At a loss
Mary Evans
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
The departure of the first Foundation Stage director could hardly have come at a worse time, early years practitioners and leaders agree. Mary Evans sounds out their feelings The early years sector has reacted to the resignation of Lesley Staggs from her prestigious post as national director of the Foundation Stage with shock, sorrow and anxiety about the future.
The early years sector has reacted to the resignation of Lesley Staggs from her prestigious post as national director of the Foundation Stage with shock, sorrow and anxiety about the future.
As the news spread, early years specialists from practitioners to academics united to pay tribute to the enormous contribution she made in the development of the Foundation Stage and its emphasis on learning through play.
The loss of her steady hand at the early years helm will be keenly felt as the sector is in choppy waters with the Rose Review on the teaching of early reading, the development of the Early Years Foundation Stage and the reviews of the literacy and numeracy strategies.
Early years consultant Marian Whitehead sums up the concerns of many when she says, 'Without Lesley's safe hands I fear that good early years practice is more at risk than ever and, unless we are really determined to fight for it, the Foundation Stage and all it achieved will be destroyed.'
Ms Staggs' appointment as the first- ever Foundation Stage director in October 2003 was widely acclaimed. But it seems she was sidelined by the restructure of management introduced by Capita, which took over the five-year contract for running National Strategies last May. The sector has responded with incredulity and some anger that Capita's management structures appear to have made her job untenable.
'It meant that her team, the people who applied for their jobs so they could work for her, were suddenly answerable to and being line-managed by regional directors who almost certainly were not early years people,' says an early education expert.
'She could not do her job any more. In effect it was a huge demotion as they put in a layer of people above her.
'It is very, very sad. They have lost other people too. Kevan Collins, who was Lesley's line manager as Director for the National Primary Strategy, left in the summer to become director of education at the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. I don't think the DfES knows or appreciates what has happened.'
Another early education expert says, 'It is a business organisation and they don't know how to work professionally. It has a new structure, with regional teams for the Foundation Stage, primary and secondary stages, so there is more alignment.
'It is devastating for the people who were so proud to introduce themselves as one of Lesley Staggs' team.'
Synthetic phonics
It is understood that Ms Staggs will work as an independent early years consultant after she leaves in mid-February. In the meantime, the post was advertised in the Times Educational Supplement on 9 December. The closing date for applications is 20 January and the salary is up to 80,000.
The news of her resignation came in the same week that the DfES published a 'Direction of Travel' paper on the Early Years Foundation Stage, which includes information on the review by Jim Rose, a former director of inspection at Oftsed, on early reading, which controversially endorses synthetic phonics.
The review is to be finalised this month. Practitioners are concerned that, as one says, if it is implemented as currently outlined, 'it derails all the fine words of the birth-to-five framework, and early years just becomes a means of getting children ready as education fodder for the school system.'
The sector may yet rue the day it first crossed ministers' political radar screens. As one expert says, 'A major problem is that because early years is being taken seriously, ministers have got an idea they know about it.
Ruth Kelly and Andrew Adonis have got young children, so they think they know it all.'
Professor Pat Broadhead, chair of TACTYC, a membership organisation for those who offer training and professional development to educators of young children, puts it another way. 'This is a worrying time in the broader context of developments relating to young children's learning with threats now looming on three fronts; the term "triangle of despair" does not seem overly dramatic.
'The loss of Lesley's informed and inspired leadership is one threat to stability and continuity. The second is that the new incumbent will, it seems, inherit a fragmented team unable now to collectively marshal their own early years professional knowledge to inform policy development.
'The third attack comes from the impending impact of the seemingly intractable Rose Review. The looming of synthetic phonics is causing dismay and disbelief across and beyond the early years.
'This national and formalised approach, with little associated research evidence, conflicts with a theoretically informed position in policy and practice, born of substantial research, that children learn best in an environment in which well-trained practitioners have well developed knowledge of how to match children's needs, interests and pre-dispositions to a range of learning opportunities.
'Synthetic phonics has a strong sense of experimentation on our youngest learners. Without a champion of children's rights at the helm in the early years, it is hard to see how the child's right to initiate learning through play and exploration in a well-structured and pedagogically sound environment, can hold sway against the imperative for educators to induct in such a narrow fashion.'
New initiatives
Professor emeritus Janet Moyles says, 'While I do not know what Lesley's reasons are for leaving, I suspect one is the increasing pressure she has found herself under to defend quality early years practices against the top-down pressures imposed by those who ultimately determine our education and care system.
'I know in the past how much she has battled - and won - over many issues, such as the role of play in young children's learning. But this must ultimately take its toll when one is so much in the thick of it all, as Lesley has been for a considerable time. It always seems to me to be a case of three steps forward and two steps back each time new "initiatives" are discussed. The present situation with regard to synthetic phonics must be a case in point.'
Anne Nelson, director of Early Education, says, 'I think there are some good things coming out of the Rose review such as the emphasis on listening and talking. But the issue of synthetic phonics and how it is going to dictate the pattern of the day for young children, and the way it is being interpreted by the education secretary, that young children are going to be drilled first and fast in it, is very worrying.
'When considering the implications of Lesley's resignation we need to put it in the context of all the change that is taking place, the vacancies and transitions in major posts. Naomi Eisenstadt is leaving the Sure Start Unit and moving on. David Bell is leaving Ofsted.
'We also have the restructuring of local authorities with the new directors of children's services, which is causing a lot of change for many in early years and childcare. People are in transition, not quite knowing what their job is and how it fits in with everything else.
'We must recognise that change takes time to introduce and about five years to embed. We haven't got that long. From the practitioners' point of view, the single quality framework is being developed. It has been received very positively, but there are uncertainties about the revision of the literacy and numeracy strategies and the outcomes of the Rose Review.
'Change can be positive, but the uncertainty we are living with is worrying. The person who replaces Lesley will have to come out running.'
In tribute
'The last time I heard Lesley speak, at the Nursery World conference, she was at her best - direct, practical, and passionate about all of us doing our best for young children. I think that her most important legacy is the development of the Foundation Stage, which put play back into the curriculum, and established sound principles for working with families.'
* Julian Grenier, headteacher of Kate Greenaway NurserySchool, London 'Having someone of Lesley Staggs' calibre and expertise has meant work in the early years that deepens quality of experience for children, families and practitioners has taken a quantum leap for the better - and in a very short space of time. Some people might say that no-one is indispensable, but she is certainly irreplaceable.'
* Professor Tina Bruce, Roehampton University
'Lesley has worked patiently and tirelessly for many years as a voice for young children and their carers. The development of the Foundation Stage and its Curriculum Guidance has been her major achievement and no-one should underestimate the behind-the-scenes work she did to ensure they reflected research evidence and were underpinned by clear principles. She has in-depth knowledge of early childhood education but, above all else, she has the tact and the patience to persuade others who are less knowledgeable.'
* Margaret Edgington, early years consultant
'She could be trusted to keep the focus on realistic expectations for young children and their well-being.'
* Jennie Lindon, early years consultant
'Lesley has been an inspiration to all of those working in the early years field at all levels and she has been a real "voice" for us all in the halls of government.'
* Professor emeritus Janet Moyles
'Lesley has used her remarkable skills to communicate successfully with practitioners, local authority personnel and ministers. As a result of her work, we are able to consider meeting the needs of children in a way which is appropriate to their stage of development.'
* Anne Nelson, director of Early Education