Eng: 'Bold beginnings' - Reception teachers are failing a third of five-year-olds, major Ofsted report finds

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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Eng: 'Bold beginnings' - Reception teachers are failing a third of five-year-olds, major Ofsted report finds

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

Tom Bennett of researchED just passed this comment via Twitter, says it all...
I repeat: this report is as controversial as custard, and the severity of its backlash indicates how difficult some of its critics find any criticism- however gentle- of the status quo
About Tom Bennett and researchED:

https://researched.org.uk/about/
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Eng: 'Bold beginnings' - Reception teachers are failing a third of five-year-olds, major Ofsted report finds

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Well known blogger, Sue Cowley, has this to say via her 'Freeing the Angel' blog about reactions from those who are more in support of the 'Bold beginnings...' report:
Life in the sandpit
https://suecowley.wordpress.com/2018/01 ... e-sandpit/
Clearly, there has been a strong reaction to the Bold Beginnings report, culminating in a number of articles and an open letter being published in The Guardian yesterday. Heated words have been exchanged on both ‘sides’. Early years organisations have written a number of detailed responses, demonstrating how the evidence base supports the pedagogy that settings use (for instance, see this from TACTYC). A number of meetings have been arranged between those responsible for the report, and those in the sector who are unhappy with its recommendations.
TES journalist, Helen Ward, notes Sue Cowley's blog post in this piece:

https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/br ... impossible
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Eng: 'Bold beginnings' - Reception teachers are failing a third of five-year-olds, major Ofsted report finds

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http://blogs.hud.ac.uk/subject-areas/hu ... eginnings/
Bold Beginnings: hearing the voice of the early years sector

January 24, 2018

Mary Dyer, HudCRES.
Last November, I finally submitted my doctoral thesis, a study into how early years practitioners defined and articulated their professional role.

At the same time, OfSTED published Bold Beginnings: The Reception curriculum in a selection of good and outstanding primary schools, reporting on good practice in school Reception classes, who deliver the final year of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) before children enter Key Stage 1.

The reflection that follows, based on the structure suggested by Rolfe et al. (2001) for setting out one’s response to a critical incident (illustrated right), considers the links between the Bold Beginnings report, reactions from across the early years sector, and my own doctoral findings.
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Re: Eng: 'Bold beginnings' - Reception teachers are failing a third of five-year-olds, major Ofsted report finds

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See the Quirky Teacher blog that references the 'Bold beginnings...' report:

https://thequirkyteacher.wordpress.com/ ... mment-5762
When ‘observing’ crowds out teaching

Recently, I went to an EYFS reception year moderation meeting and it was good to hear the LA moderator speak about the Bold Beginnings report in a positive way. However, I couldn’t help thinking about what would happen if we just got rid of moderation altogether in reception year? Around the room there were hard-working and deeply caring reception year teachers sharing learning journeys with teachers from other schools and I could hear the following sorts of comments:
I'm 100% with Quirky Teacher in this case!
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Eng: 'Bold beginnings' - Reception teachers are failing a third of five-year-olds, major Ofsted report finds

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It's no surprise that Michael Rosen references the 'Bold beginnings...' report. Rosen has worked really hard to undermine the promotion of systematic synthetic phonics and the Year One phonics screening check in England:

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2 ... are_btn_tw
Dear Damian Hinds, Ofsted forgets our four-year-olds are not GCSE apprentices

Michael Rosen

The new education secretary needs to think what childhood means before acting on Ofsted’s report of reception children ‘falling behind’


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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Eng: 'Bold beginnings' - Reception teachers are failing a third of five-year-olds, major Ofsted report finds

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In Nursery World, HMI Gill Jones defends and clarifies the 'Bold beginnings' report - written in an interview format:

https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery- ... ssage-over
Bold Beginnings: getting the message over

05 February 2018 by Catherine Gaunt
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Eng: 'Bold beginnings' - Reception teachers are failing a third of five-year-olds, major Ofsted report finds

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In the TES, a piece by Jan Dubiel:
'We do need an informed debate on a child's experience in Reception: Ofsted was right, the discussion must be bold'

Jan Dubiel

15th February 2018

The recommendations from Ofsted's Bold Beginnings report should in no way alter or dilute effective Reception pedagogy, writes one Early Excellence leader


https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/br ... ofsted-was

Jan Dubiel is head of national and international development at Early Excellence
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Eng: 'Bold beginnings' - Reception teachers are failing a third of five-year-olds, major Ofsted report finds

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In The Conversation:

http://theconversation.com/ofsted-want- ... tterbutton
Ofsted want to introduce more formal teaching practices – this is a potential disaster for children’s learning
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Eng: 'Bold beginnings' - Reception teachers are failing a third of five-year-olds, major Ofsted report finds

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This parliamentary hearing should be interesting - it includes discussion with Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman, about the 'Bold beginnings...' report!

http://www.parliament.uk/business/commi ... ce-17-192/
The Education Committee hears from Amanda Spielman, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills as part of its series of hearings with key figures accountable to Parliament.

Watch Parliament TV: Accountability hearings

Inquiry: Accountability hearings

Education Committee

Witness

Wednesday 7 March in Committee Room 15, Palace of Westminster

At 10am

Amanda Spielman, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills, Ofsted

Purpose of the session

Questions will cover Ofsted's inspection of children's services, relationship with Regional Schools Commissioners and the recent report on the Reception curriculum, Bold Beginnings.
[My emboldening!]

Anyone following the 'Bold beginnings...' debate, go to 11.22am on the video footage of the inquiry until 11.39am.

Thelma Walker's comments are really typical of what so many people believe with regard to early years provision. Note, for example, her comment that five year olds sitting down at tables to write with paper and pencil would be 'boring'. Really?

But then note, also, what James Frith said, from a parent's perspective, and how he was very positive about the findings of the 'Bold beginnings...' report.

Here you have two completely contrasting responses to the report. No wonder it is 'controversial'.

Finally, however, note Amanda Spielman's very significant point about children who are not enriched in language and experience. Their choices are more likely to be very limited and they have not been advantaged by the 'teaching' that would ideally take place in the home. Her point is so important and so relevant to the early years debate.

The video footage from 11.22 to 11.39 really is one of those MUST WATCH times to get a handle on the huge contrast in attitudes, ethos and expectations in the early years.
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Re: Eng: 'Bold beginnings' - Reception teachers are failing a third of five-year-olds, major Ofsted report finds

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Read what 'The Quirky Teacher' has to say about the Early Years with regard to specific teaching and observations:

https://thequirkyteacher.wordpress.com/ ... ch-please/
Just let them teach…..please!

MARCH 7, 2018 THE QUIRKY TEACHER

I attended the local authority statutory assessment and reporting training recently. While I’m trying to deal with the fact that the reception year children rock up with pretty much nothing and are in desperate need of more adult input, the good people at the LA are informing me that moderators will be expecting to see that evidence gathered towards meeting ELGS is of truly independent effort, as per the requirements of the EYFS profile. Further, they will also be expecting to see that ‘responsible pedagogy’ is in place. Most teachers from year 1 up to year 13 will understand that ‘independent’ means being able to apply knowledge and skills in, for example, an end-of-unit task such as an essay, or a story – success criteria will be there and there will have been quite a few highly structured, teacher-led lessons and a good wodge of practice in the build up to this final effort. This approach is the evidence-based approach: you explicitly and systematically teach the little bits and pieces of knowledge so their working memory isn’t overloaded, you expect children to practise lots in order to commit what has been learned to long term memory and then you test them frequently to make sure all of this isn’t forgotten. The result is fluency/automacity and the ability and confidence to accurately deploy knowledge in novel, open-ended or independent tasks.
Please read the whole thing - especially in light of the very typical comments expressed by Thelma Walker, representative in the select committee inquiry above!
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