Let's start at the beginning

The focus of Sian Griffiths column in the Sunday Times on 13 October was the state of our education system and how it is failing our young people and our economy. Many column inches were given over to results and statistics and comparisons with other countries. Successive political parties, quick to project blame on to their opponents, have pushed this embarrassing issue back and forth like a giant snowball which, unsurprisingly, has resulted in it getting bigger and more compacted

The question was posed - ‘have our schools got worse at teaching the basics’?

Fortunately for us all,  according to the article, ‘one man who may know the answer is Richard Cairns’ - who is head of the independent Brighton College. He has ‘spent months globetrotting around the top performing countries’ and he has concluded that ‘the biggest single lesson is we need better teachers’.

At this point I, and I am sure all of my fellow practitioners and professionals who are either working directly with children aged between birth to five, training those who will be working with this age group (known as the Foundation Stage), or supporting and advising them, were banging our heads with our fists in shear frustration and despair.

While it is necessary to address the problem of older children who have not grasped the basics in literacy and numeracy and the associated but inevitable behavioural problems which result, to see this as the ‘biggest single problem’ is like sticking lots of fingers into the dyke and never trying to find out what has caused the leaks in the first place. Worse still it is ignoring all the warnings and evidence you have been given that could help you fix the leaks and build a stronger dyke.

Plato (500 BC) said ‘In all things the beginning is the most important’.  In 1530 The Jesuits gave us the saying ‘Give me the boy until he is seven and I will give you the man’.  In the Plowden Report (1967), and again in in the Rumbold Report (1990), good early years care and education were seen as building a firm foundation for future achievement and well being

More recently, EYFS Review (2011) by Dame Clare Tickell, actually gathered evidence from a wide range of people working in the early years sector. These included academics, practitioners, representatives of professional organisations such as the The Family and Childcare Trust, The Pre-School Learning Alliance and the National Day Nursery Association, local authorities, psychologists, parents, carers and, yes, children, because they too have a voice. It also looked at national and international research. Four research studies were commissioned especially for this review, including a review of literature (over 350 international sources) on child development, including cognitive, social and emotional processes. The reference list was 320 entries long!

Its findings were, unsurprisingly, that ‘The earliest years in a child’s life are absolutely critical, providing the essential foundations for healthy development. If these foundations are not secure, children can experience long-term problems which often present wider social consequences. Children’s attainment, well-being, happiness and resilience are profoundly affected by the quality of the guidance, love and care they receive during the first years of their lives’

The response from Sarah Teather, then Minister of State for Children and Families, was – ‘The importance of the early years –as a foundation for life and for future attainment and success - cannot be overestimated’.  Not overestimated, no, but constantly ignored and underfunded –yes!

Cathy Nutbrown in her independent, research based Review of Early Education and Childhood Qualifications ( June 2012), clearly stated that ‘learning begins from birth, and high quality early education and care has the potential to make a positive impact on the learning, development and well-being of babies and young children.’ She went on to say ‘pre-school quality is a significant predictor of later Key Stage 2 performance in both English and Maths’.

Are we to forever ignore the wisdom, truth and good old fashioned common sense of these words?

Sadly, the article is correct to says that the UK ‘has long had a tail of children who leave school aged 16 with little to show for 11 years of education,’ and that in too many of our schools we encounter ‘kids talking over teachers, laughing among themselves, getting mobile phones out in lessons’.  Richard Cairns says ‘you have lost kids if things have got to that stage.’ What is not recognised is that young children who display these behaviours don’t  just suddenly decide to play up, they have had years of practice, years to develop bad behaviours - starting from their earliest experiences in the home and in too many of our out of home care settings.

In many cases these 16 year-olds have never experienced positive, stable role models who are mature, warm, caring, sensitive, committed, inquisitive and creative. They have never been encouraged to ponder, think, engage with something or someone, persevere, finish something, share, listen, wait their turn or express their feelings and opinions and be acknowledged and appreciated for doing so. But, and let’s be honest, here is the real kicker!....Too many of these frustrated, fragile 16 year-olds who cannot regulate their own emotions, cannot communicate appropriately or effectively, are incurious and unmotivated, are the very people we deem fit to work with vulnerable children (and our elderly) and whom we actively shoehorn into inappropriate childcare and social care courses because we cannot think of anything else for them to do. ‘You can always work with children’!

Over 15 years in colleges of Further Education, I have had the joy and pleasure of teaching childcare and education to a lot of dedicated, caring, sensitive 16 to 18- -year-olds.  But, too many of our damaged, disaffected learners are going on to spend long hours each day with the babies and young children who are totally reliant on them for their care and learning and who will look upon them as their role models. That’s a lot of young hearts and minds to mess with.
And so it begins again!

`It is not just about the lessons our schools can learn. It is too late by then. It is about the lessons that we as a society must learn. If we are not to continue on this downward spiral, if we are serious about wanting to master the basics, we must be honest with ourselves and we must go back to the beginning and build strong foundations.

Ann Vincent is a director of Early Years Training Enterprise