CM Club- EYFS - What changes are you making/ What are you doing??

[sunnyshine]

Am a registered CM but been on maternity leave for a few months! How are you all implementing this into your day and are there any drastic changes i need to make? I am hearing different things from different people and dont really want to go off course! help please!

This news story illustrates why I don't have much confidence in Ofsted gradings.

If enough doubt has been placed into the government's mind that they have decided to review some of the goals, why carry on with the EYFS in September? Why not wait until the results of the review and then decide what to do. Incidentally, they are only going to review 2 of the literacy goals; the rest of the EYFS goals still stand.

I never asked for any of the goals to be removed. What I meant was that they should be aimed at children who are aged 6 or 7. There is widespread research that shows that many of the EYFS goals are developmentally inappropriate when targetted at children aged 5. The OpenEYE group say: "OpenEYE continues to challenge Beverley Hughes and the DCSF to produce a single piece of convincing and methodologically sound research evidence or professional support for the statutory imposition of target-driven literacy and numeracy goals on the under 5?s. For its part, Open EYE can produce at least 32 recent research studies and statements from professionals and educational groups which indicate such a strategy to be ineffective, unjustifiable or, more importantly, that it has potential harmful side-effects for a child?s longer term confidence, feeling of self-worth and future academic achievement."

I am also concerned by the levels of alcoholism and alcohol abuse in this country.

Language comes before literacy and it is strong language skills that pre-school learning should be all about.

It is a shocking story. But one corrupt childminder doesn't prove the point. Police, clergy and medical professionals have all been shown to behave illegally despite far stricter peer observation.

I agree that Ofsted grading systems are far from reliable, but I would still rather work with the current system to the best of my ability than resign myself to bitterness.

Thank you for clarifying the review of the 2 literacy goals.

I believe the EYFS is to be relevant up until the 31st August following a child's 5th birthday. A significant number of children would therefore be nearer to 6yrs than to 5yrs when their profiles are written.

Some children with special needs do develop their literacy skills before language skills. I do however agree with you in the importance of focussing primarily on strong pre-school language skills.

I also think - professional differences of opinion over the EYFS notwithstanding - that we actually have very much in common in our vision of the core elements of quality out of home care.

My point about Ofsted grades is that someone who behaves like that nursery owner did can still manage to get an outstanding from Ofsted. To get an outstanding, all paperwork needs to be in place and it is this that Ofsted are really inspecting because, like you said, they can't really see how a setting works in just 3 hours.