A campaign from the "Save Childhood Movement" is under way to support their belief that children in England are being badly let down by the system. They state that our children start formal learning much earlier than elsewhere in the world, they are put under all sorts of developmentally inappropriate pressures that damage their heath and wellbeing and now even their play is being eroded. Boys and summer-born children are particularly disadvantaged by the current system and can carry the consequences throughout their lives.
The Save Childhood Movement claim that ministers in England persist in seeing the early years as a preparation for school rather than a vitally important stage in its own right. This period of life is when children establish the values and relationships that underpin their sense of self, their attitude to later learning, and their communicative skills and natural creativity.
They have created an online petition, which currently has over 3,300 signatures. If you agree with their core objectives, detailed below, you can sign it here.
2) protect young children's natural developmental rights
3) prevent baseline testing
4) reinstate the vital role of play
5) call for an English developmentally appropriate Foundation Stage for children between the ages of 3 and 7.
Totally agree!! I’m a childminder and find that parents just want their children to have fun and take part in normal family activities. They want to know they are safe and cared for and not sat down and ‘tested’ and compared to a development chart.
Completely agree with Tina Matthews!
The years birth to 5 are a unique time. children learm more in these years than at any other time but this must be in an environment appropriate to their age. It is not a time for cramming and rote learning. It is a time for investigation and freedom of expression, for following their individual interests. A good early years practitioner will provide for an individual child’s development in a setting with appropriate staff/child ratios which are nnot matched in the school environment
The Welsh have a 3-7 year old foundation stage so why can’t we?
100% behind this
I think its rIdiculous that children are barely 4 snd starting in long days of formal education.
children are not learning any more than would being at home.it all boils down to free childcare and encouraging parents to go to work instead of encouraging them to be allowed to be the great parents theyd want to be.It will come back and bite us in years to come