A petition has been launched this morning by the some of the founder members of the Early Years organisation, Keeping Early Years Unique (KEYU).
The petition, accompanied by a hard-hitting film with many Early Years Professionals, representative of the whole sector, calls for a review of the recently launched Early Years Foundation Stage Reforms. Watch our ‘In Conversation With.. Elaine Bennett and Kym Scott’ to find out why it is so important that these EYFS Reforms are reviewed.
Watch the Video:
Excerpt from the Official Press Release:
We are objecting for children, families and early years practitioners.
The reforms do not meet the stated DfE objectives of improving early language outcomes and decreasing practitioner workload.
- The reforms put less emphasis on supporting children to become better learners, which will have a negative impact on closing attainment gaps. They do not take sufficient account of the active, playful and creative ways in which children learn.
- The harder Early Learning Goals in Maths and Literacy will not improve outcomes but will make more young children feel like failures before they are six. They will result in inappropriate practice drilling children in narrow content, which will hinder building the necessary foundations of embedded deeper understanding.
- The reforms are muddled, with important areas left out and others placed in illogical sections, and in most cases are not improvements on the current EYFS. This will fail to support professional understanding, while causing increased workload in adjusting to the new framework structure. and
- There is an over-emphasis on formal teaching and passive learning.
- The descriptions of activities within areas of learning are all aimed at the older end of the key stage; birth to three is largely ignore
- The reformed EYFS does not take equality, discrimination or the climate crisis into account.
What we want
- Early adoption should be abandoned. Changing any framework always increases workload and at this time Reception teachers should be concentrating on supporting well-being and a recovery curriculum for children and their families.
- The EYFS could usefully be reviewed, but it must be done in true collaboration with the sector and with a full range of expert input.
- This version of the EYFS framework should be abandoned. It is not fit for purpose and does profound disservice to children and practitioners.