Early Years - tell me my negative view on ‘Write Dance’ is wrong

[EmEllGee]

I work in an all girls school, and we tend to have a lot of very bright girls in our Early Years - some already reading/attempting to write/good knowledge of letter sounds.

There appears to be a ‘theory’ in education that this is wrong and is as a result of pushy parents. That they’ve somehow missed out on vital parts of their education, and the worst thing we can do is encourage this any further. E.g - as a school we think ‘write dance’ is the way to teach writing. Therefore we will be spending a year focussing on our midline, waving arms, making waves - with children who can already write their name.

Is this right? What research - (robust peer reviewed research) has ‘write dance’ been through? Or is it similar to ‘brain gym’?

And a parent - my daughter was writing her name at age 2. She didn’t do ‘write dance’ - and now exceeding level for writing at KS2 SATS. I don’t think she’d been irreparably damaged.

@EdithGrantham

It’s a case of hearing it, and not agreeing with it. I agree that it tends to be a one size fits all.

Many years ago - my school paid £200 for me to attend a BrainGym course. I sat through the whole thing thinking ‘bullshit”. Turns out it was just that.

However - the ‘trend’ at the time was it was revolutionary, and I should forsake decent teaching for 20 minutes of ‘Lazy 8’s’ each day. Time I just didn’t have.

And I’m sorry - but when I told to make an enormous faff over snack time, reject pens and pencils over waving arms in the air, not breath a letter sound because THEY ARE NOT READY - I also think bullshit.

Unfortunately there is a phrase that goes - those that can do, those that can’t teach, and those that can’t teach - teach teachers. And I’d say that particularly happens in the Early Years. Lots of cutsie ideas based on dubious ideology - and in the case of BrainGym - someone making a profit.

It’s like - before the invention of ‘rolling (bloody) snacktime’ - we’d brought up a generation of adults who were unable to select a cup, pour liquid, or select food independently. FFS!!! So - therefore - we should make snack time this enormous hoo-har where it’s practically impossible to monitor who has/hasn’t eaten properly, who has/hasn’t washed their hands, ensure children aren’t choking, which takes one adult away (for at least half a morning) to monitor and have a dozen tick lists for, and then to have a truckload of laminated twinkl signage. But apparently this is far more important than learning how to hold a pencil/learn letter sounds (which is a criminal offence in EYFS terms).

I was referring more to the suggestions that play isn't learning when countless research would say otherwise. BrainGym wasn't just applied in early years, in fact I see a lot of bs in KS1 and 2; still banging on about learning styles for instance.

Also, with rolling snack, the idea isn't just that children develop independence by helping themselves it's also that they can eat and drink when they are hungry and thirsty. You can't know for certain if every child has come to school having had breakfast so by having snack available all morning they can access it when they need it. I've never found it needs an adult to monitor past the first few weeks, the same as any other area of the classroom. If they're hungry they'll eat, if they're thirsty they'll drink and other children are pretty good at policing using hand gel. It also avoids stopping them in the flow of whatever they're doing which I can tell you're not bothered about but does have benefits.

Also, why are you using laminated twinkl stuff if you don't like it, it's not mandatory, I certainly don't use it as I don't have a subscription and CBA with laminating unless it's absolutely necessary