the Nursery World website, I've been off leading our early years study
tour of China - a brilliant, fascinating trip.
One of the most interesting aspects was the chance to step away from the hurly burly of UK early years policy-making, which went into overdrive just before Easter, and see a completely different system, driven by societal and cultural imperatives quite unlike our own.
The private and state kindergartens we visited were run with large classes, although ratios were not that different from the UK, with two degree-level 'teachers' and an assistant typical for a class of 30 three- or four-year-olds.
Everything was very time-tabled, with all children doing art or music or games at the same time. Our group was asked many questions about how settings could operate a free flow approach and child-initiated play. This just hasn't been part of Chinese thinking.
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