I hate the new Early Years Foundation Stage consultation document!
It is unattractive, very densely set out and difficult to navigate. I think we should simply say that we prefer what we have already and that we don't want something which oversimplifies both Birth to Three Matters and the Foundation Stage.
The grids are quite ridiculous and will lead to practitioners developing more of a tick-list mentality than many already have. Also, why do babies and toddlers need to have a curriculum tracked back from every single set of goals? This very top-down model will force practitioners working with the youngest children to concentrate on coverage at the expense of responsiveness.
Then, of course, there is the re-wording of the literacy goals - when the majority of children are not achieving the existing goals, we should be fighting to get them made more realistic rather than simply accepting a set of even tougher, more prescriptive expectations.
Staffing ratios are also a concern. The longstanding expectation that a nursery school would have one qualified teacher and one qualified nursery nurse for every 20 children, and a nursery class would have the same for every 26 children, will be eroded if this document is not strongly challenged.
I'm incensed by the waste of money. I'd like to know how much this whole unnecessary initiative is costing. It would have been better spent on children's services.
The idea that a framework can raise quality is naive to say the least, but this framework will destroy much of the good work that has been done over the past few years. Practitioners I have shown the document to are very worried - they don't want a new document; they want to carry on developing their confidence in using the ones they have already.
Nursery World, please keep up the impressive campaigning!
