- EAD is important in child development and underpins all areas of learning
- Concerns about new ELGs include a stress on performance over process
- EAD training should be hands-on and allow practitioners to explore materials
Every child is an artist,’ said Pablo Picasso. ‘The problem is how to remain an artist when we grow up.’ As a recent report from the Durham Commission on Creativity and Education found, while the expressive arts are crucial in early learning, not all educators possess expertise in the arts. Training can help practitioners rediscover their artistic nature, and so tap better into children’s creativity. However, the EYFS lacks detail on good practice, and the commission recommends the DfE establish and fund training and CPD for the pre-school workforce, reviewing current CPD opportunities, qualifications and entry routes to the sector by 2021.
Training can take two forms: a focus on a particular art form such as drumming or digital design; and wider training covering EAD as part of the early years curriculum. Both are important, says consultant Anni McTavish. Her book Expressive Arts and Design in the Early Yearswill be published by Routledge in early 2020.
‘I would expect settings to look for training that makes clear links to the EYFS, and takes an evidence-based approach to explaining the important role of EAD in child development,’ she says. ‘The emphasis in training is often on how arts can support other areas of learning, but they are also valuable in their own right, supporting children to express their thoughts and feelings, and giving them a sense of who they are. The arts give children experience of perseverance and risk-taking, helping them to develop the Characteristics of Effective Learning.’
Expressive Arts and Design is one of the four specific areas of learning in the EYFS, and involves enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play, and design and technology.
The Government is currently consulting on proposed changes to the EYFS Early Learning Goals, including those for EAD. The DfE says the changes are designed to make the goals ‘clearer and more specific’ and there is more of an emphasis on links to language and vocabulary development.
The EAD goals that are out for consultation are not the same as those that were piloted in the last year. Creating with materials remains the same, but the pilot ELG ‘Performing’ has been renamed ‘Being imaginative and expressive’ (closer to its existing title of ‘Being imaginative’). But the things children are expected to do are very similar, including performing songs, rhymes, poems and stories with others.
Ms McTavish believes the revised title is better, but even though performance has been removed, ‘there is still an overriding element of this throughout’. She also feels the focus on songs and stories is limiting. ‘Though all of these things are important, there are many other ways in which children will be “imaginative and expressive” through the arts,’ she says.
Some settings can be tempted to prioritise the end product over the process, and that is something good training should address, says Ms McTavish. ‘Sometimes there is a lack of understanding that arts and design can be about experiencing and having a go,’ she explains. ‘It is important not to feel you have to end up with 30 Easter bonnets, for example, with the pressure that puts on staff as well as children.’ Training can give ideas on how to document the creative process rather than the end product, perhaps through digital photos or video.
Practitioners sometimes struggle with knowing how to extend and progress an EAD activity. ‘The new inspection framework looks at depth of learning, so in some of my recent training we looked at how you might mark-make with clay, or draw with it, let the work dry and come back to it, make patterns,’ says Ms McTavish.
Nikkii Flintham, nursery manager at Field House Day Care Nursery in Stoke-on-Trent, recently attended Ms McTavish’s training on working with clay and now intends to set up a clay workshop. ‘A lot of parents and grandparents used to work in the potteries,’ she says. ‘I wanted to be able to tap into possible skills as well as sharing my interest in clay with the children.’
Ms Flintham was inspired by the hands-on nature of the training, which was paid for through Stoke-on-Trent’s Opportunity Area funding. ‘It was a very small group, and we were given time and space to explore the clay,’ she says. ‘We talked about different kinds of clay, we wrote our names in it with a stick, we talked about how it smelt, what it felt like. Anni brought in different resources like herbs and keys to mark-make in the clay. It gave me so many ideas to take back.’
Ms Flintham has now bought some clay, and is linking planning with Development Matters and the EYFS, ‘so we have a model of how we start and what we want to achieve’, she says. ‘We will follow the children and see how creative they can be.’
Some settings in the area actually have clay in their gardens, but Ms Flintham says what her setting has is coal. ‘We could dig some of the coal up and burn it and see what it does to the clay,’ she says. ‘The possibilities are endless.’
Debi Keyte-Hartland, artist educator and consultant
One thing often missing in training is the use of technology. It’s not just about screens, you can use data projectors to project images on the ceiling for children to interact with, perhaps using loose parts to make patterns within. Expressive dance and movement is also another area that can get lost.
I am sceptical about some online training for EAD; its expressive nature means practitioners need to get dirty with the materials to understand them. We are sometimes not practised in using the materials we put out for the children to explore. Some practitioners may not be aware of the need for clay to be malleable.
We need to explore polysensorial qualities, where children can come to know the world through its materials and environments we create, where comparisons can be made and multiple senses activated. For example, many settings have replaced all of their plastic materials with wood, but this is still just one material, one tactile sensory quality.
A lot of settings will put out the primary colours for children to paint with, but children are very alert to the nuances of colour. Practitioners need to think about the presentation and what to include in the colour palette, such as a variety of greens and blues; children will start developing vocabulary to describe the differences between the hues in this way.
Observing what is going on when a child is engaged is so important. I saw a three-year-old drawing a car, making fast movements across the easel with a crayon saying ‘vroom’. It would be easy to ask who is driving, or how many wheels does it have – but perhaps it wasn’t a representation of what a car looked like, but was rather about the speed of the car in movement. Sometimes children’s ideas are more complex than what they can describe.
I talk to settings about the need for resources to be open-ended, that suits the child’s rapid flow of imaginative ideas. Again, observation is key as children display their imaginative traits in multimodal ways.
resources and guidance
Durham Commission on Creativity and Education. The final report of a joint research collaboration; includes a section on early years.
We Think Everywhere Resources. Focuses on creative uses of digital media in early childhood.
Born Creative. Covers using creativity to enrich the lives of young children.
Ten Lessons the Arts Teach. Ways in which the arts enhance learning and development.
Expressive Arts and Design: Being Imaginative. How to support children of different ages.
training
Unlocking Children’s Potential: Embracing the Power of Creativity.
Early Excellence’s Annual Conference is in Huddersfield, 18-19 November; London, 26 November; and Birmingham, 27 November.
Creativity and the Visual Arts: Thinking in Action. Delivered by Debi Keyte-Hartland for Early Education, this day-long course will examine what critical thinking is, looks like, and how it can be promoted through the visual arts. In London, 13 March 2020, and Sunderland, 20 March 2020.
Expressive Arts and Design, London, 18 March. Delivered by Anni McTavish for Early Education, this day-long course will help practitioners reflect on the broad range of experiences that fall under the expressive arts and design umbrella and link to the new Inspection Framework.
Expressive Arts and Design, NDNA. A full-day course covering issues such as the importance of the Characteristics of Effective Learning in relation to EAD. The NDNA recommends booking for at least ten delegates.