Jennie Lindon - What Does It Mean to Be Five?: A Practical Guide to Child Development in the Early Years Foundation Stage

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WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE FIVE?

A practical guide to child development in the Early Years Foundation Stage

Jennie Lindon

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Originally published by Step Forward Publishing Limited

St Judes Church, Dulwich Road, Herne Hill, London, SE24 0PB Tel. 020 7738 5454

2012 digital version by Andrews UK Limited

www.andrewsuk.com

Revised edition Step Forward Publishing Limited 2008

First edition Step Forward Publishing Limited 2006 www.practicalpreschoolbooks.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopied or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Focus on five-year-olds

What Does it Mean to be Five? explores the developmental needs and likely skills of five-year-olds. This book is complete in itself but five year olds have developed so far along their own personal timeline that the content links closely with the other three titles in this series, especially What does it mean to be four? The content of this book is relevant to any practitioner, working with fives anywhere in the UK. The structure of the book, however, follows the framework for England of the Early Years Foundation Stage: guidance covering from birth to five years of age that will be statutory for early years provision from September 2008.

Each book in the What does it mean to be...? series recognises that many young children attend some kind of group provision. However, the majority of five-year-olds will now be attending some kind of provision within school grounds. The exception will be where parents have already decided to educate their children at home. This option is a legal possibility, since education is compulsory but school is not. The other possibility is that young children have such profound disabilities and/or complex health conditions that mainstream reception class or primary school is not a realistic option.

So, a considerable proportion of five-year-olds attend reception class or an early year of the primary school system. A proportion of children will consequently also attend some kind of out-of-school provision: breakfast club, after-school and holiday club. Some fives continue with their childminder, who provides the out-of-school support. The objective in this book is to remain consistent with the other titles and approach five-year-olds through their development: as individuals whose uniqueness should not be limited to a role of young school pupil. Childrens learning can only be effectively and appropriately supported when adults - practitioners and parents alike - are guided by sound knowledge of child development: what children are like at different ages and what they therefore need in order to thrive.

The layout of each of the four books in this linked series includes:

• Descriptive developmental information within the main text, organised within the six areas of learning used by the Early Years Foundation Stage (England).
• For example sections giving instances of real children and real places and sometimes references to useful sources of further examples.
• Being a helpful adult boxes which focus on adult behaviour that is an effective support for childrens learning, as well as approaches that are unfriendly towards young learning.
• Food for thought headings which highlight points of good practice in ways that can encourage reflection and discussion among practitioners, as well as sharing in partnership with parents.

Where are the fives officially?

A different national framework operates in each country of the UK.

• In England from September 2008 the three to five Foundation Stage early years curriculum, will be replaced by the birth to five years framework of the Early Years Foundation Stage. This framework, just like the Foundation Stage, applies until the end of the reception class, provision that is located within a primary school. Some fives will spend most of the year that they are five within the EYFS, but some will make the move into Year 1 as five-year-olds.
• In Scotland, the Curriculum Framework for Children 3-5 applies to the experiences of fives, but again some five-year-olds have moved into the primary school system. Current developments focus on a Curriculum for Excellence to cover from three to eighteen years of age. In the earlier years, the main focus for development is for a continuity of more active learning and play from the early education of three- to five-year-olds into the initial years of primary school.
• In Wales, many five-year-olds will also be in primary school and experiencing the Foundation Phase curriculum that will apply until they reach seven years. This development aims to take the play-based approach of the early years curriculum into the first years of primary school.
• In Northern Ireland, young children start primary school in the September of the school year after their fourth birthday - so fives will officially be school pupils. The main focus for current development is a Foundation Stage for the first two years of primary school (four- and five-year-olds) that will postpone over-structured educational approaches.

Development matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

From September 2008 in England many fives will remain officially within a framework that spans the full range of early childhood. All early years practitioners in England need to become familiar with the details of the EYFS, but the good practice described is not new. Part of your task in finding your way around the EYFS materials is recognising just how much is familiar when your provision already has good practice. (See Further Resources for information on how to access materials about the EYFS.) The EYFS follows the pattern of developmental areas, established with the Foundation Stage, and there are only a few changes within the details of that structure.

There are six areas of learning within the EYFS.

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Communication, Language and Literacy
• Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy
• Knowledge and Understanding of the World
• Physical Development
• Creative Development

This framework is one way of considering the breadth of childrens learning. But of course children do not learn in separate compartments; the whole point is that childrens learning crosses all the boundaries. The aim of identifying areas of learning is to help adults to create a balance, to address all the different, equally important areas of what children gain across the years of early childhood.

When the EYFS is in place, all these records have to connect with the six areas of learning. A rich resource of developmental information and practice advice is provided in the Practice Guidance booklet of the EYFS, in Appendix 2 that runs from pages 22-114. None of this material should be used as a checklist, or have to-do grids. It is crucial that early years practitioners and teams hold tight to this key point. In each of these very full pages, the same pattern applies.

• The developmental information in the first column, Development matters, is a reminder of the kinds of changes likely to happen - not an exhaustive list of what happens, and in this exact way. The examples work like the Stepping Stones guidance of the Foundation Stage.
• The broad and overlapping age spans are deliberate: birth to 11 months, 8-20 months, 16-26 months, 22-36 months, 30-50 months and 40-60+ months. The aim is to refresh about development, supporting practitioners to take time over all the steps. Practitioners, who work with younger children, should not rush to the final early learning goals (ELGs).