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