Early Years Education: A Case Study

In the UK all children aged between 3 and 4 years have the right to receive the minimum of 15 hours education which can be used between 3 and 5 days per week. There are many ways that this can be provided.

Early years learning usually runs with adults working with children on focused activities that have specific concepts such as play involving using numbers, starting letter formation and language activities. The classroom will usually contain educational toys/play areas and children will be encouraged to work/play independently and choose from a wide range of activities. Foundation stage classrooms/areas also have facilities outside the classroom for outside play.

The early years curriculum that supports children's care learning and development is the foundation phase. Foundation phase promotes learning through play. There are 7 areas of learning that consists of:

Preschool education began to become a concern in the early 1800s. In1805, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, implemented the ‘Pestalozzi Method’ of teaching. He believed that children learn better through activity. His hands-on concept of learning at young ages has continued to be used in modern day preschools (Silber, n.d.). Preschool establishments in America were created to provide care for toddlers of working parents during the Industrial Revolution (Lipoff, 2011). In 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson worked with a veteran politician, Sargent Shriver, to develop the Head Start program (Biography, 2014). This program was designed to provide a government funded organization which would provide education for tots of low income families. (History, 2015). Public and private preschools continue to thrive in schools all over the world today.

As part of the Childcare Act 2006 and every child matters, all 3 and 4 year old children in England are able to receive free, part time early years education, up to 15 hours per week, for a school year of 38 weeks per year. Early year’s education follows the Early Years Foundation Stage guidance which was simplified in September 2012 and the Government funds local

All practitioners should understand and know the framework for Early Years provision used within the relevant united kingdom home nation.

The legal status and principles of the Early Years Foundation stage is used with children aged from birth to five years. The Government have outlined three primary and four specific areas and seventeen early learning goals that they think are important to a child’s development and planning is used to meet a child’s individual needs.

Every child who on the term commencing after their 3rd Birthday is entitled to a free part time place in early years education. This was formed as part of the Every Child Matters agenda. From 0-5 years the framework of learning, development & care forms the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), which follows the following principles:

A parent may choose to send their child to a nursery school, who cater for 2 to 5 year olds, supplying both childcare and early years education. A nursery is usually attached with a primary school or sure start centre, and provides a stepping stone for children about to start school.

Supporting families in the foundation years, was published by the government in 2011 setting out the government’s intention for more families to benefit from parenting advice and support from pregnancy to the age of five. The parenting class trial was announced in October 2011, by Sarah Teather, Minister for Children and Families. These trial parenting class areas are Camden, Middlesbrough and High Peak in Derbyshire. Parents in these areas can download a voucher for £100. These vouchers will provide support with:

The early years of a child’s life are immensely important for both their present and future health, development and wellbeing. James Heckman (cited in Authur, Beecher, Deaath, Docket & Farmer, 2015) reports benefits for people who participate in enriched early childhood programs, which include being more likely to complete school and being significantly less likely to require benefits, participate in criminal activities or become teen parents. The Australian Government and state and territory

In NI, children are not required to commence statutory education until the age of four, however, Government funded early years education is provided through pre-school and the Sure Start programme, (DE, 2013). Almost 24,000 three-year-olds were in pre-school education in 2015, (Department of Education Northern Ireland (DENI), 2015) and approximately 35,000 children who were eligible were enrolled in Sure Start programmes in 2014, (DE, 2015). Pre-school education provision is almost equally distributed between statutory (nursery schools and classes) and private and voluntary sectors (playgroups and day care), (DENI, 2015). Interestingly, a recent Chief Inspector’s Report identified that “Most of our youngest learners make a good start in the pre-school sector but there is too much variation in provision across the statutory and private and voluntary providers”, (Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI), 2016, p.6). That said, the Sure Start programme in NI is provided across the statutory, private and voluntary and community sectors, (DE, 2015). The Sure Start

Each part of the UK delivers the early years education a different. In England, it has one standard framework, and children are aged from three to five. In Wales it is called Early Years foundation

Early Childhood Education begins at birth. The first stage, birth to age three, focuses on skill development, which includes tasks such as sitting, walking, feeding themselves, toilet training, and enough

The government have provided funding to child-minding facilities for the following reasons that they provide to the public free preschool year. They also have the early start preschool programme.