curriculum

[loopey]

saw today about a curriculum being set for under 3's, what do we all think?

[maggie01]

Why don't they just let children be children and let them develop in their own time. Some are slower than others at that age but the majority soon catch up.

[louadams6]

under 3's? im speechless, thats awful

[thikasabrik]

I read this article in a newspaper today and I was appalled. Under three's are babies for goodness sake yet the government proposes that their nursery curriculum will include 'communication, language and literacy.' Literacy for babies????? This will not only apply to nurseries but to childminders as well and will cost several billion pounds to implement.If this is the state of things to come, it won't be long before there will be compulsary education for babies in the womb ("No you can't come out into the world until you can recite your twelve times tables in Latin.")

Rant over. I need to lie down in a darkened room now with a very large vodka.

[andy hughes]

Education is, always has been, and always will be an emotive issue, because we all have opinions on it, because we';ve all been to school.

Successive governments have been keen to exploit this as a notion of 'parent pwoer' which is complete and utter nonsense. Because I have been to school, and have children at school, does not empower me to make rational thought-out decisions on eucation, any more than being short sighted means I can hold forth about eye tests.

Parents seem to think they have a right to impinge their views on the education system - but no-one would demand a seat at the Marks An Spencers marketing policy meeting just because they buy a cream cake every Saturday.

The notion is a fallacy - and trhis is a further exmple of it. Pretend you are doing something 'useful' and people vote for you ... except maybe they don;t any more?

[dove]

absolutely disgusting

[loopey]

if this is implemented i will definately not send my child to nuresery and if it is forced upon childminders i will give up childminding as well, i beleive children of this age need to be learning about social skills and the world around them, I am amazed that this can even be considered for our children.

[curiosity]

pap

[loopey]

what does pap mean?

[loopey]

honestly andy i appreciate your veiws but talking about m and s in the same conversation as our childrens well being is ludicrous surely we have the right to say about our own childrens education, we may not know about the in depth running of a school but we certainly know whats best for our own children and we can see the stress and pressures our children are already coping with, as parents we get the brunt of it, so yes we are qualified to be able to have a say in OUR childrens education.

[mimififi]

It is ridiculous, especially seeing as there are curriculums enforced for all the age groups; enforced in a paperwork way with little regard paid to on-th-ground experience of actual teaching, and still yet, if you take you child out of school to home educate, you are bound by NO curriculum whatsoever in the UK. As a homeschooler you apparently are able to make correct choices for your children, choose their texts, chooses their breadth and scope of sequence, run your day as you see fit, choose your hours, teach what you want to and leave out what you want to; and yet, apparently as a parent of a child in state school or with an under 3 in childcare, you are not able to choose what is best...? Bizarre.

Lets get everyone on the same hymn sheet .gov!

(However, I do think it is a bit sad that this is obviously coming to light as there are an increasing number of parents 'out there' who have their under3's plugged into TV all day and they have very little stimulation of any type, no baking. reading, painting, playing, visiting etc etc...I guess this is where this has come from, and it is really sad as the majority of us (esp us genius ABers) give our children a broad and varied life from day 1.)

[Butty]

I agree that it seems strange that the government can impose a curriculum on children who don't need to be in a formal education situation at that age.

However I wouldn't be too worried about it. Our daughter has been at an educational day nursery from 6 months and is now 2 1/2 years. She has always followed the nursery's own curriculum with regular assessment which gets reported to us (ie first time she built bricks, first time she spoken a sentence, first time she recognised a selection of shapes or colours etc).

We also get a written report on her every time she moves up a class (about every 9 months).

Of course she doesn't realise this is happening and just gets on with the various topics such as art, cookery, swimming, storytime, dance, music, recognition of colours/shapes/easy words etc as well as lots of free play.

At least we know that, in addition to what we teach her, she is getting the full raft of stimulation which she seems to so enjoy.

[andy hughes]

Hi loopey I similarly take your point, but the comparison was designed to illustrate that just because we have a perpiheral input into something, it doesn't mean we are able, much less qualified, to have reasonable input into the decision-making process.

I am married to a School Inspector who has twenty-five years' experience as a teacher, Deputy head, and Head, and I still don't feel qualified to make informed decisions on education - which, and this is the important point i think - is not the same as taking an active interest, and wanting the best for all our children.

The successive government carrot that parents have 'rights' and make meaningful input is, and always has been an electioneering smokescreen. Children are the recipients of education, not parents - the style and delivery of it should be left to education professionals - which patently does not include the current Education Secretary - or most of her predecessors.

[Baronvhb]

I worked a placement in a private nursery where they were teaching french. Ridiculous really, as the primary schools these kids would be attending did not have french in their curriculum. Most of the kids could not communicate effectively in English, and I firmly believe that it is because they spent the majority of their day having their heads filled with twaddle.

Children of that age already have development needs which will not be met teaching 'rudimentry math and writing.' This is the stage where they learn to communicate verbally and learn about basic relationships and communication with peers.

Kids should be allowed to be kids, what will it be next?? sexual education and personal development when in nappies??

[mimififi]

I spoke to the teacher today at my daughter's playgroup and she is very worried by this talk of a curriculum. She was telling me about the paperwork that they already have to do, with an actual curriculum, there will undoubtedly be even more paperwork. Her point was that either they want teachers to play with 3s and unders, or they want them to teach and do paperwork, she can't do both.

In a system which is already understaffed, this is not envouraging new staff into the profession, and this new move I think will be disasterous. I think the inpact it will have also on private childminders will be awful. Child minders are already ofsteded, which is good, it is nice to have some level of inspection, but if they introduce this, it will really impact them. I think we then run the risk of child minders operating un-registered (even though it isn't allowed), or an even larger shortage.

It is, in my view, bureacracy gone raving mad... Leave the littl'uns to be littl'uns.

[loopey]

i had one of my childminding children come home from school yesterday (he's 5 ) sobbing his heart out saying he cant understand what to do cos the works too hard, c'mon he's 5 yrs old, he shouldnt be made to feel like this at his age, he's going to have enough troubles and stresses in his life when he becomes an adult, are we going to place this pressure on our toddlers now,

[bandy]

Time to move to Steiner Waldorf education. It will never be implimented there!

http://www.steinerwaldorf.org.uk/welcome.htm

[Gef]

Perhaps we should go back to the good old days where chilgd stays at home with Mum until aged 5 and then goes to school. It seemed to work.

By the way I have no objection to French or any other language being used (taught ?) as early as possible as it is easier to learn then. Most Dutch folk speak English because they are taught it from an early age/watch British TV.

Shall now go and lay down in my coffin to avoid the bulletts.

[Wani]

Stop panicking!!!!!!!! I work in a private day nursery we have been using the governments (fully endorsed by ofsted) new Birth to Three Framework for some time and i honestly don't know what the fuss is about. It is actually a system that observes the child in their every day environment (no scary tests - baby song cd's encrypted with A level maths or anything as ridiculous) there are no set boundries it covers lots of very basic stuff it encourages your childs carers to get to know the child further - help in any areas that the child is struggling and give the necessary help in a caring rnvironment.

This is a simple as forming bonds, friendships etc. Encouraging a child to make choices for themselves ( as simple as "would you like a blue, red or orange bowl for snacktime?"), Helping with dressing eg allowing a child to pull a zip up on their clothing on their own.

It is a basic observation of everyday occurances your child will not know anything about this and is as simple as observing eye contact, smiling, learing to share, build friendships etc etc - all nurserys have had something similar for years just without a specific name.

Surely if your child is being nurtured in a loving caring professional environment these observations are a good thing - in rare cases they could help to detect problems and surely this would be a good thing- but that is a worse case scenario.

i would stress that this musn't put you off putting your child into nursery this is a tiny part of the job a child care provider does - ask to see the Birth to Three framework when you visit any nursery will be happy to show you what it is all about.

[curiosity]

Sorry Loopey, just read your post. Pap is probably a local (north east) saying, basically meaning c**p. Pap literally means pulp/mush I think. Anyway I agree with you, but thought I had a lot to say as well, so instead of writing forever I tried to sum it up, and that's the word that came to mind. Good Post.