Ever a sceptic about revises for revises sake (and why are they doing them? Whose pocket needed filling?), I faced the revised EYFS with some trepidation. However, what I now see (and hope that this is a vision that is embraced by all the Powers That Be), is a chance for children to really be celebrated for what they can do, rather than judged against criteria of what they cannot. Education has always been this deficit model, tested against questions and challenges that have one set right or wrong answer, and answers that have been based on a ideal of the “universal child”. However there is no one universal child, just children of this vast universe.
Taking away the ‘ages and stages’ judgement structure allows us as professionals to now talk about what the child can do in a way that suits them. A child of 3 years may be non verbal but we can still appreciate that she is knowledgeable, is enquiring, is mathematical, is communicative, is active through other forms than just spoken word. What the revised EYFS is not giving us is an easy answer and in fact it probably is making the Professionals work harder in a way that seeks to really understand the child holistically and not merely what they can or cannot do on a given day.
Maybe (hopefully) the authors of the new framework realise that learning and development is not linear but expansive, that it needs to be experienced, to be experimented with and to be painted in whichever hue the child decides for itself. That’s what I’m holding on to, and hoping that finally the education department has caught up with the Little Star vision of quality provision. As parents of Little Star children therefore, you will not see very much changing in what we do in light of the reforms, as we have always believed in the child before a system. What I hope you will see from the observations made is a celebration of not just what your children can do, but who they are.
