The group is inviting European education experts to the second Open Eye conference, to be held in October, for their advice on an alternative to the current EYFS framework. Its first conference, held in February, attracted more than 180 delegates (News, 20 February).
The move signals a change in direction for Open Eye, which has focused until now on calling for an independent review of the current framework and has urged the Government to reduce the statutory status of its learning and development requirements to 'professional guidelines'. A petition in support of the campaign has attracted almost 7,000 signatures.
Dr House said, 'We will continue with challenging the current framework but are assuming that at some point sanity will prevail, so we are moving in a more constructive direction. We are not looking to provide a complete replacement, as we are happy with much of the EYFS. We are just concerned over certain aspects of it.'
The group is creating a short film about the Open Eye campaign that will be shown on its website and may be uploaded to video sharing websites such as Youtube. The video will be shown for the first time at an Open Eye meeting in July.
Dr House said, 'The film is about the EYFS, but it will also link to wider questions about childhood and well-being. We hope network television may be interested in commissioning a full documentary, as the EYFS has attracted so much attention. We want to get our message out to a wider sphere and maximise the public profile of what we're doing.'
Visit www.savechildhood.org.