rules. By March the children had made significant progress from their baseline entry levels, but their attainment was low. Josh, the Reception teacher, had focused on developing a rich, stimulating and enabling play-based learning environment that supported children’s progress across all areas of learning and development.
Following the inspection, the head teacher asked to meet with Josh to discuss the inspection findings. Josh was instructed to remove all areas in the classroom that enabled children to initiate their own play. Josh was told to create a seating plan and to seat the children in a fixed place with tables arranged in pairs. The head teacher asked Josh to create timetabled reading, writing and mathematics lessons every morning and the afternoon sessions were to be used for providing same-day interventions for those children who had developed misconceptions during the morning lessons. Josh was not happy with the new arrangements, but he felt that he had no choice but to comply with the expectations of his head teacher.
CRITICAL QUESTIONS
What are your views in relation to the decisions that were made in this meeting?
Had you been Josh, how might you have responded to the head teacher?
According to the Bold Beginnings report:
In 2016, around one third of Reception-aged children did not have the essential knowledge and understanding they needed to reach a good level of development by the age of five.
The outcomes for disadvantaged children were far worse. Only just over half had the knowledge and understanding needed to secure a positive start to Year 1.
In 2016–17, the quality of early years provision was inadequate in 84 schools and required improvement in a further 331 of those inspected that year.
(Ofsted, 2017)
In the EPPE study, the balance of who initiated the activities, staff or child, was about equal in the most effective settings. Similarly, in effective settings the extent to which staff members extended child-initiated interactions was important. The research found that almost half the child-initiated episodes that contained intellectual challenge included interventions from a staff member to extend the child’s thinking. Also, freely chosen play activities often provided the best opportunities for adults to extend the child’s thinking. The research suggested that extending the child-initiated play, coupled with the provision of adult-led group work, are the most effective vehicles to promote learning and development. Children’s cognitive outcomes appeared to be directly related to the quantity and quality of the teacher/adult-planned and initiated focused group work.
The EPPE study found that the way in which behaviour is managed is critical to the quality of the provision; in effective settings practitioners encouraged children to resolve their own conflicts. In settings that were less effective there was often no follow-up on children’s misbehaviour and, on many occasions, children were distracted or simply told to stop behaving inappropriately.
(Sylva et al, 2004)
CASE STUDY
In a pre-school setting in the north of England the practitioners noticed that several children were displaying signs of conduct disorders. They found it difficult to follow rules and routines and they were frequently defiant to the requests of the practitioners. They were often physically aggressive to other children in the setting and sometimes they were physically aggressive to practitioners. The key workers who were responsible for these children each met with the parents, only to be informed by the parents that they did not experience these problems at home. The parents blamed the practitioners for the problems rather than being honest about their own experiences of managing their behaviour.
The practitioners introduced a social and emotional curriculum. The children who demonstrated signs of conduct behaviour received daily intervention to support them in developing their social skills and their understanding of feelings using stories and puppets. In addition, the sessions focused on enhancing the children’s feelings of self-worth; in one session the children were supported to help them understand the things that they were good at. They were helped to understand that in some contexts they were already demonstrating the skills that they needed to demonstrate in the setting. For example, four of the children had pets so the practitioner supported them to understand that they could already demonstrate that they were caring and able to follow rules because they demonstrated these skills when they looked after their pets. They were supported to understand that they simply needed to do the same things in the setting. One session focused on how they cared for other members of their family. It was clear that the children already had the skills of being able to care and demonstrate kindness and respect towards others, so the practitioner supported them to understand that they needed to transfer these skills into the setting.
Finally, the key workers developed an individual reward system which was bespoke to each child. Children received regular rewards for good behaviour and the practitioners focused on noticing times when good behaviour was demonstrated. Each child was also provided with a visual timetable so that they could identify the sequence of activities that had to be completed during each day. These children initially needed a more structured approach to learning, and therefore free-flow play was not appropriate for them until they were able to regulate their emotions. They were required to complete specific tasks in a specific order. One of the activities on the visual timetable included a task that related to the child’s interests. If they refused to complete a task, they were reminded about the sequence of activities on the visual timetable and informed that if they refused to complete a task, this would result in them not progressing through the sequence and therefore they would be unable to complete the task that related to their own interests.
To facilitate positive relationships with the parents, the practitioners completed a daily diary that only recorded positive behaviours the child had demonstrated that day. Messages were written to parents to communicate positive behaviours and parents were encouraged to document positive behaviours noticed at home to bring these to the attention of the practitioners.
SUMMARY
This chapter has emphasised the importance of learning through play on a child’s development in the early years. The benefits of learning through play have been identified and the chapter has linked these to children’s physical, social, emotional and intellectual development and thus positive well-being. It has also considered the elements of effective pedagogy in the early years and the implications of transition for children’s mental health and well-being.
CHECKLIST
This chapter has addressed:
the role of play-based learning and its impact on children’s development;
the common indicators of high-quality and effective provision in the early years;
the importance of high-quality and effective provision and its impact on children’s well-being.
FURTHER READING
Bottrill, G (2018) Can I Go and Play Now? Rethinking the Early Years. London: Sage.
The Key for School Leaders. [online] Available at: https://schoolleaders.thekeysupport.com (accessed 28 February 2019).
PACEY: Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years. [online] Available at: www.pacey.org.uk/working-in-childcare/spotlight-on/creating-enabling-environments (accessed 28 February 2019).
Pre-School Learning Alliance. [online] Available at: www.pre-school.org.uk/enabling-environments (accessed 28 February 2019).