Reception classes are providing warm, caring and safe environments in which children are making good relationships with each other and the staff: that's the good news in a study commissioned by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL).
The sad news from Inside the Foundation Stage: Recreating the Reception Year is that all too many of these caring, well-intentioned staff are not delivering the high-quality, play-based learning envisioned by the Foundation Stage.
The research team - Sian Adams, Elise Alexander, lecturer in education Mary Jane Drummond of the University of Cambridge, and Professor emeritus Janet Moyles of the Centre for Research into Education and Teaching at Anglia Polytechnic University, Chelmsford - investigated how early years practitioners are establishing the Foundation Stage as a whole new phase of learning, distinct from Key Stage 1, and grounded in the principles of early childhood education.
They had hoped that formalised instruction would have been driven out of the reception class and replaced with the play-based practices commonly adopted in the first year of the Foundation Stage.
However, they say, 'It is with disappointment and concern that we report that our optimism and enthusiasm seem, in some respects, to have been ill-founded, and that our understanding of what constitutes quality in early childhood provision is not consistently realised in practice.'
But why not? ATL's primary education adviser Nansi Ellis says, 'It is a sad story and there are a combination of reasons. If you are a reception teacher in a school where perhaps you are the only Foundation Stage person, you may not have the critical mass to make a difference. A lot of heads do not have early years expertise and even if the heads are interested, they feel they have to put the resources and the time into Year 6 because of SATs, targets and league tables.
'Nobody has made the link: if you get the Foundation Stage right, the rest follows and you are more likely to get it right higher up the school.'
This has been demonstrated at Legh Vale Primary School EarlyYears and Childcare Centre, St Helens. Up until 1999 the reception class staff were part of the Key Stage team. But with the backing of a supportive head teacher and early years advisory teacher, funding from the governors and access to good training, the staff embraced change and transformed the learning environment and their practice.
'The environment is totally child centred; open plan with independently accessible resources continually available,' says Foundation Stage manager Joy Potter.
'By placing children's needs at the top of our agenda, rather than those of strategies, teachers or the politics of the moment, we are now seeing significant numbers of them exceeding the expected national average by the end of the reception year in an area that falls within the top 15 per cent of social deprivation.'
Many teachers are not so confident or knowledgeable. Early years consultant Marjorie Ouvry says the Department for Education and Skills and Ofsted send out mixed messages. 'On the one hand, the excellent Foundation Stage guidelines and Foundation Stage Profile have been launched emphasising play, but on the other, ill-informed Ofsted inspectors and the literacy and numeracy strategists pressurise reception teachers, making a play-based curriculum difficult to achieve.'
Early years consultant Margaret Edgington adds, 'Teachers often go into a reception class from other parts of the school. It is a culture shock. They don't know how to operate, so they tighten up and take a Key Stage One/Key Stage Two approach.
'Reception class practice was not well established before the Foundation Stage was introduced. In a way, it is about trying to unpick something that was already a mess.
'I don't believe people should work in the Foundation Stage unless they have had specialist training, because they can do so much damage.
'The money goes to the top end of the school. Many reception classes have not got the resources to offer the Foundation Stage. They have not got play materials, have not got space and cannot create the right environment.'
Teacher training
Ms Ouvry believes part of the problem lies with the way reception teachers are trained to deliver a content-based curriculum rather than one that is play-based.
'Teacher training advocates a formal transmission of knowledge,' she says.
'What is so tragic is that these trainees, who will be "delivering" the Foundation Stage, are not given any chance to find out about other ways of implementing the curriculum.'
There is a fundamental 'mistrust' of play as a means of children learning, says Professor Moyles. 'Much of this stems from teacher training which, over the years, has become more geared to the National Curriculum and compliance with Ofsted. The Teacher Training Agency Standards are not consistent with courses being able to base much of what they do on play.
The related issue is that there are often fewer early years people being employed in higher education.'
And she adds, 'There is still a gross under-acknowledgement in society in general that children need to play as an essential way of learning.'
Say and do
During the study, which ran from February 2002 to last August, the team conducted in-depth interviews of governors, heads, teachers, teaching assistants, and education authority and partnership staff. They also observed reception class practice.
The report illustrates a startling gap between what teachers say they do and what they actually do. Ms Ellis says of this gap, 'Teachers are getting mixed messages. They don't have time to think about what they are doing and whether the message they are getting is right.'
While in answer to the questionnaire, practitioners welcomed the Foundation Stage and its guidance, saying they presented few challenges to their practice, the interviews disclosed things were more confused, and the observations revealed 'everyday practice in classrooms does not adequately reflect the principles of early childhood education.
'Opportunities for high-quality learning experiences for the children were few and far between. Overall we observed few opportunities for:
* sustained, shared and purposeful talk
* sustained, complex imaginative play
* authentic and engaging first-hand experiences.'
There are also glaring gaps in knowledge: 'Half the teachers appeared to be unaware of the influences on early years practice of theorists such as Piaget and Vygotsky.'
Moreover, there seems little prospect of these gaps being plugged, as the majority of teachers claimed to be influenced mainly by their own experiences, the school ethos, schemes of work and school policies.
While most LEA advisers stated 'understanding pedagogy and child development were vital topics for training, less than a fifth of other respondents, including teachers, rated these highly.'
In partnership
The study found little had been done to create a culture of sharing between Foundation Stage practitioners, with most school-based staff showing little evidence of commitment to or understanding of their local Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership (EYDCP).
Professor Moyles says, 'Partnerships don't feel themselves to be as "qualified" as teachers to know what is needed in reception classes. Staff are not always welcoming of EYDCP colleagues. EYDCP people are so busy trying to sort out the various strands of work in which they are involved that there is a "if it's not broke don't fix it" view about reception classes.'
The report recommends a range of measures to establish reception classes as part of a distinct Foundation Stage, including courses and conferences, to build the Foundation Stage community as a whole.
It also suggests scrapping the term 'reception class' and adopting FS2.
'This will embed the reception class into the Foundation Stage much more effectively,' says Professor Moyles.
On the positive side, there are some very good reception practitioners, says Ms Edgington. 'Where you have nursery people working as Foundation Stage co-ordinators, or Foundation Stage units of nursery and reception planning together, or have people who have really taken the Foundation Stage on board, then you have exciting reception class practice.'
For example, the Harrington Infant School in Workington, Cumbria has created an LEA-private partnership for the Foundation Stage by leasing the classroom next to its reception class to the town's Jack and Jill day nursery for its pre-school group.
Reception class teacher Chrissie Clark has revised her planning as a result of the Foundation Stage. 'I have more freedom. I can be more holistic particularly with literacy and numeracy. I can broaden activities.' NW
