SISL: Early years and primary education ahead

	The UK's Leading Education 'Do-Tank'	Search
	The UK's Leading Education 'Do-Tank'		Contact Us

The National Education Trust is an independent charitable foundation dedicated to
the promotion and sharing of excellent practice and innovation in education.

Early years and primary education ahead
Tony Eaude

Click here for a print version of this article.

The text is part of an open letter sent to the main political parties from an alliance of organisations, including the National Education Trust.

As individuals and organisations concerned with young children's education, we welcome the recognition of the importance of primary education in the future success of both society and individuals.

We hope that reports such as that of the House of Commons Select Committee, the Rose Report and the Cambridge Primary Review will be the basis of detailed and thoughtful discussion in the teaching profession, among parents and within political discourse. They are too important to be ignored.

As a group, we represent a wide range of interests and affiliations, but are independent of any political party or grouping. We believe that the general election in 2010 presents a vital opportunity to review primary education, to set out a renewed vision and to outline priorities for the next five years.

Rather than offer support for, or opposition to, any political party, we seek to highlight the key issues and the direction which policy should take.

The last twenty years, since the 1988 Act and the advent of the National Curriculum, have seen many improvements in the state of primary education, especially for the youngest children.

We pay tribute to how the teachers and other staff who work in our primary schools and early years settings have often been central to their communities and provided a major source of support and opportunity, especially in the most disadvantaged areas. We do not accept that education is in crisis, but there are major challenges to be addressed in the next five years and beyond.

Despite considerable efforts by Governments to raise standards and reduce educational inequality, these have been only partially effective. The overall thrust of policy has had a damaging impact on those children whose needs are greatest - those who because of the circumstances of their lives find it most difficult to learn and to sustain their learning into adolescence and beyond. We believe that two key issues must be addressed anew:

reducing levels of inequality both of provision and outcome
raising children's engagement with learning and standards of achievement.

We welcome the higher level of funding for schools in recent years, though young children's care and education has always been, and continues to be, relatively underfunded. Well-directed investment in the early years more than pays for itself in the long term – notably in early identification of difficulties and improved standards of attainment, behaviour and self-esteem. Recognising the likely pressures of funding, we call for all political parties to commit to maintaining at least the present level of resourcing for early years and primary education and to improving this, as a priority.

The challenges go far beyond resourcing. Policy and practice need to address the reality that:

too many children grow up with much lower aspirations and opportunities than others;
too many children become disengaged from learning;
too many teachers and practitioners feel constrained from offering a wide range of entitlement and opportunity, especially greater breadth and balance in the curriculum;
schools and early years settings are subject to constant change and overload.

Above all, we see the solution as involving less control from the centre and a greatly enhanced trust in, and role for, teachers and school leaders to work with parents and communities in a climate of mutual trust and support.

The role of Government is to provide the resources and an overall framework rather than prescribe the detail of curriculum and how to teach. This involves some risk, but believe that unleashing the creativity of children and teachers is necessary to ensure improved learning and teaching.

We highlight below nine areas to be addressed to provide the policy context for necessary change.

A curricular framework, which builds on the success of the Early Years Foundation Stage, reflecting a coherent set of educational aims, taking account of children's stages of development and offering the breadth and balance likely to encourage greater engagement with learning;
A review of the Ofsted Framework of Inspection to ensure that, rather than focusing primarily on data, this forms part of a more developmental mechanism for school accountability, using both self-evaluation and a school profile, across the whole range of provision, taking a more holistic view of children's achievements;
The abolition of Key Stage 2 SATS to ensure that primary schools, especially, do not place undue emphasis on measurable outcomes in a narrow range of subject areas, at the expense of others, especially the humanities, the arts and children's personal, social and physical development;
A process for measuring national trends in standards based on judicious national sampling rather than one which, as at present, also judges the success or otherwise of schools;
A broad, rigorous approach to assessment to help teachers to meet the learning needs of children, based on an enhanced role for teacher judgement and professionalism;
A review of the requirements of Initial Teacher Education and opportunities for Continuing Professional Development to enhance the pedagogical skills and professionalism of teachers, including their understanding of the importance of play in early learning;
A continued commitment to multi-agency provision and work to support, in particular, the most vulnerable children and families;
A reduction in the external demands on schools, school leaders and teachers to enable a greater emphasis on teaching and learning;
A commitment to providing a funding mechanism which more accurately reflects the needs of early years and primary school settings, to enable entitlement to an appropriate curriculum and early intervention where necessary.

In re-affirming our belief that the education of young children is the most important investment that a society can make, we call on all the political parties to address these issues in their manifestos.

Dr Tony Eaude is a research consultant based at Oxford University and a Leading Thinker at the National Education Trust.

Phone (44) (0)207 702 0707

Follow us on	Support NET	Join our mailing list	Buy NET products online
Copyright © National Education Trust 2012 The National Education Trust asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this web site. Unless otherwise specified, all material on this website may be used for non-commercial purposes, on condition that the source is acknowledged. The National Education Trust is not responsible for the content of external websites.