Children's Minister Sarah Teather has launched a review of the EYFS, and has selected Dame Clare Tickell, chief executive of Action for Children, to carry it out. She will consider whether or not the current EYFS framework is too bureaucratic, and will be looking at ways to improve the attainment of children from deprived backgrounds. Of particular focus will be ensuring that the latest research on children's learning and development is used to best effect in early years practice and provision.

At an NCB event in Westminster on July 5th 2010, she said,

"We have seen an improvement in children's achievement at five, but as well as the support and enthusiasm for the EYFS, there are also critics. Some providers, particularly the small ones in the voluntary and private sector, feel it conflicts with their principles on how children should be supported to develop".

The Minister has announced that she would like all providers to have a voice:

"The review is not about cost cutting. It's about what works for children, parents and the childcare sector. It will be an open review and we want all providers to feel involved, so that we can make sure we really get it right as we move forward. The review will be evidence based. It's a question of how we can make sure that we still have that quality".

Ms Teather believes that professionals should be allowed to "use their accountability, autonomy and judgement".

Join in our lively forums to make your views heard! What would you like to change in the EYFS? Click here to read what members have said so far.

If you haven't yet had a chance to try out our Progress Recording and Monitoring System (PRAMS) software, why not give it a try (subscribing members only). Intended as a system for recording observations and assessing them against the development matters statements of the six areas of learning, the program is intended primarily for FS1 providers and can be found in the Resource Library, or by clicking here.

An online version is now available of The Coalition: our programme for government. It sets out a programme for partnership government over the next five years.

New Local Authority Members. We're delighted to inform you that Coventry City and the LB of Redbridge LA have joined the FSF County subscription scheme. Manchester, North Tyneside, Gloucestershire, Windsor & Maidenhead, Norfolk, Guernsey and Staffordshire have renewed for a second year and Portsmouth City, Medway, Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire, Herefordshire, Cumbria, Wandsworth, South Gloucestershire are renewing for the third year. A special welcome back for Brighton & Hove, Leicestershire, Stockton-on-Tees and Brent who have just renewed for a fourth year. I am especially pleased to announce that NE Lincs, Middlesbrough, Sandwell, Suffolk, Essex, Hampshire, Birmingham and Cambridgeshire have just renewed for a 5th Year: welcome back! If you work in any of these authorities and would like to take out a free subscription, please click here. Current members from these authorities need do nothing: their account subscriptions will automatically be renewed.

New: Jun 15, 2010

Ofsted Inspection Reports for Childminders (Part 2)
In this article we look at the quality and standards of the early years provision and outcomes for children.

New: Jun 14, 2010

The Practitioner as an Explorer: Effective Observation Techniques
Observation is at the heart of effective provision, and it ensures that we keep the child at the centre of our practice. This article discusses various tools and techniques practitioners need to carry out effective observation and to support learning within the EYFS.

New: Jun 8, 2010

Becoming an EYP: key issues raised in research conducted by staff at the University of Brighton
A commissioned piece of research into the factors which help or hinder early years graduates in successfully undertaking EYPS.

New: May 27, 2010

Ofsted Inspection Reports for Childminders (Part 1)
What have recent Ofsted reports focused upon? In a two-part article we summarize over fifty childminders' reports from April and May 2010. How does your setting measure up?

Featured article: Educational Pioneers: Loris Malaguzzi, 1920-1994

Loris Malaguzzi was an Italian educationalist. In the latter half of the Twentieth Century his name became synonymous with teaching in a municipality in Northern Italy called Reggio Emilia. Malaguzzi's educational philosophy was based on citizenship, exploration and building relationships. What is unique about the education in Reggio is that its citizens had to make a fresh start after the destruction of the Second World War, from building new schools to adopting a new pedagogy. It is because of this that many educationalists believe that the Reggio Emilia approach is not transferable in its entirety to another location. As Moss explains, it is not ‘a recipe', but rather it ‘provides us with a sort of lens for looking at our own situations' (in Abbot and Nutbrown, p.133).

Loris Malaguzzi was born in 1920 in the Italian town of Correggio. He became a primary school teacher and went on to study psychology in Rome. In 1945, as the Second World War ended, he was working near the town of Reggio Emilia. He had heard that the parents of the town were building their own school after the wreckage left by the war, and he decided to visit the project. He later wrote that this first school was ‘created and run by parents in a devastated town, rich only in mourning and poverty' (Pound, p.52). Malaguzzi was inspired by the determination of these parents, and he began to work with them. It was a community effort, and this sense of citizenship and cooperation became central to Malaguzzi's theories and to the Reggio approach in general. Many more parent run centres followed, but as time went on it became harder to fund the schools. The Catholic Church and politicians in Rome were opposed to the preschools, believing that the child care they provided would encourage mothers to go out to work. In order to diffuse this opposition, Malaguzzi took his schools to the public:

‘We would teach school and show exhibits in the open air, in public parks or under the colonnade of the municipal theatre. The children were happy. The people saw, they were surprised and they asked questions' (Malaguzzi in Thornton and Brunton 1, p.4)

Almost twenty years later, in 1963, city funding was provided, and in 1967 the municipality of Reggio Emilia took over the running of the schools. In 1987, global interest in the teaching at Reggio schools inspired Malaguzzi and his fellow teachers to set up an exhibition in the United States called The Hundred Languages of Children. Malaguzzi died in 1994, but his philosophy of education remains in Reggio schools today.

(Read more) (Subscribing members article)

Featured article: The Drawings of Reception Boys: Fantasy and Frustrations

My PhD research project is centred on the communicative potential of young children's drawings. Drawing is an activity that most young children enjoy and there is much evidence to show how it can offer them a powerful means of communicating their ideas, experiences and feelings. However, The Practice Guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage (DfES, 2008) contains mixed messages: some positive things are said about drawing, but drawing as a form of communication is predominantly seen as a pre-writing skill. This view needs to be corrected as it undermines the complexity and richness of young children's drawings that often belies their apparent simplicity.

In the school year 2007/8 I made regular visits to a mixed reception/year one class in a school in rural South West England in order to explore what and how young children communicate through drawing, as well as what influences their drawings. There were 14 children involved in my project: eight girls and six boys aged between 4 years, 8 months and 5 years, 11 months. In this article I will focus on the drawings of the three reception children, who were all boys.

Each child was given two scrapbooks in which to collect their drawings: one for school and one for home. I discussed the drawings with the children, with the class teacher, and with the children's parents, as well as conducting classroom observations. The children were asked to choose their own 'project names' and throughout the research, in line with Wood's (2005) advice, the children were recognised as expert informers and witnesses regarding their own experiences and perspectives.

.......I can suggest some general implications for practice:

Firstly, each individual had his own unique ideas and means of expression. The drawings were influenced by various factors, but they were mostly self-motivated and therefore personally significant. Most of the drawings were produced at home, but even in more formal learning contexts it is important that young children are given time and space to create drawings (and painting, models etc.) that are spontaneous and meaningful. This is not to say that requested drawings cannot be meaningful, but it is misguided to judge young children's drawings in terms of realism or expect each child's to look the same.

Secondly, it is important that practitioners (and parents) engage children in conversations about their drawings in order to fully understand their interests and intentions, and to also show that their drawings are valued (Davis, 2005). If the conversations are natural and enjoyable the children might then be more likely to volunteer information, as I found as my study progressed. Conversations need only take a few minutes, but sensitive questioning could lead to useful insights (e.g. tell me about your drawing...who is this, what are they doing/thinking, where did your idea come from? etc.). These insights could aid practitioners with assessment and also help in planning relevant and worthwhile learning activities, linked to the children's drawing interests.

Finally, practitioners (and parents) shouldn't feel that offering guidance to support children's drawings might in some way disturb their creativity. After all, activities like writing are frequently modelled and supported in the classroom (Kress, 2000). Faye, the class teacher, often drew for the children and also invited them to offer feedback on her drawings. If we want both boys and girls to enjoy drawing, and make the most of their skills, then they must see that we enjoy drawing and find it a useful way of communicating too.

(Read more) (Subscribing members article)