Early Year's Educational Improvement: Case Study

In this assignment I am going to compare previous and current pioneers that have and are influencing the current principles of early year’s pedagogy. For example how they are influencing the four principles of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). This assignment will get me to look at different views that theorist have to education and how they can be used in current practice. It will provide me with the information on how they influence early year’s pedagogy and current practice. Throughout this assignment I will be referencing from current reading that I am doing, these will range from eBooks to articles. I will be using nursery world articles to provide information about each pioneer and what their work has done for current principles in early year’s pedagogy.

This assignment is based upon my understanding of child development and children’s learning, considering the curriculum for the Early Years and the curriculum for the Early Years Foundation Stage/Key Stage One. I propose to outline a rationale for effectively continuing children’s learning, from the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage into Year One and include strategies to support transitions, effective curriculum delivery and links between the EYFS and the National Curriculum. Throughout the assignment I will refer not only in general but also to how my research has help me as a practitioner help my setting to effectively continue children’s learning.

Throughout this assignment a discussion will take place into the theories of leadership, whilst examining the role of managers within the context of the early years. A series of management competences will be evaluated, whilst investigating the notions of leadership and collaboration.

Leadership is a sociocultural construct underpinned by the beliefs and values of a society (Waniganayake, Cheeseman, Fenech, Hadley, & Shepherd, 2012). Leadership in early childhood have shifted the focus from one designated leader into a more collective approach – distributed leadership, which is not about delegating. As Cheeseman (2012) states, in early childhood settings, attention is often directed at administrative and management leadership (Waniganayake et al., 2012); however it is important to have a designated leader in the areas of development and implementation of curriculum and pedagogy – being the educational leader as a requirement of the National Quality Framework – whilst at the same time see educational leadership as a

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.

Explain the strategic purpose of school governors; senior management team; other statutory roles e.g., SENCO; teachers and support staff roles.

The main goals of EYFS are to allow all those who work in the Early Years to comply with the ECM policy and to provide 1st year primary education teachers with information regarding their progress prior to their entering the primary system. The statutory framework for EYFS states that 'Ongoing assessment is an integral part of the learning and development process' (Statutory Framework for EYFS – DCSF, 2008, p.16). The assessment process is one of the key attributes of the EYFS and is used to determine strengths and weaknesses that children may have in their learning and therefore to plan appropriate activities that will encourage them to achieve learning goals. The culmination of this assessment-feedback process is the EYFS Profile that is generated for each child at the end of their pre-school period.

Within this assignment I will describe my understanding of the links between management and leadership, the skills and styles of management and leadership, the application of management and leadership theories in an organisational context and planning for the development of management and leadership skills.

The leaders and managers are the pillars of any educational setting on which the success and failure of the setting depend. Before discussing the leadership and

“The approach to the study of leadership usually has been and perhaps always must be through the study of traits. Leadership obviously is not a simple trait but rather a complex of many traits fashioned together as a unity (Cowley, 1928, p. 144).” Leadership can be defined as the position or function of a leader, a person who guides or directs a group. Leadership is a process that occurs in a group setting. Leadership involves influence and goal attainment. Leadership styles and theories are vast in number and detail. This paper will examine leadership from the perspective of college and university presidents. Presidents of institutions of higher education are considered leaders. Each institution is different meaning that presidents have to be diverse in their leadership knowledge and style in order to effectively lead the institution. It is necessary to have a general knowledge of leadership theories and styles in order to properly examine the traits and behaviors of college and university presidents.

The essay classifies leadership into four key approaches: (1) trait approach, (2) behaviour approach, (3) the

Masters of Arts in educational leadership is a study field that interested me deciding on the master program to pursue (Green, 2010). The program is essential in academic institutions since it views leadership as a relational process. In other words, it has an all-inclusive attitude towards people and their diverse points of views sharing a common goal and vision among individuals in the institution. The strong interest and desire of pursuing the art program resulted from the interest of understanding the cultural aspects of people that leads to their diversified points of view. Additional interests in educational leadership arose from the increased urge of expounding knowledge on leadership. Furthermore, based on the dynamic nature of the modern society, pursuing the master program aimed at understanding different management styles and required skills for these styles (Green, 2010). The discussion paper has the objective of expounding and reflecting on the different aspects of educational leadership learnt in the MA in educational leadership program.

One of the most important aspects of leadership is self-knowledge and particularly awareness of your priorities and values. As a leader it is imperative to improve your leadership ability on an everyday basis. Great leaders have great strategic dreams, visions of what could be and what they think should be. In this paper I will be discussing my plan and the theories that support my plan. I will also be discussing my leadership strengths and weaknesses

This essay will critically discuss the key factors that influence the management of an Early years setting focusing on government early years policies that influence the management of provision and the manager’s roles and responsibilities.

There is a positive correlation between leadership styles and the job-satisfaction in education providers. The determinants of job satisfaction, leadership is viewed as an important predictor and plays a central role. Leadership is a management function, which is mostly directed towards people and social interaction, as well as the process of influencing people so that they will achieve the goals of the organization.Leader is leading the human resource function, collaborating with other functions and providing leadership to them, setting and enhancing the standards for strategic thinking (Armstrong (2006). Leadership effectiveness many different types of outcomes havebeen used, including the performance and growth of the leader’s group or organization, its preparedness to deal with challenges or crises, follower satisfaction with the leader, follower commitment to the group objectives, the psychological well-being and development of followers, the leaders’ possession of high status in the group, and theleader’s advancement to higher positions of authority in the organization (Oad, 1999).