Sandwell has high unemployment (well above the national average), high levels of deprivation (over half of families qualify for housing benefit) and high rates of teenage pregnancy (one of the top three in the country), but it is hoped that the introduction of High/Scope into early years and primary settings will help improve the life chances of its young generation.
High/Scope is an approach to early years education that has at its core the belief that children gain confidence, initiative and a lifelong love of learning when involved in well-supported activities of their own choosing (see box). Such benefits, it is claimed, are carried into adult life, producing a generation with positive attitudes to education and society.
Iris Birks, early years consultant with Sandwell Local Education Authority, had run courses on the approach, but its adoption by local practitioners gained momentum when director of public health Dr John Middleton also became convinced of its benefits and secured 150,000 of Health Action Zone funding for High/Scope training.
He was impressed with findings of the Perry Pre-School Project in the US, which tracked 123 people over 30 years and found that those educated under the High/Scope method had been more likely to graduate from school, enrol in further education classes and find employment. They had also been less likely to commit crimes, be assigned to special needs classes and become teenage parents. And there were benefits for the public purse, with each $1 spent on High/Scope saving $7 on remedial services in the long term.
'If we want a thriving, vibrant community in 20 years' time, then to make it happen we need to start working with young children now,' says Dr Middleton. 'The social and educational benefits of High/Scope are considerable. If it were a drug, we'd have to prescribe it. It would be unethical not to.'
So far more than 120 teachers, nursery nurses, health visitors, childcare workers, school heads and managers have attended introductory and awareness-raising sessions. A further 28 early years practitioners have completed Curriculum Implementation Courses, with eight of those becoming High/Scope endorsed trainers, qualified to cascade the training within schools and other early years settings.
While the main attraction of the scheme was its potential long-term benefits, it is already bringing short-term benefits to both children and practitioners in settings implementing the Foundation Stage.
The High/Scope approach marries well with the Foundation Stage.Both see play as an integral part of early childhood learning. The key experiences and developmental markers of the High/Scope curriculum reflect the areas of learning and stepping stones of the Foundation Stage. 'The High/Scope curriculum is entirely compatible with the Foundation Stage,' says Mrs Birks.
She believes that the High/Scope training changed some teachers' attitudes, with scepticism about 'this thing from America' giving way to a profound change in thinking about early years learning.
'Previously, the attitude had been "I am the teacher, the giver and the font of all knowledge and you will learn from me", but that attitude has changed to seeing learning as a shared process,' she says.
She goes so far as to say, 'For some people, it was a life change, because the training makes you reflect on your own philosophy of life. It makes you reassess your values and how you associate with other people.'
The extent to which the 'converts' have changed methods within their own settings varies, says Mrs Birks. 'It's a learning process. Every practitioner is at a different starting point, but the change is starting to happen.'
Open to question is the extent to which some will ever effect a permanent culture change, given performance targets under the national curriculum and potential tensions with initiatives such as the literacy hour. 'It's going to be a hard nut to crack, but we'll keep chipping away,' says Mrs Birks.
Dr Middleton is struck by the short-term benefits to the children - principally their ability to communicate better with both their peers and adults - and remains committed to extending the training in primary schools.
'We see these startlingly confident young children, and it would be a great shame if this vitality and enthusiasm were lost in pre-schools. So the thinking behind High/Scope needs to be spread to teachers of older children.'