The EYFS is not a 'straitjacket', says Elizabeth Truss
Katy Morton
Friday, April 19, 2013
The education and childcare minister Elizabeth Truss told delegates at Nursery World's conference that they should be delivering the EYFS in the way they see fit, but that settings do not need to provide free-flow play or a certain proportion of child-led activities.
Speaking at Nursery World’s conference, Two-year-olds: Policy and Practice, the education and childcare minister said that the EYFS is not a 'straitjacket' and that the DfE expects professionals to take the lead.
She went on to ‘dispel’ what she called ‘various myths’ about practice, telling delegates that there is no requirement for early years settings to provide free-flow play between the indoors and outdoors or carry out a certain amount of child-led activities.
‘There are various myths about practice. I want to point out that these things are not required by Ofsted, but most settings think they are. Firstly, free-flow play between indoors and outdoors is not a requirement and not something Ofsted will be looking for. It is not a requirement to have a certain amount of child-led activity.’
She also said, what was evident from early years settings in France was the emphasis they had on encouraging socialisation and good manners through structured group sessions. Eight two year olds were happily able to sit together and watch each other’s behaviours whilst the teacher led the session.. She continued by saying that there is no reason why children should not be part of structured groups and encouraged to interact with each other.
Within her speech, Ms Truss also reiterated her call to quality providers to make full use of the flexibility in adult:child ratios.
The minister said that fewer than one in three nurseries and early years providers take advantage of flexible arrangements allowing them to employ graduate leaders and use the ratio of one adult to 13 three- to five-year-old children.
The way to raise quality, she said, is for more nurseries to hire graduates and use the larger group sizes, as they do in France, where she said salaries and qualifications are higher but funding is the same as England. There are no reasons why structured teacher-led sessions can’t also be the norm here, she said.
Elizabeth Truss also welcomed Ofsted’s plans for a more rigorous inspection regime for the early years, announced by Sir Michael Wilshaw today.
