New national curriculum for the under fives - is this true?

[gizmo]

or is The Times getting its facts wrong?

They want 3/4 year olds to write sentences with simple punctation, interpret phonics and use some simple formal maths ideas. With no 'opt-out' for any nursery or pre-school. So Steiner Schools/nurseries/Montessori etc will have no option but to teach skills which are (as far as I can see) probably not age appropriate for the vast majority of 3/4 year olds.

I really cannot believe this - I shall have to go and google what they are proposing. But if they are, how the hell do we stop them?

Over 3000 signatures so far

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I have a 3 year old who is bilingual Spanish/English. I speak Spanish to him at home and at school he has started learning English. He is way behind because of this, but he will catch up, as did I at his age. I am now fluent in both. This EYFS thing has got me even more worried though. He has enough pressure as it is now to learn to talk and to have to learn how to write as well!!!! this is going to cause him to be even shyer than he is now!!! Do they not take into consideration parents who want a normal childhood for thier children!!! And who are bilingual as well....

Haven't read the whole post nor the newspaper article but all I can say is that I have worked with 2/3 year olds for the past 3 years and have been using the Birth to 3 framework, I'm now using the EYFS and it is a very similar framework to work with.
EYFS is NOT about a final goal and NOT about pushing children to be able to do things at all. It is about looking at what the child enjoys doing, or things going on in their life, for instance if a child in my care had recently had a new baby sibling we may share "new baby" stories or do dolly play and talk about what things Mummy has to do for baby and how kind it would be to help Mummy..
If a child likes drawing pictures and you've observed him/her spending a long time doing so you might put some water painting or other mark making on their personal planning to develop their interests and introduce them to new resources and materials.
Although I haven't used the documents with older children and can't comment on how they'd work, I strongly believe it's a positive step.. rather than having all of the "STEPPING STONES" aka GOALS with the old foundation stage document!!!
Definitely IMO a POSITIVE change.
If you're concerned about it coming into action TALK to you childs key worker/nursery group leader/teacher.. that's what we're there for!!

I never knew anything about this, my daughter is at playgroup and will be going to nursery this september as she turns three, I really wanted to send her to a montessori school as i prefer the philosophy but cant afford the fees which is a real shame but I reconciled myself that these early years are mainly play years and she has been enjoying playgroup. I am shocked by the amount of paperwork that seems to be involved here and i dont want her to be constantly tick boxed at such a young age, i would be slightly disturbed if she was being made to correct her grammar and punctuation if she managed to write a sentence at this age. this all seems to be about stats for the sake of stats and governmnent having new statistics to pat themselves on the back with. Will my child be healthier and happier and better off at all in the long run by worrying about writing aged 3-5? I doubt it, thankyou for putting the video link on here and highlighting this worrying issue, as soon as I find the petition I will be signing it. I am interested in working in Early years primarily because this is the age when children can be themselves and their natural curiosity and interest in learning is at its height and should be preserved not pressured out of them for life.

Reminds me of ds's childminder who was convinced he had a language delay because he did not know all the words on her list. The fact that he knew countless other words- and was in fact bilingual- was something that had passed her by. She was a highly conscientious childminder who prided herself on always doing the right training courses and having her paperwork up to scratch. I don't really want more pressure of the same kind on people like her.