The great outdoors is it game over for play time?

May 14th, 2012

The national trust recently released figures at the beginning of the month indicating less than one in ten children regularly play in wild places, that a third has never climbed a tree, and that one in ten cannot ride a bike.

What has changed the landscape of our children’s play? Is it an increase in road traffic? An increase in new technologies? An increase in protective parenting and stranger danger? Longer working hours? Or simply a reduction in recreational areas. Well it appears there are elements of each contributing to these statistics.
Catherine Prisk, Director of Play England, think it’s due to more structured play, (as demands of home and work are juggled) coupled with watchful parents or carers, “people do not think eight or nine-year-olds should be out in groups exploring and building dens,” says Prisk. This obviously a decade ago would have been the norm.
In the 1960’s in fact, it would have been rare for a child, or children to have not spent most of their time outdoors, in fields, parks, streets, alleys and bombsites. This independent child has all but disappeared from the social norm; in fact some may even view children being unsupervised as being uncared for. So why is there this lack of independent children?
Steve Humphries a BBC author of a series on children’s play, feels it is mainly due to ‘stranger danger’. He mentions that while the number of reported child molestation and abduction cases “remained extremely small”, in parents minds child abduction often appears a greater and more insidious threat. Is this fear driving the death of outdoor play?
Parenting author Andrew Watson reinforces that overt media coverage aspect of stranger danger: “I think there’s the element blown up by the media that if one child gets abducted it is front page news but if 20 children get safely returned to their parents the same day nobody takes any notice”.

There is also a resounding agreement amongst these experts that the lack of outside play areas, green spaces and the rapid increase in road traffic have all played a massive contributory factor. “A huge rise in car ownership and road traffic proved a big threat to children’s safety,” says Humphries. In fact a report from the Universities of London, Sheffield and East London, entitled Children’s Playground Games and Songs in the New Media Age, 2009-11 states “the evidence seems to be that street play has declined considerably” and that “sites for play over the last century have become increasingly urban, constrained, planned, regulated and overseen”.

Meanwhile children are also said to be feeling the strain.  Writing for IOL, Daniella Renzon says: “Their schedules are packed by parents who want to give their children every advantage in this competitive world.” She adds: “So much is squeezed into a rushed and demanding day that they are left with little or no time for simple, unstructured play.” The children are feeling an increase pressure through over scheduling accompanied with longer working hours and carer requirements to supervise child play, if the children are allowed to have unsupervised play the carer could face a number of issues and complaints.

Or is it all simply the case that many children have fallen under the spell of the explosion of gadgets and TV channels? Which has made staying indoors glued to a screen more appealing than venturing into the great outdoors. There are a number of statistics to support either argument on this front. Ultimately what are the consequences for those children not experiencing outdoor play? To this Prisk replies: “What happens when you’re stuck inside all day? How do you feel? Compare it to how you feel if you go outside to the park or outside to play. Kids need that joy. They need those memories on an everyday basis.”

 

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If you are thinking of getting qualified or training your staff now is the time to do it!

May 3rd, 2012

In August all funding for Work Place Learning (WPL) is changing. Now is the time to get your employees trained up and qualified.

This will mean that come August there will be no funding for people aged 25 or above, and they will be expected to pay for their qualifications themselves.

Learners aged 24 will be co funded on a level 2 or fully funded for a level 3, and all 19-23 year olds will be fully funded on a level 2 or 3.

We can still arrange funding and learning before these changes come into place. The remaining funding is on a first come first served basis so get your applications in quickly!

Email us at trainingsales@parenta.com

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EYFS welcomed by the early year’s sector.

May 2nd, 2012

The revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) has been given a tentative welcome by the early year’s sector. This, in part, is due to the introduction of Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development and Communication and Language.

The early years sector will have to adhere to this framework as it will be mandatory from September, the aim is that it will unify and instigate change amongst practitioners to improve current practice. Practitioners will be the ones interpreting and putting into practice the EYFS, it aims to be flexible and malleable whilst encompassing most, if not all areas. This is why the revisions and response from the early year’s sector has been so influential.

Author and early years consultant Penny comments that “…the other reason I am happy with the EYFS overall is there is a clear requirement for providers to plan for individual children and what they plan must be “challenging and enjoyable”. That should put an end to activities that are not stimulating but boring or not age appropriate. I am delighted to see that…”

So why is the welcome tentative? In short, there are still a range of issues that the early year’s sector feels hasen’t been thrashed out, issues like clarity over wording and the legal requirement of some words and context. There is also an issue that despite attempting to reduce paper work the EYFS may in fact increase or maintain the already high level, this falls mainly down to report keeping and whether government will allow practitioners to keep records in their own way or rather that they will have to follow local authority or Ofsted guidelines.

There is also concern that the reduction in early learning goals (EGLS) may not have actually reduced the content, or are even a good idea in themselves. The early years sector also raised questions over the focus of learning, be it through books, or on science etc. Even down to the gender bias of the document – does it fairly reflect both a boys and a girls interests. There are even questions about geographical location bias, has the EYFS been written to accommodate both the urban and country based children.

Finally, the inclusion of a two year old check to spot children that may require additional support is viewed as extremely important by the early year’s sector, but again a call to clarify the guidelines for how the children should be assessed or how their development should be tracked. This could mean an additional pressure for ALL children to be achieving certain levels, whilst not taking into account each child’s individual needs, actual age or health. All of which gear up to the EYFS requirement of school readiness and a more formalised learning (which is disputed and supported through a number of statistics – without any definitive answer of whether formality of learning actually achieves results). This in turn may mean that the practitioner becomes driven by targets and could lose focus on the child as an individual. Are physical requirements such as walking or talking formalised? Or mainly based on a child’s individual development, could this be applied to things such as numeracy or literacy in the educational sense?

So this tentative welcome is, in summing up, welcomed as the early years sector want a clarified structure and guidelines which they can interpret and use to enable the best care for the child possible, and in theory the current EYFS seems to tick these boxes.

 

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Free child care entitlement time to bridge the gap.

March 15th, 2012

According to a new report by the National Audit Office, the Department of Education have succeeded in sustaining a 95 percent take up of three to four years olds in free childcare places since 2008. This level has been sustained despite an 8 percent increase in the eligible children for these places.

This positive news is slightly marred by the fact that there is a wide difference between take up, and to actual access to quality childcare. This access versus quality of provision seems to be hinging on geographical location in the UK. The report goes on to highlight that areas of high deprivation are less likely to be able to offer high quality childcare and that the take up of children from the most disadvantaged areas is lower than national take up. This gap needs to be addressed if we as a nation are to see real value for money later on.

Amyas Morse, Head of the National Audit Office, commented on the need for this to be bridged to ensure that an actual impact is made.

“Both of these are necessary if it is to get the best return for children from the £1.9 billion spent each year.”

This investment in early year’s childcare will not only save money later on, but arguably and more importantly, will have a high beneficial impact for the children. We can see this proof through the Sure Start Scheme and consequently the Sure Start Generation. The 2008 Study commented that three years olds with access to children’s centres in their area had better social development, more positive parenting, higher immunisation records and fewer injuries. All of which compound to a more socially aware and well adjusted generation.

Sarah Teather, the Children’s Minister commented that

“ The earliest years of a child’s life are crucial to later development, which is why the coalition government is determined to invest heavily in this area….We are offering more 2 years olds from disadvantaged areas to attend nursery school because a huge amount of evidence clearly shows that these children will benefit most from early education… We are determined to improve the availability of quality places in disadvantaged areas, and offering free early education to around 40 percent of two years olds will help by bringing even more money into the system”

Do you feel that this is a true reflection of the state of Early Years childcare in the UK currently? Is there a true correlation between areas of high deprivation and poor quality healthcare. Let us know what you think and how this can be addressed.

 

 

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Nick Clegg’s NEET solution for 16 to 17 year olds.

March 15th, 2012

This week deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg promised to tackle the “ticking time bomb” of teenagers who are not in work, school or training. He announced a 125m scheme to get at least 55,000 young people aged between 16 and 17 years old, without GCSE’s, back into education or employment. This came after a recent release of the latest unemployment figures that showed the numbers of 16-24 year olds not in work increases by 22,000 to 1.04 million in the three months to December.

This scheme which is part of the Youth Contract, will invite businesses and charities to bid for contracts worth up to £2,200 (which will be the weekly equivalent of a jobseekers payment to the young person per week ) per 16- 17 year old who can be sustained in work, education or training for 12 months. These contracts will be paid in staggered payments to ensure at least 12 months of retention. Those who win these contracts will have a free range as to how they decide their approach. With the emphasis being on a successful outcome.

The Department of Education went on to bolster the deputy Pm’s opinion that it was important for this section of society to be engaged in meaningful activity as by the age of 42, someone who has been frequently unemployed as a teenager is likely to earn 12% – 15% less than their peers.

Speaking on Sky News, Mr Clegg said: “I think it is incredibly important that, at that very vital moment in someone’s life, when they are in their teens, that they don’t lose the ambition and the hope and the optimism about working.
“Because once that is lost, all the evidence is that it has a long-term scarring effect and makes it very difficult for youngsters to move into stable employment as adults.”

This new initiative is separate to the recently criticised workfare.

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Abacus Feedback

March 15th, 2012

We regularly get great feedback on our Abacus software and today a particularly lovely feedback came in so we thought we would share it with you:

I have used Abacus programe for Nurseries for the past 8 years and can honestly say your company is the best I have ever dealt with for service and reliability.
In this time I have never lost any data and never had a problem logging on to the system,
Your customer service is brilliant and any questions or training have been dealt with straight away.
I would have no hesitation in recommending your company to anyone as your service is second to none,

Kind regards
A J Freeman

 

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