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!