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!