Task 6c-literature on the importance of play in childhood

I found this artical on a website for parents, carers and students. Its quite a factual piece about how play effects a childs development in the early years of their life. It talks about play for all living things in their early life which i have never thought about- "...Play is universal throughout the animal kingdom -- whether it's a puppy chasing its tail, or young birds swooping through the air. " Its a very interesting way too look at it. All living things go through the play stage in their early years and it is only through that, that they learn a way of life through their parents and experiances which will then structure the rest of their lives.
It dicusses the importance of how parents influence a childs wellbeing through play. Children are stimulated through our parents taking the time to talk to their child, play with them and open them up to new experiances. It made me realize that some of us only know how to do this through how our parents treated us so we pass it on to our children...so what happens to the children that are treated badly by their parents? how do they get the experiances and lessons that we learnt? what effects does this have on knock on generations?


http://www.child-development-guide.com/importance-of-play.html

I found another artical about the importance of play from somewho who practices in New York, America Anita Gurian, PhD. She states that play is from the ages of 2-6years. Its interesting to see that someone has actually put a time frame on this play stage in a childs life and quite debatible for some practioners. This would be something i could use in my inquiry as personally i feel that we never stop playing, even way into our adult years. It also makes me think about education settings and how they beleive that once passed reception age children are expected to have only short times to actaully have free play where they choose what they want to do. The rest is structured learning. Is this to early for them? what effects does it make on our children being deprived of this play? How old should children be allowed to play up to? are we fausing our children to grow up to quickly?
Again in this article it states how important parents are to the development of our children. But how do we expet our parents to support this if they dont no how to do it themselves? How can we chage this?

http://www.aboutourkids.org/articles/play_important_or_waste_time

A literature review written by Josie Gleave in june 2009. In this review she discusses the importance of play but how it is being effected. Alot of schools now go by the EYFS but are starting to use it as a learning structure for the children where as josie is saying we should just let them play. She addresses issues themed as:
Play has become more organised and structured
Play has become ‘institutionalised’
Children are spending less time in outdoor space
Children’s time could be ‘over-scheduled’
Differences in children’s time to play
Modern technology
The family
Schools
Within these themes Josie discusses how simple things like walking to school with out an adult is important to a childs development. She has looked at historic changes in education and early years of childrens life. Its interesting to see how much it has changes, Only 6 % of children walk to school on their own these days. Not many children even experiance playing in a public space with out suppervision from an adult. Even i can remember being allowed to play out on my road and given boundies but now i very rarely see children playing out and i definatly wouldnt allow my niece or nephew to play out. All these ideas link in with my ideas for my inquiry about play development.

http://www.playday.org.uk/pdf/Childrens-time-to-play-a-literature-review.pdf


Looking at different peoples view points on Play development has really opened my eyes to how i can go about my inquiry and some of the themes i can lead it to. As a practioner i enjoy looking into different peoples view points and i feel that it helps to brauden my knowledge on this subject area.

Tash 6b

Critical Reflection on the 4 tools i carried out.....

Observation
The obsrvation i carried out was on the teacher and a child. I found the observation to not be very useful to me at this time as i was not specific with it enough. Reasons being as i just done it observing day to day activities in the nursery. I feel that if i were to use this tool in the future i need to look more closely at something specific for example 'a childs behaviour during activities or how long a child stays at something'. The kind of observation i carried out would be more useful to analize rather than use as a solid piece of literature.

Interview
I found the interview a really useful tool overall. The implications with this tool is that it can be time consuming and actually getting round to doing it during school time is hard. Part of me felt i was using someones time up when they could be doing something within the classroom. However what i got from it has been really useful to me. It was very informal and felt more like a conversation between two professionals. The teacher was able to give me an insight into to her views on the question in hand and what she has descussed with other professionals in meetings regarding this matter. This helped me to gather knowledge on who else would be a realable source to gather information from.

Survey
The survey was one of my most successful. I feel this is because people dont feel presured into filling them in and can take there own time. Also i think that when they are written anonomusly you get peoples real views on certain subjects. Working in a school environment can lead people to not expressing there own feelings because they are worried about being judged. I left the Questions in the staffroom with a heading of who i was, where i worked and what they were for. I think its important for people to feel comfortable in why these questions are being asked and what for. The answers dip into different areas that are also effect by the question in hand. This has helped me to look at a wider view. Plus it gives me an oppotunity to get answers from people i dont work with on a day to day basic and different professions.

Focus Group
This is the hardest type of tool to conduct. However you get some great research material from it. Trying to gather a number of individuals that are all working to different time scales and deadlines is such a hard task. Again i felt like i was presurising people to take part when they didnt really want to. I think using this tool for things like interviews is a great tool as you get to notice people who are confident in the knowledge that they have and shine as leaders. However this can cause conflict between individuals and create a fosty atmosphere especially when we are all professionals in the same area but have different views. The positives is that it creates a small debate that lots of information and view points are thrown into. If i were to do it again i would conduct it with different groups of people ie all school teachers, all T.A's and compart the two notes i gather.

Carring out all these different tools has got me excited about my research laying ahead. It has helped me to identify what works best in certain situations and what doesnt, what information and knowledge i get best from and so forth. Its also helped towards my inquiry plan and how i plan on carring it out.

Task 6a

So here we go, the last leg of module 2....

At first when looking at other peoples blogs, i though oh my god, this is going to be one loooonnnggggg process but actually after reading the reader i feel quietly comfident as some of these tools i use on a day to day basis or have used in the past during my work and higher education experiances.
First i will tell you how i intent to carry out each of these 'pilot' tools based around my lines of inquiry then i will evaluate how each of them worked and what information i got from them.

Observation
The observation method i will use for this is called a narrative, well thats what we call it in a school environment. It will be written at the time and exactly what is happening. For this type of observation no assumtions are allowed to be made for example "billy is happy" it will be exact "billy is smiling and laughing with a group of children". I plan to observe the teacher during story time then i will observe the child during story time so that i analyse both parts of the event.

Interview
I plan to have an face to face interview with the teacher that i work with. I intend to use the semi-structured method with the theme of summer born boys. This will ensure that the interview is not to structured and the teacher feels she can talk about other things that link into this subject.

Survey
For my pilot survey i intend to do a quesionaire. Having done a few questionaires in the past, i feel that i am condifent in using them as a source to provide evidence and findings. It also enables me to ask a collection of different people with different experiances. I intend to ask "what effect do you think it has on a boys learning when he is born in the summer months of the year and is the youngest to start an academic year?" "Do you think girls are genually more mature than boys, explain why you agree or disagree" "how do you think it can effect a boys learning if they are labelled as being less academic than girls"

Focus Group
I plan to conduct a focus group with a few students about a particular issue that arises in a school environment. I will start the conversation by making a strong statement and allow the discussion to take its own course.

Update......what do you think?

I just wanted to give you all a little update on what iv had to do recently as i thought maybe some of you are heading in the same or simialar direction as we are nearing the end of this degree.

Recently i have started to apply to do the new school direct course, which used to be the GTP. For those of you that dont work in a school environment, this is basically a salaried teacher training course. Since Oct 2012 they have changed the requirements for getting on the course. You have to have at least 3 years working experiance, have above a 2.2 in your degree, complete a skills test exam and have grades c and above in english. maths and science. Basically they have made it harder for people to get on to the course.
Since working in a school, it has made me realize just how much i absolutly love my job and my ultimate dream would be to become a primary school teacher, preferably in nursery or reception. I absolutly adore this age group and truely believe that in those first few years of a childs life you can dramatically change their future. I am incrediablly passionate about providing children with the skills, learning and experiance they need in those early years. This including providing the support for parents to ensure that they have the knowledge to support their childs learning.

To do this course you need to have GCSE's in english maths and science. Unfortuantly i got a DD in science when i was back at school which means i will most probably have to do it again and it could jeperdise my applications i have put forward. Only then, when reflecting on why my grade was low, it dawned on me just how important it is to have teachers in your school life that make you strive to get good grades.
It made me realise that we need to be taught by people who beleive in us and adapt their teaching to ensure that we are meeting our potential.
Its only now when i think this could possibly affect my future career that i think i wish i would have worked harder...... what do you think? do you think we should be blamed for our failers or is it the people who are suppost to be possitive influence that are to blame?

5d

So orignally i thought that i could name the tittle of my degree based on what i had enquired on for the rest of my modules and what i have based my professional practice on, which was early years. However i was wrong, which i was shocked and slightly disapointed about. I understand that you cant just call it something that u havent looked into all areas of  but now i sort of feel in limbo..... i have to decide and think of a tittle that is best going to describe my knowledge and be of an advantage for my future career, which many of you can all agree that it is probably one of the hardest and most stressful things to do.

Anyway onwards and up, life doesnt always go the way we expect or want it to so we have to work with what we have got.
With onwards going research in what i want to inquire into, i have though about what i need to do to ensure that i am ethical when conducting the inquiry.
Here i will list how i am going to do this:

• Ensure that the identity of the children are always kept confidential for obsrvations, pictures etc. (this meets the safeguarding act for children in schools)
• Ensure that the children are kept unaware that there participating is being observed or behaviour is being followed.
• Create activites that may be carried out are going to be fun and exciting for the children to ensure the best possible and accurant results.
• Never to interupt learning or carpet time.
• To ensure that any activites carried out are short so the children are not missing their free time.
• To not distrupt the flow of the classroom.
• I will ensure that the teacher is aware of my inquiry, why i am doing it and what i plan to do.
• To Plan in advance (week/2 weeks before) so if need be can be added into planning.
• I will ensure that my inquiry will not distrupt/prevent me from carrying out my job role.
• I will only gather data based on what the actual outcomes are.
• When collecting data from other professionals i will ensure that i am not pushing for certain answers, putting presure on them to help me with my inquiry ie lots of questions etc.
• I will collect data from lots of different individuals, including people i work with in different roles, newspapers, internet.

I feel that these will possibly change when i no exactly what i plan to inquire. I look forward to being able to look back and see how much this could change depending on what root my inquiry takes me.

Task 5c

Personal Ethics

"Personal ethics is a category of philosophy that determines what an individual believes about morality and right and wrong. Personal ethics can affect all areas of life, including family, finances and relationships." http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-personal-ethics.htm

This module has made me think more about ethics and what they mean to me. I have always had personal ethics but i would have called them morals. It has made me realise that they are both the simialar when it comes to how i think and feel on a personal level.
From young we are forced with ethics with out even realising it. The way our parents bring us up is influenced with the meaning of what is right and what is wrong. These morals and values start with simple things like 'blowing your nose' to how you treat and respect people.We are all taught different ways, thats what makes us unique. There are many aspect in peoples lives that shape their personal ethics. Religion plays a major part in this as it shapes how we behave and what we believe in. Also the experiances that we go through in life, this can shape our personality and how we feel about certain situations. Its what makes us who we are. These ethics are then passed on to the next generation and it becomes a way of life.

Professional Ethics

"Professional people and those working in acknowledged professions exercise specialist knowledge and skill. How the use of this knowledge should be governed when providing a service to the public can be considered a moral issue and is termed professional ethics.^[2]Professionals are capable of making judgments, applying their skills and reaching informed decisions in situations that the general public cannot, because they have not received the relevant training.^[Professional ethics is a set of standards adopted by a professional community. Professional ethics are regulated by standards, which are often referred to as codes of ethics." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_ethics

Professional ethics tie in closely with personal ethics. Personally i beleive that these are only gained when you have had experiance working closely with the public, this covers all areas like in a school, retail, care homes, business etc. These ethics will continue to grow the more experiance we get, this is what makes us professionals. As we learn what we feel is appropriate professional ethics we are able to put in them into play in a working environment. For example, luckly i have had the opitunity to go into schools across the borough, mainly going into reception or nursery classes. At first i went in with only my personal ethics and what i think is right. Gradually i begain to learn the ethics of schools and the ethics of the professionals that work within them. I was quick to learn that not everyones professional ethics are the same, you can see this through the way teachers teach and work with children and other professionals. This experiance has shaped my awareness of the differences we may encounter within a profession.

Orgainsation Ethics

"Organizational Ethics is the ethics of an organization, and it is how an organization ethically responds to an internal or external stimulus" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_ethics

When starting this module, this was what i thought ethics was. All about the ethics of an organisation. I presumed that they all fell into this, i never really saw personal and professional ethics as seperate.
This is something that i looked at when i first started looking for a job. I researched about the different organisations before i applied for the job and looked at their ofsted reports. The obvious is that you are going to work for an orgainsation that works in harmony to your own morals/ethics. Sometimes these are not met but us as professionals need to be able to adapt our practice to suit and meet the organisations ethics.

SIG

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/emily-arnold/60/888/615

Please join my group so we can get chatting :-)

School 2

These are the polices for the other school i work in. As you can see some of them are different to the other polices. it simply depends on the schools and what they feel is important to them, there ethics.


Policies
♦ Attendance
♦ Behaviour
♦ Community
♦ Cohesion (Federation)
♦ Creative Arts
♦ Design & Technology
♦ Drug Education
♦ E-safety
♦ English
♦ Early Years
♦ Outdoors
♦ Extended Schools
♦ Gifted & Talented
♦ Homework Procedures
♦ Inclusion
♦ Internet
♦ Marking
♦ Symbols
♦ Mathematics
♦ Modern Foreign Languages
♦ Music
♦ Packed Lunch
♦ Parent Partnership
♦ PE
♦ Sex & Relationship Education
♦ Science
♦ Transition
♦ Foundation Stage to Year 1
♦ Visitor Behaviour Policy
♦ Volunteer
♦ Work Experience
♦ Complaints Procedures

The **** is organised on the basis of a partnership between parents and teachers.  This co-operation really helps to provide for the best in terms of your child’s education and well being.  Regular contact between home and school will ensure that any problems will usually be sorted out easily and quickly.

 

Mission Statement

 

We aim to promote the highest possible levels of achievement for all members of the school community, valuing all learners equally and developing within them an enthusiasm for learning and a desire for personal excellence.

 

We seek to do this by LEARN together and the 6 Golden Rules

 

Listen                          )

Enjoy                          )

Achieve                    )   Together

Respect                     )

Nurture                      )

 

The 6 Golden Rules are:

 

Do be kind and helpful	Do not hurt other people’s feelings
Do be gentle	Do not hurt any body
Do look after property	Do not waste or damage things
Do listen to people and show respect	Do not interrupt or be rude
Do work hard	Do not waste yours or other people’s time
Do be honest	Do not cover up the truth

 

Teachers have a right to teach and children have a right to learn.

 

 

All school staff, parents/volunteers are valued members of the school community. Everyone is expected to set and maintain the highest standards for their own performance, to work as part of a team and to be an excellent role model for our pupils.

All school staff, parents/volunteers should:

·         place the safety and welfare of pupils above all other considerations

·         treat all members of the school community, including pupils, parents, colleagues and governors with consideration and respect

·         adhere to the principles and procedures contained in the policies in our safeguarding portfolio and in teaching and learning policies

·         treat each pupil as an individual and make adjustments to meet individual need

·         demonstrate a clear understanding of and commitment to non-discriminatory practice

·         recognise the power imbalances between pupils and staff, and different levels of seniority of staff and ensure that power and authority are never misused

·         understand that school staff are in a position of trust and that sexual relationships with a pupil, even over the age of 16, may be an offence

·         be alert to, and report appropriately, any behaviour that may indicate that a pupil is at risk of harm

·         encourage all pupils to reach their full potential

·         never condone inappropriate behaviour by pupils or staff

·         take responsibility for their own continuing professional development

·         refrain from any action that would bring the school into disrepute

·         value themselves and seek appropriate support for any issue that may have an adverse effect on their professional practice.

 Examples of good practice and poor practice

To meet and maintain our responsibilities towards pupils, we need to agree standards of good practice.

Good practice includes:

·         treating all pupils with respect

·         setting a good example by conducting ourselves appropriately

·         involving pupils in decisions that affect them

·         encouraging positive and safe behaviour among pupils

·         being a good listener

·         being alert to changes in pupils’ behaviour

·         recognising that difficult behaviour may be an indicator of abuse

·         reading and understanding the school’s child protection policy and guidance documents on wider safeguarding issues, for example bullying, physical contact and information-sharing

·         asking the pupil’s permission before doing anything for them of a physical nature, such as assisting with dressing, physical support during PE or administering first aid

·         maintaining appropriate standards of conversation and interaction with and between pupils and avoiding the use of sexualised or derogatory language

·         being aware that the personal and family circumstances and lifestyles of some pupils lead to an increased risk of abuse.

Poor practice – you should avoid:

·         any type of force that falls outside the guidelines for reasonable force

·         any form of corporal punishment. This includes slapping, hitting or throwing something at a pupil

·         using humiliation, sarcasm or bullying as a form of control

·         using, or allowing pupils to use, sexual jokes or innuendo or engaging in sexual bullying or provocative games

·         inviting or allowing pupils to visit you at home

·         touching a pupil or behaving towards a pupil in a way that distresses them or would be considered inappropriate if observed

·         offering or deliberately allowing pupils access to alcohol, cigarettes, controlled substances or pornographic material

·         treating a pupil less favourably because of their ability or disability, race, religion, culture or sexuality.

·         transporting pupils in your car, unless your line manager has agreed this

·         working on a one-to-one basis with a pupil without the necessary risk assessment being in place

·         engaging in email, text messaging or online chat with a pupil unless your line manager has agreed the circumstances

·         abusing your position of trust. The Sexual Offences Act 2003 (paragraphs 16-19) makes it an offence for a person over the age of 18 to have a sexual relationship with a child under the age of 18, where that person is in a position of trust, even if the relationship is consensual. This means that any sexual activity between a member of the school staff and a pupil aged under 18 may be a criminal offence, even if that pupil is over the age of consent.

 

The conduct of teachers and school staff, parents/volunteers should be beyond reproach but you will sometimes find there are ‘grey areas’ that do not fall neatly into ‘good practice’ or ‘poor practice’.  In these circumstances you should first refer to any relevant guidance or policies in the school.

Second, consider these questions:

·         Would I do this/say this/ treat this pupil in this way if we were being observed?

·         Would I be happy if someone did this/said this/ treated my own child in this way?

·         Would I be concerned if I observed a colleague behave in this way?

·         If challenged, can I explain my behaviour in terms of my professional duties?

 

Third, if you are unsure how to manage a situation, ask your line manager. If you believe you have behaved in a way that could be questioned, report it to your line manager straight away and offer an explanation. Do not let a small incident turn into a crisis.

 

 

School 1 Ethics

As a school we have to follow many policies. There are polices for every aspect of school life. These are what we work against on a day to day basis. Each and every person should be working along these policies, have knowledge and understanding of them.
All of these policies are avaliable on our school website for parents to have access to them also.

Here i will list them as they go into great depth: 

Access Policy Disability Policy.

Anti-Bullying Policy.

Behaviour and Discipline Policy.

Behaviour Booklet 1

Behaviour Booklet 2

Charging Policy.

Child Protection Policy

Complaints Policy Procedure

Curriculum Map Policy

Data Protection Policy

Equal Opportunities Policy

Equality and Diversity Policy

Freedom of Information Policy.

Governor Protocol Policy.

Health, Safety and Welfare Policy.

Home-school Agreement Internet Use.

Home-School Agreement

Homework Policy

Inclusion Policy.

Marking Policy

Parent Helper Protocol

Pupil Premium Policy

Reading Guidelines

School Aims and Visions Policy

School Uniform Policy

Sex Education Policy PDF

Special Needs Policy

Teaching and Learning Policy

SCHOOL VISION

Our mission is to work together in school to raise standards and support school improvement.
 

SCHOOL Aims

aims to create an atmosphere where:

 

There is Quality Education for all children in partnership with parents, guardians,

governors and the community.

 

Teachers hold the key to good practice.

Children will learn to collaborate and make friends.

 

Literacy, Numeracy & ICT are of paramount importance.

All will be treated as equals.

All will be encouraged towards independence.

Strengths of the school are highlighted and celebrated; areas for development will be

acknowledged and improvements sought.

 

We are a “Rights Respecting School” and follow a set of Golden Values

We have the right to feel safe at all times.

We all have the responsibility to make sure that everybody feels safe.

We have the right to learn and achieve and play peacefully together.

We have a responsibility to make sure that everyone can learn, achieve and play

peacefully together

We have the right to work in a safe environment.

We have the responsibility to make sure that we are safe and look after the

environment.

We have the right to be heard, valued and included.

We have a responsibility to make sure that everyone is heard valued and included.

We have the right to be proud of our beliefs and where we come from.

We have a responsibility to make sure that everyone can be proud of their beliefs and

where they come from.

Valuing the school’s partnership with parents

We value your support. There is a close association between levels of achievement and

parental interest in and support for the schooling their children receive. Our Home-School

agreement promotes regular school attendance, good behaviour and homework. The school

will keep parents regularly informed about the progress of their children.

Task 5b

As i work for a service within enfield council we have a code of conduct we have to abide by as we work with the public. It is broud code of conduct as there are so many people that work in different departments of the council. As i am a member of staff that goes into different establishments, i must also abide by their code of conducts also.

Here is enfield councils code of conduct:

http://governance.enfield.gov.uk/documents/s24190/Appendix%20A%20-%20Code%20of%20Conduct.pdf

I will follow with the 2 other code of conducts i am also following. They will be more specific to a school environment.

Task 5a- My Professional Ethics

I will discuss what i think are the ethics (moral philosophy)  in my work place. These are my morals/unwritten rules i work within on a daily basis. I learnt alot of my ethical practice while at chicken shed theatre group. I enabled me to have an open my mind about different people, how they behave, abilities of the people we work with, the ability of the children, how to suit children's needs etc. I have also learnt alot from my working experiences. Not just in a school environment but from a retail perspective which allowed me to transfer my skills, learn new skills and a more relaxed environment when i have worked running play schemes. All of these experiences have shaped the person i am. my beliefs and values.

Below i have identified some of the ethics/morals i practice:

Working with yourself and other professionals

• treat colleagues how you would like to be treated.
• speak to colleagues with respect.
• communicate clearly, share knowledge and information with colleagues.
• Involve colleagues in planning.
• Share responsibilities.
• Work as a team. (within the classroom and within the wider school community)
• Recognise team members differences and needs.
• Support colleagues in decisions/decision making.
• Together create a safe but simulating environment for the children and adults.
• Ensuring every ones health and safety at all times.
• Being aware of the need for safe working practices. Which would include safe guarding awareness.
• keep your knowledge up to date.
• provide a child centred environment.
• be a role model.
• ensure that children lasting memory of you is a positive one.
• build strong healthy relationships with the children you work with.

Working with children

• treat all children according to their needs.
• Do not discriminate children against their age, sex, culture, ability, religion.
• Speak to children according to their age group and stage of development.
• Insure children have access to all the activities and equipment.
• Adapt your practise to meet the child's needs (this includes equipment, communication, resources)
• treat all children with respect..
• Protect all children from harm (safeguarding, health and safety regulations, every child matters)
• Treat SEN children according to their needs but do not restrict their right to be themselves or equal to others.
• support children to grow and develop.

Working with schools ( this is how i feel schools should be working)

• Having a mission statement.
• keeping up to date with legislation.
• Provide training for all staff to keep them up to date.
• communicate with staff and parents.
• provide staff and parent support.
• Provide parents with up to date user friendly information of what their child is learning.
• Work in partnership with other schools.#
• Be a place where parents feel comfortable.

Above i have discussed my ethnics/morals of how i work professionally on a day to day basis. These are morals that are embedded in me and continue to enhance at each step in my working career. I feel that if everyone were to work to this standard, our schools would be a much happier, well rounded, enjoyable environment to work in. One can only hope.

More Research

It was very interesting to find a report written on the website education.gov.uk. This was written in 2009. In particular i have looked at satistics written about the acheivements of children born in the different seasons in the year and how it effects them accidemically. I have taken parts of the document which i find interesting and feel that other people also working with children would find it pariculary interesting too.
Here is the link to the document for anyone to have a closer look at and see if this helps them with there inquiry:
https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DFE-RR017.pdf

"In contrast to their lower attainment, summer-born children have better behavioural outcomes, with lower rates of overall and persistent absence, fewer fixed period exclusions, and slightly fewer permanent exclusions. Two national surveys suggest that being summer-born is linked to a slightly greater risk of being bullied. TellUs data suggest that August-born young people are 6 percentage points more likely to be bullied than those born in September in years 6 and 8, falling to 5 percentage points in year 10. LSYPE data indicate that summer-born pupils have a higher incidence of suffering extreme (and rare) levels of bullying. Summer-born pupils are also significantly more likely to be identified as having a special educational need than their older classmates. At the end of Key Stage 1, August-born pupils are nearly 90% more likely to be identified with SEN than September-born pupils; at Key Stage 2, this reduces to 60% more likely, and further to 25% more likely by Key Stage 4. The types of special educational need most disproportionate in summer-born pupils are moderate learning difficulties, specific learning difficulties, speech, language and communications needs, and other (unclassified) needs. New analysis for this paper reveals that month of birth also shows consistent effects on attitudes to school and higher education, with younger children and their parents reporting less satisfaction and tending to rate their outcomes as average rather than good. "

"September entrants to reception perform better across the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile than those who enter in January, who in turn do better than summer-term entrants; this is the case regardless of month of birth. The strongest association with term of entry is for the Communication, Language and Literacy scales. This effect is likely to include a component of selection with less able children more likely to enter in the spring or summer terms. "

Shifting the focus from those achieving a good level of development to the lowest achieving pupils nationally, the bottom fifth of pupils was disproportionately made up of Summer-born children. Fig. 1.1d shows that nearly half (49%) of the lowest achieving 20% were born in the summer (May-August), whereas only 20% of this group were born in the autumn (September-December).  

"Girls were more likely than boys to achieve a good level of development, and pupils who were not eligible for free school meals were more likely than those who were eligible. The term of birth effect was larger for pupils not eligible for free schools meals amongst girls, but larger for those who were eligible amongst boys. "


"The odds ratio on Key Stage 2 English and maths combined at the expected level for September compared with August-born pupils was 1.9 (Fig. 1.1k). Just 43% of August-born FSM boys achieve level 4 in English and maths compared with 84% of September-born non-FSM girls"

To put this in context, 10,000 summer-born children per year fail to achieve this standard at GCSE, which influences their chances of progressing to A-levels and beyond, purely because they are the youngest pupils sitting the GCSE examinations due to the timing of their birth and the school year.

 

(all information and statistics taken from education.gov.uk)
 

Summer born boys

This topic has been on my mind all day. I have constantly questioned it.
Are summer time boys actually less mature than some of the older ones that are born earlier in the academic year? does this affect there abiltiy to learn and progress?

I intend to put out some questions to my fellow students again seeing as i have found something that is of particular interest to me. I will also be asking these questions at my school across from nursery age up to year 6? Also i intend to look at this in secondary school as the subject of boys being less mature and academically advanced than girls is something that has hung over society for as long as i can remember. Plus i will look at boys born in the summer months of the year to see if this affects their maturity and academically.

Here is an article i found interesting....look carefully at what they say about summer born boys and how it effects them in school.

http://www.firstelevenmagazine.co.uk/summer-and-winter-babies/

“There is a difference in maturity between boys born earlier and later in the academic year” says Mark Snell

Here are some questions i intend to ask to get peoples opinions

Do you think summer born boys are at less of an advantage academically than boys born earlier in the year?

Do you feel that summer born children are less mature than the children born earlier?

Does this effect boys maturity more than it does girls born in the summer months?

Do you think that the level of maturity between boys and girls levels out at a particular age?

How do you think boys are effected by being labelled with the stigma of being less mature than girls? and less academically advanced?

Award Tittle

I have thought really hard about what is best for me to tittle my degree. I have looked at my future career and how best my degree would help to succeeding.
When looking back on all of my blogs i have always based them on Early Years. I have realized that this is where my passion lays and also my Knowledge. I feel that i have a good knowledge on the early years curriculum and my knowledge is continuing to develop.
Next year i intend to do the GTP which the governement has now changed to the 'school direct'. The course is harder to get on but i am detrmined to work extreamly hard to succeed.

This is just an idea, not a definate for my degree title:

Ba (hons) professional practice in Early Years

How can we adapt our classroom?

Recently me and my colleges have been discussing how we can adapt our classrooms to enable childrens learning. It is more common these days to use the likes of pecs, visual ads for all children. In some schools is it a must that the class is introduced to visual ads. Basically what it does it uses pictures to show the children how the days is going to run. In some instances this is a positive as it prepares children for the day ahead, they are able to identify what comes next and be able to settle easier. Also if the class has a child with additional needs who needs pecs to be able to have a settled day it introduces all the children to it so ultimatly its a more inclusive classroom.

Today we had an interesting meeting with a teacher of the deaf about understanding deafness and how children are affected. 4 IN 30 children in a class suffer from some sort of deafness wether it be mild or profound. We discussed about what signs we need to look for if we feel maybe a child is not hearing aswel as they should. These were things like, moving away from the teacher when she was speaking, speaking loudly, speaking in a high pitch, staring, looking like they are dreamy, not answering when called, giggling when spoken to. All of these could be an indication to us that a child has something wrong with their ears.
She discussed with us how the ear can be damaged, what we can do from an early age as parents to prevent this. We all used hearing ads to get a feeling of what it must feel like.
She also discussed with us about how we deliver to children and using clear speech and alliteration, especially for the younger children and our EAL children (no english)

I feel like this is important to share with those of you that work in schools as it is something that is over looked in when children get to an older age. We have a dentist and a nurse to check childrens height and weight in reception but no one to test hearing. This means that children are falling through the net.

I intend to look more into this and why children are not seen by some professions at an early age.

Child Deprivation

As i work in an early years setting i no how important it is for children to have free play while in an educational setting. In the state nursery i work in children from the age of 3 are granted a place in a nursery for 3hours a day, thats 15hours a week. This was changed from only 2 and a half hours a day only recently. We are expected to go by the early years foundation stage framework to facilitate a childs learning. Only some of this learning is structured, like a 20min carpet session. The rest of the time is free-flow which basically means that the children are able to flow freely around the activties set out in the setting. These activities are all early years based, for example we use small world activies which is things that are miniture but real/imaganery, like a farm, castle, fairy land etc. There is a home corner where the children let their imagenation run as it pleases, they are able to mimic there home life here, for example, cooking ironing, washing the babies etc. There is a book corner for the children to look freely at books and take one home for their parent to read to them. We have a sand try and water tray for the children to explore. There is also a mark making table where children are able to start to put pen to paper, nothing is expected of them, it is just for them to start exploring with mark making with different tools. There is also a maths table in the setting, this isnt for them to start doing there times table at the age of 3. Its maths objects/maths related toys, like puzzels, threading beads etc. We also have our outside area. Most playgrounds in schools have now been developed to make it child friendly and a place for children to explore, push thier boundries etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhF6E7zHqWI&playnext=1&list=PLB52468D215C4B971&feature=results_main

All these activities are provided to the children to enable that they get the play that they need to have ensure there well being is being developed. The guidlines for the EYFS has changed recently, this is the tittle for each of the frameworks:
Personal,social and emotional
Physical Development
Literacy
Mathamatics
Communication and Language
Expressive arts and design

Here is a link if you would like to look more closely at the mile stones children should be reaching throughout 0-5years
https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/AllPublicationsNoRsg/Page1/DFE-00023-2012

It is a known fact that with out play and meeting these frameworks that a childs development will seriously be effected. Once these mile stones have been passed the child will always be effected as you can not tap back into them once the child progresses beyond the expected age when this should have been developing.

Here is some YOUTUBE clips on child deprevation, i feel it is important for anyone working with children, young adults to understand the importance of "play" in the early years of a childs life, and just what effect it has on children/people that have missed out  on this extreamly important part of their life.

This is extream cases:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thIDCL3NClQ&feature=fvwrel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkX47t2QaRs&feature=related

The Importance of Play

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5TQ7cFUQ20&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_-1O_rBLPU&feature=related