Together we are stronger. It's time to stand up for Early Years!

Hello everyone,

Well I'm back! Sorry it's been so long but life here has been crazy.  Next year I am moving to Year One, and as EYFS/Year One lead I am definitely on a mission to extend the amazing work we have developed in our EYFS classes (which has seen us named finalists at the Nursery World Awards as EYFS School Team of the Year) beyond the reception door and into the KS1 Classroom...but hey ho that's another journey and another blog.


Today's blog is all about the growing sea of Early Years power that's about to hit a shore very near you! Any of you who use social media (so I'm guessing all of you as you are reading this) will know that every day sees your FB or Twitter feed full of even more research, even more news stories, even more groups calling for action, concerned about the state of Early Years education and the effects that a pressured approach is having not just on the children themselves (and the adults they grow into) but their families and also the practitioners working in schools and settings.  

Many stories seem to be coming out of the US about parents opting out of testing, or from Australia about the changes to school age, Scotland has the Upstart Kindergarten to age 7 campaign growing from strength to strength, and in my own little part of the world my campaign #ExtendEYFSto7 has around 28k supporters now across two petitions (see below for links).  

It is fair to say there are many of us out there battling against the tide. So this got me thinking.  We may have different Governments, and have different curriculum's to follow, but we are all fighting against the same thing...the decline of play, the increase of developmentally inappropriate practice. In fact such an increase, that this type of "too-much-too-soon", formal, top down approach, is fast becoming the norm, whilst those of us who follow the tried and tested, research and theory based, developmentally appropriate paths set out by our EYs founding mothers and fathers eg Isaacs, Montessori, Steiner, Piaget, Froebel et al...are actually seen as revolutionary and different???!!! What a sad state of affairs when we have to defend and explain why PLAY is the WAY (and it IS the only way in my opinion) and when those of us who actually "let" young children play are seen as rebels and mavericks! I have even been asked how we get away with it....


So any how all of this got me thinking....What about if we all joined forces from around the globe, standing together to say: Enough is enough! Give back play! Give back good mental health! Give back childhood!  Give back the joy of teaching and learning! 

So late the other evening, I did something that would never have been possible in the days of those founding early years mothers and fathers.  I came across a post featuring Australian and American leading advocates side by side, talking about a global campaign.... and I reached out from the comfort of my home across the globe to these folk and others who are standing with us in our battle...and supported this simple idea. Let's all work together to lead something global!  

Well we are speaking and all I can say is watch this space!

"Individually we are one drop...together we are an ocean...!" Ryunosuke Satoro 
(One of my favourite quotes)   Well guess what the waves are growing, so I'm just wondering if your surfboard is ready, cos its time to ride!

Useful FB pages to join and follow:


Importance of play (Australia)
Defending Early Years (USA)
Dance with me in the heart (NZ): 
Protecting Childhood (Australia)
Upstart Scotland
Save Childhood Network (UK)
Tasmanians say NO to a lower school starting age (Australia)

And of course don't forget my very own little EYs haven : Keeping Early Years Unique 

So come on, join the movement!  Join hands around the world and show the power of play to those who doubt us and who are damaging our precious children, our future with their relentless focus on results through dangerous and developmentally inappropriate practice!  

Keep on talking..this matters! 
Change.org internationally accessible petition #ExtendEYFSto7
UK Parliament and Government site petition #ExtendEYFSto7


Got an idea of where to go next? Get in touch!

Help! I've caught the bug and it's catching!

Yes it's true. I have well and truly caught the bug.  It's been in the air for quite a while now and I've felt it coming on slowly...but now it's well and truly taken hold!  I'm highly contagious so watch out.

No...I am not talking about the awful Norovirus that leaves a cruise ship full of passengers seeing more of a toilet pan than the spectacular view they paid for from their cabin porthole....

This bug is dramatically on the increase and can be found in many schools and settings around the world..and increasingly in many homes too.  Parents, grandparents, practitioners and anyone who cares about childhood is well and truly infected...the symptoms? These include overwhelming feelings of passion, commitment and drive to fight for what every single child deserves in their lives. Another symptom is equally overwhelming feelings of sadness, anger, despair, disbelief and shock  in response to the farcical state of our education system and in particular, testing, children's poor mental health, forced academisation and the narrower-than-ever totally inappropriate "world leading" national curriculum.

How do I know I am well and truly infected?  Well on Saturday the bug took me to a new level.  This teacher, who once shook like a leaf at the prospect of talking to 10 parents at a math workshop, made the decision to ring into LBC, national radio, as a headteacher talked about the stress children are now facing...I literally couldnt stop my fingers dialling. The presenter Tom Swarbrick was a true gentleman, reassured me as a first time caller, listened to my concerns and then said the fatal words.... "Great call, please call in again..."

Oh dear. Twenty four hours later and LBC again, a call in on Stig Abell's show who was supportive of testing as a parent of a 4 and 7 year old was joined on the show by journalist Toby Young. Mr Young co founded a flagship free school which has now expanded to three other schools and a sixth form, and who recently stepped down from his CEO role.http://schoolsweek.co.uk/toby-young-free-school-chief-executive/


I rang in again as I couldn't believe some of what I am hearing.  I won't talk you through the whole conversation.   Listen hear to me on LBC with Toby Young. As I talked to Tory Toby (as he is sometimes called) who was  pleasant and polite despite having very differing opinions to me...it dawned on me more than ever.  There are people out there, giving interviews, writing articles, speaking out loud as those who know, who, without meaning to sound rude, quite simply do not understand teaching OR CHILDREN, but are giving the impressions to the masses that they do...and that they know best...and when in a position of power or status, PEOPLE DO LISTEN!

When I talked about #ExtendEYFSto7, my campaign to do do just this, he replied that children in the EYFS (which he stated was reception and YEAR ONE) spend 50% of their time playing.  We know that this is simply not true.  THE EYFS (AND ITS PLAY BASED, HOLISTIC APPROACH ENDS FOR MOST CHILDREN AT THE END OF RECEPTION...and for far too many before in the race to be KS1 ready. And if EYFS are playing 50% of the time (many sadly do not) what are they doing the other 50% of the time?

Oh dear oh dear oh dear..we have so far to go....luckily my infection is terminal! My medication is the thousands who stand with me, shoulder to shoulder, to fight for what is right and what is necessary!

Please get behind #ExtendEYFSto7, by signing and share both petitions.  Share the bug!

Sign the Government petition here #ExtendEYFSto7

Sign the Change.org petition here #ExtendEYFSto7

Come on, come on, it's not hard to learn. Come on, come on, it's called the U turn!

OK so in my last blog I quoted a lyric from Tracey Chapman...Don't you know, they're talking about a revolution! Well what a week it's been for education. There most definitely was something in the air, and on 3rd May I, along eith thousands of other parents, made the decision to take my son out of school. He spent the day with his grandparents and I spent the day at school making fairy cakes and icing them with some amazing 4 and 5 yr old mathematicians who weighed their ingredients accurately,  followed a simple recipe, counted out cake cases, estimated how much mixture to put in each one and set a timer! This was the recipe from Anna Ephgraves amazing Nursery Year in Action book...and it was brilliant. Just watch how these nursery children from her school make their cakes independently! This is what maths means when you are 3,4 or 5 years old!  SEE LINK BELOW

I'd like to publicly thank the 3rd may organisers and all of the families who got on board. The fact Ms Morgan referred to this "damaging" action in her NAHT performance shows the message was received! Funny how the school closures for polling day weren't damaging? Anyhow I digress...so this blog continues the musical theme and this time with a lyric from RnB God Mr Usher Raymond. Come on, come on its not hard to learn, come on come on its called a u turn. And yes this week saw yet another u turn from Ms Morgan. Let's look at recent events. Baseline scrapped.  KS1 spag somehow leaked and then scrapped and yesterday the announcement of the forced academisation u turn. Well I must confess, I had been driving home from a training session at the simply amazing Tanglewood Maintained Nursery School in Chelmsford (these places are national treasures and so important. ..how can they be under threat?  But that's another blog for another day),  when I heard the headline, that forced academisation plans had been dropped. I have to admit I thought I'd imagined it, and as it sank in I did a fist in the air before remembering I was on the A130. Then I smiled... how convenient to announce this on the same day as election results and the mayoral result in London.

I posted it on Facebook on the Early Years haven that is Keeping Early Years Unique and there were some whoops and celebrations before someone put a link to the Dfe information about academies and the poster commented how the devil was in the detail.  In our excitement over the headlines we had of course been so overcome that for a moment we had lost our senses. Of course this u turn was not all it appeared and was merely forced academisation dressed up in a new coat. Underneath it all....it's still there and will still happen to far too many who do not want it.

This reminded me of the media circus when baseline was scrapped, where key opponents tweeted they were performing dances and singing...all I could think was that this joy may be rather short lived as we all knew there wpuld be a catch. We now know a government school readiness test is on the way for 2017.  Based on current NC expectations for 7 and 11 year olds I think we should afraid...very afraid! I envisage narrow indicators such as ability to hold a pencil,  add and subtract,  write names and read words appearing very soon.  I suspect then that many will soon be wishing for the return of the holistic baseline assessment which most of the country chose. The only model that  prioritised well being, involvement and effective learning characteristics and did the best it could under gov requirements. No it was not perfect and I personally have not found the data particularly useful. But if I have to do a baseline I want something that is at least based in EYS principles and doesn't require sitting in a cupboard with a terrified child staring at a computer screen or making judgements about a child which label their individual stages of development as failures. "Your son Johnny will never amount to anything Mrs Smith as he isn't able to hold a pencil correctly yet...yes I know he's only 49 months old but he is a failure I'm afraid"

Today I bit the bullet and called into LBC to join a debate about the national curriculum.  The presenter asked me about Ms Morgans comments about a listening government. My reply? They are not listening at all. .. they are ignoring every bit of research and theory that shows that their educational policies are damaging and dangerous. Switching off and stressing out young brains and filling them with pointless information. So they can do all the u turns they want...because quite simply they will always be brought back to the same place.... the place that says that they are wrong, and their approach is fatally flawed.  But they don't want to hear it so will just keep u turning again and again all the while our children, our future are merely guinea pigs, pawns in a game that we can never win.

My campaign #ExtendEYFSto7 is 600 away from 20k. We need 100k by August. Please share this and get on board. Our children deserve something far better than this farcical mess that this privately educated government are enforcing on them. They deserve more than an education being prepared for tests. They deserve an education for life. After all life is the greatest test there is.....


Change.org petition #ExtendEYFSto7. Sign here. Powerful comments from around the world.

Government petition site #ExtendEYFSto7 They responded at 10k...now we need 100k to get a debate!

Don't you know...They're talkin' bout a revolution!

There may be some of you, of a certain age who may recall the lyric in the title of this blog. It was from a Tracey Chapman song, an album of my youth.  An album I'd lay on my bed and listen to on my Sony Walkman as a teenager dreaming of how I would change the world.  

Well many years later and approaching a certain special birthday...and no it's not 21 or 30, and this song is buzzing around in my head on an almost daily basis, although my walkman is long gone, and I can't find the cassette!

There is a revolution coming, I can feel it and I am proud to be a part of it.  It seems that almost daily there are educational stories in the news.  The teaching crisis, the assessment fiasco, the mental health issues our children are facing...and perhaps most excitingly of all, the fact that practitioners, parents, grandparents, unions, researchers, household names and anyone who cares about children, are ALL standing together to tell Mr Cameron, Ms Morgan et al that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! We are sick and tired of our precious children, our future being used as guinea pigs for whatever unfounded ideas pops into the heads of those who believe they have the power to do as they please.   

This week will see thousands of parents taking their children out of school in protest at the governments attack on childhood and education, but in full support of teachers and schools. This is unprecedented, and Ms Morgans claim that this 1 day out is damaging is laughable when the ridiculous testing regime and narrow curriculum children face is causing more mental health issues than ever for many children. These children are feeling the pressure many of us may have only felt at secondary or FE level.

I continue to fight passionately for the right of each and every child to the very best education which recognises and celebrates their individual development and the power of play!  My Facebook group Keeping Early Years Unique goes from strength to strength with over 11k members not focusing on discussing activity ideas, but the fundamentals of early years education, the pedagogy, principles and beliefs that provide every child with an education that respects, inspires, nurtures and challenges them.

My campaign to extend Early Years to age 7 is also gaining momentum.  I am proposing the extension of those fundamental prime areas,  the importance of embedded, meaningful literacy and maths, and taking those all important statutory  Characteristics  of Effective Learning beyond the reception classroom door and into KS1 and beyond.  The powerful EYFS curriculum must not end for children when we tearfully wave them goodbye in July.  Our curriculum works! In many schools during OFSTED it is the EYFS is a strength...it's where the magic happens, where learners thrive and brains grow. So why end it when children are 5...some are still 4! It works.  It's based in research, the very best pedagogy, the legacies of our founding EYs mothers and fathers: Froebel, Montessori, the McMillan's, Isaacs, Steiner, Vygotsky, Piaget, Reggio Emilia, Bruce et al. Ms Morgans world leading curriculum isn't! There's no research to support her beloved curriculum..so its time for it to go to Time Out...permanently!  Look around the world Ms Morgan. Look at the countries whose children you say leave ours behind! They start formal schooling at 7, they play, their teachers are respected and have high levels of well being..they leave us behind.Until we reform our system our children will always be like the hare in Aesop's fable, rushing quicker and earlier but left behind by a tortoise whose journey is slower and more carefully planned.

Today my meme to spread word of #ExtendEYFSto7 was shared....over 400 likes and 200 shares later word is spreading. My maths meme about the power of play has received 7000 likes and 1 million+ views around the world.  I am not alone here.....Our children deserve the best, so join the revolution! Stand with me, wherever you are to send a message loud and clear. Our children matter! Their mental health matters! Their education matters!

"I'm signing this petition because I believe children are put under too much pressure far too early in their lives. Childhood should be for playing, enjoying, exploring, investigating, developing socially and emotionally. It should not be about learning how to pass tests or about failure." Supporter comment


Sign, share and tell the world about this battle! Together we are stronger.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/121681
https://www.change.org/p/sam-gyimah-mp-extend-the-early-years-foundation-stage-from-birth-to-5-to-birth-to-7

Children...literally the GREATEST distraction there is!

I love my job. I always have and I always will. I began my career as a nursery nurse before becoming a qualified teacher. I've worked at the LA as an EYs advisor, I've led EYFS moderation, I've written books, I train and give speeches to hundreds of people, and I've been offered a full time role as an Early Years trainer...which I turned down on the spot. People ask me "Are you looking to become a deputy?" NO. "Do you want to move into headship?" NO. I'm often asked: "How do you do it all.... teaching, training, keyu, writing, the petitions...family.... LIFE..." The honest answer is I don't know how, and sometimes I simply don't manage at all with my family not getting 100% of me as they should in the evenings, holidays and weekends. I guess many of you can relate to that.

So, you may wonder: Why don't I want promotion to headship or perhaps deputyship?  Why did I turn down that full time training role? Why do I madly try and juggle so much? Because of the children is the answer. Being in practice means so more to me than any other role. During a two year full time LA secondment,  by the end I began to feel a fraud, as I was talking the talk but no longer walking the walk. My heart is in the classroom, and the reason I can write books  and articles  (when 10,000 keyuers don't distract me) or deliver my training in the way I do is because at the end of it all I return to my classroom and to the colleagues, children and families who inspire and sometimes challenge me, each and every day.

I'm luckily enough to be at the point in my career now where I'm a leader who has a balance of teaching and management time during my week as well as my freelance time. Each Monday and Tuesday I head to the nursery office, power up my laptop with a head full of jobs that have been popping into my head from the night before. But then something happens... a child pops his head in and asks me what flavour porridge I'm having today, and I answer I'm not sure. I have two choices....which would he pick? Then he sees a photo of my son on my laptop and we chat about our families.  He eventually leaves and I fire up the data tracking programme where I need to look at the gaps between the children with grey socks and white... but then the power is dying...it's critical and will die in 3 minutes! The laptop lead is in my reception class. I have to run quick...this is an emergency! As I can't be seen to be running by the children, I choose to walk pretty fast down the corridor into my classroom and am greeted by a chorus of "Mrs Bennett!"  from reception children who make me feel like a national sports personality returning home with a trophy. We have a huge group hug (yes I do hug small children). They tell me they love me and missed me (and yes I say it back) and then I get asked to read a story. Now the data and the power lead are out of my head...sharing a book will have far more impact than anything a computer programme can ever tell me, so we sit and share stories and laugh and chat. Suddenly I'm being asked to go outside as someone has mastered a two wheeler bike for the first time EVER and I MUST see it an excited friend tells me...so we go outside hand in hand and watch this special achievement. Another child has  mastered sliding down the fireman's pole, another has learned roly polys on the bars....all things I just have to see. Funnily enough no one is desperate to show their ability to read digraphs or order numbered pebbles. Again the data enters my mind but is quickly pushed aside by the excitement of what I can see happening. Children succeeding, persevering, taking, risks.... I explain I must get back now to do my jobs...but in reality do these jobs really matter? WHAT JOB MATTERS MORE THAN ALL OF THIS? I walk past the outdoor water play area...it's not being used and looks a little dull. I quickly begin to sort the resources,  sort the storage,  move some things around, add a huge bit of guttering a dad has brought in from home. Suddenly the area starts buzzing, children  grabbing aprons, constructing,  testing, measuring, inventing, imagining, talking,  predicting,  wondering, chatting,  cooperating.... I turn to return to my data. Another group hug, some more "I love you's", "when are you coming back's?", faces pressed to the glass window on the door and I'm off... back to the data. Just then I bump into one of the office ladies. A parent has called who has been given a school place with us although we weren't first choice. She's anxious and wants to talk to me. So I call her and reassure her, invite her along for a tour and she thanks me, appreciates the time ive given her and feels happy.

Well the mornings almost gone. I FINALLY return to the office, sit down at the laptop and prepare to compare curly haired to straight haired children. Then I realise. With all the hugs, stories, celebrations and reorganising....I've forgotten the power lead. I can't go back in there again! So I decide to tackle another job for now...although those jobs that kept me awake last popping into my head like bubbles from a bottle of  fizz have popped. Never mind, I know they will pop back tonight at around 2am.

That is why I will never be a deputy or headteacher. I'm far too easily distracted by.....CHILDREN, the very reason I do what I do everyday. What a sad state of affairs when leading a school forwards means more and more time filling forms, juggling numbers and in meetings, more and more time away from the very important reasons that schools need leading....the people within them.

It's time to rebuild our education system. Who's with me?

Just pick up a newspaper, turn on the news, look at your Facebook or twitter feed and you will find endless stories about the absolute mess our education system is in.  Our schools are facing forced academisation, no one is quite sure what on earth is expected in Yr 2 and Yr 6. The exemplifications published just before the tests are to be administered are moving goalposts out of the football pitch and down the road somewhere that no one can quite find, but are hunting for madly.  Children's heads are being filled with information and facts like empty buckets whilst creative, independent thinking is clearly something there is simply no time for in days where Ms Morgan's "Leading Curriculum" must be delivered.  Her beloved curriculum is indeed leading.  Leading in causing mental health problems in children. Leading in switching off learners. Leading in being totally developmentally inappropriate. Leading the way in teachers feeling that they cannot go on any longer. 


Teachers are walking way from a career they once loved, but that now is making them ill. One told me "I'm not retirement age...but if I don't leave now, it will kill me". Parents are now standing together and taking their children out of school on May 3rd in protest at what is happening, sick and tired of the "stress and test" agenda of this government and how its affecting their children at the age of 6! https://letthekidsbekids.wordpress.com/


Surely something has to give? In my career I have seen many changes, growing up I saw strikes in the days of Margaret Thatcher.  But nothing like this...Parents, carers, teachers, unions, researchers and other experts saying NO! Enough is enough! We are told our children are failing compared to their international peers and the solution given by a government, who has shown they know nothing about education, is to continue to raise expectations.  All the research in the world tells us this is not the answer, but the government have quite clearly not met the Early Learning Goals in language and personal, social and emotional development as they are clearly not listening and respecting the views of others. Views of those who know....


So lets go back to basics....Sir Ken Robinson talks of education not needing reviewing but reforming. If we really want to solve the problems in our education system then we need to strip it back and rebuild. 


We living in one of the few countries in the world where our children start school at the age of 4. Children around the world, including Wales, and hopefully Scotland very soon (thanks to the Upstart movement) start formal schooling at 7.  The countries we are seen as lagging behind, let children learn through play and focus on essential skills til 7. Then at 7 when formal learning begins children suddenly and very quickly learn to read, write and do maths, because the essential building blocks are in place.  In England these types of formal approaches sadly start far to early for many children before they are ready. Resulting in switched off children who believe they have failed..at the age of 4 or 5! Reception teachers find themselves pressured to get children ready for Yr1. So for too many children play stops and they spend their days at tables writing in books and doing worksheets in those precious days when being outside, moving, playing, learning, exploring, imagining, taking risks and talk is what matters the most.


Lets take a step back.  If we consider what our future generations need, we will see they need strong communication skills, strong personal, social and emotional development, strong physical skills, embedded literacy and maths skills alongside technological skills, an understanding of their world and creativity. Just as important are characteristics such as resilience, perseverance, creative thinking, independence, risk taking, confidence and the ability to learn from mistakes. The irony of all of the above is that we have a curriculum in England that delivers all this and more.


So please, please let's extend the EYFS curriculum and the term "Early Years" to encompass children from birth to 7 or even 8...as it did on my teaching degree and in my nursery nursing qualification. It's time to extend the EYFS into ks1, With a focus on areas of learning AND development, not just subjects AND with a focus on the statutory Characteristics of Effective Learning! Let's make sure practitioners working in these proposed Early Years understand child development, how children learn and the power of play for all children!


But hey, what would I know...I'm just a teacher, a nursery nurse who studied child development, a mother, an early years consultant and the author of books and articles aimed at teachers promoting early mathematics through play... of course this government would know far more than me...more than all of us, more than Montessori, Froebel, Isaacs, Piaget, Steiner, Bowlby  about what young children need!


Let's stop the testing, stop the inappropriate practice and make a change for our children, their families and our educational workforce. Let's make a change for the future. WB Yeats stated that: "Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire". It's time to find the matches...


I have launched these two petitions.  The government one needs to reach 100k to be considered for discussion.  The Change one includes many comments from supporters which illustrates just why this matters so much. Please sign and share.  Enough is enough, our children deserve better and they are entitled to better.  It is not their fault that they are born into an era of a government who doesn't understand them!


https://www.change.org/p/sam-gyimah-mp-extend-the-early-years-foundation-stage-from-birth-to-5-to-birth-to-7


https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/121681

Welcome to my blog!

Hi everyone. Let me introduce myself. My name is Elaine Bennett and I am an Early Years teacher based in Essex, UK.  My passion for teaching began many years ago, when my preferred work experience placement at a local newspaper didn't come off and I ended up in a Montessori pre prep. Even after my two weeks were over, I returned as a volunteer for years to follow. I remember thinking how brilliant the practical life aspect was.... pouring, filling, dressing. My dreams of journalism went out of the window and I decided to study to be a nursery nurse working for my NNEB diploma. I am the teacher I am now because of that training. A real balance of theory and practice, with child development, observation and the power of play at the core. So now 22 years later and I'm still firmly based in early years and learning every day. I've worked at the local authority as an early years advisor,  but always balanced this with school. I'm no longer at the LA and now work as an early years consultant 1 day a week, focussing on inspiring early maths through play.  It's tough balancing school, home and the challenges of freelance work... but I love it. Being based firmly in the classrooms enables me to keep myself based in practice...and also means that the stories I share are current and I talk about children who I see growing before my eyes.

Last year I founded my own facebook page called Keeping Early Years Unique. 12 months later and we have over 10,000 members, two conferences planned and a book in the pipeline.  I also have launched campaigns to extend the eyfs to 7, as I passionately believe in the power of play for all children and not just until aged 5.
My travels to deliver training, the news and what I see on social media illustrate how play is under threat and with this children's well being.  People sometimes ask how I "get away" with letting my children play all day. I find this so sad...as this is what every child should be doing. .. playing inside and outside, freely, developing at their own pace, supported by tuned in, knowledgeable adults who respect their individual learning journeys.


So that's me in a nutshell. I'm new to blogging....so keep watching this space and I promise you the following: thought provoking,  interesting, real life, based-in-theory, reflective, honest posts...no fancy pants,  no schemes, no gimmicks just play all the way and not a sniff of lamination!