Foundation Phase

In 2004 Education and Lifelong Learning Minister Jane Davidson designed a new curriculum to focus on the needs of young children from ages between 3 and 7 years. “It encourages children to be creative, imaginative and to have fun and makes learning more enjoyable and more effective” (WAG 2012). It wasn't till 2008 that the foundation phase was compulsory in every Welsh school, and within England they have their own called the Foundation stage.

The Phase covers seven areas of development that are important towards the growth of the child, which are:

·         Personal and Social Development, Well-Being and Cultural Diversity: the WAG (2008) believe that this area is the heart of the foundation phase, it is where children are able to explore their own true potential and helps them to become aware of life around them. They are introduced to knowing what is right and what is wrong, and taught how to respect others around them.

·         Language, Literacy and Communication Skills: this area explores the importance of the different ways in which children communicate. Within the foundation phase they allow the children to do many group activities and active play to help them develop their communicating skills. For many schools in wales there is the case of communicating through the welsh language and this may give the child a great advantage in the future or hold the child behind.

·         Mathematical Development: this area of development it usually combined within other subject to make it aware to children that maths can be used within everyday situations indoor and outdoor. The foundation phase helps the child to achieve great knowledge and understanding about maths by completing ‘hands-on’ activities, every activity is suited to the child’s needs and by making the activities to suit them makes it easier for them to develop the skill further.

·         Welsh Language Development: similar to the Te Whariki which is used in New Zealand’s Early Childhood Curriculum the Foundation Phase has used the Welsh Language to give the children a sense of belonging and hopefully keep the national language alive.

·         Knowledge and Understanding of the World: allowing the child experience different types of activities indoor, outdoor, active and experiential learning gives them meaningful experiences that then helps them to become more involved and ask questions about the world around them. There are many different skills developed within this area of learning which can have a great impact on the child’s life.

·         Physical Development: many would disagree with Physical Education being important to the development of the child but they would be wrong. The Foundation Phase supports Physical development because they have noticed that children become well more functional within the classroom, as it builds on their self-esteem. It allows poor literate skilled children to excel in a subject which is more ‘hands-on’. The area of learning is combined of gross motor skill and fine manipulative skills. It also encourages children to become aware of the importance of their health and increases the control and coordination of their brain.

·         Creative Development: this area is incorporated into all seven developments throughout the curriculum, it encourages the children to express themselves in different ways and communicate in different styles. This area helps them expand on their thinking skills and pushes them to go beyond the boundaries.

“The impact of the Foundation Phase on the wellbeing of children has been positive”(Estyn 2011)

References

Estyn, 2011. Literacy and the Foundation Phase, http://www.estyn.gov.uk/english/docViewer/228910.5/literacy-and-the-foundation-phase-september-2011/?navmap=30,163

Welsh Assembly Government, 2012. The Foundation Phase
http://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/earlyyearshome/foundation_phase/?lang=en 

Welsh Assembly Government, 2008. Personal and Social Development, Well-Being and Cultural Diversity. http://wales.gov.uk/dcells/publications/policy_strategy_and_planning/early-wales/whatisfoundation/page4/sevenareas/personaldiversity/socialdeve.pdf?lang=en

2008. Language, Literacy and Communication skills. http://wales.gov.uk/dcells/publications/policy_strategy_and_planning/early-wales/whatisfoundation/page4/sevenareas/llc/fplanglitcommepdf?lang=en

Mathematical Development. http://wales.gov.uk/dcells/publications/policy_strategy_and_planning/early-wales/whatisfoundation/page4/sevenareas/mathsdevelopment/mathdevelopmentepdf?lang=en

Welsh Language http://wales.gov.uk/dcells/publications/policy_strategy_and_planning/early-wales/whatisfoundation/page4/sevenareas/welshlanguage/welshlangdeve.pdf?lang=en

Knowledge and Understanding of the world http://wales.gov.uk/dcells/publications/policy_strategy_and_planning/early-wales/whatisfoundation/page4/sevenareas/knowledgeunderstanding/knowledgeunderstandinge.pdf?lang=en

Physical Development http://wales.gov.uk/dcells/publications/policy_strategy_and_planning/early-wales/whatisfoundation/page4/sevenareas/physicaldevelopment/physicaldeve.pdf?lang=en

Creative Development  http://wales.gov.uk/dcells/publications/policy_strategy_and_planning/early-wales/whatisfoundation/page4/sevenareas/creativedevelopment/creativedeve.pdf?lang=en   

Play

Within early year’s education, Play is considered as "a key characteristic of effective practice" in education today (Wood et al. 2010) Most practitioners believe the first five years of a child’s life is the most important because during these years children seem to ‘take in’ and learn so much more than any other time. So why shouldn’t they have fun doing so? The WAG (2008) identifies that within the foundation phase ‘play’ can be seen as not structured and not have any importance to the effect of the child’s learning if it is not planned carefully. When watching children play, you can see how much they are learning without them subconsciously knowing about it. Wray et al. (2006) concludes that learning happens in everyone's daily lives, it is such a natural process that we do it without noticing it.

The importance of play

Bowman et al. (2000) identifies that play and learning are vital for the child to find they sense of self and to become independent learners. For Children, play is also an important way for them to express their creativity and allowing them to become more engaged and motivated to join in with learning. Play has a massive impact towards the different types of developments for a child's life and what skills they gain, those developments are;

•Cognitive - problem solving and using their imagination in pretend play

 •Physical - Using eye and hand coordination when throwing a ball to one another.

 • Social - Sharing ideas, setting out rules with making a new game up.

 •Cultural - Children learn about their self-awareness interacting with other children from different communities’ different ethnic when playing games with rules.

Piaget's believed that Play helped children to assimilate and accommodate new experiences, while Vygotsky believed that play was an important way for children to move to their 'zone of potential development'.

Parten's Stages of Play

In 1932 Mildred Parten took place in observing children while they were playing and came up with the theory that children pass through stages to eventually be able to play in groups with other children. They are:

 •Solitary (0-2yrs) - Within this first stage children play alone, they focus everything on what they are playing with and how their bodies are able to move things different ways

 •Spectator (2-2.5yrs) - This area is where the child is now just watching (spectating) other children or their peers to see how they act in day to day life or how they find thing to be fun.

 •Parallel (2.5-3yrs) - As children become more interested in the world and others around them, Child Care Resources (2007) believed that children begin to see themselves as part of a social group, but are still thinking egocentrically. Within this stage children will play next to one another with the same game or activity, but they won't interact or communicate with each other.

 •Associative (3-4yrs) - In this stage children begin to play and communicate together, they start to take full interest in the other children and begin to enjoy playing the same things.

 •Co-operative (4yrs+) - This final stage is when children have developed on their social skills and can now interact and build relationships with other children more easier. Because children have these more developed social skills they are able to play in a bigger group and for much longer.

References

Bowman et al. (2000) cited in: Play and learning in the early years (2010) Page xi London: SAGE Publications

Child Care Resources (2007) Retrieved 13th March 2013 from Childhood Community News: Stages of Play http://www.childcare.org/ccr/newsletter/ccr-news-summer-2007.pdf

Video Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_-1O_rBLPU

Welsh Assembly Government (2008) Play/Active Learning
http://wales.gov.uk/dcells/publications/policy_strategy_and_planning/early-wales/whatisfoundation/foundationphase/playactivelearning/playactivee.pdf;jsessionid=67D036BF242008E1A343E0DBFDCA7CF0?lang=en

Wood, E., Brodhead, P., Howard, J. (2010) Play and Learning in the Early Years. London : SAGE

Wray, D., Arthur, J., Grainger, T. (2006) Learning to Teach in  The Primary School. London : Routledge.

Introduction

This blog is analysing four different types of 21st century learning methods that can take place inside and outside a classroom, they are; Forest Schools, Montessori, Play and The Foundation Phase. Each post gives examples of how effective the types of learning can be towards the development of the child and their needs to reach their full potential.

Forest Schools

  Background

Forest schools within the UK were originally founded and developed in Sweden in the 1950’s and then it was adopted by Denmark where it then became a great importance to educating in the early years. It then later spread across Europe and eventually was introduced into Britain in the mid-1990s. O’Brien and Murray (2006) identified that the number of forest schools in Britain have significantly increased since they have been introduced into the county, all different in their own unique way.

Why are Forest schools so popular?

Forest schools are suited for all age groups and have become highly popular because of the major impact on the different learning developments. Tovey (2007) identified that the forest is considered a “wilder, riskier, scarier space” which offers children that feeling of going on a ‘great adventure’ unlike popping out into the school garden. The main principles that a Forest school aims to develop are a positive and motivating attitude towards learning, Forest Schools (2012) discovered that the children who were taking part with the forest school programme were achieving much better in school rather than the children from the city. It also helps to raise children’s self-esteem and confidence to make choices and to take riskier options allowing them to express themselves to a greater dagree.

What take place at a Forest school?

O’Brien (2009) explains that at Forest schools children take part in a range of different activities that challenges their everyday developments. The children get the chance to use tools that they may not be able to use at their urban homes, climb trees, make a rope bridge, and create objects with natural materials and so on. Knight (2009) believes that the forest school provides children with appropriate early years’ experience.

 References

Forest School (2012) Retrieved 20^th April 2013 from About us: A History of Forest Schools. http://www.forestschools.com/a-history/

Knight, S. (2009) Forest Schools & Outdoor Learning in the Early Years. London : SAGE.

O’Brien, L. and Murray, R. (2006) A Marvellous opportunity for children to learn: A participatory evaluation of Forest School in England and Wales. Surrey: Forest Research.

O’Brien, L. (2009) Learning Outdoors: the Forest School approach. Surrey: Forest Reseach.

Tovey, H. (2007) Playing Outdoors: Spaces and Places, Risk and Challenge. Berkshire: McGraw-Hill Education.

Montessori method of Education

Background

The method was developed by an Italian lady called Maria Montessori who was born in 1870, Isaac (2012) believes that her way of educating young children had a big influence on the future of education and on our understanding of children. Montessori was the first female in Italy to enrol to study medicine at the University of Rome medical school in 1892, even though her farther was against it, her mother on the other hand was very supportive towards her education. After successfully graduating she began to have a great interest in children with mental disabilities. She discovered that rather than medical treatment children with disabilities needed more suitable education and therefore she focused her attention to area of education. In 1906 Montessori was invited to set up her own nursery it was called the 'Children's House', Smith (2012) described the 'Children's House' to be a place that provides children with a good clean environment to live and learn within. The Nursery provided free education to poor and deprived children, and Montessori believed that these children were the new approach to the social change (Isaac 2012). In 1912 Montessori began traveling the world spreading her knowledge about her method of understand children, her work then became known World-wide and practiced by different educational practitioners and this became the new way of educating all over the world.

 Her Method

Montessori created many of her teaching objects which are still used today and the classroom provided children with furniture and equipment to a scale that would suit them, Feez (2010) saw Maria Montessori's approach to be "revolutionary". The Montessori's approach has three key components; the child, the favourable environment and the teacher, she would recognise the unique individuality of each child and nurture them so they would reach their full potential (Isaacs, 2010). She also notices that education starts right from the beginning of birth and each child will go through three major periods of development. The first stage is known as the absorbent mind (0-6 years) where the child is dependent on everything that is around them, Montessori identifies that children at this age take in so much that they should be taught as much as they demand. Within the Second stage (6-12 years) where Childhood would take place, the skills that were absorbed in the first stage and then developed would now be 'polished'. Finally the third stage is the Adolescence (12-18 year) where the child is discovering their place in society.

Isaacs (2010)

 "there is no doubt that Maria Montessori's pedagogy has made an impact on today's understanding of the early years education and has influenced present-day good practice".

Here are some examples of the materials used in the classroom.

References

Feez, S. (2010) Montessori and Early Childhood: A Guide for Students. London: SAGE

Image 1 (Maria Montessori)
http://www.clanmore.ca/2011/10/01/the-history-of-maria-montessori-2/

Image 2 (Montessori letters) http://www.gradinitamontessoribrasov.ro/category/acasa/metoda-montessori/

Image 3 (Colourfuk bead bars) http://www.ehow.com/how_4523583_use-montessori-colored-bead-bars.html

Isaacs, B (2012) Understanding the Montessori Approach. Abingdon: Fulton

Isaacs, B (2010) Brining the Montessori Approach to your Early Years Prctice. Abingdon: Routledge

Smith, M (2012) Retrieved 18th Apirl 2013 from Mari Montessori and informal eduction. http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-mont.htm