Young children should spend less time sitting still listening to their teachers in Year 1 and instead be given more opportunities for active, independent learning and learning through play, according to a report commissioned by the DfES.
Academics and early years experts warn of the harm that can be done to children if they are pushed too soon into structured learning. They argue that teachers need extra training to understand how play is central to children's learning at this age if they are to achieve a smoother transition from the Foundation Stage.
The report, A Study of the Transition from the Foundation Stage to Key Stage One (see www.nfer.ac.uk) presents practitioners and policy makers with a child's-eye view of what it's like to make the move from the reception class into Year One. It is not always a happy one.
The research team, from the National Foundation for Educational Research, interviewed staff at 60 schools and compiled case studies at 12 of them by tracking the children's expectations and experiences of transition through interviews with children, parents and teachers.
The report says, 'The process of transition may be viewed as a period of adaptation. This study has shown that the best adaptation takes place where conditions are similar, communication is encouraged and the process of change takes place gradually over time.'
It notes, 'Most staff felt they were managing the situation and most children seemed to be coping well with the move to Year One' and 'The majority of parents interviewed reported that they felt happy about the child's' transition to Year One.'
In contrast, however, it gives the children's graphic, and at times moving, comments about the tedium of the literacy and numeracy hours and their sadness at their loss of choice in their activities.
Teachers in less than half of the 12 case study schools had 'changed their approach specifically to aid transition'. Three schools provided for play-based, integrated, practical learning and planned gradually to introduce a more structured approach during the year. Teachers in two other schools had made some changes to ease the transition, but opportunities for child-initiated learning were limited.
'The remaining seven schools had introduced the subject-based curriculum and more "formal" teaching methods from the outset.'
In these schools, opportunities for free-choice activities were often limited to 'golden time' once a week, usually on a Friday, and were considered to be a reward for good behaviour and/or completion of work.
On the carpet
School leaders and staff told the researchers that as professionals they are able to manage the transition satisfactorily, but they identify the move to a more 'formal and 'structured' curriculum in Key Stage 1 as the main challenge.
'Some teachers (in both reception and Year One) reported feeling "torn" and "pulled in different directions" in trying to maintain FS practice, while being all too aware of the amount of content in Year One and the need to prepare children for their National Curriculum Assessments in Year Two. The introduction of the full literacy hour and daily mathematics lessons was experienced as problematic because it was difficult to get children to sit still and listen to their teacher.'
The children feel the same way. The study reports the following exchanges when children were asked what Year One would be like: Boy: No toys.
Girl: No toys.
Boy: No building (construction activities).
Girl: It is just going to be work, work, work.
Boy: Carpet, carpet, carpet.
Girl: You have to do work all the time - writing.
What they do when in Year One: Girl: We do hard work. We have to count lots and we are trying to do some numbers and have calendars.
Boy: We do work.
Girl: Hard work.
What they don't like about Year One: Boy 1: Being on the carpet for a long time.
Boy 2: Neither do I, because it's very boring.
Boy 1: And it wastes our time playing.
Boy 2: It wastes your life.
Boy: I don't like sitting on the carpet all the time.
Girl: Yeah, we just sit, sit, sit.
Boy: Yes, and it's boring.
Girl: Yeah, and we could be playing outside and getting some exercise.
The study also quotes a child in a reception class complaining, 'I hate it when we do work. Every time we do work all we have to do is write, and my hand gets tired.'
Early years consultant Dr Jacqui Cousins says, 'People don't really understand the needs of young children. They think: "If we push them harder they will go faster". If we push them harder, we can so easily destroy their self-esteem.
'I was upset to see comments from teachers in the report that so many of the children had yet to learn to sit still and listen. Little boys physically can't sit with crossed legs. It is painful for them and there is often not enough space for them to stretch out their little legs.'
Challenging behaviour
'I think some teachers are concerned that if they offer a more play-based curriculum, their control will go out of the window,' says Judith Stevens, an early years adviser in Lewisham, London. 'Yet, we know that when we ask children to do things that might not be appropriate for them, their behaviour does become more challenging.
'When children of this age are playing, it does not mean that they are not learning. Similarly, when children are sitting on the carpet, they might be quiet, they might be still, but it does not mean they are learning.'
Lesley Staggs, the National Foundation Stage Director, says, 'Schools that have really embraced the Foundation Stage and continued with a much more active approach to learning as the children move into Key Stage 1 report less in the way of behavioural difficulties, because the children can move around legitimately and don't fidget and get restless. If you encourage children to take some responsibility and collaborate instead of them sitting on the carpet quietly, they display greater speaking and listening skills.'
'Some children are simply not ready for a more structured, passive curriculum by the age of five going on six,' says Professor Iram Siraj-Blatchford, who is leading the evaluation of early education in Wales. 'But that does not necessarily imply that they are not ready to move in any way at all.
'To deliver a play-based curriculum in Year 1 requires a great deal of training and a very skilled practitioner to work across the range of free play, structured play and structured activities and across a range of children.
'What is wrong is children being stripped of a play-based curriculum just because they have gone into another class. They have not suddenly changed over the summer holidays.'
Professor Tina Bruce at the University of Roehampton says, 'It is to do with practitioners really understanding why play is important. It is not just about making children feel comfortable in a new environment. Play is actually central to their learning at that age.
'Part of the problem is that teachers are simply not being trained to understand play. Very often, with the best will in the world, even if they want to have play as part of the curriculum, they don't know how to do it.
We need to reform primary teacher training.
'Until teachers are trained so they have a real understanding of play, we are not going to see practice in Key Stage 1 change in anything more than a cosmetic way. Children are just not being given what they need in KS1.'
Teacher training
Professor Bruce adds, 'Teachers often lack confidence about the way they are allowed to teach. This goes back to their training. Teachers are coming out of college now who are trained in specific areas like the literacy hour and the numeracy hour, but most of them are not aware that these are not legal requirements.
'It is depressing but, on the positive side, Lesley Staggs and her team are moving things on in some quite wonderful ways. They are emphasising the importance of observation, and how this is used to inform the kind of flexible planning which addresses the needs of children as individuals.'
Although the DfESreport contains some 'stark messages', according to Lesley Staggs, she says it also pinpoints 'some really effective practice, and that is what we have got to capture.' She and her colleagues are working on various fronts to share best practice about the Foundation Stage through termly meetings with the teacher training bodies and within the Primary Strategy team.
At the same time, funding has been secured from the Standards Fund for every school in the country to release reception and Year One teachers to work together to achieve a smoother transition.The Celebrating Young Children exhibition is to go on tour around the country (see left).
Further information
THE DfES exhibition 'Celebrating Children' is managed by Early Education and will be held in nine venues, yet to be decided. For more information call Jenny Rabin at Early Education on 020 7539 5400
