Should your child's reception teacher have GCSE maths and English?

[mrz]

https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/dfe-drops-gcse-maths-and-english-requirement-early-years-educators

Uhm, if you are implying that I am foreign and not having English C GCSE, yes, I can understand my English isn't perfect. But for education, I do have 2 degrees(not in England), so, I am not completely uneducated.

Irvine, you are really confusing me now. I didn't know a thing about your background and can't see how you may have felt I was referring to your nationality or education! It has, as far as I can see, nothing to do with this thread?

When I referred to personal stuff I just meant that you kept insisting I was not a kind person to have been anonymously honest about my feelings on my preschool manager's literacy levels, and that you made assumptions about the circumstances in which I live, insisting I must have other options available for my child. I should never have 'risen' to your first comment directed at me, and should not have carried on with an argument which has become quite an unpleasant tangent to an otherwise interesting and valid thread. Let's leave it now.

I never said you are not kind person, just said doesn't sound nice.
Anyways, agreed to leave it.
Ignore me in the future, and I will ignore you.

There is almost no maths whatsoever in Reception and even if there was I couldn't care less whether it was a GCSE or an equivalent qualification my DC's teacher had. I would much rather have someone that was better at teaching and dealing with social and emotional development (which is what children should be concentrating on at that age) rather than analysing literature or solving quadratic equations. If we want to improve the standard of education we need to make teaching more appealing to high quality candidates. Gove seemed more interested in putting obstacles in the way of prospective teachers even in subjects which were struggling to recruit as it is.

No maths in reception?? Totally incorrect.

Many of you have an odd idea of EY education. No maths!!!!!!!!!

Maths is one of the seven learning goals in Early Years, and there are 22-36 months outcomes (and above of course) on the framework.

Yes, really worrying that Maths is not considered important in early years. Just because the teachers don't say "it's maths time children" doesn't mean it it isn't happening all the time , through play, adult led sessions etc.
I have been asked by adults in reception many times to confirm the names of 2D shapes before they work with a group.
It is equally important as the other areas of learning.

I agree, storynanny. There has to be a good foundation (no pun intended!) for enjoyable and confident maths learning as children progress through the key stages. EY teachers/workers have such an important role to play in it.

To be brutally frank, we can not have adults teaching our children, of any age, who are only one or two steps ahead in subject knowledge. Any subject, any year group.

Ffs GCSE maths is not one or two steps ahead of a 3 year old.

30% of 16 year olds fail GCSE maths. What jobs do we want them to do if not the minimum wage ones?

I meant functional maths. It's exactly the sort of numeracy skills needed.

Why do we want early years education to be the 'last resort' option for 16 year olds who fail their exams?

Why is it ok that early years education is a minimum wage job?

Why is it ok that early years education is a minimum wage job?

It isn't.

If you look at the functional maths exam I linked to above I can't understand why you would think it an inadequate amount of maths knowledge to effectively work with 3-4 year olds.

I used to teach one of the nursery nurses who looks after my DD, she's not the most academic, but she is absolutely fabulous with my DD who loves her. My DD can count and do simple addition and subtraction, I'm pretty sure the nursery nurse can cope.

If childcare wasn't a minimum wage job, many women wouldn't be able to go back to work.

TBH I assumed minimum wage. Low wage then?

Sorry, when I said it isn't I meant it isn't OK, not that it isn't minimum wage.
To be fair, I'm not sure what the wage is once qualified, though it is low compared to the need for qualification and the responsibility involved.

I didnt say gcse maths was one or two steps ahead of maths for 3 year olds. I meant adults working with any age groups should not be only one or two steps ahead. Sorry for any confusion

Storynanny,

So if i take your point literally, it would be fine for an adult working in a pre-school setting to have the Maths knowledge of an average 11 year old (so be able, as an 18 or 25 or 55 year old, to pass the Y6 SATs, for example) but to have no further knowledge at all?

No! I was just making the point that in my humble opinion, adults cant be just a couple of steps ahead, they need to be way ahead of young children in their grasp of numeracy and literacy skills.

I didnt intend to put a finite number of steps on the gap between adult and student if you see what I mean.

Adults working with young children need to have an understanding of how children learn maths. That's not necessarily the same thing as being well qualified in maths at all.

bigmack, but they do, of course, have to have an understanding of maths too, in order to be able to understand and answer children's maths questions.

'Do numbers go on forever?'
'What happens when you count downwards from nothing instead of upwards?'
'What do you call a shape with [insert large number of the day] sides?'
'How high is the sky?'
'What is that number on the telegraph pole?'
'(On seeing half written down) What does that line mean?'

etc etc etc etc - in the way that curious children ask the most difficult questions!

I can't see how GCSE maths would equip someone to answer those questions better than someone with functional maths.

I was thinking more along the lines of providing children with plenty of opportunities to practise their basic maths skills using a variety of concrete equipment. You don't need a GCSE in maths for that, but you do need to understand how children learn.