Archive for the ‘Summer born children’ Category
8
Jul
Posted by Frances Laing in commercialisation of childhood, Early Day Motion Reading Tests for six year olds, Early Day Motion Stop School League Tables for Five Year Olds, League tables for five year olds, Phonics testing for five and six year olds, Reading in primary schools, Reading scores in primary schools, Reading Test at Five, stop league tables for five year olds international petition, Summer born children. Tagged: Early Day Motion Stop School League Tables for Five Year Olds, League tables for five year olds, Phonics test for six year olds, Say No to Phonics Tests for Small Children. 2 Comments
Nursery World publishes a piece on how schools have been ‘bribed’ to use phonics: “In a report into overcoming the barriers to literacy, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Education says that cash-strapped schools are being pushed into using synthetic phonics, because they are offered matched funding if they buy approved phonics products and training. It [...]
Continue reading »
31
Mar
Posted by Frances Laing in Cheshire West Against the Cuts, Coalition Against the Cuts, Coalition government, Criticisms of the EYFS, Documenting our request for a parental exemption to the learning and development requirements of the EYFS, EYFS, EYFS media coverage, History of opposition to EYFS learning and development targets, League tables for five year olds, Summer born children. Tagged: Criticisms of the EYFS, Documenting our application for a parental exemption, Early Years Foundation Stage, Early Years Foundation Stage Review, League tables for five year olds, stop school league tables for five year olds. Leave a Comment
It’s fairly standard these days for a government review to be ‘leaked’ in a targeted way to the press – before it is published. That’s how certain media machines work. Your average PR agency with any clout – knows that public opinion can be influenced by providing journalists with crease-free copy before the event. That [...]
Continue reading »
30
Mar
Posted by Frances Laing in Cheshire West Against the Cuts, Coalition government, Criticisms of the EYFS, Documenting our request for a parental exemption to the learning and development requirements of the EYFS, Early Day Motion Reading Tests for six year olds, Early Day Motion Stop School League Tables for Five Year Olds, EYFS, History of opposition to EYFS learning and development targets, League tables for five year olds, parent's guide to early years foundation stage, Phonics testing for five and six year olds, stop league tables for five year olds international petition, Summer born children. Tagged: Criticisms of the EYFS, Early Day Motion Stop School League Tables for Five Year Olds, League tables for five year olds, parent's guide to the early years foundation stage, Phonics test for six year olds, West Cheshire Council. Leave a Comment
The results of the Early Years Foundation Stage Review have been announced today. Rest assured readers, I do intend to share my thoughts with you all on this front – as soon as I can. However, in the meantime – I’m sharing this photograph – sized up so that you can see the detail of [...]
Continue reading »
4
Mar
Posted by Frances Laing in Bullying and the under fives, Early Day Motion Reading Tests for six year olds, Early Day Motion Stop School League Tables for Five Year Olds, League tables for five year olds, Phonics testing for five and six year olds, Reading in primary schools, Reading scores in primary schools, Reading Test at Five, stop league tables for five year olds international petition, stop school league tables for five year olds, Summer born children, World Book Day. Tagged: League tables for five year olds, Phonics test for six year olds, stop school league tables for five year olds. Leave a Comment
I spent World Book Day yesterday waiting for news of the tabling of an Early Day Motion in parliament to oppose the Reading Test for Six (and Five) Year Olds which the government is planning to introduce, via a pilot scheme in three hundred schools across the country at an initial cost of a quarter of a [...]
Continue reading »
10
Dec
Posted by Frances Laing in Criticisms of the EYFS, Government review of the Early Years Foundation Stage legislation, Michael Gove, Open Eye Conference 2010, Summer born children. Tagged: Early Years Foundation Stage, League tables for five year olds, parent's guide to the early years foundation stage. Leave a Comment
Michael Gove’s plan to introduce league tables for five year olds has given rise to a flurry of protest letters in the print edition of the Times Educational Supplement today – among them this one by Margaret Edgington of Open Eye which I’m taking the liberty of re-publishing here: Five years old is no age for [...]
Continue reading »
28
Nov
Posted by Frances Laing in Bullying and the under fives, Criticisms of the EYFS, Early Years Foundation Stage, Summer born children. Tagged: Anti-bullying policy, Bullying, Criticisms of the EYFS, Early Years Foundation Stage, parent's guide to the early years foundation stage, White paper on education. Leave a Comment
It’s been a while. For many of us – after the government’s spending review – planned early years projects have been delayed, re-arranged or scrapped altogether. The future is uncertain. I’ve been looking at the government’s new white paper on education. All eighty pages of it. What strikes me is that the Finnish model of education is [...]
Continue reading »
9
Jul
Posted by Frances Laing in Coalition government, Criticisms of the EYFS, Documenting our request for a parental exemption to the learning and development requirements of the EYFS, Government review of the Early Years Foundation Stage legislation, Open Eye Conference 2010, parliamentary petition parentsguide 2009, Summer born children, The importance of play. Tagged: Criticisms of the EYFS, Documenting our application for a parental exemption, Early Years Foundation Stage, EYFS exemptions, parent's guide to the early years foundation stage. Leave a Comment
The long-awaited review of the Early Years Foundation Stage legislation has now been announced. The review has already been the focus of considerable media attention this week and I intend to continue analysing what the government is saying and reactions to this announcement over the next few weeks. The language originally used by organisations which [...]
Continue reading »
4
May
Posted by Frances Laing in Criticisms of the EYFS, Early Years Foundation Stage, Election, EYFS, General Election, History of opposition to EYFS learning and development targets, parent's guide to early years foundation stage, Summer born children, The Labour Party Manifesto 2010. Tagged: A hung Parliament, Criticisms of the EYFS, Early Years Foundation Stage, parent's guide to the early years foundation stage, Sats reform, The Labour Party Manifesto 2010, The Liberal Democrat Manifesto. 3 Comments
Measuring things can be very useful, can’t it? Especially for small children. A tape measure is fun to use. Clocks tell us when it’s time for tea…(or in this case – hot chocolate in M and S). But (and it’s a big but) – targets can also distort the way we perceive our fellow human beings. [...]
Continue reading »
26
Apr
Posted by Frances Laing in Criticisms of the EYFS, Early Years Foundation Stage Amendments, Election, General Election, History of opposition to EYFS learning and development targets, parent's guide to early years foundation stage, Summer born children, The Labour Party Manifesto 2010. Tagged: Criticisms of the EYFS, Documenting our application for a parental exemption, Dr. Penelope Leach, Early Years Foundation Stage, parent's guide to the early years foundation stage, The Labour Party Manifesto 2010, The Liberal Democrat Manifesto. 3 Comments
As a family we’ve come a long way since we applied for and were refused a parental exemption to the learning and development requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage legislation in our state-funded primary school. It was back in August last year that I first became aware of the existence of the organisation Open [...]
Continue reading »
