Stop the EYs bandwagon...I want to get off!

Sometimes I am absolutely shocked at the nonsense thrown at us in the world of EYs.

Today I have come across Ofsted publications being sold online, role play masks of current political leaders you can download for a price, t shirts practitioners can wear covered in phonics and numbers, the entire EYFS printed on minuscule cards to be carried around and cards telling us what to say to children...

On top of this we are sold schemes and fads galore promising to get our children doing this, that or the other better and quicker if we just buy this or that or follow this or that approach. Our children don't need any of this nonsense and neither do we! We are skilled, knowledgeable experts...who don't always have the faith in ourselves we should have.

If our practice is based on what we KNOW matters...If our practice is based on what RESEARCH and EVIDENCE tells us matters....In short if our practice is built on what we HEAR  from those leading early years pioneers such eg Froebel, Montessori, Isaacs, Vygotsky, the MacMillians (to name a few) and their contemporaries such as Tina Bruce, Julie Fisher, Ferre Laevers, Anna Ephgrave, (again  amongst others)...then we are not just promoting hoop jumping, short term outcomes but learning (and good mental health) for life.

I have been criticised in the past for using the term fancy pants...but to me it describes some of the absolute flash-in-the-pan, style over substance, unfounded gimmicks I hear about and read about each and every day.

Children don't need specifically planned fine motor sessions, they don't need to swing play dough around their heads or thread cereals on a piece of spaghetti against a timer...if the provision is right.

Children MUST NOT be sat for 45 minutes a day having phonics poured into their heads, when they should be reading, writing and TALKING in an enabling environment.

Children do not need a maths mastery scheme to follow and a maths book to record in when they are counting, measuring, comparing, exploring, using pattern,  problem solving and PROBLEM FINDING in a mathematically rich emotional and physical environment.

I guess what I'm saying in these days of print and go, the days when anyone can be an expert and write a blog saying anything they like with no evidence (I hope you can see I do have evidence).  In these days when social media can make you feel a total failure for not having a pristine mud kitchen made from palettes with working sink and perhaps your cable reels don't look like they deserve a place in the Tate gallery...it's OK! It is OK just to do what is right: plain, simple, back to basics. It is OK not to be all singing and dancing.

We need to just take a breath. Less is more. Our children don't need sparkles and twinkles to learn. They need REAL environments and adults who understand and tune into them. They need space and time.  They need all the things children have always needed...long before these days of the commercialisation of education. They need educators who know WHY they do WHAT they do instead of those who follow blindly and chase to climb aboard the latest bandwagon in a desperate bid to reach outcomes, be outstanding (thanks go out to OFSTED for their constant mythbusting), or even just to feel accepted.  

If I have offended, I apologise but we just need to get back to what matters here...children and their development.  If you are chasing that bandwagon, stop running, turn around and run the other way.  If you are on the bandwagon, politely ask it to stop and climb off. It it won't stop, then jump off! Be brave. Take the risk...take the leap.  It will be bumpy and it won't be easy, but in the long term it will be the best thing you ever did and the adults of tomorrow will thank you! 


Trust me. I know. I jumped...and I have never looked back.

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