EDUCAT ION
CHARLOTTE PHILLIPS SPEAKS TO LOCAL SCHOOLS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF GETTING IT RIGHT AT THE NURSERY AND PRE-PREP STAGE Early Years ESSENTIALS W
e’ve worried for decades, centuries even, about how best to prepare children for adult life, the most effective way to give them a solid grounding in the subjects that really matter and, indeed, at what age formal education should begin. Other, more recent, concerns include growing fears about children’s mental health and the extent to which the current focus on high stakes exams – from Year 6 SATs to GCCEs and A-levels – is to blame. As the pressure to perform in solidly ‘academic’ subjects increases, critics of the current system say that it’s sucking the enjoyment out of learning. With limited time and resources, some creative subjects like music and drama are being marginalised in the school curriculum. The result can be a constant juggling act as schools attempt to cover all the bases: from the educational must-haves, to the softer skills that help make young people work-ready, like sound literacy and numeracy attainment, to punctuality. But when it comes to creating educational systems where learning is creative, productive and fear-free, there’s one sector of education where all of this is old hat. Nursery and early years practitioners in our area have known for years just how effective it can be to create a learning environment where children are free to explore, to learn without boundaries or preconceptions, and where success and failure don’t come with emotional
baggage, but are merely the natural consequence of trying different things and seeing what does and doesn’t work. You’ll hear references to higher performance learning, which is the belief, says Kerry Owens, deputy head of St Mary’s Junior School, that you can basically ‘grow a brain’ and help children to achieve high levels in their learning – and be involved in the process. Learning, says Marie Ransome, nursery supervisor at Oaks International school (OIS), is about repetition, honing knowledge, skills and understanding over
time. It’s not just about the end result, but about the process along the way. “The children are encouraged to experiment and investigate themselves to find the answers,” she explains. “Mistakes are fine – they are proof that the children are learning.” Getting it right at this stage isn’t just important, it’s essential, says Nicola Henson, head of nursery and pre-prep school at Sancton Wood School. She likens the process to building a house. “People forget that to have a beautiful house, you have to lay some foundations. u
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