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To the Point - Twist in the EYFS tale

Management Policy & Politics Early Years Curriculum
It is just as well you are a Nursery World reader: imagine if you had to rely on the rest of the media to inform you about the Early Years Foundation Stage. Following their guidance would be as useful as using Jill Murphy's classic picture book Whatever Next! to build a rocket to reach the moon.

I recently used a Google news alert to stream the latest reports on the Tickell review of the EYFS to my blog, with illuminating results.

The first problem that faced the media was how to make sense of the numbers. To be fair, this was hardly surprising. Dame Clare herself, usually admirably direct and clear, came up with the baffling claim that 'there is clear and unambiguous evidence that outcomes for young children are improving. Notwithstanding this, less than half of children (44 per cent) are still not considered to have reached a good level of development by the end of the year in which they turn five.' I had to read that a fair number of times to untangle all those nots.

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